00:00David Blau, a little while ago out in Ashburn, holding his own presser post-practice today.
00:08Practice today, practice tomorrow, joint practice with the Dolphins on Wednesday.
00:14Then they'll have the day off, obviously, on Thursday, leading into the first preseason game of the summer.
00:22That'll be the Dolphins in Landover on Friday night.
00:26Look, their mentality has to always be next man up.
00:34I mean, that's the mentality of sports, team sports in general.
00:39It's why you have 53-man rosters and you have backups and you have backups to the backups.
00:43It's why you have a 17-man practice squad.
00:46It makes the development of that practice squad, the players you pick for that practice squad.
00:52But Quinn always talks about his 70-man roster, not his 53-man roster, because he views those 17 practice
00:59squad players as likely going to be instrumental.
01:03Do you know that I read something this morning because they were talking about the J.J. McCarthy-Kyler Murray
01:08battle in Minnesota?
01:09And there are definitely some indications that J.J. McCarthy may not be handling it well.
01:15But also, Kyler Murray's not necessarily lighting it up in training camp based on, you know, those that are there.
01:22Who knows what it'll look like when we get to the regular season.
01:27But 67 quarterbacks played in the NFL last year.
01:3467 took snaps in the NFL last year.
01:38It is a league, it's a game, as Ken Beatrice used to say many years ago in this town, it's
01:46a game of attrition.
01:47It's a league of attrition.
01:49And you've got to be prepared for that.
01:51And it is a next-man-up mentality when you are out there and living it as your profession.
01:58Now, as observers of that profession, we can have our reactions.
02:04And my reaction is that's a bad loss for them heading into this year.
02:08It doesn't cancel the season.
02:10It doesn't mean that they can't be a good football team and they can't be a good offense.
02:15No.
02:15But you lost one of your best two or three players on the team at a very important position in
02:24the league.
02:26But it doesn't matter for them.
02:28They can't wallow because wallowing ain't going to get it done.
02:34It's next-man-up.
02:35And they've chosen to go with Brandon Coleman, who's played the position here a lot in 24 before they moved
02:42him inside.
02:43And then watched him get benched inside last year because Chris Paul stepped up and played well.
02:49He's a young player.
02:50He was a third-round pick.
02:52He's played a lot of positions.
02:55And he's spent an offseason at times with Laramie Tunsil hopefully learning.
03:00Maybe this is going to make Adam Peters and company look great for the selection of Brandon Coleman.
03:06You've got to have guys that are capable of stepping in.
03:09If they get fearful that Coleman's not going to be able to hold up on the road in Weeks 1
03:15and 2 and against Seattle in Week 3, there still could be moves that they could make.
03:21Taylor Decker's got experience with David Blau.
03:24He's out there.
03:25There's another.
03:26Caden Wallace is out there.
03:27There are some players out there.
03:28And certainly there will be some players released when teams go from 90 down to 53.
03:34But right now, this is their move.
03:37And part of what makes a front office a good front office is when you lose key players, do you
03:43have players that can come in and keep the ship afloat?
03:47Last year, they did not.
03:49Now, they were asked to fill in for so many players, front line and then second line players that were
03:58lost.
03:58And they were picking players off the street to come in.
04:01That's a hard thing to really overcome.
04:04It doesn't usually happen.
04:05It's a one out of a hundred situation when a team overcomes that kind of injuries and has a successful
04:11season.
04:12San Francisco kind of did it last year.
04:14But a lot of their – they still had a lot of really good players that played a lot of
04:18football last year.
04:21All right.
04:22David Blau.
04:22More from Blau because this is the guy that is going to be, you know, asked to not only make
04:30the decisions with respect to the personnel on offense and have a significant role in doing that.
04:36But from a scheme standpoint, certainly part of a game plan is to game plan in a way in which
04:44your weaknesses aren't exposed.
04:47This was him on Brandon Coleman's growth.
04:51What are some of those things that you feel like you can do with Brandon, but also what kind of
04:54growth have you seen in him over at tackle even last year?
04:58Sure.
05:01You immediately, like, when you watch the tape, oftentimes there's somebody jumping out from the offensive line, chasing a football,
05:08running.
05:08And his speed, athleticism just flashes every time you turn our film on.
05:13And then I think, like, you've seen a young man grow here, right, from having to play all those starts
05:20his rookie year and different experiences last year and us sharing, you know, with him that he was going to
05:27be the left tackle and him lighten up, like, eager for the opportunity to go after this thing.
05:34And I think he has demonstrated everything that we're looking for to protect that side for us.
05:42And he's going to get tested.
05:44You know, Philadelphia's defense is no joke on September 13th.
05:48You know, forget the three players they've got up front with Davis, Carter, and Ajomo.
05:52They added Jonathan Grenard.
05:54They've got the kid from last year, the rookie from last year, Jihad Campbell.
05:58They can get after the quarterback.
06:01There's going to be a big challenge very early in this season for Brandon Coleman, for the entire offensive line,
06:09for sure.
06:10And then, of course, Dallas week two, they added Rashawn Gary, you know, to that team.
06:17They're bringing back, you know, Azaraku, who was, you know, up and down as a rookie.
06:23And then, of course, it's week three, and it's Seattle, the defending Super Bowl champions, who were pretty good on
06:31defense last year.
06:33Up front, guys like Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.
06:36But Demarcus Lawrence, no joke, as an outside pass rusher that probably will be matched up with a Brandon Coleman.
06:46So he'll get tested.
06:47He'll get tested early.
06:50And they've got to get him ready.
06:51Hey, what number were we going to next, Max?
06:54I'm sorry, three or four?
06:56Let's hit three here, because I thought it was interesting about Blau learning how to install the offense for the
07:01first time.
07:02All right, go ahead.
07:03This is Blau on installing the offense.
07:05David, through the first couple weeks of camp, what have you learned about just what goes into the process of
07:10installing offense for the first time, you know, what's been your first year as office coordinator?
07:14Man, that is a great question, because, you know, right?
07:18I have a lot of ideas and things that I would love to do, but this time is really finding
07:23out who we are.
07:24Like, this is about finding out what we do well, what Jaden does well, what the skill guys do, what
07:30we can and can't do up front.
07:32And so there's times where you're like, man, you know, I want to have a bunch of things in, but
07:37we got to pull back and work on the fundamentals and find out who this, you know, commander's offense is.
07:42So that has been a process and, you know, we've done a lot of call it periods.
07:47So there's times where you walk out of a practice, you're thinking you're going to get through everything on the
07:51sheet and you don't.
07:52So you go back to it or do you keep pushing ahead?
07:55And so those are the things that I've navigated over the last, whatever, 10, 11 practices.
08:00So a lot of lessons, but it's been really good.
08:07I like that question and answer.
08:09I'm glad you played that.
08:10That is a guy, as a first-time coordinator, with everything on his shoulders.
08:17He's making all of the decisions.
08:20He's not being asked by Cliff Kingsbury or Tavita Pritchard, what do you think?
08:25He is making these decisions for the first time.
08:29Personnel decisions.
08:31Who's good in what spot?
08:33And then what can we run with the personnel we have?
08:37And what that will advance to over the next, you know, certainly by September 13th is in this upcoming game,
08:44what is our best mix of personnel and what is our best mix of our play sheet that we can
08:51call against this particular team?
08:53And then, by the way, calling it, doing it in a timely manner, doing it in a way in which
09:00it instills confidence in everybody on that offense, and then having the ability within a game, if things aren't going
09:08well, to adjust.
09:10Yeah, what we thought would work isn't working, so what's plan B?
09:15It's a lot when you're the guy, and the guy for the first time.
09:19And I think you heard, you know, him say, look, I'm doing this for the first time, and there's a
09:24lot that I'm figuring out as we get through this.
09:31This was him, David Blau, talking about Jaden Daniels handling the offense.
09:38And obviously it's an adjustment for all the players, but for Jaden specifically, there's been a lot more under center
09:43work for him, and that changes a lot from the footwork to timing, et cetera.
09:47How has he handled that so far?
09:48And as a former quarterback, like, how much goes into making that kind of a switch?
09:52I don't know if you had to during your career, but going from mostly shotgun to a mix of both.
09:56Sure.
09:58He hasn't missed a beat.
10:01We track everything.
10:02We've tracked every throw he's made over the last three years, so we have metrics to measure all of those
10:08statistics.
10:09And he's as accurate as he's ever been.
10:12He's completed as many passes as he ever has, and it's just a testament to asking him to do something
10:17different and him wanting to grow and evolve.
10:19And that's what this is all about for our whole group.
10:22Like, the version you see here won't be the same version of this offense you see next year.
10:26And to, you know, everywhere you go, and we just will continue to evolve.
10:32So I'm proud of him, the work he's put into it up until this point, and he hasn't missed a
10:37beat.
10:38David Blau on Jaden Daniels.
10:42There's some stuff on Diggs.
10:44You know, this is the first time we've heard from Blau about Stefan Diggs being added.
10:49But before we get to what he said about Stefan Diggs, this was David Blau responding to a question about
10:57the other new coordinator on the other side of the ball, Durante Jones,
11:02and how Durante Jones is sort of helping Blau by showing them a lot of different looks.
11:09Then throughout camp, all the different looks that Durante's defense has thrown at you all, moving people around, showing all
11:16these sorts of things.
11:17How has that kind of helped you with catering your offense for this season?
11:20Sure.
11:21They've made it as hard as possible, you know, and every day is a new challenge.
11:26And that's what I love so much is that everybody on our offense is being forced to think, forced to
11:34understand what Durante is trying to get accomplished.
11:37And that's the power of attacking aggressive style defenses.
11:40They have certainly pushed the envelope for us on communication and growth.
11:49Wouldn't it be so interesting if we get to the regular season and let's just say two or three weeks
11:55into it,
11:56we're sitting here and it's very obvious that the defense is actually the better part of the team.
12:02Now, defense can, it's not always a given, especially against teams that are experienced,
12:09especially teams that bring back experienced quarterbacks, that defense is ahead of offense.
12:15But it is probably the case more often than not.
12:19But what if Durante Jones is the star?
12:22What if the defensive personnel that they've added turns into a legit, you know, top half of the league defense
12:30and is really, for the first time in a few years, doing its part?
12:36I still kind of don't know offensively what it's going to look like in terms of the scheme.
12:44I, I, everybody's convinced that we're just going to be watching a Sean McVay, a Kyle Shanahan, a Ben Johnson
12:51style offense.
12:52And there will be a lot to that.
12:54But I don't think Jaden's going to be under center on every single snap.
12:58I don't think every single run is going to be inside zone or outside zone.
13:02I don't think every single pass is going to be play action.
13:05But I do think that we'll have a lot more play action in the offense.
13:08And then it'll be whether or not it looks like, you know, it does in some of those other spots
13:13with those quarterbacks.
13:14I think he's a natural for it, for this particular fit.
13:18But man, the defense, it's completely different.
13:21I'd love to know how many defenses have changed as much as Washington's defense has changed personnel-wise and coaching
13:29-wise in one offseason.
13:31I mean, it's very possible that of the 11 starters that are on the field, seven of them will be
13:38new players.
13:39Seven with a new coordinator.
13:41That's a lot of change.
13:44Not to mention, two to three of the first five or six that will contribute and play on defense are
13:52brand new.
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