Mike LaFleur & Chris Shula Talk About What They’ve Seen From Their Players Throughout Training Camp

Mike LaFleur so guys what uh what were your impressions of the first couple padded days and then what were you trying to accomplish with today's walk through yeah well your second question I mean these are so important I've always said it I I feel like the way they've done it here for so long they they they've done it the best you know any any place I've ever been um there's been good walkthroughs but this takes it to another level with with Sea's leadership with Matthew's leadership and everyone kind of fil suit and how important it is to get so many of these reps uh that sometimes you can't get physic because your your defense just flat out doesn't do that scheme or whatnot so these will always be uh beneficial not just for the quarterbacks but for everyone involved and the first couple day of pads it's been good you know we get to run some uh different schemes that we don't normally do without our pads on some of our Gap schemes and stuff like that there's been some good there's been some bad that's how it's going to be you don't want one side dominating the other obviously I think it's been really competitive I thought uh the second day in pads was better than the first I know our players felt that we'll see what we can build from there already facing a bit of a challenge and not having on that left tackle and then Jonah had to leave practice yesterday um what do you make of of sort of the guys who stepped in in their place and and um I guess are you expecting those guys back in practice Yeah I mean first I mean next man up right I mean it's that's what this game is and there's going to be there's going to be guys going down for you know uh sometimes a day sometimes an extended period of time so um you know I think the guys that stepped in I thought they got better as the practice went on as we got to that second day uh getting used to the speed of going against the number ones um and you know I know Shawn will be I think back at the podium tomorrow we'll probably touch on some of those things I you know I'm not really privy to exactly how long some of those guys could be out or they're even going to be out any longer what uh what have you seen so far from Kobe Parkinson and is any of that new like stuff that you maybe you didn't expect things that he's doing no I mean you could you could see it from his Seattle film I me he's a guy that plays really hard his best football is when he actually gets to play real football a lot of the pads you know so I think he's had a great Camp I thought ota's just getting uh acclimated with with how we do things here and how we call our offense uh but really then be able to take that summer he came back I thought he had a great block last week but again when he put the pads on I thought he's had his best two days he's a long strong sturdy individual I mean you guys see him he's he's a good siiz dude and and he's got great athleticism he can handle those edges I think he's going to be a a big asset for us I've seen you on the sideline during some of the team drills looking back at those big video boards um immediately after the play that happens what's the benefit to being able to look back real time I if you know you take pride and be able to obviously see it in real real time you know uh and so that you can go coach these guys but whatever you miss I mean there's 22 guys out there I'm not going to act like I can see everything at all times sometimes I'm focusing on one or two things so to be able to get that and then really get that video that picture that play in your head so you can go coach whoever you got to coach you know because again I mean it's one thing to go in a meeting room but I mean even coaches after 10 15 minutes sitting there if you're in the back of the room not the one coaches I mean it's those going to be long days you know so those players you don't know exactly what they're always hearing at that moment but if you can do it on the sideline right in real time I think that's big did you have that in your previous stops have you guys had I wish we wouldn't be talking about these CU that's a competitive Advantage but uh no I'm kidding I I know I know no more teams I'm totally joking Sarah more more teams are are are knowing about this and doing around the league right now uh from what I've been been told so no I've never had this we've had tablets and stuff like that but that's a whole whole different deal right there what does DeMarcus Robinson bring to his team energy energy I mean he's you know a lot of guys have of great energy his is so authentic his Vibe um obviously from a physical standpoint he's got a unique you know separation ability to him you know receivers they they separate in all saes uh shapes and sizes uh he's got good length and all that but he's just he's he's got a wiggle to him that it's it's a tough cover you know so now that he's gotten more and more comfortable in the system being here for over a year now um getting more comfortable with Matthew has been big for him one of the things that um he talked about a little bit last year um was how he can he really has a feel for when a quarterback works out a structure or goes on the Move obviously Matthew is not necessarily going to be doing that Matthew's Nimble Matthew's Nimble um but uh how does a receiver develop feel like that how I mean is it something you just have it's a great question because it it's one of those things that you know when you when you study these guys coming out out of college you you know you just kind of tell the guys that have good spatial awareness and the guys that are a little bit more clumsy that don't you know so I do think it's a a it's a skill that these guys have that you can evaluate in my opinion um probably a harder skill to develop uh you know from a coach to a player you know and you just kind of kind of have to show them you got to keep it real with them when when they're not seeing things the right way and stuff like that and maybe they pick up on it but again I think it's I believe it's more of a natural skill and and he uh he really has that good feel gone against Kobe Durant in practice have you noticed a difference in him this Camp yeah absolutely confidence you know his confidence looks like it's through the roof in a good way too not just it's it's real you know he's gotten better think coaches on that side done a great job you know um moving around and and getting him to feel that way uh he just I told him this the other day he just like when he gets up on Cooper these receivers he you can just see he's got good balance at the line of scrimmage he's using his hands at the right time um you know and again he's going into his what third year now I mean that's that's that's kind of sometimes when you see the turn you know so I think he's had a really good block good second block and we'll see if he can keep building on it um pauka said something really interesting about going against Trey white obviously I know he wasn't he was F day today but going against him in live action where just the way that Trey reads pauka or any receiver or the way that he aligns or just the way he he holds his body pre snap he can ER certain parts of the field before the balls even snap certain route combinations can you expand a little bit on from your perspective what that