Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Opening Statement: You guys saw us bring in Tyrunn Walker, a new player, so it’s good to have him on board. Will not practice today will be Brandon Reilly, Marquavius Lewis, and then Star [Lotulelei]. So with that, I’ll open it up to your questions.
Q: Does that mean Trent [Murphy] is back today?
A: He is.
Q: What thought have you given to the quarterback rotation this week and who will start on Friday?
A: Yeah, I’m not going to go there for Friday. I think you guys get the gist by now, right? We’re going to take it one day at a time. I appreciate the question. You’ll see the rotation out there today; you’ll see Josh [Allen] working with different groups, which he’s done before. The great part [about it] is [that it’s] great competition. All three [quarterbacks] played well the other night. I like the progression of what they’ve done since spring. I think they’re all growing and learning. It’s a very respectful group of guys; respectful of each other and respectful of the situation. Anytime you can get that type of competition at any position, I think it’s healthy.
Q: Is there any thought to even work Josh in with the two’s because I don’t think we’ve seen that this camp? He’s been with the three’s or shortly with the one’s.
A: Yeah, you’ve seen it. Well, it’s been done. He’s been with all three groups. You’ll see some of that today as well.
Q: What can you tell us about Tyrunn Walker? What do you know about him? What do you expect?
A: He’s played a little bit before. We brought him in a few weeks back, so we kind of got a feel for him a few weeks ago. With a couple of guys going down the other day, it was good to have an awareness of what he did a few weeks back and hopefully what he can do for us starting today.
Q: Now that Corey Coleman has kind of gotten his feet wet with a few practices and has been at the stadium to watch the [preseason] game, what are your plans now moving forward? What expectations do you have of the plans going forward?
A: Well my expectations for this practice is to get him integrated into our wide receiving core, see how he’s started to soak the system in and we’ll go out there today and get a good look at him. That’ll be part of what I’m looking at today, which will be good to see.
Q: Sean, Zay [Jones] got into some team drill reps on Friday. Is there any thought to taking the no-contact jersey off him at some point this week?
A: We’ll see. We’ll see what he does today out here. I would say [that] we’re going to keep progressing. We’re moving in the right direction, it’s just a matter of when we take that jersey off [which] remains to be seen at this point.
Q: With this wide receiving core, as they get more healthy, like Zay Jones, a guy that really seemed to take advantage of the opportunity was Ray-Ray McCloud in the game [by] making the catch over the middle. What have you seen from him in camp and did he stand out or did he surprise you with his performance in the game?
A: Well, I think he’s a young player that continues to get better with each practice. [He’s] having a better understanding of how we do things on the field, off the field. He made some plays in the scrimmage about a week or so, a week and a half ago or so. He made some plays, to your point, the other night. That was good to see. Really, for a lot of our young guys [it’s about] building consistency, practicing day to day and then making a jump or an adjustment, really, from the second half of last week’s game to the upcoming game against Cleveland.
Q: What about Marcus Murphy? In that game, too, he ran pretty well.
A: Yeah, he did. He showed his versatility, his toughness, his strength. Like I said the other day, he embraces his role, whatever that role is: special teams, offense, and I’ve been extremely proud of the way he’s handled that role.
Q: With the running back position, when you’ve got a guy like LeSean [McCoy], how does that, if it does, impact the way you look at the second, third, whatever position at running back? Does it impact the way you try to map that out because you have a dominant player as a number one back?
A: Any time you have a dominant player, it impacts the whole team, which is good. The more dominant players we have, the better. I’m a much better coach with dominant players; any coach that says otherwise is lying. To your question, I feel we always have to know who is at the position and how we have to build it based off of, in this case, LeSean and then who fills in behind LeSean and what type of back LeSean is and what we need to offset some of what he does. I would say that’s true, and Brandon [Beane] and his staff do a really good job of looking at that vertically and then horizontally across the team as well.
Q: We saw with Kyle [Williams] out the other night, Harrison [Phillips] got the start inside there. Where is Adolphus Washington at this point and you talked about in the spring that he needs to make his presence known here? Talk about him and his development right now [and] where he’s at.
A: I’ve been happy with where he was in terms of before the game. I thought the game was him adjusting a little bit. I think it’s important that from this point forward, we continue to climb and the next game is better than the first game. I’m seeing a little bit of a different approach and a maturity level that’s coming around a little bit, just in terms of his approach to the game, his approach to his craft, and that’s showing up on the grass as well. That’s good to see.
Q: I know this was a topic of discussion last year with LeSean turning 29, but now that he’s 30, does age at all enter your mind?
A: When it needs to. I’m 44 and he’s 30, and there’s no way I can run as fast as he [can] right now when I was 30. I think it’s a healthy 30. Like I said the other day, to me he looks like he’s in better shape this year than he was a year ago. [It] looks like his offseason conditioning program is serving him well, and I like that; I appreciate that.
Q: It’s kind of like [the notion that] unless you see somebody slowing down, they’re not slowing down. Can we expect the same amount of touches as last year for LeSean if you need that from him?
A: I think I answered that question last year with ‘whatever we need to do to win games, that’s what we’ll do.’ I get where you’re going with the age, and that’s usually tied to running backs, age 30, all that. He’s a special guy in terms of the way he’s handled himself this camp. Like I said, I was around him early in his career and [I’m] coming full circle to be around him again. To watch him develop and the way he’s handled this camp, he’s done a nice job.
Q: How is Jason Croom and the way he’s developed in the year you’ve had him?
A: You go in the offseason, and he’s in there working. You see him make plays in the passing game, in particular, in the spring and then this training camp in Rochester kicked off [for him]. I go back to the work he’s put in, the work he’s put in with Coach Boras. I really appreciate his approach as well. You don’t do what he’s done to this point without putting in the work. I think he’s off to a good start.
Filed under: Buffalo Bills
Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott
Sorry, comments are closed on this post.