I enjoyed the weekend and theres
a new friend and here
we are ready to go. Yeah,
I know I could count on you guy.
All right. So here's what I got
Vaughn obviously and Tyler still
on PUP and then players that
will not practice at Oliver.
He's got back soreness.
Isaiah Coulter with still nursig
through that knee and then Cam
Lewis with his groin from a lite
bit of the fall yesterday and tn
and then Reggie was going as we,
Reggie Gilliam.
So with that,
I'll turn over to you with
your questions. So
with Cam, no head or anything like that,
this Phillips, Phillips was mosy
was conditioning yesterday and e
more participant today. Yeah. W,
I mean just we'll continue
to wrap him up based on how
he's feeling this morning.
I don't quite know where that is yet,
but I expect him to be at
least what he did yesterday.
Vanessa had a really nice night Friday,
it looked like. Did you kind of
talk about his progression this,
It looks like he's really
kind of come back ready to go.
Yeah, he's dialed in and you know he's a
pivotal piece to to our success this year.
His development,
you know, you could tell in the
spring he had put a lot of work,
in terms of in the weight room
prior to coming back to Buffalo
in the spring for the OTA perio.
And he looks like he's in a good spot and
continues to grow every practice. John
that's an area that,
yeah, I mean the position flex t
he has, we saw that when he got here.
We got him from Philadelphia years ago.
I think this is rookie year he ,
he played different positions,
played some center,
he played some guard.
I think even in the first game
in the Titans game that year,
I remember him playing tackle maybe as well.
I'm, I'm accurate on that.
But his position flex is,
is a great value to us
trying to get back to the passports there.
I mean that's an area where we'e
talked about you want more out .
You've got a lot to create a
lot of competition like that.
Can you speak to maybe how intee
that competition is and is it
meeting your expectations at
least at this point in training?
Yeah, I mean I think this over
our whole team, we've got a lot
of work to do yet and and no
different than that position.
There's been flashes of it whetr
it be from an individual player
or the group overall.
But that has to continue
to develop pivotal pieces,
A J being one of them and then
some of the other players,
you know play a part in that
also in their development.
So there's pivotal pieces on our
roster that need to need to step
up in order for us to have a god
season and and that's some of te
work that's going to get put in.
We talked a lot about anecdote
and kinking and kind of what hes
bringing. But I was curious froa
defensive coordinator perspecti,
what is having two tight ends
and kind of not knowing where
they're going to line up,
what is that add from your likea
defensive pointing perspective?
How does it make you smarter?
I think you know
again just you have a a rookie player,
he's got to go. He's going to go
through some growing pains and
you know Coach Dorsey and the
offensive staff are going to continue
to figure out the strengths of,
in this case Dalton like all ofr
players and then put them in positions
of strength and you try and manage some
of the weakness weaknesses as w.
And if Dalton's A skilled player
and at the same time you're stil
a young player so there's stilla
lot of work to be done. How muco
you feel Jordan Phillips time md
because of the injury maybe as n
trying to play catch up at this point.
I mean anytime you miss
a couple of days or or even one,
I mean from a competitor
standpoint when you're not,
when you're not out there you feel that.
And then when you miss multiple
days or now weeks you're going n
back to the spring, there's som,
there's some ketchup work
that's that's got to be put in
and and Jordan will do that.
He's been out there paying attention.
He's been out there getting the
mental reps in terms of what he
can control through the PUP.
And then now that that's taken ,
getting him back in the great
into what we're doing,
the walkthroughs are are very
productive or beneficial for him
because the walkthroughs allow w
him to participate and and get e
mental reps where you couldn't t
those mental reps prior to that.
Now that we're a couple weeks into camp,
what's it been like
for you to wear both hats,
be kind of behind the
offense watching then be on the sidelines.
What's that been like for you?
Yeah, it's it's been interesting
trying to find you know just whe
I need to be at the right time
and then just being self aware.
I think it's important enough to
know that OK, I haven't spent te
here in some time, in some time.
So I need to get around say the
offense a little bit or special teams.
It's just hard to leave even the followup
film meeting with the defense because
of the details that we need to .
So but you know it's important t
I do spend the time outside of e
defense with set pieces of our
offense or or special teams as l
delegating that is that somethig
where you'll say I need to get s
piece to this defensive assista,
this piece to this defensive assistant
or will one defensive assistant shoulder
most of that by himself. Yeah probably
a little bit of little bit of which is a
little bit of both in terms of you know
overall got a very strong staff defensively.
But it's more putting things in place
from from when I'm not around that I can
still have the level of communication.
So for example, if I go sit him
with the offense to watch practe
after this practice this mornin,
I'm not hearing the communicatif
what went well, what didn't go ,
play by play through the coursef
the film with the defensive sta.
So just, hey, you know,
making sure that I'm when I wath
it through a defensive lens,
then that they saw it like I sat
in terms of what needs to impro,
satisfied with how Kyle
and Matt had looked or
kind of understanding
that that's often the case.
But we have confidence in both
of those guys. That said,
you know, doing it in a game,
doing it in live situations,
learning our offense for
Kyle in particular is new.
It's a new offense that he's now
in and and that takes some time.