actually means and what that skill level is yeah travius I've had a lot of respect for him you know playing against him for however many years he's been in this league that's wisdom you know I mean the the the more you're in this league the more you play the more you're around different guys when you actually love it and put thought into it away from the building like travius does um those are the things that he can help out with with some of the younger receivers with with everybody you know he's obviously a big leader in that in that room in terms of the secondary but again for for puka to already pick up stuff I know Cooper's been talking to them that's big and that's it's such a player-to-player thing you know and I've always said I feel like we as coaches learn as much from the players as as they learn from us uh and and that's definitely one of those guys he's he's a dude you root for for sure was the what Chris Shula were your impressions obviously especially up front we can't really know until the pads come on um what were your impressions of the lineman specifically from the first two days of the pads you know see a toughness and you see they're really taking on GIF Smith's mentality um for lacking of of a better term he's always been kind of a hard ass and uh he loves those guys up but uh he's tough on them too and you really saw come out those first two days in PS it was cool to see we've heard a lot of positive about Kobe Durant this Camp what do you see uh a guy that's really grown um he's kind of playing a lot more outside now where his first year I was actually the DBS coach and he was playing more inside all the time so it's a guy that's really understanding Trey Trey white actually took him under his uh his wing in the offseason he's really understanding route combination splits exactly what he's going to get and a guy that's just been playing consistent and he really has all off season how about you had mentioned you know waiting till the pads come on in terms of Jared verse and Braden F what have you seen from them individually and as a combination exactly what we saw at Florida State you know um guys that play really hard um explosive guys you know Fisk is a disruptive guy that has a really good get off gets off the ball plays really tough and same thing with verse um you know really good match up on the tight end really good versus the run and the past both of them and you know we like what we see so far how how is that for you as a coordinator getting players that were teammates in college that you know they already know each other they already know how to communicate what do it do for you I mean I guess it's just a bonus I don't know if I've ever can say I've had that before and anywhere I've ever been especially two guys you know that close and you know that similar position so definitely something you know when you see them ring together on the same side there's definitely familiarity for their for them at this Camp guys are staying in dorms and a lot of guys are talking about bonding as a former player as a coach now how does that help because that that's not something that's going to show the Box sure I mean it's just like anything you know we talk about culture is everything you know there's only schemes only going to take you so far and talent's only going to take you so far so the closer these guys are off the field I think it benefits you you know on on the field as much as possible just with the communication you know rooting for each other um just anything just be you know building that tight team culture Chris um when you can if you can hearken back to when you were a first year position coach in the NFL and then taking that step a lot like players do from year one to year two what was the biggest thing that you can remember learning at that time and in terms of Joe Coniglio taking at the step year one to year two has he done that oh he's definitely done that and thing I love about Joe I mean he's been one of my best friends for 15 20 years now and um he's always evolving so it's like your first year he comes in you know he he's coaching exactly what he knows and then now we bring in a guy like GIF Smith um who can kind of Mentor him and and he's learned a lot from and not completely change his personality but mold it to what he truly believes in so and I would have think you know I think as coaches just like players you got to evolve and you got to always learn you got to get better and um and that's exactly what he's done was telling reporters in Atlanta that he loves having those big giant video boards on the practice field how does that help you first on the practice field but then even when you're looking at fil later yeah it's immediate feedback so there's a lot of things you know that we're not really sure especially from from our vantage point where exactly where something hit where you just turn around and look at the board and you can kind of see exactly where what happened and give the players immediate feedback it's really beneficial in the season um um when you have a break you know offense goes and then defense goes you have a little bit more time to kind of talk to the guys you know right now um for us you know we're kind of rolling on to the next play a lot of the time so it's kind of harder to uh use those things right now you know the MC Bay offense really well been around for a long time uh is he still able to surprise you uh just like I talked about Joe uh you know Sean's always evolving so uh you know you know he's always going to have something up up his sleeve and uh you know he knows our defense just as good as anybody so um definitely knows some of the issues it seems like a lot of guys have been phrasing travius white already as a leader why has he been able to fit in so mostly that was just you know the background that we had done on him you know he's been that way since he was at LSU coming out um Les and his staff had remembered him like that and then we have a bunch of familiar people with the bills um guys that you know that played for us Taylor rap Leonard Floyd Von Miller um he was close with all those guys um they had nothing but great things to say about him guys that coached with the bills my uncle actually was with the bills last year and uh great things to say Ryan Wendell our o line coach you know so there's just a lot of common people and you know the NFL is a small fraternity and when all those people say those things about him um usually uh that's the way it turned out and and it has mentioned something that was super interesting that he's learning from Trey about when a a corner has that much technical ability even little details pre-ap like the way he lines up that are just erasing some of the thoughts that puka thinks he can do on the play pre- snap can you expand a little bit on what type of ability that takes from a corner and how that corner sees all of those different comp yeah sure like scheme wise corner is pretty easy you know but um the best corners if you're trying to cover every single route on every play um it's going to be pretty tough obviously with how talented these receivers are So the faster you can eliminate routes based on formation based off splits um it allows them to play faster and it really takes a guy that can process like that to be able to do it and uh that's why Trey White's a special player awesome thanks guys appreciate it