JOE JUDGE: Players in a position from a coaching staffing standpoint we have to make sure that we put toes players in a position to play to their strengths and then they have a responsibility to go out and execute.
Look I don't try to measure everything in terms of year one to year two, the jumps. Always just look for our players to improve on a regular basis consistently and execute better than they did the year before, the game before, and make sure we are going in the right direction. It's a pretty broad question. I can't sum that up in one deal. I can talk more about specifics of people, but just in general regards, I try to keep it back on coaching and keep pushing our players and developing them day-in and day-out and tell the players to come every day and work their hardest.
Q. Do you have anything on where like Kyle Rudolph is in his rehab? We haven't seen Ryan Anderson or Cam Brown.
JOE JUDGE: Yeah look all three of those guys are working on different things right now. Kyle is making progress every day and Scott is working really, really hard. You can tell he's a vet. He has a lot of experience. He knows his body very well. He's in there and he's opening up the door with the coaches every morning bright and early. He's an early morning guy. But Kyle has done a great job for us in terms of classes and everything he can do and he's done a great job right now with our medical staff doing everything to get ready to get back on the field as soon as he can. We'll see what kind of ground he makes up the next few weeks leading up to training camp but like all our players, we won't put him on the field until we know he's fully ready to go out there and play 100 percent.
Q. Is there any timeline on those guys do you expect to have them all at some point during training camp? Are any of them long term?
JOE JUDGE: Look, I can't really answer that question right now until we see what the next four or five weeks bring for us, with these guys. We will see the progress they make. They all have their own individual issues. Kyle obviously had the off-season surgery and we have to check with the doctors where they feel he is at a certain point. In terms of the rehab and where he's going to be, we have to make sure they can build the conditioning and football movement and not just be pain free and make sure he's structurally safe.
Q. You had a highly unusual first season as a head coach in the NFL. Curious to see what you feel you need to do differently, better, as well as last year and what your thoughts are for you moving forward as to what it will take to get better.
JOE JUDGE: Yeah, look, personally, I'm a pretty harsh critic on myself. I go through every day and first thing I do is make notes after every practice of things that I feel I can do better and after every game, it's the same story. I communicate openly with our coaching staff and players every day in terms of what we have to do to get better. I'm very open in terms of what I think individuals have to do. I communicate that on a regular basis. In terms of improving, to me, it always starts we eliminating mistakes and when you can identify what you have done wrong or what you have to improve on, eliminate those miss I can thats, you give yourself a chance for success. I know that sounds pretty generic and broad right there but that's what we are always looking to do. I go through time management, I go through timeouts, I go through challenges, I go through situational football calls. I go through how we prepare, am I making sure we have the teaching progression on the field. Am I making sure the players are fully understanding this, are we handing the time allotted for meetings as efficiently as possible. I'm trying to manage the time efficiency the best I can for the team but internally there's always a thousand things I'm looking to improve. I have my own checklist but look I'm far from perfect, not knowing things I've got to improve on and I'm always looking to eliminate things on that list.
Q. Anything that any of your people that you speak to, coaches, has helped you and about what to expect in year two?
JOE JUDGE: Not tremendously. We haven't had a whole lot of talk specifically year one to year two. I think every program is different. We are going to be in a different place than other guys and other programs. I think having this spring and a normal training camp is going to help with continuity and some of the chemistry of the team and that's going to help us transfer some of the things on to the field. Other than that and as far as year two, look, every year is a new year. My year one was different but everyone in the NFL had a different year last year as well. That's what the normal was last year. We operated as respectfully as we could and this year is a new year for all 32 teams as well so we are all on the same playing ground right now.
Q. When you assign a guy to be a receiver and you draft one in the first round, as a coach, did you go up to someone like Darius who could be affected by these moves and explain if it affects him or doesn't it or do you say it's up to the player and he has to figure it out?
JOE JUDGE: I think it's a combination of both but to answer your question specifically, if there's an older experienced vet player in a position and we draft a player, I do talk to the players and let them know. Last year when we drafted Andrew Thomas, I had a conversation with Nate Solder on the phone nearly afterwards -- this year after the Draft, I called Shep. To me it's important to understand that, look, we are bringing in players to help this program and that the better each player plays, the more it helps each prayer on the team. Would he don't look at any player on this program coming in as a threat or replacement. We look to go ahead breed competition in this program and the best players will play. But I do think there is merit to talking to your older veteran leaders on the team and when you add someone at their position just clarifying who you are bringing in and what are the immediate I can't tell plans for that player to be.
Q. Does this affect Darius? He's not an odler veteran player. Is he in a different category?
JOE JUDGE: I would say he's a veteran player this going in, he's not in his first year, he's got skin on the game right there. In terms of Darius, everyone is going to play to their strengths. Darius and Toney, will they be on the field at the same time, different packages, different positions at times, but I think everybody on the team affects the other by the way they work and how they produce. In terms of that position, I thought it was necessary to talk to Shep specifically because when we drafted Toney the word is in the press was he reading the headline as specifically he's a slot receiver which, look, we are not bringing in someone to play one position. I thought it was relevant at the time to contact Shep out of respect for how he is with our program to communicate that with him.
Q. On Kadarius, what did you think of his practice yesterday? Seemed like he had a good full practice and handled a lot in offense and special teams?
JOE JUDGE: Yeah, he's getting better every day. One thing we are trying to build in is position flexibility with him and he's handling that well right now from a mental standpoint. Like all of our players, the more we get them on the field, football movements and the conditioning improves the better he will play. He did enough stuff yesterday that we can build on. There's things we had to correct and make sure that we can help him do it more efficiently going forward but I'm pleased with the progress he made.
Q. Have you talked to your team at all about expectations for this year? Is that something you wait until training camp to talk about? Do you manage the expectations of what 2021 will be for you guys at all or is that -- do you have to pay attention to that noise and just focus on the day-to-day?
JOE JUDGE: Look, I talk to the team all the time about expectations but right now this time of year, the expectations for them is to come in, get in shape, do their job the best they can and work as hard as they can, to pay attention and make decisions to put the team first, that's it. There's a lot of expectations externally. We can't do anything about that until we take care of the little things inside so the expectations are there to improve at our job every day and put the team first.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports