Q. Press, what does a step forward in year two look like in Anton?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, I think just there is a level of confidence that you expect to see from a guy that played the whole season, and just you saw his confidence grow from week one through week 18 in just understanding what each week looks like.
I think that's one the biggest thing, especially for young guys. They're used to their season ends around Thanksgiving. Well, we're in the middle of our season right there. There is a long push. Each week is a new set of challenges.
You faces that and overcome a lot of that and continue to grow. Now you know what to expect in year two. You expect to see that confidence, walk around with a little bit more swagger, approach each week a little bit kind of just more understanding what is coming.
Q. What about guys who didn't get the confidence like that when you look at Tank and Brenton, guys that maybe didn't contribute like Anton? How do you get them to take that next step?
PRESS TAYLOR: I think a lot of it you see the way they're practicing right now. This time last year they were swimming. Some guys were coming off injury in college to wherever they were throughout the off-season program for us. You're trying to figure everything out. How does the NFL work, how does this the practice pace move, what does the offense look like, what's my role in this play; to where now in year two they know it. They know their split, their alignment, their adjustment. They are able to play a lot faster, so you see a little bit more of that skillset you probably saw when they were in year four, five of college and understood the system inside and out.
So you see a lot of that now. The game reps are invaluable. So some guys got a lot and some guys didn't get as much of that. The expectation, the confidence they carry on the practice field, you're hoping that that extends over to the game field when the time comes for that.
Q. Press, do you have any regrets with how Tank's usage went in year one on the field?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, I mean, we would've liked to say we would get more usage, opportunity for Tank as the season went. Looking back, there is a lot of things that we probably could have done better. The goal is not to go 9-8, especially each year we've done that.
You look at a lot of things. You try to be as critical of everything that you can be, and how do we utilize every single player available to us on game-day. I think there are things Tank could have provided that we maybe didn't give him opportunities to or maybe we're quick to give Travis another rep on something that Tank could have done well for us.
You live, learn, grow from it and adapt moving forward. Tank is in a great headspace in terms of where he goes in year two, and we are looking to get the most out of him as well.
Q. (Regarding Brian Thomas.)
PRESS TAYLOR: Brian has done a great job. Brian is what we expected. He is long, fast, smart. So those things have shown up early on of getting him involved. He spent a lot of the meeting time with Chad and being around Christian, Gabe, who not necessarily knows our system, but knows the NFL and what things are going to look like. I think it's been really good for him.
You see obviously the intelligence in the quick twitch, in the long speed show up throughout our practices as we go through things, or even routes on air. He grows every single day. He is a guy that's very easy to communicate with because he's intelligent.
Football comes naturally to him. Learning, picturing concepts, understanding routes, how we're attacking certain coverages. So you see his growth every day, which is fun to see.
Q. How do you assess the competition, at least what you think in your mind is of it on the offensive line? Left tackle a little bit more up in the air than other spots? What is your vision of it right now?
PRESS TAYLOR: Right now it's kind of just we're trying to create an identity of who we envision ourselves being within the scheme. It's tougher to have position battles when things aren't very physical, because that's obviously an element we would like to value even more moving forward as a offensive unit.
So that's something that's taken out of the off-season program a little bit. Right now you're looking for understanding, the details, looking for some urgency. But that physical piece is the element that misses throughout the off-season that we're trying to take our time with as we move forward.
You'll get a little bit more preview of that through training camp, obviously pre-season games as these things continue on.
Q. With Trevor and his growth, have you seen -- where have you seen his biggest strides?
PRESS TAYLOR: I think just that full-on ownership of or system. He understands what we're trying to accomplish in the off-season of putting in plays. So he understand we're putting in our schemes. We're in install four now. Defense is install four. These plays aren't aligned to we're attacking a certain coverage. You're seeing a little bit of growth of he is quick to find a check down and move on in a progression, because this isn't the coverage this is built for.
So you see a little bit of that, and then you see the way he communicates with the guys around him. Hey, I need you at this depth on this spot on this timing because I'm getting to you as the fourth or third or first read, so I need a little bit more.
It's kind of trying to get him to take over more and more and more. I think that's coming naturally for him. Personally, year three in the system, year four in the NFL working with young guys around him. Understanding what communication each guy needs is a big part of playing quarterback.
Q. With new faces at two of your top receivers, does this installation phase change? Are you maybe starting from the ground and moving forward this time?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, we always try to. That's kind of always the phase. You teach it through phase one. Get a chance to do it in phase two, just us on air. And now we are in phase three and there a little bit of competition where there is a defense across from you you're having to adjust to the things on the fly, potentially post snap.
So I don't know if it's necessarily changed in terms of how we have done there throughout the course of three years, but we're certainly pleased where these guys are. Gabe is coming off an injury; new to the system. You get Brian inserted at the end of phase two trying get into a system.
So they're still probably early on through their understanding of the installs and things like that, as opposed to year one where most of the guys were free agents, were here from the very beginning of this thing to hit the ground running.
Q. Does it matter to you who is calling plays?
PRESS TAYLOR: No, ultimately winning is always what matters to us. However we get to that point, we're all for.
Q. In terms of game planning and playcalling, what were the differences for you personally from 2022 to 2023?
PRESS TAYLOR: In terms of game planning, no difference. Obviously had Nick Holz was here as opposed to Jim Bob Cooter, so different ideas, we our way through. You kind of hit your stride as that thing gets going through the middle of the season. Everybody gets comfortable with what the expectations are each day, meeting. Whatever that is.
And then in terms of play calling, it was really just I was able to move around the call sheet a little bit. In terms of communication with coach and the other coaches on the headset, Trevor throughout the week, the game, none of that changed.
Q. What were your early impressions of Mitch Morris?
PRESS TAYLOR: Mitch, I mean, definitely that veteran presence. This is a guy that's very confident in who he is, what he's done. You see it show up the way he handled himself in the huddle and the meeting room. He's not afraid to speak up and ask questions. Some young guys that are new to a system are probably going to wait until a meeting ends and go to the side, hey, you said this; what did you mean by that. Mitch will stop a meeting and make sure he's on the same page.
Sometimes you go quickly through these things because you look around and there is a lot of familiar faces in a room and guys have heard this or guys know, okay, he's talking about 2022 week three this happened, blah, blah, blah. We gloss over things.
Mitch will hey, what do you mean by this. We pull up a clip, watch it together, make sure we're all speaking the same language. That's the biggest thing.
Football hasn't really changed over the course of many years, but each offense has their own language. It's how quickly can we get everybody on boarded with our language. What does it sound down like for us. When you say this, what does this mean.
So Mitch has done a great job getting himself up to speed with that.
Q. Does having Nick and Jim Bob in the division force you to tweak more than you would in an off-season?
PRESS TAYLOR: Not necessarily. Probably a certain level of paranoia that a lot of coaches deal with.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
PRESS TAYLOR: Absolutely. So certain things. But we always sit there and we'll talk, hey, this player is on this team. What are they really going to say. Will they know that we like to do this. Unless they hear the call in the huddle they don't know that.
Now it's on us to understand our tendencies, the issues with in the offense, the way we communicate verbally, nonverbally, to make sure we're not giving away anything.
No, it's great to see those guys go onto bigger, better things as well.
Q. Offensively disappointing to go 9-8 for a second consecutive. Did that maybe up the ante to maybe not completely tear things down, but say we need to start with a blank canvas designing this offense?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yep, it certainly did. Again, I don't think we tore everything down but probably took it to the studs and looked at it from the very beginning. And then trying to be really critical, why have we struggled with this. Is this something we've from the beginning of our building the scheme, terminology, what we're asking guys to what we're putting on game plans and calling in games. Does it all make sense? Is it all learnable, digestible?
So trying to be critical of that. Our goal is to win and not to go 9-8, not to be close, not to be a fringe contender.
That's not the goal. The goal is to win. How can we help ourselves get there?
And then look at throughout the off season and training camp how can we see growth in these things. Like we mentioned earlier, there is just a physicality that you lack through the off-season. If we're asking our guys to be physical but we can't do it in this time, what are the things we're going to hold them accountable for and try to get better through this time.
Q. (Regarding verticality.)
PRESS TAYLOR: Big part of it. You have to be explosive in this league. You know, it's tough enough being consistently efficient. We want to be able to have that explosive element to us.
I think that was something, even if you go back and look at our run game, our run game for two years probably hasn't been a efficient as we wanted it to be. I think even year one in the system we were explosive, so we were kind of able to counteract that a little bit.
Year two, for whatever reason, that kind of fell off for us. So that's something in the run game definitely that we're looking at to improve upon. Also in the pass game. Catch it on the move, making sure we're attacking all aspects of the field and defense.
Q. What's the most paranoid thing you ever did as a coach?
PRESS TAYLOR: Oh, man, not necessarily me personally, Frank Reich. He had spent a lot of time with a Peyton Manning. Frank was paranoid every building we were in was bugged.
So if we had a pre-game staff meeting day of, we had to go in, turn the showers on, make some noise. He was just scared of everything because Peyton was scared of everything. Right wrong and different, I don't know, but there were some battles that Peyton was a part of that maybe that happened or not.
Q. How paranoid is Doug?
PRESS TAYLOR: I wouldn't say Doug is super paranoid. Doug is pretty laid back and relaxed. I think a lot of us found Frank's paranoia pretty funny.
Q. Talk about the verticality of the offense, if Trevor Lawrence throws a great deep ball, do you think you have the receivers on the outside this year that will do a good job to kind of capitalize on some of the opportunities he's given receivers or the years?
PRESS TAYLOR: I think so. Obviously having Brian's length and speed was a big thing that was a strength of his through his college career. And then something Gabe has always brought.
You're not going to be a super high pass completion percentage if you're pushing the ball way down the field. We feel like we've done a good job of that when we've called the play-action stuff. We have been particularly explosive when you look at our numbers in terms of concepts we've called and opportunities to push the ball. We've done a good job with that.
And also Evan and Christian from the inside, working inside out and being able to get matched up on safeties at times depending on the principles of the coverage. We feel like we have the people that we're able to push the ball down the field.
Just got to get the opportunity and call those types of plays throughout the course of games.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports