Q. With so many changes to the team from a year ago, how are you feeling?
CHRIS CONLEY: I'm extremely excited. I can't wait to get back out there, obviously new team, new offense, a lot of moving parts. But we've put in a lot of work, and hopefully had a lot of positive change, and we're ready to see what that looks like on the field against another opponent.
Q. Is there a little balance between all those new things you mentioned? You do have a lot of guys back, especially in the wide receiver room that will help.
CHRIS CONLEY: Yeah, I think that having the same guys that you're working with providing that kind of consistency, we have good chemistry. The guys get along really well. We know how to push each other, and we also know how to work with each other on the field. I think that the Xs and Os changing is a positive for us, but continuing to have that consistency and knowing how to communicate with each other, how to communicate what we're seeing on the field and what adjustments need to be made, I think that having that for another year is a really good thing for us.
Q. What do you like most about the scheme change? You said the Xs and Os changes are good. What do you like most about the scheme change?
CHRIS CONLEY: You know, a lot of things are different. Terminology is different. Our mentality of how we're going about attacking defenses is a little bit different. I'm all for the fresh take. I think Pep has really revived a lot of guys' minds and the way that they're looking at the game and the way that we can affect defenses, the way that we can score points.
Then really just getting back to the point that show us what you can do in camp, everybody has an opportunity to go out there and prove that they can play, and that's refreshing for guys.
Q. Chris, you maneuvered a bit inside and out last year, too. How do you build that in the off-season working with a new coordinator? How do you see him being able to use that with you particularly?
CHRIS CONLEY: You know, a lot of the stuff that Pep has been working on is kind of more in the West Coast tree of what I learned when I first came in the league, so there's a lot of crossover there. But then also playing inside and outside, it's knowing how the defensive triangle, your safety, your back or your nickel and your corner and just being able to read it from a different perspective and knowing how to affect say a backer instead of a corner when you're getting off the line.
So there's a little bit of nuance to that, but it's not necessarily my first time doing that. I've kind of played inside and out everywhere I've been.
So it's just been another iteration of that and still continuing to try to get better, just do whatever they need me to do.
Q. Thinking of how it affects the defense, can you also sense where others -- how you might affect your teammate out there?
CHRIS CONLEY: Yeah, I think that we have a good group of vets, guys who understand a lot of times what the defense is doing sometimes even before they reveal what coverage they're playing. I think that we try to make each other better. When it's a play and we see a coverage that might not necessarily be good for the route that we're running but we know we can affect it to make someone else get open, I think that that's kind of the level that we're at now. Guys working with each other to not necessarily just get the ball themselves but to help the offense as a whole.
Q. What's the biggest areas that you've seen Davis' game grow here in year two or at least the early part of it?
CHRIS CONLEY: I have seen quite a few things, actually. But one of the things that really caught my eye when we came out, I noticed it in OTAs and then even more our first week of training camp is he was really zipping the ball with confidence. He wasn't really laying the ball up there. I know a lot of you have been out there at practices, and he's hit a lot of seam routes, he's hit some good routes and like a cover two hole where you can't really lay the ball up, where you have to be confident, you have to kind of drive it on a line, and you can't really hitch or guess. That's been impressive to me, the conviction that he's been able to go out there and kind of -- even in a new scheme, command the offense.
Q. You're a very positive person. Have you had a chance to reach out to John Metchie, what he's going through in this situation? Have you reached out to him personally?
CHRIS CONLEY: Yeah, I have, and the cool thing about Metch is he is an extremely positive person, as well, and he has a big personality. I think that's one of the things that in the receiver room we got a chance to get to know about him. He might be a person who publicly is very quiet, but he has a very big heart and a big personality, and I reached out to him and told him that we'll be walking with him and praying for him, and he sent me back a really funny photo of a really out of shape guy who was flexing, and he said, oh, you know, fam, we got this. His head and his heart are definitely in the right place, and we're here for him.
Q. When you add a guy like Phillip Dorsett late in the season last year, getting adjusted to the offense, to have that continuity now with being here for four years, how is that helping the offense?
CHRIS CONLEY: Phillip or Ben?
Q. Phillip.
CHRIS CONLEY: You're adding another veteran to the mix, but also you're adding a veteran who can run 23 miles per hour, not everybody can do that. We have speed in our room with Brandin and him, but adding another guy like that is good. Phillip has been around. He's played a lot of ball. Those comments that I made about guys being able to see and affect the defense to communicate effectively, Phillip falls right into that. But you can't teach speed. The fact that we have guys who can really stretch a defense like that, it really helps us.
Q. What's stood out to you about playing against Stingley and Pitre in camp?
CHRIS CONLEY: You know, I think their confidence is one thing. When you come in as a rookie there's a lot of questions. A lot of things are flying at you. But they've been able to take the little information that they have and go out there and play confidently like the role that their in has been their role, like they own it. Like for Pitre when he got out there, he played like he's been the starting safety here for years, and that confidence is something that's caught our eye, and he flies around and he's been making a lot of plays.
The same goes for Stingley. He's played with a lot of confidence. He's very, very athletically gifted, but he's also inquisitive. He asks a lot of questions, and you can tell when he gets an answer and he picks something up, he's on it. So he's been playing extremely well.
Going up against him every day, he's going to be something special.
Q. Can you talk about what you're seeing out of the secondary as a whole, compared to what you went up against last year in practice?
CHRIS CONLEY: Yeah, I see a lot of guys who are gifted like the young guys like Pitre and Stingley. I see a veteran in Steven Nelson who is savvy, a very savvy vet. I played with Steve a long time ago, played against him a number of times, and he's a guy that you can't give any tells, any indicators because he'll run the route for you. Having guys who have that kind of sixth sense on the outside and that play making ability, it makes us better. Then the safeties have been able to affect the game in the run and the pass.
I'm excited to see them play.
Q. You mentioned Stingley being inquisitive; does he ask you questions or is it what you observe of him?
CHRIS CONLEY: No, I think that he's not afraid to ask questions. He's asked me a number of questions after practice. He's pulled me to the side and asked me what was going through my head. He's done the same thing with Brandin Cooks, pretty sure he's done it with Davis, because he wants as much information as he can get, and when you take someone who's willing to learn like that and then you add the athletic ability that I'm sure everyone in this room knows he has, that could be a dangerous combination, and we're excited to see it.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports