Icege

Looks like it's just Darin Gantt and David "I know that the problem was personal, but can you talk about the personal problem that kept you out of practice?" Newton today. Wait, I lied. Mike Kaye is there too.

I assumed it was somebody from the Huddle.

That's a wrap for today! Looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday's practices.

Bryce finishing Trusts the coaches and whether or not they're called they're going to be ready. Comfortable with his grasp of the offense. Knows that the coaches aren't just waking up and rolling dices, that they're very calculating and purposeful. Will be confident with whatever the call is. Some differences for sure between this year's offense and last season, especially in the nuances of how they do things. Some new concepts and different wrinkles, but football is football and there's a lot of carry over in the league. They take pride in execution and making it their own by embracing what the coaches tell them and doing it at the highest level possible. Regardless of what's going on this week, from his perspective and the rest of the offense they want to attack every practice the best that they can. Coaches have done a lot to try and make the reps as "game like" as possible. Not going to let who their opponent is determine the intensity that they approach with. Was nice to be home after camp, missed his own bed. Grateful for the time and the grind but training camp and the time they spent together on + off the field is great for the team. Being in the same building, same hotel does bring them closer. Now that they're not in the hotel and can go back home, they have to bring the same mindset they had in camp where they pushed the envelope. Can't rely on the fans to bring the energy for them in practice like they were able to play off of during training camp, so it'll be good for working on their internal motivation. Trevin Wallace made some plays in camp and today. Instinctual guy that can make plays and has athleticism that pops on the field. Good dude in the locker room. Exciting to watch him develop. Having a quality ILB like that is something a QB has to be aware of because windows that might seem open can be closed quickly due to the sideline-to-sideline speed that catches opposing OL + RBs attention. Feels very confident with the currently installed offense. Now just getting reps, different criteria for kills, getting plays out of different looks, etc. Did things in training camp that made everything digestable and allowed players to play fast. Didn't just have learning attached to certain days. Was able to see the install and see it come to life which has been great. Feels great about it and confident in the offense. Offense takes what the defense gives but also looks to dictate terms of what they want to do. Very multiple, good mixture of run and play action pass, drop back movement, and some other creative stuff. Being able to have different ways to attack similar things is very important that they talk about as a unit. Can try to be complex but have to be consistent in what they do. Lots of learning about how the TB offense did stuff that they noticed on film when studying them last year. Exciting to build off of it. Not always going to be able to predict what happens so having "rules" for the offense helps with being able to fall back on and act pre-emptively without thinking. Michael Barrett is a super hard worker that cares and it shows through his play and preparation. Getting outside the pocket just helps with things being multiple. As a QB he's looking to be comfortable no matter what it takes to win games. Wants there to be shades of gray along with the base concepts/rules that were mentioned. Different offenses approach different ways to find success. Having the freedom to play while still having concepts to fall back on makes things better. Always trying to improve at his job. Working on mechanics and the new system. "We'll see!" was the response to being asked, "Did you learn to slide?"

Damien Lewis up Been tough dealing with the shoulder + personal issues, but life goes on. Gotta keep chugging. Feels great to be back and flying around with his teammates. Football provides a great distraction from personal issues, feels great to be here with the team's chemistry, energy, and support system. Has never been a talkative guy, but felt it was a right time to say something at practice to get guys going (re: clip of him talking the OL up during Camp Confidential). Feels that guys are binding together and getting good energy. Had no doubt about Canales being able to lead from their time together in Seattle. Dave takes it serious and is the guy for the team. Blessed to be here and grateful that Canales came out and got him. Building chemistry is a process. Come out and keep grinding every week. Excited for the season. Team has to have the right attitude, the warrior mentality: mean, tough, and nasty. DLew is Mean, Austin is Tough, Rob is Nasty. The entire OL group goes to dinner every week. Bryce comes to, but they don't make him pick up the tab solo (everybody contributes). They let the rookies pick where they eat. Protect him on the field and off the field. Icky is getting better. Can see him every day since he's beside him and is coaching him up to get over the hump. Likes what he sees in Icky and can't wait to support him during the season. David Newton asked what the personal matter was because of course he did. Damien didn't want to talk about it, just said that it's hard. The DL is rolling. A'Shawn and DB are over 330lbs. They gotta do their job so that the DL can do their job and get better. DB is one of a kind. Moves laterally like a WR at 330. #54 talks a lot, DLew is gonna get him (Shaq Thompson). Keep an eye on Chandler Zavala. He's a second year guard and has been growing. Don't be surprised if he pops out. Will keep it secret whether or not he pancaked DB. Played each other before in season.

David Gettis we hardly knew ye. For the old bois... remember Patrick Jeffers?

