Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott
Friday, September 29, 2017
Opening Statement: Injury update for you guys: Cordy Glenn will not practice, as well as Shaq Lawson will not practice. Shaq had the groin yesterday, and we’ll open it up to questions.
Q: Where do things stand for them with the game?
A: Cordy, as it looks right now is probably not going to make it. Shaq, again as it looks right now, will more than likely be a game-time decision.
Q: Let’s talk about Cordy. Your feeling about going into the game with Dion [Dawkins] and holding up there at that left tackle spot, what’s your assessment of that? You came out with a win last week, is that a confident feeling?
A: Yeah, I’m confident, I’m confident in Dion. He’s only going to continue to get better, just like the rest of our team. That’s what we’re focused on, continuous improvement, whether it’s Dion, or anyone else for that matter, myself included. We’re just going to continue to grow and get better, and learn from our mistakes. The good part about it is you have a young guy here who has already got a significant number of snaps under his belt at left tackle, he has played some right tackle obviously. When you look at the number of young players that are on the field for us, whether it’s Dion, Tre’Davious [White], some of the other young players that we have, getting significant time is all good for us.
Q: If Shaq can’t play, would it be Ryan Davis or Eddie Yarbrough?
A: We’re still looking at that, we rotate those guys anyways, so that’s one of the great benefits of the rotation. One guy is going to go out there first, but it’s probably about, with the reps that they split, pretty even over the course of a game, give or take.
Q: Do things look good for Marcell [Dareus]?
A: They do, he had a good practice yesterday. He’s going to continue to do his treatment and practice. Without a setback, or barring a setback at this point, I expect him to play.
Q: With Marcell, do you think it’d be really beneficial for him to get on the field, start getting past the snap counts, the preseason issues and really get back to playing football?
A: To a point, I think it’s you guys that are probably more focused on the snap count, and this and that. Like I just mentioned, this is the rotation, a lot of it is minutiae, stuff that’s really unnecessary. He needs to be focused on what is important, and that’s coming out, playing his best brand of football that he can play, and us doing the same thing as a team. This is a step in the right direction, and we’ll carry that momentum with us moving forward.
Q: Coach, I know there’s a perception that you guys play so much zone defense and that’s kind of why these guys are fitting in, meaning Tre’Davious [White] and E.J. [Gaines]. Do you think at some point, is it frustrating, maybe by them or by you, that hey, they’re pretty good in man-to-man [coverage] too. They’re not just guys who can fit in a zone defense, but they have skill sets that can play man-to-man. Maybe that’s overlooked, I guess? Maybe not frustration, but that’s overlooked about them.
A: Right. They’re, I would say, multi-faceted in terms of what they can do. We do play some zone. We mix in some man just based on the game plan and what that entails and what Leslie [Frazier] decides to do with the plan. The flexibility that’s there is that they have ability in both areas, zone and man, and then with the pressuring we do, they have good awareness as far as that goes. They’re developing a good rapport. They’re focused on this week as well and that’s where they have to be. This will be a big test for us as a team, for them individually as a secondary as well, and so we have to continue to grow in that area also.
Q: What kind of challenges does the group of receivers they have, and then you include the guys that come out of the backfield and catch the ball as well. They kind of bring a little bit of everything to the table, it looks like.
A: Right. They’re, as I said earlier in the week, an extremely talented group with the Super Bowl run last year and it seems like they’ve picked up where they left off ‘X’ amount of months ago. With what Matt Ryan’s able to do and starting with number 11 with Julio [Jones], they’ve got weapons. It was a test for us last week. It’ll be another test for us this week and one that we have to continue to respect the process so that we’re ready to go come Sunday.
Q: Jerel Worthy, just coming back from concussion protocol, is there an easing back for the guy like that or how realistic is it to expect him to jump right in and be a part of your D-Line rotation?
A: Well, what we did early in the week, what our trainers and strength & conditioning staff did earlier in the week is try and get him as acclimated as possible. To the conditioning part of it, he has been out a few weeks and making sure he’s ready to go. We try to monitor his reps throughout this week so far and that’ll be another, we got to make sure we keep a close eye on him during the game so that we continue to build off of what he’s done [these] last four or five days.
Q: With Shaq [Lawson] going to see the doctor yesterday, as you told Mike [Rodak], are you confident that this isn’t a long-term thing for him and this is just a short-term thing?
A: With Shaq?
Q: Yeah.
A: From what I’ve been told, it’s a short-term issue. Like every injury though, there’s no crystal ball in this one but [we] feel like this is something we just got to continue to work through in the next couple of days here.
Q: How about with Cordy [Glenn]? What heading does that fall under, short-term or long-term, because it has been a couple weeks now?
A: I’m not sure what heading that falls under, other than we look forward to getting him back. That heading would probably be most appropriate at this time and we’re encouraged by the work he’s putting in this week and look forward to getting him back as soon as possible.
Q: Sean, is it the ankle that’s holding [Glenn] out, or is it the combination of the ankle and also the lingering issues with the foot?
A: Probably a little bit of the combination of both. Just something that we have to continue to work through and only time will tell at this point.
Filed under: Buffalo Bills
Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott
Sorry, comments are closed on this post.