Josh McDaniels 11/12: "We got a lot of guys that we have confidence in"

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Good, huh?

Josh McDaniels (0:02)

Scratchy, I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_3 (0:06)

Josh, what can a trip like this do for a team? You know, is it a good bonding experience?

Josh McDaniels (0:11)

Oh, I think you definitely have that opportunity. You know, a lot of time traveling and together, you know.

I think guys tend to spend more time together on these kind of trips than they do obviously when we're at home, because, you know, when you're done with meetings and those kind of things, you sit and you eat together and, you know, whatever else they choose to do in the evenings. But it's a good opportunity for us to, you know, you're around each other a little bit more. And then you get to also, you know, hopefully tomorrow night, you know, enjoy a different element of culture and seeing some things for the first time. So some new experiences for each other.

SPEAKER_1 (0:53)

When you were reviewing Drake's turnovers from last week, did those look like new issues or were some of the same issues popping up from earlier in the season?

Josh McDaniels (1:01)

You know, there's obviously, you know, the one was a tip ball, you know, late in the play. And their safeties are really good players. And, you know, when you make an error, then they usually capitalize on me. We knew that going into the game. So no, just, you know, it's just it's one of those things where had we maybe seen something just a hair earlier, it might have ended up an opportunity for a big play, you know, and such is life in the game of football when you play against a good defense.

They capitalized on a split second error. And had we, you know, maybe seen it just a smidge different, it might have went the other way. So every one of these things is an opportunity to learn from it. Certainly, we've got to try to find a way to, you know, start playing some games where we don't turn the ball over. And we all know that. It's our challenge and it's going to continue to be a goal and a focus of ours until we get it done.

SPEAKER_3 (2:06)

How big of a blow is it with Ramon Dre going down for a little bit? And, you know, what does your room collectively have to do just to make up for him?

Josh McDaniels (2:15)

Anytime you lose players like that, you know, you feel it because he's such a valuable part of everything you do. But, you know, that's why we have a lot of guys that are taking reps in practice. We've had a lot of guys doing that all year long.

They know what to do. It might not be the same volume of experience that certainly Ramon Dre has, but we've got a lot of guys in that room that we have confidence in. You know, we've seen that at different positions all year long, whether it be the receivers, offensive line, now it's the running back position where you just, you know, the next guy's got to go in and he's got to be able to handle the roles that they can handle, you know. You certainly don't want to give them more than they can handle, but we've got a lot of confidence in those guys. Ramon Dre is here too.

SPEAKER_4 (3:09)

You guys talked about...

SPEAKER_5 (3:09)

What's your return to practice on Monday?

SPEAKER_6 (3:11)

How's it going to be?

Josh McDaniels (3:12)

Yeah.

You know, as a coach, anytime this time of the year, in November, December, you start to get some guys that are coming back eventually, and you start to get them back to practice, there's always a little bit of a boost, you know. So we'll see how it goes this week, and the last couple of days here, but certainly excited to see him, you know, back out on the practice field and doing some things. So that's a good thing. It's repetitions, it's, you know, ownership, meaning, you know, when we see something that's a little bit different or unique, it's always better to talk out the problem at the line of scrimmage quickly. So, you know, a lot of different combinations, a lot of different moving parts so far. I give credit to the guys that have been out there and healthy because they're trying to do as much as they can to make sure that the five of them are always working together in sync. And we're going to need to continue to put some of that ownership on those guys. So, they all take the challenge head on. And again, there's no shortcut to this. We're going to be challenged this week by this defense. It's a good unit playing really well at this point.