Had interviews with DC, BH, Jared, Alim, St Brown, Hutchinson.
For those who subscribe to Sirius you can find the interview, 1hr 28m long, on the NFL Tour page where all the training camp interviews are found.
Will probably be couple of posts as I try to give an overview and some nuggets that may not have been shared elsewhere, or, at least, a different perspective.
Kirwin: The hype is real
Couple of things that jump out at you, they owned their division. I accept the hype but if they lose against the KC that doesn’t mean you jump off the hype. They are real.
Miller: some great additions on defense especially in the backfield. Great draft
Kirwin; loaded at LBer lot of little things they have done that go unnoticed but not by me.
Look at their waiver claims: Reynolds, Comminsky, starters B Jones R Okware key rotational pieces. They have built this team from every avenue over the last three years.
Miller: I live locally the fans are excited. Season tickets sold out
Dan C. on managing expectations We didn’t win the division, we have a lot to fight for.
Kirwin, you said two things in the press conference that excite me.
Looking to upgrade competition
We made three investments in these guys.
That sounds like, to me(kirwin) to how much time you will give these guys.
Dan C:
Listen Pat you know this, you know it well, something that both Parcells and Peyton believed in and taught me. If you haven’t shown something by your third camp, you give a little bit of time, if we haven’t seen something by your 3rd camp maybe you need to do something else. For the most part we need to see some growth and development, some times it does take time. You start a guy somewhere and it doesn’t work, move him to a second spot doesn’t work, move him to third spot and something clicks it works.
Perfect example is Will Harris…sorry @Mr.Peabody
But we will always look to upgrade too, it makes every room better if you increase the competition level your defense, your offense your ST all improve.
Miller You have a lot of hands on coaching, and it doesn’t wait til the team is the classrooms. Many teams don’t do coaching on the field, you guys do it immediately. Hands on instant coaching. Gilmore today is a great example he did something wrong, AG immediatly pulled him aside and pointed out what he did wrong. I have no doubt it will be reinforced in the classroom.
Dan C Absolutely, we are fortunate to have some great coaches here that know how to coach and develop and the instant feedback is important and we do it as much as we can without slowing down the practice it is so important.
Miller: Let me add to that the addition of John Fox to your staff I know you crossed paths in NY but huge benefit
Dan C: No question, coach Fox and I go way back together and on the other sidelines as well watching him. Huge addition he brings another perspective, he knows talent, knows how to develop. I just thought, not just for me but for AG, particularly for the secondary.
Kirwinm I’ve been to a lot of his practices when he was a head coach, he always had physical practices, he values contact at practice. I watched him today just trailing the secondary, he doesn’t say a lot, but when he does its about being physical.
Dan C Absolutely our DB’s have to be physical, just like our WR’s. If you don’t block as a WR you don’t get the ball, same thing for our DB’s you better tackle.
Kirwin What I think I see here is rookies pushing starters, I know it’s early and you probably can’t answer these questions yet, which is the right answer. I was watching the NT today, B Martin, not ready to start but I like what I saw. Man he is built, he is a power push.
If I was a coach here I would be excited, these rookies came to start, all of them are pushing veterans.
Dan C. No doubt I was asked the other day what did I want to see from our rookies. You don’t draft them if you don’t feel good about them. You want to see growth from them during practice that they don’t look out of play that is one. Two you want to see development after two weeks and we are seeing that.
Miller: B Martin Campbell. Areas that feel you really upgraded? Obviously the secondary and then the RB room are probably the two rooms where you upgraded the most. What are your thoughts?
Dan C. I think you hit it spot on. Those are probably the two rooms where we upgraded the competition the most, and look we needed that. We knew we needed to get better on the back end and BH did a great job. Haven’t even spoken about Mosely yet. Add a guy like Branch, then CJ who is a crafty veteran, then Sutton. Look at Jacobs just being around these veterans he is getting better just by being in the room with them.
Kirwin: Same thing with RB room, do you envision a two head monster with playing different roles?
Dan C That is how I always see it, Ben and I have discussed this. You need a back that can push the load, the four minute drill give the ball 20-25x a game. Then another guy specialty, who can slice you up it’s what I know. I mean with S Peyton we had Tiki Barber and Rod Dayne, new Orleans Mark I was the A back, Kamara did all the other stuff a two headed monster.
Kirwin, its the matchup game(DC yes right), with Gibbs you want to play base gibbs is at X, you
Dan C that is exactly right you want where defensively you can’t be right in how you want to play us.
Miller: St Brown is looking great, WR room. a Little on Mims and on LaPorta probably going to be a big contributor. You don’t break the recept record at IA if you aren’t a good TE.
Dan C; True, IA has had some players at that spot. I will start wiht Mims, he will do anything we want him to do. He is a big physical outside WR, I told him this AM, I don’t know where it’s going but I love you came in to compete.
LaPorta, the intriguing about him is I think he can help in the passing game and running.
Kirwin: The sophmores, some questions on them. They have gone through the offseason program, they know what to expect in camps coming in now. I know about Hutch he will do it. I am really interested in Paschal? Who is he now?
Dan C Here is what is interesting, he didn’t go through the spring or training camp last year. He’s a rookie we got him a week before dallas last year. We were hurting needed guys, he didn’t get true practice development and it showed. But now, he is and it is showing out in practice, we have high hopes for him. We think he can do some things inside and has a motor that doesn’t quit.
