MIKE MACDONALD: First of all, I wanted to lead with congratulations for our very own Michael-Shawn Dugar. It came to my attention moving on to great things. Congratulations, man. We're going to miss you. We're going to miss you, man. Everything you've done for us, honestly. Appreciate your work, and hopefully we'll see you more often than we expect from now on. Congrats, man. Pretty cool.
Then just a great rookie camp. There's a lot of work that goes into making this thing come to life. I think we brought in, I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot of tryout guys, it's a chasing edges thing that we believe in here. We found some really great players to be on our kind of 120 idea over the years.
Logistically between EK and travel folks, Jeremy and his team, getting everybody here on time, it's a pretty big undertaking for some edges that we're trying to find. So I appreciate those people. Coaches did a great job. We had great spirit. Players did a great job.
Really took a jump this second practice, and it started to look like professional football out there, which is exciting.
We'll move on. Guys will come back in a week, and then phase 2 starts on Monday. Really exciting time of the year.
Q. Is that something you're messaging to the tryout guys, hey, just because you don't get called next week doesn't mean you're not on the radar?
MIKE MACDONALD: Definitely. Everyone's on a different timeline. I think they understand that, and that's part of the messaging too. We've had several guys that have come back in camp or even after camp or after the season. We've had a couple of examples of that too.
Jalan Gaines is a guy that comes to mind that's with us now after not being with us at the end of the season. Just keep plugging away, trying your best. Don't worry about the count or timing or all that, but trust the process.
Q. Did it look like Jadarian caught quite a few passes out there the last couple days?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, he did.
Q. Just given that was one of the things about him in the draft, what did you see in him?
MIKE MACDONALD: It's not like an extra point of emphasis. I think because of camp, probably more space plays rather than keeping him in traffic. Just trying to be smart on how we utilize him in this camp. Getting off, but getting off to the right start.
Did a good job. Did a good job. It's definitely part of our offense.
Q. Did you post Stephens on the right side? Is that where he'll begin?
MIKE MACDONALD: How did I know you were going to ask that one? Beau is on the right side, but we're going to train him at both spots. We'll see how it goes inside. You need flexibility to cross on the interior part of your line. He's played both in his career. Right now he's playing right guard, but we'll be training him right and left.
Q. Julian talked to us yesterday about how much Nick Perry influenced his decision to go to Arkansas.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, that's cool.
Q. Did you have any contact with him during the predraft process about Julian, and how much did that prop him up in terms of being someone you're interested being around similar terminology?
MIKE MACDONALD: That's a great point. I didn't talk to Nick specifically, but Leslie did. I think Carl did. Obviously we respect the heck out of Nick's opinion and the way he sees things. He's a talented coach. So it definitely sparked interest.
Probably earlier in the process from our coaching perspective, our scouts were aware of Julian throughout the process, going back to Fresno. Yeah, that was a cool connection for sure.
Q. You talked about having former players come through in the past. For those guys, what was it like to have Richard Sherman out there day one of mini camp?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, that was awesome. It was great to see Sherms. Hopefully he's got a key here. He's welcome any time. It was fun to see him out there and get caught up. I know the guys appreciated it. That was fun.
Q. As a process driven coach, how important were these two days? I know you talked about this as next level, but how important would you say it was?
MIKE MACDONALD: I think we hit our goals. We have different agendas for different guys. The guys we know are going to be here, I think we did a great job. They have kind of an understanding about how we operate here now, and it's good to get a look at them and get a plan together while they're out of the building so they can come back and be ready next week. That's really important.
Then to go through it with these tryout guys, there's some talented guys that we'll be interested in, and we'll be a better team for it.
Q. How important is it within these two days to get additional looks at players like Ricky White III, guys that aren't rookies but you can get extra reps out of them?
MIKE MACDONALD: Those guys had a great attitude. They wanted to have a chance to play some extra football. It was great to just see them go play ball in our system with some new terminology on offense. It was an opportunity to get ahead, so to speak. Ricky did a great job. Montorie did a great job. Chris Paul did a great job. We had a couple others.
Q. Saw the news about Tyrone Broden moving to corner. What's kind of the process there?
MIKE MACDONALD: He's someone that did a great job at the beginning of -- throughout the process last year and unfortunately got hurt. We loved his movement ability, and he's got ball skills and he competes. He's got a great attitude. We felt like it could translate to being a heck of a DB one day.
He's dealing with some health things right now in terms of his timeline on when he can get back on the field. So right now we're not exactly sure when that's going to happen, but he's in meetings, and he's got a great spirit about him. We're excited about it.
Yeah, it's going to take some time, but he's a great guy for the job.
Q. I don't think any cornerback at 6'6" has ever played in the NFL. What do you think that's going to look like as a tall guy in that position?
MIKE MACDONALD: He can bend really well. He's not just a straight legged 6-foot whatever. He can move and get in and out of breaks. His lateral quickness is really good. He's a great special teams player. He's a great gunner. Those are traits that you look for in defensive players. So we think that's going to translate.
Q. What's the toughest obstacle for a guy -- I know he's not played corner in the past, but trying to make that switch over to the other side of the football?
MIKE MACDONALD: People do it all the time, moving from one side of the ball to the other, mostly from receiver to DB. I think -- you don't want to put a timetable on it. Just see where it goes and see how he takes it up. We haven't seen him take a rep yet at corner, so we'll see. We'll see when the time comes.
Q. (No microphone)?
MIKE MACDONALD: I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I don't think so.
Q. After day 2 of the draft, John mentioned the energy that Bud and Julian both bring. I know it's early, but do you get a sense that?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I think John said he's the opposite of an energy vampire. He just broke down the last huddle, and the team went nuts. You can tell he has a contagious spirit about him, and we obviously love that.
Q. Julian is kind of bringing that too, right?
MIKE MACDONALD: If we had a third practice, it would have been Julian.
Q. You mentioned here a couple times don't put a timetable on it. Why is that important for players to understand that in their development?
MIKE MACDONALD: Well, it's like if you were asked how many games are you guys going to win this year? I don't know. Why don't we just worry about having a great day today and then have another one the next day and make sure that's our standard, and trust that's going to create a team that we're ready to go play football games.
Same thing with player development. We have goals and where we want players. There's timetables behind things sometimes in terms of skill development and body comp, things like that. We want to hit timetable goals on that front.
As long as you're hitting those markers, why put a cap on things?
Q. What does having a resource like Richard Sherman talk to guys like Neal and Clark?
MIKE MACDONALD: It's awesome. He's one of the best to ever do it, and he's ours. So we take a lot of pride in having great players like that.
Technique is important, but I think just like the mentality that it takes to play DB and corner at a high level for our organization, breathe life into these guys. There's a lot of things going on in their minds right now at this point in their careers, and to have a guy like Sherm or Cam come around and encourage the guys and be positive, I think that goes a long way.
Q. Is it okay if they're in awe of Richard Sherman?
MIKE MACDONALD: I think it's pretty cool right now. I'm kind of in awe of him sometimes.
Q. Seeing Brian Fleury his first time out there?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. He's Brian, you know. He's great.
Q. I don't think we've asked you if we have, but Hard Knocks. What do you think about that?
MIKE MACDONALD: It's going to be great.
Q. Is that your initial thought?
MIKE MACDONALD: It was actually my idea to like do it. I pitched it.
No, I mean, it's okay. We're doing Hard Knocks, great. Honestly, it doesn't really affect like -- I haven't really thought about it that much. It hasn't really affected our day to day. It's like, okay, it's coming. Make the best of it. It will be fun.
Q. You guys obviously, you've seen some of the highlight tape during the process. Seeing these guys and their capacity on the field, what has stood out to you about the group in total and kind of specifically about Jadarian, seeing them in person?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, this is a fun weekend because you're finally seeing it in person for a lot of the guys. I think you have to -- you know, from the success of our, really, last year's class, you can't be married to like what happened last year. It's kind of a microcosm for the whole team. You've got to go at it with a new, fresh lens and excitement about who these guys are and let them go be them. They can't be anybody else.
There's a newness and a freshness to it that really our team needs right now, which is cool. Then let's just go attack it. I think looking at it with a fresh perspective is important at this point because they're new guys. They're a new part of the team, which will add an element of excitement to the rest of the guys.
Q. Veterans in phase 1, Sam Darnold picture, Julian Love, is that reminiscent of this time last year when you ended up with 100 percent at OTAs and mini camp?
MIKE MACDONALD: I don't know if we had 100 percent. We had great participation last year, and we've had great participation so far, so we expect the same thing from the guys. Part of that is our responsibility as coaches to create the environment where they feel like they're going to be better and develop their game and connect to their teammates and want to be here.
It's kind of everybody's responsibility at this point in the year, but they know our expectations right now, and they've communicated that to the guys. It's kind of like a new day one starting on Monday when we start phase 2. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
There's a sense of urgency too. We have six weeks left in our off-season program. I think that's about 20, 24 workdays, and we want to make the best out of each one of those days.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports