 Yeah, coach, I just, I actually did some homework here, just Hopkins with the punter, the kicker, you know, what are his strengths and, you know, yes, J.K. Scott, the punter from Alabama, what's his, well, J.K. Scott, I'll start with him, J.K. Scott, right footed punter. Now this, he's, he's a unique deal because he gets great hang time on his punts. I'm talking, we're timing 5-5s, 5-4s, and there's not a lot of opportunities for returns. And when people do take chances, they get the bare minimum on the returns. I believe that the Chargers have the number one punt coverage team when it comes to yards per return. So it's going to be a great challenge. He does get the ball outside the numbers, but that's the unique thing about him. He gets the ball long and he gets the ball up in the air and he allows his coverage units, his team to get downfield to force fair catches. And then with Dustin, I know he's been down. He had a great game versus Denver when he made the field goals and the game winning field goal. We'll see what his status is and whoever they put out there as the kicker, we got to do a great job putting pressure on the kicker. It looks like Chargers playing a slot and also doing the returning for them. Oh yeah, he's a dual returner, plays punt return, kick return, shifty. He's been on multiple teams. He's done a great job on multiple teams. I believe he's averaging almost a first down on punt return when it comes to each return that he has. So he's getting their offense a first down, which is great for their offense and with the weapons that they have on their offense. And he's expanded his role in offense, but he's dynamic with the ball in his hands. He's fearless when it comes to returning the ball. So he will catch the ball in traffic. Our gunners and our pun interiors, we have a great challenge this week versus him. So we're excited for the opportunity to come Sunday. I can rewind a little bit. The conversation you had with Coach Smith after the DJ Moore penalty, you're trying to decide you weren't on the kickoff or you weren't on the extra point. Was that a close decision or was it a pretty clear cut from your perspective? Let's push the point. Let's push the try back and take our chances that way. Coach Smith and myself, we have those discussions. My job as a coach, and this is what I signed up for, is to give him the information that I believe will be the best for that situation. And looking at it, 12 seconds left at a time now, if we do push them back on the kickoff and they don't kick in out the end zone for a touchback, time is everything for us. If we were trying to put ourselves in a position, if it's a one-point game, so putting him back and knowing his history as a field goal kicker, I just wanted to provide that information to Coach Smith. And Coach Smith made a great decision, but putting him back and being in a position where we still play the game. So when you talked to Arthur, you knew at Panera's numbers from whatever, 48, that's the information you're giving him there. He's such and such from this distance. Yeah, Coach Smith and myself, we both speak about that, and that's the information we have throughout the week, whether it's our scouting department, Coach King, Coach Hoff, and myself. We go over that information throughout the week and we provide that information to our players and also to our head coach. So when we get in those situations, we are prepared for that opportunity to make the proper decision when it comes to what we want to do with certain situations. When it comes to whether it's taking a penalty, whether it's on the PAT or if it's taking it on the kickoff. And that was a great opportunity for Coach Smith and myself to talk through the situation. And again, you know, I give a lot of props to our head coach. He did a great job with the decision-making on Sunday. And it was a pretty clear-cut decision from your perspective, you think? It wasn't like, and we could go either way. I think time is the biggest variable when it comes to time. If we have more time, then hey, let's take it because we could have better field position. But when you only have 12 seconds left and you're trying to get yourself in position to kick a field goal, that was the biggest variable. Let's say if there was like 50 seconds left, maybe you take it. Yes, different conversation. So I think that was the biggest variable for myself when talking to Coach Smith about that. Obviously, you're limited in terms of how much time you have to make that decision, but how much time do you have? Obviously, the rest are wanting to move the game along, but how long did you have to kind of discuss? You know, I wish I might have like a stopwatch there or something. But again, it goes back to more prepared and more organized you are as an individual. You have a clear mind to talk about those things and come up with those decisions. So my job as a coach is to make Coach Smith's job as easy as possible when it comes to certain, when making decisions and providing them with information. So that's, it seemed like it was like, I don't know, forever. You know, I don't know, it was like 15, 20 seconds. But those things, you got to be on it when it comes to that. And that's what we get, you know, that's what we signed up for. And it was a great opportunity to be able to, you know, have that discussion with Coach Smith. And again, he did, made a great decision when it came to that. Does a game like that illustrate the value of having a virtually automatic guy like Young Way in there because you see their side, and this is some, your guy hits it dead yet, and you come off with a victory. Does that kind of underline his value and the value of a player like that to the NFL team? It speaks volumes, yeah, I mean, he's very valuable. It speaks volumes to, you know, our kicker, who, you know, Young Way when it comes to that because of his mindset, his process. He's really process driven. He's not real big into the results because he knows the process will lead to results. So when it comes to like them trying to, you know, call Phil going freeze him, that doesn't bother us because we know what he's about. We know his mindset, his approach to the game and how process oriented he is. And he takes one rep at a time. So it's very valuable to have a kicker and a player like Ku and then going back to our specialists too, our other specialists being able in order for Ku to kick the ball, the ball has to be snapped, you know, with playing with your head between your legs and snapping a football, my bad. And then, you know, Bradley doing a great job holding, whether we had to end the game kick where we were up six points and then at the end of overtime having the three points to take the lead. Those things, those are hard jobs to do. If we want to go out there like any of us go out there and go hold the ball while you got a kicker coming full speed to kick it. That's a very stressful position to be in whether you're snapping or holding. So give credit to those guys and then the protection so Ku could just focus on doing his job. Bradley and Ku both mentioned post game that it was Liam's first situation in a game winning situation. Did that thought go through your head before the play at any point? I hope he's okay with this. I hope he doesn't. And I remember you guys talking about last year, like somebody asked me if I was nervous when Ku kicked the game winning field goal. It was like he had three of them last year. No, because we're process driven. Whether we're kicking a PAT or the first field goal of the game or we're kicking the game winner, the kick is a kick. Our guys are prepared for those opportunities. We can have awareness about the situation, but we can't get fixated on the situation because at the end of the day it's about the lost starts. The basic fundamentals, pad level, blocking, tackling, snapping, catching, kicking, those things all matter during that play. If you get fixated on the, oh hey, I hope we win this game and hope we make this kick, then you're not focused on the technique and the particular assignment at that given time. So the answer to your question, no, because we're prepared for those opportunities. We work those situations and it's all about our basic fundamentals when it comes to that. And it's being brilliant with the basics right there. And given that Josh was coming here, Harris, and you all went to bow, he got hurt. And then how's Lamb doing as the long snapper this year? That's an important position. It's a very valuable position because you only have one on the roster and there's only 32 in NFL, just like the kicker and punter. He's been doing a great job and he continues to get better with reps. Great job with the snap location, snap velocity, protection. He's getting better each and every day and he's gaining that more and more confidence in the scheming and the system. And it's great to have veterans like Koo and Bradley and even Bo being around in the building to help him with his development. So his best days are yet to come in his profession and we're excited for him. So are you shooting it back pretty good? Oh yeah, you want to go catch a couple after that? Nah, alright. Put on some pads, right? It seemed like earlier in the game Troy almost got to another punt. Obviously you have the block in Los Angeles. I think he's come close a couple more times. Can you just kind of talk about the threat he is in those situations? I mean he is rare, you know, acceleration speed for his size and he's doing a great job. We talk about in our room great plays are made from great effort and he shows that day in and day out with his effort. So he's getting close to a couple more. We're excited for him what he's doing out there but he's leading by example when it comes to playing with the effort that he's playing with. So he continues to get better when it comes to his basic fundamentals and his technique and he's being disruptive when it comes to getting to the punter along with other guys like Richie Grant, Felipe Franks, D'Angelo Malone, those guys are really owning their responsibilities when it comes to punt return and rushing the punter. So hopefully they will continue to get better with their techniques and their fundamentals. And you're only guaranteed like I said before a kickoff and a kickoff return in the game. So we might have one opportunity on punt return, we might have ten opportunities. We never know so we got to take advantage of each and every one of those. Yeah, well obviously you know second day in for us and another situational day. No different than it has been in the past weeks. The one thing obviously when you look at the Chargers defensively. Obviously familiar with the head coach worked with them before schematically. Obviously he's got those guys and he's had different guys in and out of the lineup and he's got those guys playing especially they'll be ready coming off a bye for us and we'll have a workout out for us. Y'all decided to sign Marcus it was the second chance for him with Arthur. What made you think it was going to work as a second chance and when did you start? And what points of data did you get along the way to make you think you made a good decision? I can't say exactly how art went about the process in terms of chances and everything else. But for me you know when you go through the market I had obviously never worked with Marcus before. Seen him play been on the opposing sideline seen him in cut-ups. And you see a player obviously who's you know still in his 20s who's got playing experience has done great things. College got the NFL experience some really good things when you know through a roller coaster of different things so seasoned. And you know when it comes to you know looking at the quarterback spot I don't think it's one size fits all. And Marcus provided an opportunity for us offensively to go in different directions and expand on different things that we thought best fit us. And so obviously when Marcus had a chance to come here and he signed here we got to work as an offensive staff to make sure whoever quarterback was going to be behind center. We were going to try to work the best of their ability. Are there moments you see not necessarily on Sundays even but during the week where you see a guy a veteran guy who has a second chance. This is not a rookie this is a guy who's been here before and maybe has learned from X, Y or Z in his past. Yeah that's the great thing about being in this league is a certain amount of time at the quarterback spot. You have a chance to grow in different spots even though when you're not playing. And so his time in Tennessee and then he goes into the Raiders organization and he gets a chance to sit back and look at another guy playing and then being coached by other people. And I think you take something from everybody at the quarterback spot from your coaches from the different players that you're either in the quarterback room with or in the locker room with. And you can tell again not privy to Marcus before this experience but a guy you know I've been around a number of veteran quarterbacks. He's along the same lines of he has an idea of what he knows he does well. He has an idea of what he needs to work on and then you kind of worked in sync with each other to make sure that you try to accomplish those things in the physical and mental side. Since Cordero has been out you've gotten a good look at Tyler and Caleb and how they've been able to handle this running game. With Cordero coming back whether that's this week or you know in the future. Does that change your plans at all just considering how well those other two backs have played in terms of being able to use all three of them in a committee of sorts I guess. Yeah I wouldn't say it changes anything. I think you've heard me up here before say if you have a helmet on Sunday you know we're going to try to find a way to use you the best of your ability. It's no different if CP's back or not back. We're in a situation where it's our job as coaches to understand the roster that's going to be up. It's obviously part of my job to make sure that we put those guys in the best position and the way I see it is if he's up or he's not up. It's about getting everybody who has a chance to play putting them in the best position to be successful. And this is not a skiing question. It's going to start out like a scheme question. I would like to start with this disclaimer it's not a scheme question. You choose if this is a scheme question. How much precision do those screen passes whatever they may be take to really work with. I mean what's the difference between one that works like algae or 25 hour touchdown and one that just gets blown up. Not a scheme question. Let me talk to the 10,000 of you on the screens. Yeah I mean there is a somewhat of a thin line in terms of success and failure on the screens. There's sometimes where you have the back exactly where you want them and the D line doesn't cooperate with you. They read out of it. And again sometimes it's just about where the game is going momentum wise and how the defensive line is playing. Other times the reality is you might have had a great call on and they were able to read out of it. I think more than anything else on screens it's about the timing in which the offensive line and the running backs are in sync as well as what you're getting defensively and I think it's a combination of both. There's some really good screen teams around the NFL and there's some that you know for whatever reason aren't as good and the ones who are typically are good you know have a plan in place and how they want to do them. They typically call it in certain situations. They're not necessarily predictable but they are they do stress the defense. And so when you look at the certain screens and we evaluate each year every place I've been you do a screen study right at the end of the season like hey you study our teams around the league but there is a synchronization that goes with having a screen be successful. Everybody from the back to the quarterback to the offensive line to the wide outs making it feel a certain way. So I think there's a little bit of art to that in general and again obviously you want to be successful on those but they need to cooperate as well defensively. And that synchronization just takes a bunch of reps just takes time. Is there any magic there. Right it goes back to something that guys have a true understanding of timing on screens. Every screen is a different time. So you got wide receiver screen tap back screens and all those possess different timing for the offensive line in the quarterback as well as when that receiver slash back who's receiving the ball knows when to get open. And the more obvious you are in those right the more the defense can sniff it out especially at this level. And so you obviously want to make it look like something different. And I think for our standpoint it's a constant daily more on the practice field working on not just that but other fun that involves that. Your downfield blocking has been really good whether it's in screens or just in yards after the catch. How much of an asset has that been for you guys to make sure it passes in the works. That's a good question. It goes back to intent and style of play. I believe right you can say you know I've been around one or two times here where you get around a certain offense and you preach and you preach and you preach about you know how you want to play. And then it's sometimes just words and the actions don't necessarily follow. And then you get in situations where you know less is more with the words and you see the actions and you have a situation where you have a style play in which you want to play football and everybody's bought in and they see the results and they see how it all works together. And I think when it comes to the downfield blocking situation you know receivers don't get enough credit at times for being complete players not just everybody looks at the receptions and the targets. And I think it does an injustice to the position that there's a much more specifically what we ask. There's much more than goes in just statistics for us. And the level in which these guys are competent to get the job done when the ball is not in their hands is being just as highly evaluated as if when they have the ball in their hands. And again it's more about the actions in which we ask and the intent in which they do I think hopefully that continues for the rest of the year. There was a play late in that game against Carolina where Marcus was you know made a couple reads got out of the pocket and did something a little bit off schedule. That was all coaching. All coaching. Well that's good. How much of that is coaching? How much of that has got players kind of being in sync with one another and just making an instinctual play? Yeah when I coached the position and I was a quarterback coach I was like hey the good plays was all coaching the bad plays the guys aren't coachable. No look you draft guys and you sign guys for certain reasons. You're at the highest of the high at the NFL level and there are obviously elite traits that guys have. His ability where I thought to be able to not just move around right but move around with a purpose and I think you've seen that right game after game after game. Now guys are working with them. They're on the same page. Guys are getting a better feel for you know how we play and how Marcus plays and you know hopefully right we're out there practicing but hopefully that continues for the for the remainder of the year. Can you just speak on Demir Burr through the last two weeks and what he's been able to screen stopping? Yeah so you know Demir is a veteran. You know he's been in different offenses. He has shared experiences in terms of you know playing and then having his work his way into a rotation and then take advantage of opportunities in which when the ball presents itself or making a play down the field in which he's actually blocking for others and the one thing I'll say about Demir just like a lot of our players regardless of they're up down in the rotation out of the rotation you don't see a change in their attitude on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday the practice and it's an attribute to the professionalism that guys possess not just Demir but others and you love when guys put in the work they get an opportunity and they take advantage of it and Demir just like other players when their number has been called they've had they've shown the ability to do that. Hopefully that continues. What are the problems or challenges that the Edge rushers present for y'all? Calvin, Noyan. Who's the other guy? Another guy yes. I don't know the other guy. Another guy from Buffalo or something. I'm not familiar with that guy's number, I think it's 51. I'll make sure I say hello, exchange Christmas cards before the game tell them how much I appreciate our time together. Look, great players on defense. We can talk about Khalil, again similar to the Aaron Donnells of the world like what else can I add that hasn't been said about him? When you talk about the rest of the defense though, here's what I will say you've got a defense that does a great job pre snap of applying pressure to the quarterback and the offense line by giving different structures and different looks by doing that right and to make the offense kind of what the offense tries to do a defense right we try to give you motions and different things pre snap to get you to think and I think this is what Brandon does a really good job of he's obviously he's been under the tutelage of some very good coaches he's taken that and now he's done his own thing with it so our work's cut out for us you've got a secondary that reacts and sees the ball well you've got linebackers who come downhill and they're going to add the physicality and you've got a front that knows how to mix up the different structures and I've worked with a few of those guys I know what they teach and I've got the utmost respect for those guys I'm not sure I can answer your question it's just what you got to do is find out where he came from what they did while he was there what similarities does that have with what we have so that can we use him in those ways because he already kind of knows it rather than because you may have the exact same coverage but it's called something different one cover three could be called cover three another one could be called solid another one could be called trace and they're all cover threes but he may have come from a system I know Spaggs, Kansas City because Spaggs coached for me at Baltimore was my secondary coach so there's some similarities in some things but you know and it's also nice to know somebody like that that you can talk to and ask him about him and say what is his best attributes what's he do well what's he have to work on and so you know don't go out there and try to teach him a something that he hasn't played in the course of the last couple years so you know it's a little bit of both it's get him familiar with what we call things and then us familiar with what he can do so don't try to put him in a tough spot don't ask him to try to do things he can't can't do right now doesn't mean he can't do them but right now it might be difficult you can't crash course the whole what we've just done in you know 15 weeks in two days so it's just the other thing is you don't want to overload him and then if you overload him then they're sitting out there thinking what am I supposed to be doing while the guy is running by him so basically secondary what does Justin Herbert do so well and how challenging is this passing attack for well he's accurate he's he's big he's strong he's hard to bring down he doesn't get sacked very often he doesn't take very many sacks he's mobile I mean he's not necessarily a guy that's just really looking to run he wants to throw it he wants to be a pocket passer but he will run and he can get away from you you know like I say he doesn't take very many sacks I mean he hangs in there and I've seen him throw some confusions while guys draped all over him so he's he's very accurate I think he's very smart I think they got a great system that he fits in very very well I think I give them credit to the they do things to help all quarterbacks but he's an exceptional town he's one of those new young quarterbacks like Alan and him and they're coming along they're just they're the Nate next Peyton Manning's and Brady's and those guys they are I mean they're good real good about arm strength does it make a real practical difference in the back end when you're facing a guy who maybe can zip it a little bit faster or a lot faster than the average guy it's more about the release and it is about the velocity of the ball because like when you watch Aaron Rodgers what makes Aaron Rodgers special is he's like this and the ball's gone you know then there's other guys who come back and they wind up well if I wind up and I'm really good in reading that I get a better break on the ball when that ball just gets flicked and there's something on it you know it's not just I'm flicking it out there and it's kind of floating you know the guy that makes the difference it's more to me about the delivery and the quickness of the delivery than it is about the actual arms like all the quarterbacks have strong arms I mean you get back Aaron you watch guys in pregame and you're watching that guy go man that guy throws that's a pretty ball you know it's tight spiral it's in there but it's more about the ability if you're playing zone man doesn't really matter you're on the guy but it has more to do with the delivery and how fast the guys release is Aaron Rodgers is exceptional I heard Josh Allen say the other night they were interviewing or something and he had stolen something from Rodgers a little bit on how to deliver a ball that way while facing this way and so but and that all of a sudden that's that's you know normally you're sitting there as a defensive back and the guy's looking this way and you're starting to lean that way and all of a sudden that ball is out the other way so if the guy has to turn to throw it and do it well hopefully he can turn and do it but if all of a sudden the guy can just flick it and still get there just as fast that to me is the biggest difference in quarterbacks well I think he's you know we always thought he was a physical player he really studies he's really really trying to be a complete safety and knowing everything knowing communication the whole thing and I think he's really grown in that way a lot you know before I thought he was more like I know what to do but I'd really rather have somebody else tell me a little bit and kind of take charge I don't think that's true anymore I think he's just as much to take charge as Richie is or Eric or whoever else is back there so I think he's really progressed that way and just knowing the defense knowing what we want and communicating it with Dean gone you've got to find some more depth at safety do you look for that you know with the guys with practice squad guys or with guys that maybe you've cross-trained versus there's guys in there that have played nickel and safety that we've cross trained a little bit you always do that just in case of emergency because you know all of a sudden in a game you lose two guys you can't pull somebody off the practice squad during the game somebody's got to kind of know how to go in and do that so in our case we've got some guys that have cross trained there that could be in that role and we've also taken some guys this week and we're working with them in the practice squad guys that could get elevated they might not you know I never know we just we got a plan for everything arts the one that has to make the decision at the end of the week of who the guys are that are going to be active and you know maybe a situation on offense they need an extra dude and you can't have that guy maybe you can't have it I don't know he's involved so that's always that's our decision at the end of the week we just try to get them ready and hey who he says we have we have they've got two rookies starting on the offensive line they've got their couple starters that are usually there they're out what does that mean for the defense as far as getting pressure just got to beat them guys what game are we in ninth ain't rookies anymore at this point in time you quit being a rookie you know so to me it's like we got AK and we got DeAngelo what are they I don't think of them as rookies anymore it's your ninth game you're not a rookie anymore so to me they've seen a lot of defense here in preseason they've seen a lot of defense here in nine games or whatever it is that rookie stuff is so to me overrated if they weren't real good that's why I'd put it you know everybody talks about this guy that guy this backup if you're an NFL football player you're pretty good period if you're one of the 53 on any 32 teams you're a pretty good football player that's the way I look at everybody they blend the receivers with the running back Echler and Allen back against Williams and Carter who started their last game and he's getting a lot of touches he's a good player to me it's similar to Kamara you got a good football player the guy's a good running back and the guy's also a good receiver out of the back for getting the ball it's kind of like when we were back in New England we had Kevin Falk getting the ball in space and see what he can do I don't think it's any rocket science but if you just say he's a running back this guy can do a lot of things well so they're going to get him the ball and along with the receivers and the quarterback's good it's always tough to try and take care of a running back while you're trying to take care of receivers out there so sometimes they can get a pretty good matchup on a linebacker or whoever it might be the guy is really a good football player has been are there any coaching points when you were facing a guy like a small or chipier but still very elusive back versus a bigger more physical powerful back just in terms of the approach and trying to take them down try to get them some help try to not get too many one-on-ones if you can help it the biggest thing is try to take the air out of it a little bit sometimes because what happens is if you try to play everybody thinks well I don't want to get up too quick on him because he's quick well that's kind of not necessarily always a good approach because if I'm playing off of him in five or six yards I'm probably not going to get him on the ground either he's still going to become quick at the closer I get to him so if I can somehow take a little something off of him get my hands on him and those kinds of things it's just like a receiver I mean if you've got a really quick receiver on the line that can really get off the line if you don't get your hands on them then you've got no chance to run out quicker if they're quicker than you they're quicker than you so how can I negate that well I can get my hands on them and try to stop the quickness before I get started so that's easier said than done with a running back because you also still got to play the run I mean we can't have somebody sitting up there playing him in the pass all day and then they run the ball on you and linebackers are usually off at four yards depth or something like that it's hard to get them up there on you just got to keep it mixed and not do the same thing all the time