Q. When you're going through the conversation with Nick and whoever else about the positives and negatives of using DeVonta as a returner, when do those conversations happen?
MICHAEL CLAY: That's a good question.
We always have these conversations, before the season started, you obviously want to get your best players touches, the best players the ball right there. It all comes down to situational type things.
What's the weather like, who we're facing, anything like that. It's just one of those things where we've had deep conversations just in terms of, Hey, how do we get our best players on the field with the ball in their hands.
Q. How much does that concern you with Smith being targeted and using him in the punt return game, how much do you balance?
MICHAEL CLAY: You balance everything in the game. It was early on in the game. Just to get him going right there, you have that one. We didn't need to see him anywhere else. You saw what he did offense-wise.
It's a balance. If we're going to be up three scores or something like that, Hey, let's throw DeVonta in there. It has to be a situation when we throw him in there just to get something going.
Q. What can you do to get the punt return game going?
MICHAEL CLAY: We took a baby step forward in terms of the muff. Never good to have the ball on the ground. When you have three returns of 12 yards plus, we got to eliminate that penalty at the end of the second quarter with Josh and everything.
Physical play. Reel him back, use your hands more than anything. Not put our offense in a bad situation going into a two-minute drive. Obviously DeVonta had the 12, got the ball to the 44. The one where Britain in the right corner caught at the 10, got to the 22, another first down where the offense doesn't have to worry about being backed up.
Last one, Britain did a good job of pressing it, cutting it. Baby steps. We've gotten better in terms of the punt return game.
When you have three, four 12-yard returns in a game, guys are starting to feel confident getting going. Guy that helped out, Zach Pascal, physical presence, dropping back, giving them the extra blocker for the return right there. It takes all 11, myself, Joe P, Tyler, to game plan and get these guys going, rearing to go.
The cool thing about it, you saw Britain, he was taking a couple hits, but he popped right back up. That feeds into the momentum of those guys. We came in yesterday, they kept seeing it, but he got right back up. They got to be willing to block for him as much as possible.
Q. (Question regarding Britain.)
MICHAEL CLAY: I think he's done a really good job. I think Britain first three weeks in the NFL against some real dudes, you actually feel the real speed of some guys. It's not the third or second pre-season game or practice. You got guys that I believe Kris Boyd is one of the best gunners in the league, Percy Butler is a real good gunner. Those guys in Detroit, you start feeling some real speed out there.
He's done a good job in terms of protecting the ball. He muffed that ball right there, we can't have any situation where the ball is on the ground. Besides that he's putting his foot on the ground, getting yards right there. Hopefully he keeps keeping his momentum, we're blocking better for him. 12 yards, spring for something bigger.
Q. What was the teaching point, or was there, on the muff? Britain was back on kick-ups, why the shift there?
MICHAEL CLAY: In terms of the punt return, for Britain, just get it squared up a little bit more. Regardless of the situation, whether it's windy, rain or anything, we got to have the ball. That's no excuse for the ball to be on the ground.
If he gets squared up right there, fair catch it, catch it going forward, or if he doesn't feel comfortable with it, if the ball takes a dive at the end, just get out the way, survive to see another down right there.
He was poised enough to get on it right there. For him, just to see the guys covering right there, save himself a hit right there. Just going back to the fundamentals of sprinting to the spot with his feet first, have high hands, catch to it.
Kind of got to his side. That's when you get in trouble. If you're squared up, if it does go that your hands, it does drop right in front of you. If it's to the side, it can take a weird bounce.
Q. (Question regarding Aaron.)
MICHAEL CLAY: I think Aaron is doing a good job. Obviously if you ask him, he'd be very disappointed in himself in that plus-50 range right there. We can't have any, especially how the defense was playing, if you can make a team go 92 yards, it's really tough. A little bit easier than 80 yards right there.
The cool thing with Aaron, his confidence, he came back every time he had the touch-back and got a punt. Hit the 54-yarder, pinned them at the six. I think he's done a really good job. It all starts with the protection with those guys, giving him a clean pocket. We asked him, Did you feel anything?
Nope.
Just him being confident. He works hard every day coming in, Monday, giving him the extra lift, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday working with Aaron, Rick, Jake, keep it going, trying to keep the same stuff going for us.
You could see, he had four inside the 20 last game, how our defense was going, you're going to shorten up the field a lot. We would love to have six, love to have six in the 20 on Sunday. Something we got to strive for to be greedy and be perfect regardless of what we're doing out there.
I think Aaron has done a really good job so far.
Q. A couple of really poor moments the last few weeks with the bucked field goal, Jordan Davis penalty that gave them a first down in the red zone. What is your feeling overall about how things are going? Do you need more veteran guys?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, that's a good question.
One of those things where we want to get better at is just eliminate those ugly plays. We can't be a team, a special teams unit that has good spurts. On the Minnesota game our punt coverage is out there giving up one yard, four yards, we give the blocked field goal that could change the game.
Glass half full thinking. It was a hell of an effort by Aaron and Jake, with the defense, giving them a fighting chance. DeVonta got the interception on that one, so glass half full.
We can't have any of those mistakes. For the team we want to be, especially a special teams unit, we can't have those mental lapses or technique lapses right there.
It starts with me more than anything else to get these guys locked in regardless of what the score is. It's human nature. You may get lackadaisical by the score, but we got to be locked in regardless.
It goes the other way. Say we're in a tight battle, we need our special teams to make a big play, get that energy going similar to last year against Carolina. We need to be that unit.
It's just tightening it up, myself, getting these guys more locked in. There's potential for us to be a good team. We can't be a good team if we fail as a special teams unit, which starts with me. We'll get that corrected.
It starts today upstairs, get game plan ready. Jacksonville is a very good team. They've got some weapons out there with Jamal. You probably know about Jamal being a very dangerous returner. Heath is a great coordinator that was in Buffalo. We got our hands full regardless of who we're playing. We got to tighten up the ship and make sure we're not giving up those bad, ugly plays that we've given up the last couple weeks.
Knowing these guys, they're ready to work.
Q. (No microphone.)
MICHAEL CLAY: With Jordan, it was one of those things where I just got to push him. He's such a big man. Not like he was really attempting to go, he was trying to get some penetration on the guard. He's a large male, hit the long snapper on his way out. One of those things where we'll kick him a little wider, keep him out of harm's way that way.
Q. (No microphone.)
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, Nakobe, he's such a good football player. There's not much of an adjustment. It's just making sure he gets up to speed. There's such different rules in college to the NFL, but I think Nakobe has done a really good job.
In the Minnesota game, he made a heck of a play on kickoff coverage. Mad at himself that he missed that tackle, one coming out of half. He wants to strive and get better and get good at really being a core four guy. He's patient.
It's really cool to see Nakobe. He came in, he's got business mindset, but now you see a little bit of his personality coming out within the special teams unit and everything like that. You see him out there as a right wing on punt, doing a really good job of blocking right there.
Punt return he's very dynamic, he's explosive. He's doing a really good job. We're excited with all these guys. Like I said, we just got to keep getting better, be more consistent.
Through three weeks, we've been a little bit up and down, but we have to be more consistent in terms of that. Very excited about these young cats running out there. Patrick Johnson, Kyron, Nakobe. Our veteran guys, Shaun and K' Von out there. We're going to keep working, we're going to keep striving to be one of the better units out there.
Q. When it starts to become clear that the team has potential to be good, what does that do in terms of the pressure from the special teams standpoint to make sure you're living up to your end?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I don't know if there's an added pressure or anything. I think it goes down to what we've been doing since OTAs. If we're fundamentally sound and we play fast, be a physical unit, do what we need to do week in and week out, it will all take care of itself more than anything else.
Everything is still a learning process a little bit. But we can't take time to keep learning. We've got to catch up. That starts with myself to get these guys going. We're living up to that level that we know we can play to.
Q. On the punt return, what do you think the key is blocking-wise to give Britain a little bit more room, more time to operate?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, it always starts on the outside. If we can eliminate the gunners, give Britain a clear 10, 12 yards, it makes it a lot easier for him to make that first cut more than anything else.
Regardless of who is on the outside or punting, we have to make sure in our matchups, are we doing our fundamentally sound things, are we giving a gap between coverage and where Britain is.
There are times where we have given it, he gets 12 yards right there. When you're able to get a first down every time, it kind of takes that load off. The offense can open up the book right there to get going.
It's a two-phase thing. We got to take care of the gunners and the interior and we got to get north and south, which I think he did a really good job against Washington.
I keep telling him, puncture the coverage, puncture the coverage. Maybe the second, third time, then that big one comes. It's all about handling the outside, the interior, then getting going north and south more than anything else.
Q. (Indiscernible) for the punter last week, what was the impetus behind that?
MICHAEL CLAY: You never want to go in going against a lefty punter and not seeing one. I think that was the biggest thing to see. A lefty punter, anything like that. Last time he saw one was in college. A little bit different how the ball is flying.
Howie does a great job of getting everybody ready regardless of the situation, whether it's rain, a lefty punter, kicker. We're going to do everything we can to get ready for Sunday.
Q. What did you see on the blocked field goal? What went wrong?
MICHAEL CLAY: Fundamentally we kind of shut down a little bit on our blocking right there. Again, you got to give kudos to Pat Pete. You're not a veteran corner, a guy that's blocked a lot of field goals, without studying, being really good at his job. We got to do a better job of punting him, redirecting him a little bit there.
Again, a lot of these guys in this league get paid a lot of money to pay big plays. Pat Pete is one of the guys that does a very good job off the edge, but we have to do better in terms of fundamentals, where he doesn't have a straight path towards our block spot right there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports