Q, Earlier this week it was announced that Cam Heyward had signed a three-year contract designed to keep him with the Steelers to the end of his career. You usually refrain from involving yourself in player contracts, but do you have any comment on that one getting done?
A. There's a lot that's unique about Cam, and I just think the contract is reflective of that. This guy's a 10-time captain. I don't know how many 10-time captains on NFL football teams there have been in the history of the NFL, but I just think that's reflective of his body of work. The fact that we're talking about a fourth contract is reflective of his body of work. It's been a unique story, and it's been cool to have been a part of and witness not only his growth and development as a player, but as a leader, and how he carries the banner for this organization. I'm happy for him; I'm happy for us.
Q. Cam has talked about being a "one-helmet guy," a phrase for a player who completes his entire career with one team. What's the significance of a player doing that, both for himself and for the team?
A. I just think it speaks to the special traits that the player displays beyond his talents, to be quite honest with you. You know, when you've got intangible traits and strong leadership qualities, it allows you to grow older gracefully, and those are the guys who have an opportunity to be "one-helmet guys."
Q. In talking about your wide receivers during your news conference you mentioned being comfortable with how Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller "behave like veteran NFL players." How do veteran NFL players behave, and why might that be important starting with today's game?
A. You know, they don't make mistakes twice. I think that's a key component of it. Being a savvy, veteran player is about mistake elimination, and both guys have high floors in that regard. They're position flexible. You can move them around within the structure of an offense. They can play X, they can play Z. They understand the global picture, as opposed to just assignment football. And I think that those are the two key components that I'm talking about when I'm talking about how they behave themselves.
Q. Something Joey Porter Jr. showed as a rookie was a willingness and an ability to match up all over the field with the opponent's top receiver. When employing that tactic in a game, what demands does that put on the other cornerback?
A. That's a very good question. First of all, because everybody likes to talk about the guy who travels, but you better have somebody on the opposite side of him who's capable of that as well. And it's not a big challenge unless you play right and left corner historically. When you play right and left corner historically, then the other guy has to get footwork and line of vision perspectives from both sides of the ball. And so it is a challenge for him in that regard. But if you go field and boundary and things of that nature, where guys are generally working from both a left and right perspective, there's very little placed upon a guy who's a partner with a traveler.
Q. Is Donte Jackson able to handle that role?
A. No question. I've seen Donte over the course of his career play on the left side of defenses, on the right side of defenses, and so it's less of a discussion for him.
Q. What will you have needed to see from rookies and young players leading up to today's game to get them onto the field today vs. the Falcons?
A. An acceptable level of execution. They've got to display an understanding of football. They've got to play fast. They've got to have skill relative to their positions, beyond knowing what to do. You know, I think a knee jerk reaction is just making sure that they know what to do, but that's just the very beginning at this level. You better have skill relative to your position. You better have good hand usage and so forth. You better be able to come off blocks if you're a defender, and just the general know how and situational awareness that'll allow you to play fast in big moments. We don't need guys playing slow on third-and-3 or in the red zone. Things happen fast in those moments, and knowledge is on display, and lack of knowledge is also on display in terms of speed of play.
Q. When it comes to calling timeouts during games, it's a rule that coordinators can't call timeouts. Why is that?
A. They just don't want timeouts coming from a variety of places. There's a lot going on with the officials. Their eyes are on the field, and they have a general understanding of where the head coach is on the sideline. So oftentimes they're feeling the timeout as opposed to seeing it, and when you've got multiple people with the ability to do it, it makes their job more difficult.
Q. When it comes to your team, when does the quarterback have the freedom to call a timeout?
A. We don't have hard guard rails there. They know generally that I'm in charge of the timeouts, and if I'm doing what it is I'm supposed to do, I handle those things. When the play clock is running down, it's their job to try to get the ball snapped before it does. If I don't feel like they can do it, the responsibility is mine. Sometimes when they know there's no chance of it, for a variety of reasons – hung up in the huddle, the play clock started fast on us, or what have you – he's capable of doing it. But generally, that responsibility is mine, and that discussion is not what it used to be, since the league handed the timeout rules over to the sideline.
Q. Are there any other players who have that freedom? Maybe Minkah Fitzpatrick, or somebody else on defense?
A. It's the same general discussion. I've got my eyes on the field. When there's an issue, I see it, and so they're capable, but it'll come from me before it does from any of them. Their job is to try to fix whatever's slowing us down. It's my job to make the determination whether or not we burn the timeout in an effort to do so.
Q. Back in 2010, you referred to the weekly competition between Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown for a game day roster spot as "two dogs, one bone." Your initial roster had 8 defensive linemen among the 53, and so when it comes to the game day roster, how many dogs are there and how many bones are available for defensive linemen?
A. As you mentioned, there are as many as eight dogs, and there are less than eight bones. Week to week, there are a lot of factors in determining how many helmets we put on a particular position group. In Week 1 for example, sometimes conditioning and fatigue become a factor. If this game was played outside in Atlanta, for example, I'd have a bunch of bigs in helmets, because you never want to run out of bigs in warm weather circumstances early in the year. And so there's a lot of variables in that discussion, but make no mistake, there are multiple dogs, and there are less bones, and who gets helmets and who doesn't is determined by the quality of their work and how we divide the labor up during the week. Another component of it is special teams usefulness and capabilities. There are always a few bigs who are special teams capable. DeMarvin Leal is one of them. He's a big defensive lineman, but he also runs well enough to be a factor on kickoffs and things of that nature. And those guys always have a leg up in the discussion.
Q. Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson worked under Rams Coach Sean McVay. What are some of the characteristics of a Sean McVay offense that Zac Robinson might incorporate into the Atlanta offense he's now coordinating?
A. Variations of pace as a weapon being the first and foremost. They start a series, they come from the sideline to the ball. That's an element of pace. Certain offensive concepts, perimeter running game, they snap the ball on the first sound and try to pace you and catch you less than ready. Oftentimes, they transition from second down to third down with pace, so you can't get specialized defensive groups on the field and things of that nature. Sometimes when they get in the red zone, they pace. They pace to help their run game in the red zone to beat you to the punch. They pace to help their passing game in the red zone to beat you to the punch. There's a lack of vertical field in the passing game (in that area of the field), and so they've got to beat you horizontally with misdirection passes and things of that nature. And so pace is probably the No. 1 characteristic of the Sean McVay school of thinkers, if you will, in a variety of circumstances.
Q. So how do you combat that, in terms of them coming off the sideline and using pace, trying to use pace between second down and third down in terms of what you want to do and who you want on the field?
A. That's one of the many things that we work on during the course of a work week. Sometimes people think that we're just running plays, and we are, but there's a procedural component of this thing from a prep standpoint that includes things that happen between plays. And that's how you show respect for pace in your preparedness there. It's not just the defensive calls that we employ, or our execution of those calls. It's about how we communicate in between plays. It's how we exchange defensive personnel and our readiness in that regard. And so we're working on a lot of things during the course of the prep week, other than rote memorization assignment football.
Q. In what ways is Kirk Cousins' game suited to the system Robinson likely brought to Atlanta from the Rams?
A. It was probably the central reason why they were really interested in him. Vikings Coach Kevin O'Connell (where Cousins previously played) was a disciple, if you will, of Sean McVay, and so Cousins has system familiarity, and I'm sure it was one of the major components that made Cousins really attractive to them.
Q. What style of runner is Bijan Robinson?
A. He checks all the boxes. He really does. When you go as high as he did in the draft (eighth overall in 2023), generally you do. Guys like him, Saquon Barkley and others, when you go that high in the draft as a running back – and there's been a lot written and said about the relative value of backs in the draft – and so when you got one going that high, rest assured he can stop-start, he can stick his foot in the ground and change directions, he can put together multiple moves. He has really good contact balance in terms of bouncing off tackles. He has burst that makes him tough to tackle. He checks all the boxes.
