Tyler Lockett: "We've Seen Glimpses Of How Great We Can Be" | Press Conference - July 29, 2024

Intro - What does the first day of Pad of Practice tell you about where the team is at? - It's tough because I think, you know, first day of pad of practice is like first day of school, you know, so it's like everybody excited. We're still trying to learn the tempo, trying to figure out the physicality as far as what the coaches allow and what they don't want us to do. 'cause we still gotta be able to protect one another. But I think the defense did a great job today. Obviously we were able to kind of include all of our installs up to this point today. And I think that the defense showed a lot of variety in their coverages and the blitzes and I think for us, you know, we gotta just continue to learn how to be able to communicate to pick those things up. But you know, I think that the defense got after us a little bit today. - Tyler, you saw that defense a year ago in Baltimore. On the defense You've seen it a little bit out here in practice for the last couple months now what about it is gonna make it difficult for offenses to play against? - Well I think after watching Baltimore and playing against them and just kind of being able to understand their scheme, they were really great. Not just talent wise but just also in the communication. And I think that we have the same amount of players here that are just as talented that could be able to play at a high level, that could be able to blitz, that could be able to play a numerous amount of positions. As you know, I've heard kind of like we got people that'll play D Ends, people that'll go to linebackers. So a lot of people can get moved around to a lot of different places. You know, looking at the secondary, I mean you can move spoon around to play nickel, he could play corner, he can kind of do it all. And so it'll be interesting to see kind of like how the defense, how Mike wants to be able to attack all these other types of offenses. But I think, you know, just when it comes to our defense, it's just gonna be communication and just being able to understand the game. When you can understand the game, it doesn't matter what an offense does because you understand their scheme and you understand what it is that they're trying to do to be able to attack them. Tyler, On how much better can the defense be - How much better can this defense be this year than it was last year? - I mean, I think it could be a lot better, you know, but at the same time I think it's all just gonna depend on us. Can't always depend on the coaches to be able to get us right, to be able to take us to a place that we want to be able to go. It's just gonna be us and it's gonna have to be that accountability. And I think my biggest thing is at the beginning of camp, everybody wants to play, right? Everybody wants to make the team, but what are we gonna look like towards the end of the season? What are we gonna look like towards the middle of the season? Because that's what's gonna dictate how far this team's gonna be able to go. It's not gonna be the beginning of the season, it's not, it's gonna show you who we are in the middle of the season, but at the end of the season that's where we gotta be, where we already wanted to be. Tyler, - We talked a lot about the defense, On the offense but the offense obviously went through some changes, old new O line coach and then obviously the offensive coordinator. Yeah. What's your take on it right now? - Well, yeah, I mean obviously there was a lot of changes when you compare last year and you look at this year and I think this year as we kind of learned the offense, it's, it's, it's a lot different than the offenses that I've been a part of in, you know, the nine years that I've played. I think that GR has a lot of flexibility when it comes to the usage of the players that he wants to be able to utilize how he wants guys to be able to get open. I think there's some cool schemes in there that sometimes you don't see unless you, unless you kind of do your like alternate stuff in Madden, you know, when you kind of alternate routes. So it's kind of cool to be able to see a little bit of the weight that they think and it makes sense why they went to the championship if you ask me because it's, it's so difficult to be able to guard the way that they pass the ball in their schemes, but then when teams think they figured it out, you just gotta running back that could be able to rush for a thousand yards and still be able to take the pressure off the passing game. So I think for us it is just first down, if we can be able to get first downs, I think the offense can be able to show a lot of things that haven't been seen before, but we gotta be able to move the sticks. On practice - Is practice just the way practice has run seem real different at all with Mike now as compared to all you with Feet? - Yeah, it's a little different. I mean still kind of trying to get into what it's gonna be like, but I mean for the most part, you know, it's different. It feels different and we just gotta continue to adapt and continue to learn each other. But I think so far practices have been great. - Tyler, the first padded practice is always a good litmus On offense test to see where things are and especially when you have a new offense as you've been talking about. But how do you feel about the progress for the offense as a whole to this point with roughly a little over a month until week one? - I mean looking back at our first four practices, I loved where we were at. I think we attacked the defense, we exploited a lot of things that we saw we took with the defense gave us, we weren't really forcing a lot of things. And I think for us it's just being able to do that every single day. Not trying to go for the the big thing right then and there. We just gotta take what they give us and be able to just make plays and allow our guys to be able to make plays because we got guys that are talented that can make a person missing open field or even whenever everything seems like there's no way out you got somebody like Ken that can make a way outta no way in a sense. And so for us, I think we just gotta continue to do what we're doing, continue to build today, you know, we could do, we coulda did a lot better and I think for us we just gotta continue to grow. It's not about being perfect but it's just about being able to work to being able to get better each and every day. - Can I just, Jake Bobo's touchdown today stack up On touchdown catch with the catches that you've seen in training camp in your - Career? Oh, I mean I think that was at least top five. I thought it was a great catch. You're talking about the fade route that he had, the touchdown at the end? Yeah, the touchdown at the end. Yeah, I mean that was a tremendous catch and I mean like you see it, I mean you got somebody like Bobo going into a second year that can make big time plays whenever you call his name. And so I think it, that alone just makes it tough for defenses to figure out what it is that you want to do. Like we bring our game to the table and the coaches figure out how to utilize everybody. Speaking of - A player going into a second year, how, how much more confident and ready for a sophomore season does Jackson look for for you guys right - Now? Well I think Jack's had an amazing off season. When you look at the OTAs and stuff like that, even when you're looking at him at practice, he's making explosive plays each and every day being able to win his matchups and those are the things that we're gonna be able to need and I think that he's taking advantage of his opportunities. Like I said, he's making plays and he's really starting to make a name for himself. On Year 10 - How, what does your 10 in the NFL mean to you? That's not a benchmark for every many guys get to mostly - League. I mean for me I still got time to get better. Still got time to work on my game obviously, you know, a lot of times when you get to year 10 people say you know, you're on the decline. But that gives me just enough more energy, if not motivation just to be able to keep going and take my game to another level. A lot of guys don't even make it past to 10 years or some guys don't even make it past three and a half. I think that's the average. And so for me just to be able to be at year 10, I mean that's different stuff that you could be grateful for. That's stuff that I could be able to allow to, to kind of fit into the confidence of my game and say Hey man, you in year 10 think about how many receivers are out here in year 10. Still being able to be a part of the offense in an effective way. Still being able to make these plays and be able to get open. So for me I'm truly thankful for that and grateful for that and just want to continue to give God the glory every opportunity that I get to play this game. You mentioned On the decline - That you know, some people have said that you might be on the on the decline. Do, do you feel any changes in your body? Are you gonna be 32 in September and - I mean really the only changes I feel is just more maintenance, you know, more taking care of the body. It's not like I could just put my stuff on and go out there and just practice like I used to go out there and not even stretch, you know? But I think that's the young version of us now. It's like all right, you know, let's go do the massages, let's go do some of the the chiropractic work, the dry needling, the suction cups, like all those different types of things to be able to get yourself right. It's just being able to make sure that you stay on top of things and not start when something you know is starting to happen. The biggest part about this game is we all know is availability and it's durability and if you're not available then that's when people say, oh he is getting older. But the more and more you make yourself available to practice, you make yourself available to play in the games, you give yourself a chance to be able to continue to play as long as you wanna play. Okay. How long did you expect to play - Tyler, how long did you expect to play? - You said when they drafted me, I mean I never really had a set number. You know, when people ask me how long I wanted to play, I just say eight years, you know, I'd be like eight. That sounds like a good number. Obviously when you're in it things go a lot faster and before you know it, I'm looking at year 10 and I still feel like I'm 22, you know, or 23. But I gotta remind myself you're not and you gotta take care of your body and you gotta do these little things that you may not have had to do in the past to be able to get yourself right. So I still find ways to be effective, still find ways to be able to grind, to take my game to another level, but you gotta be able to be just a little bit more smart and not allow yourself to, to have that early wear and tear on your body. Hey New CB Cody White - Tyler, is there a newcomer either on offense or defense that's caught your eye? - I mean it's hard to just kind of like point out one person. I think Cody White's been having a really, really great camp. I think he's another person that had a spectacular OTAs and you know, we got to see him make a couple of plays out there today. Obviously it's hard to make plays 'cause you only have one ball, but he's taken advantage of his opportunities. He's winning his one-on-one matchups and I think that, you know, slowly but surely he's given himself a chance to be able to continue to play at this game like he knows he can. Tyler, - You played when it was a 16 game regular season, Player perspective on 18 games now it's obviously 17 and it seems like the league eventually wants to get to 18. From a player perspective, what would have to happen to make 18 games real realistic and and does it feel like an inevitability that that's gonna happen? - I mean I feel like we really ain't got no choice, you know, to be honest, I think if you add another weekend it should just be another bye week. So it's still the same amount of games, it's just two bye weeks. I think that's more so fair, but we know that it's probably not gonna end up like that. So I mean you just kind of gotta rock with the punches and just be able to go play. It's not like people's gonna get paid any different, they're just gonna divide it by 18, you know, or divide it by 19 now. So yeah, if they give us another game we just gotta go out there and take care of our bodies that much more. But I don't really think we as players have a say. If - You put on your player rep hat, would you want Player reps that collect collectively bargain or would you ask for something back from the owners like no off season or shorter training camp? - Well, I mean even now I think off season is voluntary so you really don't have to show up if you don't want to. It is tough if I was to put on my PA hat because you can't really make everybody happy if you try to do some stuff to fight for the young guys, us vets are gonna be upset if you do stuff to fight for the vets, the young guys are gonna be upset because you gotta think about the guys who aren't gonna be able to play past three years. So they want to be able to make their money early or they want some of those benefits early. But then the thing that sucks sometimes is those young guys get older and now they're like, oh man, I wish we would've had this, this and this. And then the older guys or the ones who retired said that's what we were trying to fight for. And so it's kind of like a give and take and there has to be a level of sacrifice and I think that, you know, for us, or when you look at the pa, you just gotta try to find a middle ground and find something that works. I think, I mean I can't really speak about a lot of stuff, but I think, I don't know if I would do a 10 year thing, I'd probably do like a five year thing to make, you know, so as things start to evolve and change, it's easy to go back to another, you know, to another deal. Like for me as a receiver, I would rather sign a two year deal or a three year deal to go back to the table rather than a 10 year deal to where it's like, all right, now I gotta sit here and wait and things can't really change as other things are changing. Like when you look into the gambling stuff and how everybody's making money, but us as players, when you look at like a lot of that different type of stuff, of course it's tricky but it's hard because now you gotta wait almost, what, eight more years now before you can go back to the table. And a lot of stuff changes in eight years when we might have been able to benefit what, from four or five years from now. But again, I'm not the one that makes those decisions. I think that they're doing the best that they can. Obviously, you know, everybody wants to be a head coach until you're the head coach and then you see all the things that comes with that. So again, I mean, you know, shout out to them. I think we're putting the best people in the positions to do their part and I think that they're doing the best that they can to try to take care of everybody. Tyler, Red zone offense - What are you saying from grabs offense that makes you optimistic you guys will be better on third down and in the red zone? This - I think like, I think what I'm seeing is just more of the creativity. I mean there's times where we might be going after the sticks and there's other times where we're not even worried about the sticks. The sticks is just another yard line and there's times where we might go for an explosive and it's third and three, like you just never know. And I think that's the cool part about the offense is that you have things where, okay, if this guy's open, take it, but if not, this guy behind them is probably gonna have a, a great chance to be open to create an explosive. And so I think that sometimes if we focus more on just getting to the sticks, it's easy for teams to be able to pick up on third down, they're more stick conscientious. But when you end up putting yourself in a position to where you have somebody that's getting to the sticks, you don't know which players getting to the sticks, but then you got other guys that's playing off of that route to be able to create an explosive. So if teams take away the sticks, the explosive opens themself up and if they take away the explosive that sticks open up. - What do you feel like, go ahead. Offensive improvement If you guys are better in those two areas in the red zone and in third down, how much better do you think the offense will just be in in total this year? - Well, I mean I think we've seen glimpses of how great that we could be, you know, last year and even in the previous years of just being able to keep the ball moving and just be able to go from sticks to sticks. It's hard for teams to be able to stop us. I think that we had to do better, more so in the second half. I think we kind of struggled a little bit in the second half, but I mean when we were able to move the ball, I mean it was almost like very difficult to stop us. I think now we just gotta be able to just play ahead of the sticks and we just, I'm sorry. No, no, no, you're good. Bread and butter of the offense - What do you feel like is gonna be the bread and butter of your offense? Like the thing you guys really hang your hat on? - Yeah, honestly, when it comes to the bread and butter of the offense, I really don't know because going into camp is one thing and even if we go play Tennessee at campus, another thing, but you gotta be able to see it in a game. Like you still gotta be able to see how we scout, how we choose to attack teams and then how we play in the games. And that's when you start to get more of a feel and a more of a understanding of okay, this is how our offense is, this is how we go about it. But sometimes, I mean it's hard because you know, every team is has scripted plays out there, so you're picking a offense and you're picking a defense. So when we get to certain things out there, when it's team move the ball and there's no plays on the script, now you get a chance to really see the dynamic of the offense and the dynamic of the defense because the defense doesn't have to pick a play that's already in there. It's like, okay, you go with your best play, we go with our best play. Now you get a chance to really see like the intricate of the offense and defense 'cause Playing time - Of that. You think you're gonna play more this preseason than, you know, - I'd play every game if, if I could. So I mean at some point I'm never gonna play again, so I'd rather play as long as I possibly can. Thoughts on new kick return rules - Tyler, having done some kick returning in your past, obviously, what do you think of the new kick return rules and how that might change things? - I think it's different. It's unique. Obviously it's tough because the game of football, you're so used to them starting on one side, kicking it and you know, you get to see a lot of super cool creative stuff now with everybody starting on a certain lineup and or a line of scrimmage. It's just a lot different. But I think the cool part too is like you might see people back there that you've may have never seen before back there. Like for me it wouldn't surprise me if we put K nine back there and just allow K nine to create something outta nothing. Kinda like I was saying, you could put a lot of cool people back there to be able to do a lot of things that you may have not done because they were starting all the way back and being able to kick it. But I also understand you gotta protect people. That's one of the most scariest plays I guess of football when it comes to a team. A full of people running full speed. You got other people standing there trying to block and then hitting somebody going full speed head on. They say every tackle is like a car wreck almost, you know? So I get it, you know, but you know, we try to keep it as old school football as we can. - Good. - Appreciate it.