Q. How excited are you at the potential of everybody coming back?
MATT CANADA: Oh, it's just exciting to get everybody back. Haven't had them since the first half of the first game since with everybody coming back. Had a good field coming out of camp, so there's a good feeling being able to be at full strength as soon as we go.
Q. What kind of looks were you able to give to the running game? Jaylen talked about some alignment changes potential, just to adjust to help with blocking. What kind of adjustments were you able to make with the running game and how critical of a look was there?
MATT CANADA: We obviously evaluated everything. I'm not going to get into everything we did or didn't do, but whenever the bye comes in a season, you're going to look -- that gives you a chance to take however -- last year eight games, this year five games, and you can kind of really analyze where you're at and some things you want to do a little better. It was all aspects of our game, and the run game, we did that, as well.
Q. Was there something you saw that you can -- you think will help you in the second half with part of the running game?
MATT CANADA: Obviously we hope so. Obviously we're going to tweak things, if we think there's something that helps us, we're going to do that. We're probably not going to sit there and talk to you guys exactly about what we're talking about making tweaks on, but we've got to be better in a lot of different things, it's not just one little area of the run game. But we certainly looked at them all, tried to evaluate where there's some positives and where there's some negatives, and then maybe where there's something that's just a little bit here and there that might be able to get it to a positive.
Q. Last night there was a pretty night-and-day difference between the running game. Do you think that could be a major factor to making improvements in the second half?
MATT CANADA: I hope so.
Q. Naj told us he stayed extra and came to you the day after to talk to you about some ideas. What does that tell you about him, and what was some of the stuff that you liked --
MATT CANADA: Yeah, very similar to last year. Naj and I met last year in the bye. He kind of looked at all his runs and what we can do better. Again, it kind of goes with Naj and the quarterback or whatever else. Everything, all the focus goes there but there's a lot of pieces to it, but there's a lot to making sure we're on the same page.
There's no question about Naj's desire to win, desire to be great, desire to be a leader, desire to be on the same page. Obviously that wasn't anything new from what he did a year ago.
Hopefully we continue to grow and get better. We're all counting on that, and trying to get ourselves back to where we want to be.
Q. With the guys you're getting back, does that allow you to do more things that you maybe couldn't without them, or is the idea just to do them better?
MATT CANADA: A little bit of both. I don't know if it's more things, but obviously you're talking about you're bringing back, what was Tae, top five, six, seven targets last year in the NFL. You're bringing back a guy like Diontae and his route running capability to do things like that, and obviously we were down Pat last week, as well. So you talk about the passing game, just starting there, and it's going to change a little bit. You've got some really good weapons coming out there, and then you've got a couple guys up front getting healthy.
You know, a little bit of both. There's probably some things we might do, but obviously we just want to get better at what we did do.
Q. What does Anthony McFarland provide with his return?
MATT CANADA: Ant gives us a lot of play-making abilities. He's getting back from injury and seeing where he's at. But obviously he had a nice little role in the first game and didn't go as well as we all hoped, so some of those things were magnified as the game came down. But he adds a different dimension to our running back room.
Q. How much do you think it helped when Najee called on Mason to help him watch some of that tape, from an offensive line point of view?
MATT CANADA: Well, I think, again, we've got a really good group of guys, and I think that's not uncommon for us what they do every week, but I think for the bye week, those guys got together. Again, nothing really that abnormal from what we did a year ago or what Najee did a year ago. I don't know Mason or who -- certainly Najee meets with the line, the line meets with him, has a strong desire to be better, to improve the running game, the passing game, all of it, but it says a lot about him, but it's kind of what we expect and what we've got to do to get ourselves where we need to be.
Q. Did you like that they came to you --
MATT CANADA: Oh, it really probably wasn't as much as you might think. It was more just where we're at, looking at it, what do you think and how we're doing. There probably wasn't -- anytime -- we're wide open to talking, figuring out what we can do better, and everybody is working that way.
Q. Is the goal to get some defense with Donald on it any different than any other great player each week?
MATT CANADA: Yeah, what is he, three-time Defensive Player of the Year, seven-time All Pro? It's a lot different. It's an unbelievable player in our league and has been for a long time. You have to know exactly where he is.
There's certainly a lot of great players in the league. Obviously they're all different, but you can't -- he's certainly in a class by himself I would say. He's just a tremendous talent. Great respect for him and how he plays and the way he carries himself. We'll have a huge, huge challenge.
Q. Kenny looks so comfortable in those end-of-game situations where the pressure is on, game is on the line kind of thing. That may not necessarily be common for a young guy. Is there anything about his mindset or mentality in those circumstances that you feel like you can unlock more regularly for him?
MATT CANADA: Love to. We'd love to do that. Obviously there's -- we're looking at trying to win games, and at those points in time, Kenny steps up and has made some huge plays throughout his career here. He's played 17 games now, whatever it is. I think he's made those plays in big moments. Certainly the reason that he was drafted, so the reason that he's the starter, and I think we'll continue to do that, and certainly we have to start faster and play better and all those things you're mentioning. How we get to that point is a work in progress, trying to find it with everybody.
Q. Now that you have everybody healthy, what can you do to kind of take advantage of some of the speed or do more to see some of the speed --
MATT CANADA: I think it's similar to the prior question in a way. You bring Diontae back and you mentioned Ant and those guys get back, you've got George out there. With Diontae and Pat back, we've got some more weapons which you have to respect down the field. I think having speed all around, Calvin is obviously really fast. We've got some guys that we think can run, and then you've got Allen inside.
I think adding, getting some guys back just brings us more to our full -- kind of our full arsenal of what we think we can do and be on offense. Not necessarily major play differences, but certainly a difference in how they have to adapt to who we've got out there. I think those guys draw some attention.
Q. Donald is know for his sacks and pressures, but how does he (indiscernible)?
MATT CANADA: He's just such a talent. He's just so hard to block. You look at some of the best players in the league who have tried to block him and aren't able to do that.
I think you have to know where he is on every play, run or pass. You have to -- that's similar to a lot of players as we've mentioned, but I just think he's certainly a unique talent and a player that we all have and I have great respect for, and we have to know where he is.
Q. You obviously did a lot with (indiscernible) what Miami is doing with Tyreek Hill now, seems like it's something different, almost 60 percent of the time. Is it just as easy to say, hey, why doesn't everyone do that? Is it specific to their personnel, and what are the challenges of trying to implement that amount of motion?
MATT CANADA: Well, I think it's obviously just where you're at and where you're focused on and trying to get your players in the best positions to make plays. They're doing a tremendous job. They're doing great. Hats off to them what they're doing. I don't think you can just jump in and see something and put it in. That's not something you can do. But obviously guys are looking at copying certain things that they're doing.
I think they're doing a tremendous job, and it's all just kind of what you want to do and how you want to do it and do it enough to help your guys make plays without doing too much to where they're not in their comfort area and can't play as fast and as loose as they need to play.
Q. In your experience is play action out of the shotgun as effective?
MATT CANADA: I think it just depends a little bit on how much you're running it out of the shotgun. I think if it marries with what you're doing in the run game, it probably is obviously -- I think it's in the kind of tendencies that they bring that think like that.
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