So getting him as many reps as
we possibly can is important
and well as that. So what
do you make of Khalil's camp so?
You having a year under his beld
now in his second camp, You guys? Yeah,
the the thing I love about
Khalil is he's so consistent and he's
consistent from his personality,
from the personality standpoint.
He's consistent from a
performance standpoint.
And you saw him the other night
in the stadium where I think a
lot of people forgot about him.
And then he shows up.
And I think that's result of his
consistency in terms of his preparation
both physically and mentally and
the standard he holds
himself to on a daily basis.
Shawn, you talked about the mental reps.
You know, you go through
what happened last season.
Stephan said it a few weeks ago.
This team went through a
traumatic experience with them,
all the rest of the players.
Then you have the new guys
getting ready for reform.
What are you guys doing to
get the guys ready mentally?
Well, you know, in fact
we talked this morning
about training the mental part f
of of the performer, right, so that you can
get to a place of elite
performance and that takes time,
that takes work mentally.
And the mental part of the equan
in terms of the training that it
takes is we don't take that lig.
And and I think that's a big pat
of it is you've got to be in a d
spot mentally that that doesn't
happen the week of The Jets gam,
that happens weeks before.
And so we encourage all of our players
to subscribe to that approach as well.
Well, first and foremost,
he has a good feel for for what we're
trying to get done. But he's al,
I mean he's a dog, you know,
he's physical, he's tough even
though he's not maybe the bigget
guy he's he's very physical.
And so I think that's probably
the biggest two areas that in
terms of why I love him is he,
he understands what we're trying to get done.
He works well with those other
guys back there and then
he's tough as nails couple
looks at throughout the
first ten days. What have you
seen from him and where have you seen
him kind of grow And now going
into his second year? Yeah,
you know I love his instincts.
His command of our defense continues to grow.
You know, again,
just in the second season now ad
really he played both positions last year,
but he's playing time.
When he did get playing time on
defense was more outside reallyt
of his playing time was on special teams.
So this is all new to him in a .
Although he probably went throuh
a similar journey in college
before he became the starter.
But he's he gets better every d.
He makes mistakes.
We all make mistakes but he he'a
he just loves to learn and and
grow and you can see that in
his approach on a daily basis.
Sean know the details of like
who's going to play in preseason
we sorted out but with only one
cut down day this year.
Does that kind of have you even
now going to week one thinking
about the bigger picture of how
you want to structure everythin?
Well, we try and look at that honestly
sell in the offseason as we plan training
camp and the schedule and you know at
least the vision then as to whae
want training camp to be and all those
different areas that you mentio.
So, but then now we're in a posn
that we take it one day at a tie
because we've got to continue tg
and zag at times and and you know just
go by the kids of the team and e
the team's at and what they neen
order to get us to the right spot come
week long. Sean, you're talking about
the instincts like Terrell has.
Does it take being comfortable
for those instincts to come out?
Meaning it's innately in the
guy if he has those instincts.
But until you know what you're doing,
you can't come out and do you sa
progression in that when
you're playing free or in that.
Yeah. And that's the.
I mean that's key, right?
And we've all played sports.
Most of you guys played sports.
And when you go from junior high
to high school there's a there'a
transition time that takes place of hey,
until you can now get comfortabe
enough to play free again.
Then you go from high school
to College in the same way.
That's new and it's fast,
faster than what you're you kno,
what you've been used to.
And then and then that takes
some time to where you can
finally get to be your true sel.
And so then you go from these guys from
college to to the NFL and now is
second year and and somewhat of a newish,
not not totally new but newer position,
especially when you're out
there with the ones.
But that's what we continue to
encourage is hey train them up
the right way but all the while
allow them to play play free and
knowing that they make a mistake
just do it full speed and and wl
work through it together.
Now you make two or three of the same
mistakes that we're going to hae
a pretty long conversation ther.
But said you know having said tt
it's it is important that we han
environment around them that they know
they can play for it and especially in games,
preseason games what have you.
That's what practice is for if
you have the right environment
that allows players to do that.
You had talked about kind of rag
up toward the first preseason g.
This was a news Friday night.
You know for that what
does this week look like?
You know, as you put together
these practices or whatever
heading toward the weekend, what
can people expect to see maybe as you
push toward that for you in terms of just
how whatever, I mean,
it's open-ended for you.
How, how do you ramp them up?
You want to see the full game p.
Just hang on is,
is there one for preseason gamen
that? No, I mean, really
we're going to go out there and
and we won't spend a lot of time
honestly on the Indianapolis ca.
With all due respect,
it's important we have felt over the years
to focus on ourselves and our development.
And again, having the right players out
there at the right amount of time in there.
You know, with the right amount of time,
the right dosages of, hey,
who do we want to see and how
much do we want to see them.
And I think that's important tht
we manage that the right way.
Having something as simple as
eleven people in the field,
when you've got 90 guys on
the sideline and there's
players in and out of the lineup
at different points in time,
special teams gets involved in ,
in that mix. So some of that is
even they're not a challenge and
a real pet peeve of mine when we
don't have 11 people on the fie.
You've seen that honestly
in practice at times,
and that doesn't sit well with me. So
good, good. Thank you.