THE MODERATOR: Hey, coach. Thanks for taking the time today.
MICHAEL CLAY: Morning, morning. Appreciate you guys having me back again.
Q. Hey, Michael. Good morning. Good to see you.
MICHAEL CLAY: Good morning.
Q. I was wondering now that you've had a chance to digest the film on the blocked field goal, if you could assess what happened there and I guess what was the teaching point to that unit to assure, I guess, that doesn't happen again?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, just watching it, you know, a couple times over, it almost turned into kind of the perfect storm, really, in terms of what happened.
Kinlaw made a heck of a play. Just looking at it and seeing things being really critical, like, he jumped up, timed it perfectly.
There was a little wind right there that Jake had to get through. Obviously, we'd love to get all of our points, especially inside 50 yards.
But once again, credit to Kinlaw. He got up there, timed it perfectly. He got his paw up there. He's a first round draft pick for a reason. He did that in South Carolina. It's not like we didn't know they had a good rush team for the most part.
It's just one of those things where you hate for it to happen, but it happened. And, you know, we don't want that to happen again.
But once, again, it was just one of those things. Kinlaw got his big mitt up there and made a heck of a play. Dallas almost saved that play by getting the first down.
It was just one of those things where it's football. You know, hopefully we get a couple of those on field goal blocks, but they got on us on that one.
Obviously, we want to get points on the board, especially inside the 50. You recollect it, you want to learn from it, then move forward.
Q. Yeah. Hi, Michael. Just to follow-up on that. When you say it was the perfect storm, was it pressure upfront or, you know, just Kinlaw jumping up? Was there any pressure up the middle and did Jake hit it a little lower than he probably would have liked?
MICHAEL CLAY: There really wasn't any pressure more than anything else. It was a nice pocket. It was good operation. A little headwind from 48 yards, you have to hit it a little bit lower to get it through there.
It's not no different than golf aficionados, you have to hit it a little thinner, lower to get it in. Once again, credit to Kinlaw. He got his mitt up there, blocked it. We have to move forward.
But once again, it was one of those things, Oh, they get paid to make plays and we get paid to make kicks. So it was just one of those things, give or take. We want to get all our points inside 50 yards.
Q. Mike, it seemed like, you know, there was that one play where Zack almost downed it right before the end zone and then it went inside. It seemed like Arryn has done a good job getting those balls, like, in saveable positions. How well does he work on that?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, Arryn has done a phenomenal job in the last couple weeks. It's one of the things we've been working on since training camp and rookie camp in terms of -- Thursdays are -- or I guess the second day is when we really work with the gunners.
And, you know, it's just good work for everyone. Zack was probably -- you know, the good thing about that play was Zack was so emotional and upset at himself that it gives us that confidence.
Like, he cares and he just wants to do everything good. Especially a young guy like that, trying to make that play. He made two of those plays in Atlanta, he just has to slow down.
You know, a young guy, first home game, you know, he's amped up and he's going and everything like that. And he just rolled into the ball right there and it went in the end zone.
But Arryn's done a phenomenal job, working that, working with the gunners, our returners to give them the look and how to play it. If he keeps doing that, he's going to help us out.
He came back and pinned them inside the 10 -- inside the 40. Which is actually one of the harder ones because you just don't know how to gauge it. He's doing a good job of giving our defense a long field in terms of those 50 punts.
Q. Hey, Mike, one of those positive notes, the average starting field position for the opponent's been pretty good from your perspective through the first few games. What do you think is working there and sort of to that gunner thing? Andre was a late addition to this team. How much has he meant for your units?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, to answer your first part, you know, the whole field position thing, that's what we really want to thrive on and our coverages, obviously, to help the whole team out.
If you can give your defense a long field, it helps flip the field for the offense, as well. So it's not just a one part, it's a whole type of recipe, really.
So I've been very happy with how our coverage team has been going down, especially punt and kickoff, to give our defense some long fields, especially with those guys upfront that can rush. So we just want to keep that going and we have a task ahead of us with Dallas.
As for the second part with Andre, he's been phenomenal. It's not like a rookie coming off the practice squad. He's been in the league for a while. He's extremely smart, wants to get better. He's hard on himself.
Tyler Brown has been working with him a lot behind the scenes just to get him caught up. But Andre has been very good for us and we're going to keep that up with him and Zack and everybody else on the special teams aspect of the game. So Andre has been great and he's just going to keep getting better and better as the season goes on.
Q. Hey, Michael. The way the league used kind of extra point and two-point situations has evolved over the past few years. We saw that, you know, when you scored a touchdown down 14. As a special teams coordinator, how attuned are you to those situations? Are you just ready to send your extra point guys out no matter what or are you more attuned to those situations, as well?
MICHAEL CLAY: No, you definitely -- you know, it goes into the whole football awareness and IQ that we talk about so much around here.
You know, for a special teams, you know, it's not just an automatic, All right, go kick a field goal. There's many situations that run through your head that you prepare yourself from January on.
I mean, you go through almost, like, a checklist for yourself, Hey, we're down so many points, how do we, you know, get closer?
If it's a 16-point game, obviously, you want two. But, you know, vice versa, if you got the lead, Hey, it's 15 points, why not go for two and understandably it a threescore game.
So there is always a checklist that you have running through your mind. But, obviously, we talk with Nick and everything about that, Hey, he wants to go for two, that's fine. Let's watch this two-point conversion the kickoff coverage ready for our defense.
So there's a checklist personally myself I go through. I'm, like, All right, this is a situation where, Hey, hold the field goal team back or extra point team back if they want to go for two.
But a whole communication with everyone upstairs and with Nick, what we want to do in that situation.
Q. Yeah, Michael I just want to ask, I know the game's changed as far as kickoff returns goes, just not a lot of them. But how much freedom do you give Quez to make the decision whether he's going to come out or not on a kickoff?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I usually give Quez a starting point. Obviously, with a guy with that type of speed, you do want him to flash it.
But there's also that whole, Let's help out the team, as well. If the team is moving the ball well and, you know, we get that field position to the 25, let's take it. Let's not be greedy.
But if there is an opportunity where he does get it or a short kick, we got to do -- the other 10 got to block and they got to know, Hey, any situation this ball doesn't go through the end zone, make sure we're on our blocks and give Quez the best opportunity to return it.
So it comes to what the environment is, what the situation is, how we want to play it. So there is a lot of variables. But I do give Quez, Hey, be at this depth or whatever and if it goes over your head, it goes over your head. We'll get it the next time, we'll get our shot. You're not going to hit a home run every time.
You just got to pick and chose and you just got to be patient. The return game has a lot to do with being patient. Because when you do get your opportunity, we got to hit our opportunity.
Because you don't get many. Especially with these kickers that hit the ball 10 yards deep. There is a lot of give and take with it.
Q. Hey, Michael. What have you seen this year with CeeDee Lamb with the punt return game?
MICHAEL CLAY: I've always been a fan of CeeDee Lamb, even with his time at Oklahoma in terms of his punt return ability.
We played against him last year when he was in San Francisco. He's a very fluid athlete. He catches the ball well. He's going to have take some chances, but these are all calculated chances.
Not like he goes off the reservation or goes rogue or something like that. He's a strong runner and very elusive. So it has to take a full team effort.
One, it starts with our protection. Bonesy runs some very good games. Knowing Bonesy the past four and a half, five years, with him being in LA and playing them last year, we got to get that ball off, be stout in protection, that once Arryn gives us a good ball to go cover, there's got to be 10 other guys going down there to corral him.
It's got to be a full team effort to get him down. You're not going to expect one-on-one tackles a lot with an athlete like CeeDee Lamb.
So it all starts with, one, the protection, two, Arryn giving us a good ball to cover, and then everybody else getting off the blocks and making a good team effort to get CeeDee down. He is a very good punt returner.
Q. Hey, Mike. I'm curious. In your career as an NFL coach, working with some of the coaches you've worked with in the front offices, the way the game is changing, have you ever heard of any discussions about teams specifically targeting NBA players who are taller or lengthier for taller scenarios in field goal block scenarios? Are you using that roster spot as a person in value to do that?
MICHAEL CLAY: Personally, no, I haven't thought about, you know, having an NBA-type player or a 6'10 player. Just because our numbers are so limited and you have to have a specific role to help the team in other capacities.
Like, you really don't want to use one guy for one thing. But if someone comes, you know, later down the line or this year and they're, like, Hey, they recruited a 6'10 formal basketball player for field goal blocks, maybe they're going to be trend setters. But I haven't had a conversation about that in any capacity. But, you know, crazier things have happened.
Q. Michael, the onside kick, No. 1, how difficult is that in today's world the way the rules are to recover an onside kick? And in last Sunday's game, did you talk to Nick at all about that possibility at the end of the game and was that a discussion?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, the onside kick, you know, it's a -- it's very difficult. It's not, like, something you can scheme up and you're, like, I know he's going to get hit and everything.
It has a lot to do with the ball coming off the ground. You know, it hits differently off grass, off turf. It's more of a game of chance.
You try to get a good game plan from what the opposing coordinator has done in terms of his configuring of his hands team. But it's one of those things where, you know, you spin the wheel and see what happens. Which is exciting to everyone else.
You never know what's going to happen. And in terms of our conversation, you know, we have this little -- we do have a conversation in terms of, Hey, do we want to kick it deep, short, try our onside kick?
And me and Nick have that conversation prior to the team going out there. And we made that decision that we thought kicking it deep for a long field would be the best opportunity.
And Jake did a heck of a job putting the pressure on their hands team, was not letting it go back for a touch back. They had to return it. And you saw, we put it inside the 15.
And you never know what can happen, a fumbled snap, a couple big tackle for losses, now we get the ball back with a certain amount of time on a short field, that could help out our offense.
So there is a certain conversation that myself and Nick have and the people upstairs in terms of our clock management.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports