Q. What do you do with Davis as opposed to Tyrod?
TIM KELLY: I think any time you have a different quarterback in the game you're doing what you can to try to play to his strengths. So Davis has done a good job since he's got here coming in and putting himself in position to go out and hopefully make that transition seamlessly. And we're going to still do what we can to make sure we're putting him in a spot to be successful.
Q. (Question about play calling.)
TIM KELLY: I think there's a fine line there between doing that and then chasing ghosts. So we're going to go off of what we have seen off of our film study throughout the past two years and doing a good job there and making sure that we're as prepared as we can be for what we anticipate seeing.
Q. Are you going to be able to be more comfortable this week after having all the first team reps in practice all week instead of just being thrown in?
TIM KELLY: Yeah, I mean other than the first drive I don't think he was really that uncomfortable on Sunday and that's probably to be expected for a guy that's come in and, I mean, that's not an easy place to play and the situation was tough being backed up like we were. So I thought he did a good job of settling down and really he put us in a spot to make it a one-score game with just over 2:00 to go. So there's some things that we need to clean up and I need to clean up, but hopefully like you said with him getting these reps he's feeling more comfortable, if you want to say that, moving forward, but I don't think he was uncomfortable on Sunday.
Q. How long it took him to get rid of the ball on Sunday, I know he ranked near the top of the league in terms of time to throw. How did that fit with the types of plays you were calling?
TIM KELLY: I thought for the most part he did a good job, other than the one of recognizing the front and identifying the defense and getting the ball out of his hand.
Q. What has impressed you about his development in the last few weeks?
TIM KELLY: He's really smart, he comes to work every day, he studies, and he's got, he can make every throw that you want him to make. So now it's going to be fun to see him go out there under the lights and go out there and perform at a high level.
Q. What stands out to you specifically about their defense?
TIM KELLY: They're fast and they run the ball at every level. They have got guys that can fly. Two ends, I mean, are as good of a speed rusher as we have seen. Obviously we saw two good rushers last week, but they're totally different. Got really good athleticism, they can bend, they got good counter moves to the inside. Shaq runs all over the place, he runs and hits. The Chinn guy flies around, he's blitzing, he sticks his foot in the ground. Last year against Green Bay he comes down and makes a play almost gets the ball out 17 yards down field, like he's just all of them play really, really hard. You feel their team speed when you watch them play.
Q. Not having a guy like Tyrod to give you an advantage on running and things like that, how does that present a challenge whenever a defense can maybe expect more narrow stuff in the run game?
TIM KELLY: Yeah, I mean, maybe a little bit more traditional, I wouldn't say that we're completely out of that. There's going to be different challenges when you have, like we talked about earlier, with each quarterback that goes out there there's going to be things that certain people do better than others, so it's our job as coaches to figure what they do best and make sure we're putting them in those spots as many times as possible.
Q. With everything they do defensively that you mentioned what can you put on Justin and the guys on offensive line to help with some of those pre-snap calls?
TIM KELLY: Yeah, I mean, we're, I don't know if that will change, compared to what we have done, but those guys up front do a great job of the communication between the center, the tackles, the guards and the quarterback is continuous. When they break the huddle, Hey, what's the front, where are the safeties, how much time is left, all that stuff. And every play, no matter who is under center that's going on. So we're fortunate to have a veteran group up front, obviously Justin's leading that group and we're going to count on them to come out and continue to lead and continue to play well, but I don't know if we're going to put anything else on their plate.
Q. When you have that many injuries on a game, not just a quarterback, but receivers, tight end, how difficult does it make it to continue to run the things you needed to?
TIM KELLY: I mean, that's our job is to figure it out. There's -- Cleveland didn't care. We can't waste any time on the sideline worried about hypotheticals, we just got to, hey, okay, what do we got to do now, what are we in, what are we out of, who do we got and be able to adjust on the fly. That's one of the many lessons that we learned here over the years going back to Tennessee I think it was in 2017 there like we lost all our wideouts, we had to put a running back out there to play wide receiver. So with the roster limitations in this league like you got to be able to adjust fast and figure out how to get through the game if you get into a worse case situation.
Q. How much roster limitation do you have to work through with Carolina here?
TIM KELLY: We're going in with a full slate, so we'll be good.
Q. (Question about Davis Mills strengths.)
TIM KELLY: That he does well? He's able to, he's got a really good grasp of the offense, I think he can make all the throws. You saw him make some pretty good throws on Sunday. The one to Jordan Akins on third down was really good as far as his anticipation and his accuracy with that ball, he put it right where it needed to be with the coverage. So, yeah, as far as him being able to operate from the pocket, I think he does that really well.
Q. You mentioned that you guys have things to clean up, but throughout the game, there's a lot of comments about the way you were calling the game and things that stood out to a lot of people. What would you say it is that you need to clean up or you feel like you should be better as a play caller?
TIM KELLY: We have got to do a better job of taking advantage of all the turnovers Lovie's getting. So we got to figure out a way to consistently turn those into points. We were, we did a good job last week coming out and starting fast, but being able to maintain that momentum throughout and just continually putting good drives together and really staying out of third and longs and staying head of the sicks on first and second down.
Q. What was Davis' mindset when you told him in the second half that he was starting?
TIM KELLY: He's pretty even keeled, there wasn't really any hesitation or anything, it was kind of, Hey, just we got to go, this is what we're doing, here's our plan, you know these plays, we run these plays, we have executed these. So there wasn't really much of a hesitation or anything there it was kind of just like, okay.
Q. What do you lose in a guy like Nico Collins and how do you work around him?
TIM KELLY: He's a big strong guy, I wish he was a little faster after that first play. But he's a big strong guy who comes out and you feel his size and you feel how physical he is when he plays. So luckily for us we got some other guys Chris Conley is kind of in that mold also, bigger stronger player who can go make those contested catches. So, yeah, I mean, all of our players have different skill sets and we're not putting all these guys in the same mold, so again it's our job as an offensive staff to figure out what guys are going to do what for us, what they do well, and figure out how many times we can get them to do that on Thursday.
Q. How much do you take into account that he was one of the smartest players in the draft or do you just have to remember he's a rookie taking his first spot?
TIM KELLY: Yeah, definitely, you definitely have to bring that into account going back to some of the experiences we have had here with some rookie quarterback, going back to 2017 and just thinking about some of the things that came up. Being able to -- it doesn't matter how much we know, doesn't matter how easy it is for us to say something or to hear something it's got to be something that our guys can go out and do and our quarterback can go out and do in front of however many thousands of people are going to be here on Thursday night. So there's definitely you have to take some of that into account, but at the same time we got to put him in a spot to go and win the game for us too. So you're kind of towing the line a little bit there, but that's definitely something that we're taking into account.
Q. This is a first start for him and a short week, obviously probably hoping the game was on Sunday, but what are your days like, how long are you and Davis here, just let us inside that, tell us about the work?
TIM KELLY: Obviously with the condensed week you're, it's tough for the players just because they're typically, I mean, what is today? Today is Tuesday? (Laughing.) Typically today like they're still trying to get back get their legs back, get their body back. So that's the tough part is putting them in a spot and giving them an opportunity to really recover, not just physically, but mentally. It's hard to play, it's hard to play this game. So being able to recover both physically and mentally is paramount and so we're giving him every opportunity to do that. He's in early, he's staying late, they're doing a great job making sure he's as ready as he can be. And us coaches we work late anyway, so it's not that different for us.
Q. (Inaudible.)
TIM KELLY: I'm expecting him to come out and have a good game. He's fast he's explosive he's strongest competitive he plays with an edge, he's a guy that we're looking forward to getting out there and hopefully he can go out and perform the way that we think he's going to, because he does some really good stuff when we're on that practice field.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports