Head Coach Mike Vrabel 11/3: "I'm confident we'll be able to come back and play better"

Mike Vrabel (0:00)

How are you doing?

SPEAKER_2 (0:01)

I'm good, how are you?

Mike Vrabel (0:02)

Good, I think so. A little scratchy throat, but we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

I was just wondering if you're annoyed at all.

Mike Vrabel (0:12)

Annoyed?

SPEAKER_2 (0:13)

Annoyed by an opposing coach accusing you or your team doing something underhanded.

Mike Vrabel (0:21)

I don't think annoyed.

I'm trying to not waste any more time looking for anybody clapping. And I don't see anything.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

Hawkins was clapping? Hawkins was clapping.

SPEAKER_4 (0:32)

That.

Mike Vrabel (0:33)

Okay.

SPEAKER_4 (0:33)

That's far away.

Mike Vrabel (0:35)

Yeah. I don't think that's certainly that wasn't anybody's intent. And I don't think that we've ever coached that or talked about that.

You know, I just can't spend that much time focused on it. I did look at it briefly. It certainly didn't think that that was anything that we did that, you know, I mean, it's pretty loud. Guys are trying to get lined up. And I'm glad that we took off when they snapped the ball.

SPEAKER_5 (1:08)

How would you, like, ideally, how would you like to see your team approach tomorrow's training?

Mike Vrabel (1:16)

Our team or our organization? Like, when you say the team, your players?

SPEAKER_5 (1:20)

I know there's a lot of people.

Mike Vrabel (1:21)

Yeah, I mean, continue to focus on, you know, I think what happens is personnel staff makes calls and they all have conversations as this thing leads up to it.

And, you know, I would just say continue to do our due diligence about what those may be and what those look like and then make a decision that we think is best for us. That's what I hope that we do. And, you know, until I hear otherwise, you know, we'll have conversations this afternoon. But nothing new to report, but just like everything else, figure out who's available, if they're on a roster, if they're not, do we need to get guys in here on the practice squad or how do we want to handle the roster each and every week?

Phil (2:11)

What did Jack Lester do to make some key blocks this year? How have you seen him continue to develop in that role?

Mike Vrabel (2:17)

Yeah, I think he's, one, worked hard. I think he's taken ownership of that spot and continued to improve as, you know, they normally are never, like, when you get a diagram, it's like, okay, go block this guy. And then when the ball snapped, it never really looks like that. So he's done a good job of trying to navigate through some traffic and create some lanes and some space for us. I think he's improved on special teams for us. He's contributed. So I think Jack's got more comfortable each and every week since training camp and he's kind of carved out a little role for himself. And that's been good to see.

Phil (2:55)

Mike, when it comes to the pass, Roche, in sacks this year, I know that's not everything, but do you feel like the defensive front seven is doing enough to affect the quarterback consistently?

Mike Vrabel (3:06)

I think we can always do more. You know, I don't think that the sacks are a number. I thought we had some good rushes yesterday. I thought we had some impactful rushes. I mean, we got off the field on third down. We've talked about the ability to get into second and long situations and affect the quarterback. You know, we got the grounding on the one. You know, that's significant.

So, you know, I think it just has to continue to improve and understand where those opportunities are. They don't always occur on third down. You know, we have to find ways to go rush and affect the quarterback outside of third down. You know, sometimes the ball gets out of there quick. Sometimes it doesn't. So, I would say that it was OK. It needs to continue to improve. And it has to be something that whether we send four, whether we send more than four, you know, just to just a great mentality and an understanding of how we need to affect the quarterback, but also what the quarterback can do. There's so much more that are that are mobile that can that can extend the play. So, I think that's also part of it is making sure that it's relentless and coordinated. What are your thoughts on the red zone defense after watching the tape?

SPEAKER_5 (4:30)

It seemed like Marcus Jones had some tough spots before later on when they were just in the tournament.

Mike Vrabel (4:36)