Dave Canales up first Great practice today. This week is critical as they ramp the guys up for gameplay. This is the last week to attack it volume-wise. After this, they've got a lot of decisions to make re: the roster. This is the week for guys to establish that they're ready to play. Threw a significant amount of volume at both the 1s and the 2s and was excited by their response to the challenges he laid out for them in the team meetings. Doesn't have to push guys to get the intensity that they want, they're pros and know how to work. Open to playing the 1s this week. They have to look at what the group looks like if they put them out there. Is there enough guys for them to say, "Man, these are valuable reps." Once they get into depth at different positions it forces their hand on "Can we play guys or do we need to?" Has to make sure that they get through these two days, collect the info, and then make the decision. Isn't worried about 2s for the other team hurting our 1s because they're playing too amped. It's just about the strength and health of their units and whether or not they can get a look at the guys in valuable game exp. Wants to see operation and things run smoothly from the starters if they go out there vs. the Bills including convos between the drives. Bryce has been around all of those things while they've been doing it. Big difference between snap in a joint practice vs. in a preseason game is tackling to the ground. Going to get an elevated speed (naturally) in a competitive moment against a different jersey. Not cut blocking anywhere nor doing some things that they'll do in a game setting, but there's a big difference. Always impressed by the different levels of speed that players take it to as excitement ramps up. Been a challenge for the younger players. They're throwing all of the vocab at them and all of the installs stopped about 2wks ago. Now what they get into is reformationing (doing it out of a different personnel/presentation). Same with defense, can they keep it tighter and tighter held together so that they don't give any tells. Those things make a difference on Sundays. Were purposeful in changing pieces so that guys were in different places that they were used to. Re-iterated that the offense has been in place for the last 10 days to 2 weeks. Now they're challenging the offense to run it out of different looks. Guys are working hard to come back from injury. Tommy is back and looking great, plan for him was fantastic and he's ramping up to go. Didn't see what happened to Diontae but he was fine afterwards. Was back out in a play or two. Zavala was back in pads and out there rolling despite early concerns that he had a significant hamstring issue. Looks at the exposure during practice to see whether any of the safeties can play at corner for the team. Luton had a muscular issue in his shoulder. Was grateful that he came on short notice and did a great job preparing under short notice. Unfortunately, unable to finish this part with him but now this is a great opportunity for Jack Plummer. Likely to be the last significant reps he's going to get for a little while since the starters and primary back-ups will be taking the bulk of them going forward. Staying away from timelines for injuries (was asked about Lamar Jackson being waived/injured and whether that was a timeline issue). Evaluating Dalton through the week. Jack is playing, he's playing at some point. What a great opportunity for guys that might be making the roster or starting due to injury (was asked specifically about the CBs). Hates when guys get hurt but there's an excitement had to check out new guys that get brought in to evaluate. Chau Smith-Wade did fantastic playing outside in the preseason game. Had played there in his college career without a lot of nickel exposure, but they showed them something cool in the game. Would love to come out and rip 50yd TDs from day 1. Quickest way to win is straight line, A to B, throw it to the guy for a TD. Our defensive scheme is fantastic; they play their leverages and have guys that know the scheme that are able to run. They got one today and have had some near misses leading up. That's a timing issue that will be figured out as they take those shots. Guys can make a huge difference in whether or not they make the team with how they play in this last preseason game. They go into all games with a game plan and treat them serious because these are career opportunities for the players. Today and tomorrow are full padded practice and they're going full speed without tackling to the ground. The ability to refocus after a good or bad play tells a lot about a player's resilience. The staff wants the decisions to be hard because that means they have to factor in everything and look at the finer details to see who has the edge. Trevin Wallace is a natural football player with a ways to go learning the scheme. When he's comfortable he's big, fast, and has great hands which is a rare combo for the ILB spot. They've got three fantastic LBs in Shaq, Josey, and Trevin that can do that. Shouted out the LB coach on emphasizing turnovers to the group.

Press conference is taking place. Waiting on the first speaker.

No idea if they're going to still do the presser afterwards. Will update with summaries if they do.

I see what you did there.

Injuries have made that difficult.

Video of the Trevin Wallace pick. Scouts weren't lying that they said he was good in coverage!

I think that if anything, it emphasizes the philosophical differences that we heard about taking place on the staff. Frank Reich and Thomas Brown, while both coming from west coast schemes, had very different approaches. Reich wanted a conservative, ball control reminiscent of what he experienced under Jim Caldwell (who, like Canales, was known to run very often on 1st down). Brown was coming from the Sean McVay/Mike Shanahan tree that emphasized a wide zone scheme and taking advantage of the "rules" that a defense uses to respond to a look. Reich more than likely had an offense that he was looking to implement when he came in. Once he got Brown as his OC, they had to work together on the system that they were going to run. There's a change right there. I can see at least one of those changes being due to what they believed would be best for Bryce to succeed, but having to change the offense three times for just one player is very difficult to believe. It's just too juicy of a story for a reporter to sit on. I'm also fairly sure with all of the falling out we saw towards the end with the coaching staff that somebody would've thrown Bryce directly under the bus had he been the primary driver behind those changes. Plus we have no real way of knowing what last year's staff went thru until one of them goes onto a former player's podcast, so I'm not concerned about it.