Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Opening Statement: Just real quick, as far as injuries go – the following players will not participate in today’s practice: Ryan Davis with a concussion from the other evening; Keith Towbridge with foot soreness. Limited [at practice] in terms of individual-only will be Micah Hyde and Shaq Lawson. Cordy Glenn will return to practice this afternoon. Just a couple quick mentions real quick – I want to say congratulations to Leslie Frazier. He’s back, he was down in Mississippi receiving the prestigious honor of being inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. And then, finally, [a] great opportunity the other evening [at The Return of the Blue + Red practice]. I really appreciate the fans coming out to support us. It was good to get down to Buffalo, change venues a little bit. I thought the players reacted well to the weather and showed great adaptability to the situation. With that, I’ll open it up for questions.
Q: What is your philosophy on doing a shared practice with another team? I don’t know if you’ve done that with the Eagles or Panthers, but do you have a philosophy? Would you like to do that at some point?
A: I think those are good at the right time, based on where you are as a football team. I’ve been a part of one of those situations in the past in Carolina and it worked well. You’ve got to do it with the right team, of course. We’re open to that.
Q: Given the cutback in practice time, it seems like you could get some good, intense work that way though, right? It seems like you would.
A: No, it is – it’s good. And again, it’s got to be at the right time for your football team and then obviously you’ve got to have the right partner to do that. Those can go the other way. They can go bad in a hurry and I’ve seen those as well. We are open to that when it’s the right time for us.
Q: Cordy Glenn had that second opinion but is now back. So was that more just a reassurance for him that he couldn’t make things worse and what is the team’s position just as far as if there’s any tentativeness with his foot?
A: We’re always concerned. Number one, it’s always – you want to look and see what’s going on there. We got a good look at it and Dr. [Robert] Anderson got a good look at things and so Cordy’s going to practice today. We’ll see how it goes and, really, he’s day-to-day at this point.
Q: Tre’Davious White and I think even Shareece Wright got some time at safety on Friday night. Was that just need-based because of Micah [Hyde’s injury], or was it something in a package, or was it something you want them to kind of have to know how to do?
A: It’s more of a package that we have going on right now. There [are] times when we do that in our system. Always looking at players that can play multiple positions, have multiple line-of-scrimmage value, if you will, in addition to special teams. It’s part of the system, it’s built into the system and you saw some of that the other night.
Q: Do you think Cordy’s going to be able to play in preseason games or are you going to try to limit him to make sure he’s ready for the season?
A: Well, we’re going to take it one day at a time right now. That’s what we’ve got to do. We have one eye on, obviously, the game, but really we’re focused on us. Not only in Cordy’s situation, but I want us to improve. When we go out on this football field, we’ve got a lot of work to do – a lot of work to do. We focus on us and making sure we’re ready to go at the right time and there’s a process, as you’ve heard me say before. We’ll take it one day at a time with Cordy and see what we get out today and how we look coming after practice.
Q: What will you look to get out of that first preseason game? It’s just a couple of days away.
A: Again, it’s still part of the process. Certainly, I know there’s a score and you want to win games. Any time you compete, you want to win. That said, there [are] things that we want to see and the biggest thing for us is that we are fundamentally improving. There’s a journey to where you want to get to, fundamentally, as well. We’re looking at fundamentals and making sure we’re getting better in those areas and then the things that we are high on, that we’re big on, that those are the things that are sinking into this football team – running to the football, blocking, tackling, catching the football, the toughness element of the football team, the resiliency of the football team – those are the things, and then obviously we’re going to evaluate the players as well. No different for the coaches. This will be our first, other than the other evening, really our first real run-through as a staff, together. So that’s part of the reason why we went down last Friday night here to Buffalo to get a little bit of a head start.
Q: Any idea how long the ones will play in that game?
A: We’re going to be around a quarter, give or take we’re going to be around a quarter. We’re still looking at that, but we’re going to be around a quarter.
Q: When you studied Lorenzo Alexander this offseason, you knew his story – o-lineman, signed here to be a special teams guy, all those things and he’s so much more. When you wrapped your mind around what he was about, what was your research like? And what did you conclude?
A: There’s research projects that come to conclusions that aren’t good and this one turned out to be just the opposite of that. Everyone I talked to in the building, everyone I talked to that knew Lorenzo first of all spoke of his character and then his work ethic. So, the intangibles that I knew of were there and then we turned on the film as a staff and our defensive staff evaluated Lorenzo on the field – just like we did with every player, quite honestly – it came up all pluses. We felt like it was important for us to get Lorenzo back in the mix and obviously, got worked out and the rest is history at this point. Really appreciate his leadership on a day-to-day basis and what he does for this defense and this football team.
Q: Coach, it seemed on Friday that Shady didn’t get as much work. Did you want to see the other backs more? Was there any reason for that?
A: I’ve been around LeSean before in his career and my career. We’ve got some other players on this roster that we need to evaluate and give them opportunities to develop – and we’ll see some of those guys have great opportunities on Thursday night, really. So, it’ll be a chance, an opportunity, for us to perform as a football team and for these young football players to develop.
Q: What factors led to Shamiel Gary getting first-team reps when Micah (Hyde) was out, as opposed to some of the other guys?
A: Well, he’s earned it, he’s earned it. He’s working extremely hard and the work that he’s put in up to that point in time – you know, he wasn’t just moved up because he was just another name. He moved up because he deserved it, he earned that right to be moved up. So, he’s done a nice job, not only on defense but on special teams, as well.
Q: How do you think Tyrod (Taylor) has done picking up this offense now that you’re almost 10 days into camp?
A: He’s done a good job, he really has. He’s got the background from it with his time with Rick (Dennison) in Baltimore. And then, he just continues to get more and more comfortable, as does the entire offense. I felt there was a lot of positives from the offense the other evening. They moved the ball and were consistent. So, he continues to get more comfortable. We continue to get more comfortable and we just need to continue to move forward, put in the time, put in the work out here on the practice field, and in the meeting room.
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