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ITL reacts to the possibility of Marks contributing on special teams and earning an early role.
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00:00That's right, Woody Marks. Fourth round draft pick a couple years ago.
00:03Well, I guess not this year, but last year is the way to do that.
00:07And he was running back one at least last year, set up to be running back two this year.
00:13Two of the running backs that you feel the most confident about.
00:16And interestingly enough, his name came up not with the offensive coordinator yesterday.
00:20Well, he did come up with the offensive coordinator, but also with the special teams coordinator, Frank Ross,
00:24when he was talking to the assembled media.
00:26And so let's go to Frank. This was Frank Ross talking about Woody Marks being involved with return game.
00:33Yeah, and I think specifically you, Andrew, asked a question about kind of the depth and who's being used in
00:39kick return.
00:39And I've said a variation of this answer before where there's a lot of reps back there, and that's a
00:47pounding.
00:48And there's sometimes two, sometimes one returner over 17 weeks.
00:52So who do you want back there?
00:54I want a fast player, right, good vision, good ball security.
00:58But I want guys that can do it on repeat, sustain running through the smoke with physicality and falling forward.
01:07Receivers don't necessarily run in the trash as much as running backs.
01:12To be in our depth and as potentially a starter if he can win that job, man, that really benefits
01:17our team.
01:18You saw probably some of the better returners around the league last year.
01:21We're just falling forward for three more.
01:24Can we get to that 34, 35 on a standard, neutralized, everybody, the wall comes down, presses his blocks.
01:31Can a runner get skinny and fall forward?
01:34Like those are big yards in our offense and at the gray area of the field.
01:37So, yeah, Woody's been dynamic with his running skill set.
01:41Now let's continue to master fielding the ball, running your tracks, and setting up your blockers.
01:45All right, so first of all, Frank Ross.
01:47Pounding.
01:48Frank Ross.
01:48Energy.
01:50Golly.
01:50That pounding.
01:51It's freaking June, man.
01:53What are you doing over there?
01:54It's June.
01:54I'm doing what Frank Ross just did.
01:56And then he gets out and starts showing you what it's supposed to look like.
02:00That's right.
02:00That's how you coach.
02:01That's how you teach.
02:02I can't wait to become a head coach.
02:03It's June.
02:05Just wait.
02:06And, yeah.
02:07Are we on a football field, David?
02:09That's right.
02:09And I've said it for a while, over a year, I think that guy could and should be a head
02:14coach candidate at the minimum.
02:16But he's pointing to the idea of Woody Marks being possibly like a starter returner.
02:21Does that change anything on how you feel about the running back?
02:24Yes.
02:247-1-3-5-7-2-4-6-10.
02:26Yes, and yes, because, and I asked you this during the break, because when I heard that
02:32I went, hold on.
02:34I literally said, hold on.
02:36Did Woody Marks return?
02:37Is this new?
02:38Is this, it's relatively new at worst.
02:42But I'm like, you know, Woody Marks returning kicks, whether it's punts or kickoffs or whatever,
02:47I'm guessing it would be more kicks than punts.
02:51But the traffic and how running backs are built to do those things.
02:56And it did affect how I think about the running back room.
02:59We were talking about this yesterday, man.
03:02Like, you've got, obviously you've got David Montgomery, you have Woody Marks, and then you
03:05have, I don't know really yet, you know, and more.
03:10You can say Jawar's name.
03:11You can say his name, but you can't say his name per se as the third running back.
03:16Maybe Jamar, Jawar, question mark?
03:18Yeah, yeah.
03:19Maybe him.
03:19But it does affect the running back room in my view.
03:22Is it not with you?
03:25How I look at it, I mean.
03:26It feels like it does.
03:27That's a lot of, at least, let me say a lot, but it's a decent amount of usage that you
03:31add on top of there.
03:33I do wonder, though, if maybe the split that we are thinking in that running back room with
03:37carries is not quite the split that we were previously, or that they are at least considering.
03:41Like, is it going to be...
03:42What did I say, 65-35?
03:44I was always in the back of my mind.
03:46Yeah, maybe it is even more.
03:49Like, maybe this is really and truly David Montgomery feature-back territory in a way
03:54that maybe we were trending a little bit further away from, you know?
03:58And if he's more feature-back, then Woody Marks gets a little bit more opportunity in
04:02return game, while also still, obviously, applying his trade at the running, you know,
04:06in the backfield in some of those circumstances.
04:07But I guess maybe that doesn't even track, because you got Nick Haley yesterday bringing up
04:1120 personnel.
04:12And, of course, he's just kind of throwing things out there.
04:14I don't know that necessarily you're going to see a significant amount of two running
04:17backs, no tight ends, three wide receiver sets, or whatever.
04:20But they're thinking uniquely in that way, where it sounds like they want to utilize multiple
04:25running backs and Woody Marks will get action, but then also returning, being in the return
04:30game, especially...
04:31Well, I guess they may be a little bit different.
04:33It's not as much of those car crashes, violent crashes, specifically because of the change.
04:38But it does make you wonder, like, for a dude who went to the blue tent seemingly every
04:42game, does that change kind of the usage, and does that then also put a little bit more
04:47pressure on the depth that you have in running?
04:49I agree.
04:50I think it does change the way I look at how the usage is going to go.
04:53Let me ask you this.
04:54Does it change?
04:55Because it kind of does for me.
04:56Does it change how you would expect they prioritize running backs, whether it's on their
05:03own?
05:03You know, how they feel about running backs, whether it's on their own roster, or maybe
05:09acquiring something during training camp, after training camp, or something like that.
05:12I think they definitely need more warm bodies in their running back row.
05:17I don't know if it changes it, because I think that they were already in a place where they
05:20probably needed to be looking in that way.
05:22I do wonder, though, because again, I'm going back to Nick Casario jumping on with Pan and
05:26Pendergast.
05:27He seemed to be pretty high on Jawar, in a way that I had not understood to be the case
05:34in watching the way that they utilized Jawar.
05:36It felt like Jawar was a breaking place in case of emergency player up until last season,
05:41but maybe that helped change the dynamic for them, helped solidify who he is, and talking
05:47about the physicality that he brings.
05:48But I also wonder, with Jawar being who he is, if that wouldn't have been a guy that they
05:53utilized in the return game instead.
05:55Exactly.
05:55And that's why I always say, watch what they do, because he might say whatever he wants
06:00this year, last year, whenever, but their actions have been not necessarily backing that up.
06:05Now, maybe they feel really good this year about what they're seeing from Jawar Jordan.
06:12It's very, very much possible.
06:14But at the same time, I do think also this is good for Woody Marks.
06:18Just more touches.
06:20If he's not going to get, if they really feel as if David Montgomery is going to be the bell
06:25cow,
06:26and they want to rely on that, hell, get him some more touches then.
06:29Yeah, get him on the field as much as possible.
06:31Yeah.
06:32Yeah, and in creative ways, right?
06:33That was the thing about the Woody Marks, experiment's not really the right word, but experience is
06:38the word that I want to use from last season, was that it was great to see more and more
06:43Woody Marks.
06:43It felt like, hey, man, there are so many tools that are in his toolbox that you're not
06:47making use of, whether it's him getting the ball out of the backfield and some of those
06:51things, and maybe the return game is one of those things with a dude who seems to be
06:55as creative as he is, utilizing all those things.
06:58So I think you're right, right?
06:59I'm excited to see that.
07:00And maybe also, well, again, if we're talking about usage, Jalen Knoll is also a dude where
07:05you go, I hope that his usage ticks up on the field during, you know, obviously like
07:10regular scrimmage plays.
07:11That's a guy that also showed pretty damn well returning the football, you know?
07:15And so how does that tandem work between them?
07:18And obviously, like, maybe they're doing different things.
07:20Maybe one is more kick.
07:21Maybe one is more punt.
07:22Like, I don't know.
07:23Maybe there's a rotation of sorts that happens within them.
07:25And as Frank Ross rightfully notes, it's rare that you're going to have one returner the
07:29entirety of for all 17 plus anyways.
07:32Right.
07:32But yeah, coming back to it, right.
07:35We're talking about like that third running back.
07:37We've, we're still focused on, I think that they need to always be in consideration for
07:41what is out there.
07:42Can we make this better if somebody comes free, whether, you know, it's cut down day or what
07:46have you.
07:46Like, I think that that, or even like, hey, a late round pick for a guy that, that helped
07:52bolster this room.
07:53I think that that was always going to be the case.
07:55Maybe this makes it a little bit more, more of a, of a thing that they need to address.
08:00But I think that always was going to be something that they needed to look at.
08:02And, and maybe, you know, they, they, they did bring in a couple of running backs off the
08:07street too.
08:08And, you know, maybe they feel like they have it in house, whether it's Noah Whittington or
08:12Josh Pitzenberger, the two that they signed.
08:14And I think Pitzenberger, if we, if I recall, right, they gave him a pretty good bonus too
08:18for, as an, as an undrafted guy, but none of that stops no show.
08:21No, I know what you mean.
08:22No, but I'm saying in order to get him at that bonus means he was in demand, you know,
08:26so you had to pay him a little more just to bring him into camp.
08:29No, for sure.
08:31But you sound to be excited about it.
08:33I do love this at the very least getting a running back back there because it seems to
08:37fall in line with a lot of the things that we've heard about this particular return game,
08:40right?
08:41Like this is the, this is a return game now that, you know, values dudes that see the
08:47game like a running back.
08:48Protect the ball.
08:48It opens up, protect the ball obviously, but it, you know, it opens up like a running play.
08:52So why not have a guy who in Woody Marks, who did seem to read his blocks fairly well.
08:58And honestly, the big thing that, that made me feel like, oh, this is going to be a capital
09:01T thing was Frank Ross talking about that falling forward, which was something that Woody Marks
09:06did incredibly well early on into his tenure.
09:08And for this offense, even more so, I mean, he was talking about going from the 32 to the
09:1235 yard line, you know, those extra three yards or whatever with this offense, the way
09:17they like to just, you know, be conservative and kick field goals and all that stuff.
09:20I mean, those yards matter.
09:21So I, I do like it a lot.
09:24I like it for Woody Marks.
09:25I like the fact that he's going to get more touches, but it does make me wonder about,
09:29again, not just the depth in the, in the, in the back of the running back room, but also
09:34the rotation, you know, if you need another one.
09:36Yeah.
09:36Cause yeah.
09:38But I also wonder like how, how heavily are we thinking that the return game impacts him?
09:42Like how heavily do we think that it weighs upon him within the course of being, cause
09:46again, we were already in a place us too.
09:48I don't want to speak for anyone else, but we were thinking the, the split of usage between
09:53the two running backs that we feel most confident about would be something that was close to
09:57like 60, 40, 65, 35.
09:59I think those were the numbers that we threw out there.
10:01Yeah.
10:01How much, how much of that 40 or 35% that you were already anticipating for Woody Marks,
10:07do you think is, has to be throttled back because of return?
10:11Oh no, I don't think, I don't think a whole lot.
10:12Yeah.
10:13I don't think a whole lot at all.
10:14It just, it just, first of all, it just kind of surprised me.
10:16He's like, Hey, Woody Marks.
10:17I'm like, wow.
10:18Okay.
10:19That sounds good to me.
10:20But I do appreciate it, man.
10:22Whole hog approach, man.
10:23Utilize all of the weapons that you have in here.
10:25Cause it felt like last year, and maybe this is specifically more to the offense, but as
10:29a team, it felt like there was, there was meat left on the bone with the ways that they
10:33had, you know, some talent that they didn't utilize.
10:35And it feels like maybe just maybe there's a little bit of an approach where we're going
10:38to utilize all of those pieces that we did not.
10:40And by the way, a texter brought this up and I'm, I meant to myself.
10:43So I'm glad I saw this, you know, Darren Sproles is helping them now.
10:46Yeah.
10:46And, and, and Frank Ross was talking about like, it's very rare that I'm in awe, you
10:51know, of just somebody walking into the room.
10:53And so maybe that, you know, that, that, that, that was going to be helping all of them.
10:55I can't wait to see the ways in which, cause again, we might be doing too much, right?
10:59Sometimes a singular person can only do, but so much to raise the, the, you know, the tide
11:04of what's happening here.
11:05But Darren Sproles comes with a certain aura.
11:07We know, we know what he's done all the way from Kansas state, you know, had to do that
11:11with the Eagles, all the things that he was capable of doing.
11:15And what, what, what are the, what are the various different ways that we see that impacting
11:19this team?
11:20And it feels like Woody Marks would stand to be like maybe person number one to gain from
11:24his tutelage.
11:25If he isn't, I mean, obviously not if, but when, when he is working with, no, I think
11:28that would be, you know, number one for me as well.
11:31And just the nuance, just the nuance of what Ross was talking about there, the little things
11:35that you need to do to get those extra three, four or five yards.
11:37But if we're doing that right, like Darren Sproles as force multiplier, how much does
11:41he help for a Juar Jordan, who is a relatively smaller back, who again, maybe has a little
11:46bit more physicality than we give him credit for.
11:49If you, if Nick Casario is to believe in how much is that is taking a Juar Jordan, then
11:53you go, maybe he's a running back three and going, no, definitely he is with some of the
11:56tools and tips that Darren Sproles can help put in his pocket.
11:59No, I think it does.
12:00I think it absolutely does.
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