Q. The injury to Andre Dillard, how does that impact that position backing up Jordan Mailata?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think we've got a plan for that. I'd rather keep that in house, to be honest, going forward. For competitive advantage reasons we want to keep that in house but we feel good with the group we've got backing up.
Q. Who are some of the candidates just in general?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, like I said, I'm going to keep that in house and we'll go from there.
Q. Shane, as far as the communication between you and Nick and you're calling the plays, how important was the preseason to sort of -- the games to get that down and ready for week 1?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, no, I feel really good about the communication. Like I said, me and Nick have had a long working relationship. We see the game similar. In between series we're always talking. We're talking right now going through the game plan upstairs. We're going to continue to do that tomorrow, the next day, Saturday and Sunday morning before we go play, so we'll be ready to go.
Q. It's kind of strange that last year at this time Zach Ertz was still on the team. How have you seen Dallas Goddard kind of take ownership of his role now that he is the tight end one?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, he's really stepped up into that leadership role in that room by the way he plays, by the way he goes about his business. He's a hard worker. He grinds every day. He's ready. He's mentally prepared, all those things you want in that position, he's been doing that and proving that day in and day out so we're excited about his performance so far.
Q. On Sermon, what do you know about him and is he someone who can carve out a role eventually?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, you know what, he was a really good playing coming out of college. Did a lot of really good things in San Francisco, as well, so excited to add him to that room. Like I said, Miles is our guy. We feel really good about that group, but to add another talented player like that, it'll be good for us.
Q. How big is it to have three guys, AJ Brown and you've got Devonta and Goddard that can put the ball in the end zone? How big is that?
SHANE STEICHEN: It's awesome. You know when those guys can touch the ball, they can score it at any point because they're so explosive. To have three of those guys, I've been around some good ones, but those three are really impressive, so to have three of those guys on your team is really good for us.
Q. What's the biggest difference you're expecting to see in your offense from the last time you guys took the field?
SHANE STEICHEN: Honestly, I just want to see execution more than anything, the consistency, day in, week in, week out, day in and day out and it's every day. You live in the moment and you take one day at a time and go from there and it's just execution and consistency, that's what I want to see.
Q. In what ways has Jonathan Gannon tested you guys this summer and also made you a better coach?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, you know what, they're doing a heck of a job defensively. They added some new pieces Jonathan is a very, very smart football coach. He does a lot of good things defensively, and it's tested us, too, in training camp. There's some times where they've got after us, we've got them a little bit. But it's been good. The stuff he's doing right now defensively, I'm excited to see it on Sunday.
Q. As you watch D-line's film from last year, what memories came to mind from that game, and how significant was that for the season?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think it was big. We got on a roll there in that game by the way we ran the ball, so it was good. Obviously you're going back through watching all the season, all the stuff, but it was good. Just so grow from that game and then continue to do what we did throughout the season.
But every year is a new year, and it's going to look different. It's not always going to be the same. It could be, you never know. Every year is a new year, so we're looking forward to the challenge this Sunday.
Q. With Miles Sanders, he appeared to get off to a strong start in camp and then he had the setback with the hamstring. Where do you see him now at this point? Seemed like he started to practice last week.
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, like we said, Miles is our guy. We've got two other guys and then we added Trey behind him that we feel good about, and we'll go from there, but I like where Miles is at, and we'll go from there.
Q. You have four wide receivers on the 53-man roster as of this point. What have you seen from those four guys that makes you excited about what they can do during the season?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, like I said earlier, obviously AJ and Devonta and Zach and all the rest of the guys, we have four guys, but we also have a 70-man roster. So guys are on practice squad that you always look for. Like at any point in the season, guys need to step up. Guys need to step up whoever that might be.
Every week we go through that process, and when it comes Sunday, those guys will be ready to go.
Q. As far as Sermon goes, learning the playbook within a short amount of time, how realistic is it for him to have any kind of role early on as he works his way through that?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think with anything, like guys that come in -- our running back coach, Jemal Singleton, he does a heck of a job with those guys, and he's got to get those guys up to speed. There's certain things that if he feels comfortable with, it's like, hey, these are the plays he can run and let's go from there.
Q. What's the biggest between Jalen now and week 1 last year?
SHANE STEICHEN: I think it's just the confidence and the smoothness of everything he's doing. Like I said, it's year two in the system. I think with anything you develop some confidence being in year two in that same system, so you can see by the way he's playing, the way he's going through his reads, all those things we've said before. It'll be exciting to see on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it.
Q. How familiar were you with Ian Book before he got here?
SHANE STEICHEN: Watched him coming out at Notre Dame. He did a lot of good things at Notre Dame, good leader, toughness, smart, throws a good ball, comes out smooth. So it'll be good to work with him.
Q. Do you find value -- more value in having a third quarterback on the 53, too, or it doesn't kind of matter to you? You look at it as like a 70 type of thing?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think with anything, that's the most important position in all of sports, right, so anytime you can add more quarterbacks, whatever it is, you want to try to find the best one. So you're always looking to develop those guys, whether it's the third or the fourth guy, and you go from there, because obviously that position is so important that if something happens and you need that third guy to step in, he's got to be ready to go.
Q. How do you game plan for someone like Aidan Hutchinson who doesn't have any NFL film?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, without giving out any secrets, he's a heck of a football player. I really just talked about him as a football player, watching him in college, he's explosive, he's long, he's powerful. You saw in the preseason him coming off the edge, just the explosiveness he plays with. So we've got to be ready for him.
I think in whole their defense, you watch them in the preseason game, just the way they're flying around with energy and effort, it's showing up big time from last year to this year.
In the NFL, right, every game is going to be a challenge. I don't care who you play, where you play. You've got to be ready to go. They've got some good players. Brockers is still there, linebackers, 34, 55; they've got the rookie, Rodriguez, 44; the corners, 1, 24; and then the safeties, 5 and 21, are good players; and they've got Hughes from Kansas City.
All those guys are flying around making plays, so we've got to be ready for it.
Q. What's it like with no Jim Bob to help with whatever game management, and with the new kind of machinations that you have up there?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I'll keep all that stuff in house, but I like where our process is at with what we've got going on up there, but excited about what we've got going there.
Q. What signs, whether it's a metric or in terms of the way he plays will show you that Jalen's made the improvements that he needed to make?
SHANE STEICHEN: Well, I think it's just the consistency, like I said, with anything. Any player, you just want to be consistent week in and week out, and he did that throughout the off-season and training camp, and we just need to continue that improvement, and obviously he had the six reps in the preseason game, which you guys saw what he did there, which was impressive. We've got to carry that over on Sunday and throughout this season.
Q. We talk about motion a lot with Nick, and you guys were bottom 5 in the league. He says he never wants to be bottom 5. Is that cognizant to you guys coming into week 1 that we're going to see a little bit more, without giving away schematic stuff?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, again, I'll keep some of that scheme stuff in house, but yeah, I think anytime you motion guys, you create chaos from a defensive standpoint. So could we do some of that? Yeah, we could. We'll see where it goes on Sunday.
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