00:00I think that's what he's trying to do is separate himself in the receiving game.
00:05And, like I said, he's going to be a problem this season for us.
00:08And I'm looking forward to seeing him not go against us,
00:12go against Cleveland on week one.
00:14So, yeah, he's done a lot of good work this offseason
00:17to get better at route running and whatnot.
00:20And whenever you play a running back that can be just as much of a threat
00:23outside of the backfield as he has inside the backfield,
00:25creates a lot of problems.
00:26And, like you said, they're just adding another monster to the fire.
00:31Yep, like I said, adding another monster to the fire.
00:37What's your impression of the defense in the preseason game so far?
00:40Obviously, I'm sure you're not thrilled with how it went down,
00:42but what do you take away from what's happening?
00:45Yeah, it's hard.
00:48It's not what you want to see.
00:50But at the end of the day, we're not really running everything that we're going to run.
00:53They had some schemed-up plays that were not good for what we were in,
00:56and that's just part of the nature of what we had to deal with.
01:00Not making any excuses.
01:01We can always play better.
01:02But it's not necessarily something that I'm really worried about right now.
01:06What do you take from practice in comparison to the games?
01:10Is it more important, the stuff that you're seeing out on the practice field,
01:14in your mind, than the stuff that's been out on the games so far?
01:16Yeah, in my opinion, it is.
01:17I would say, and every other guy on defense, coaches-wise, too, would say the same thing.
01:22We're being pretty vanilla on defense within the games,
01:24and there's certain plays versus those coverages that we're running
01:29that don't fit very well.
01:31And so it is what it is.
01:33You just try to survive the down.
01:34There's still things that we should do better, like technique and fundamentally sound,
01:38and that's part of it, part of the learning process of playing in preseason and whatnot.
01:42And so we're going to continue to learn from it and just grow.
01:45And these practices are a little bit more realistic in terms of what we're going to be like on defense.
01:50Do you think the fact that it's so vanilla, that it's so vanilla,
01:54does that maybe impact run fits because it is so vanilla?
01:57Yeah, I mean, you're not doing – you're limited with what we're trying to do.
02:00There's a lot of, like, stagnancy to it.
02:03And so in terms of, like, offensive line, who they're targeting and whatnot,
02:07like none of that stuff changes pre-snap versus post-snap.
02:10And so it's easier for them to know who to block, you know, things like that,
02:15that when you get into a real game plan make it a lot more complex.
02:19When you line up wide against Chase and there's no pass rush,
02:24do you figure Joe's going to throw a deep to him?
02:27I mean, he's thrown it more to him this camp than he has in years past.
02:31And I think that that's just a credit to how well he's worked on his receiving aspect of his game.
02:36And he's – I mean, he's a true receiving threat at all times wherever he's at on the field.
02:41And so you've got to respect that and know that the ball could be coming your way at any given time
02:45and do your best to not let him catch it.
02:48How beneficial –
02:48Yeah, listen, there's – if you're in good coverage, that dude's still going to put it
02:54where only his guy can get it.
02:56And sometimes, you know, they make good plays, and that's part of it.
02:58I wasn't going to take him to the ground, but I thought I was in pretty good coverage.
03:01How beneficial is it going up against not just Chase Brown or Joe, but Jamar,
03:06all of these guys day in and day out throughout camp?
03:09Yeah, I think it's been really good for us as a defense to go against arguably the best offense in the league.
03:13It only makes us better even going against our – all the different pass combinations
03:19that they can throw at us versus our coverages.
03:23And just skill players-wise at each position, you've got like Chase at running back,
03:27Jamar, T, Mike, Gusecki, Noah, I mean Drew Sample at blocking tight end.
03:31I mean there's – obviously Joe, like you can't forget Joe, but point being there's guys –
03:36there's really good players at every single position.
03:38And, you know, the saying goes is iron sharpens iron – well, iron sharpens iron.
03:44One man sharpens another, so it's only going to make us better.
03:47I'm upset on the other side of the ball, but to see a guy like Cordell,
03:50who's been here for a while now, go down, have to have surgery, and likely miss a season,
03:54what's that like to see that?
03:56Yeah, it's tough.
03:58You never want to be in that position.
04:00I told him I was praying for him, you know, that he's going to be all right
04:03in the long run of things.
04:05It's very unfortunate that that's how his season has to end,
04:08and unfortunately that's part of this game we play.
04:12And so I think he's going to bounce back better than ever.
04:15I think that that's just the kind of kid he is, the kind of mindset he has with it,
04:18and he'll be better off.
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