wannabee
Footballguy
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/05/22/qa...rent_greenmc20/
Q&A with QB TRENT GREEN
May 22, 2006, 4:26:26 PM
Mini-Camp
May 20, 2006
Q: How does it feel to be back?
GREEN: “Good. It’s good to be back doing football stuff. You can lift and run and run around cones all you want, but it’s good to be back on the field. I think that if you talk to everybody in the locker room, they would much rather be doing football stuff.”
Q: What’s the difference from previous seasons having a new head coach in Herm Edwards?
GREEN: “Coach (Vermeil) was always a very positive and enthusiastic guy anyway, and now with Herm he’s the same thing except that maybe even more so. In a lot of ways it’s very similar. The difference is that his main focus is to get in and get your work done fast and with quality, but he’s going to get the guys out of here to take care of our legs where Coach Vermeil was more into having longer practices. That was his mentality, the more you practice and the more you work, later in the season you’d have success where Coach Edwards is more about keeping yourself fresh and keeping your motors happy.”
Q: How do you feel about Coach Edwards wanting to run the ball more?
GREEN: “I’ve said for the last three seasons that as long as we’re winning, that’s completely fine with me. As an offense we have been in the top five in passing the last three or four seasons, and we’ve also been in the top five in rushing the past three or four seasons. It’s whatever way we can find to win. If it means running the ball more, I’m fine with that. I told Herm that when he first got here. I told him we’ve been number one in offense the couple years, we’ve been number one in scoring a couple of times, we’ve been number one in all these different categories, but we haven’t gotten it done in the postseason like we all want to. Even though we’ve won a lot of games and offensively set a lot of records, I told coach that whatever he wanted to do and whatever he thought from a team concept we could get done that there were enough veteran guys on offense that aren’t selfish and who want to win. I think that’s very clear with veteran guys like G Will Shields, T Willie Roaf and some of the veteran guys who have chosen to come back. It’s very clear that’s what we want to get done.”
Q: How happy were you when G Will Shields and T Willie Roaf chose to come back?
GREEN: “I’ve been working on them for years. I’ve already started working on them now for the next year. I have pretty close friendships with all those guys, especially the four guys that I’ve been with the entire time: Will, Willie, C Casey Wiegmann and G Brian Waters. There’s just a relationship that goes with that. I’m glad they’re back and I’m glad that they’re healthy enough to come back. When you’ve done the things they’ve done in the careers other than win a championship, that’s what drives them to come back. They deserve to retire on their own terms and I’m just glad that they are healthy enough to come back and want to make another run at it.”
Q: Is it going to be kind of an adjustment for you, personally?
GREEN: “I think so. Anytime you spent the amount of time with one coach and been through so many different things. You know whether it be my whole knee ordeal or the trade here and then the first season and turning it around and then, obviously last season with the passing of my father, but you know there’s a lot of emotional things we’ve shared together. He’s been there supporting my family all the way through and he’s done great things for my career. Obviously, he’s always supported me on the field, as well. You know that’s a relationship that continues. I still talk to him quite a bit and that will continue. I’m building a great relationship or what I feel is like a very good relationship with Coach Edwards. I like a lot of what he stands for, of what he’s about, his approach to coaching, his approach to players, and having played before. He has a lot of insight to that about what players are thinking. A lot of times, he’ll beat us to the punch. He’ll be up in front of the team meeting and he’ll bring stuff up. He’s like you guys remember I was a player. I know some of the thought processes that you’re going through. You know what you’re going to go through in training camp and mini camps and those kinds of things. So, that’s refreshing. I’m excited about his playing. He’s a very organized person. I’m sure you guys have all been very aware of that. He is very organized and has a set plan and follows through with that plan. It started off with a real good relationship.”
Q: Has times of meetings made it very clear that he is a defensive coach?
GREEN: “Oh yeah. It’s a little different for us.”
Q: Could it be a good thing for the team to have that type of bias way from a coach who right now seems to be rooting for his defense?
GREEN: “Yeah, you know what it is and I have a lot of fun. I don’t know if it’s because of my age or my experience or whatever it is, but you got to have a little give and take. I’ve had that with Gunther (Cunningham) in the past and with a number of the defensive players in the past. I mean that’s what makes practice fun when you get competitiveness going and now with a head coach that tends to side towards the defense. You got to have some fun. He’s definitely brought that. I don’t think it’s a negative for the offense. Offensively, like I stated earlier, we’re a very veteran group and everybody is very focused and determined on what we want to get done and what we want to accomplish. We’re just excited to see the improvements that the defense has made. We feel really good about their growth and about some of the new players we’ve added. I know talking to the defensive players that there’s a new confidence. They know they haven’t done it yet on the field and by no means are they overconfident, but they feel really good about the system that’s being implemented. They feel good about the way it’s being coached. They feel good about the way it’s being carried over onto the field and in our first few mini-camps and OTAs. When you see them walking around with that confidence that only helps us out as an offense that they feel good about it.”
Q: What do you think of those new quarterbacks?
GREEN: “They’re good. Gosh, they got a lot of talent. Casey Printers has got a cannon for an arm, great feet. You can tell he’s been in Canada because it’s a much different game. I was only there for three or four weeks and got to watch it because it’s a bigger field, 12 on 12, three downs. He just needs to get a little more fine-tuned in terms of understanding the pocket and it’s a little bit different from that aspect, but he’s got all the tools to do it. He’s got a cannon for an arm and he’s done a great job studying. He’s with Coach Terry Shea all the time learning the offense and I think that’s carried over. Anytime that you can step into a huddle and call the plays with the wording that we have he’s obviously spent some time. Brodie (Croyle) has a calmness about him that he doesn’t seem to get rattled or flustered or you know. He has a quick release, a very strong arm. He’s obviously not as big and strong as Casey is. Casey’s a more bigger guy and can run a lot better, but Brodie has more of that pocket awareness and pocket presence and the calmness about him that he’s not really gonna get rattled. Like I said, with the amount of words that we have in our offense, he’s adjusted really well to that. He doesn’t panic when all of the sudden there’s a fifteen word play that you got to shoot out in the huddle with all these guys staring at you with their mouths open because they’re like what did he just say. They’re all learning it. He’s done a great job with it and has great calmness and great leadership about him.”
Q: Do you feel the same way yourself? You’re both said to be too undersized to play quarterback in the NFL and do you see any similarities?
GREEN: “I guess. I don’t know if I was that calm. He really carries himself well. Coming from Alabama and playing a lot of big games and obviously the pressure that is there with Alabama football, not that Indiana is. You have a lot of pressure playing football there, as well. I just think he has a different calmness about him than I had at that stage in my career. I think that when you start talking about size similarities and some of those things, yeah I think there’s some there. I have to see more of him to really give you a large amount of feedback on that.”
Q: Coach Edwards is very hands-on. As a player, what do you think about that?
GREEN: “Coach Vermeil was very hands on with the offense. When he was on the field, he would go station to station which is very similar to what Coach Edwards does. The difference is Coach Edwards actually gets in the drill. Where Coach Vermeil would be drill to drill and have things to say. He spent the majority of time on the offensive side and if you seen a practice, Coach Edwards spends the majority of his time on the defensive side and probably more so on the defensive back drills because that’s his comfort zone and that’s what he played and that’s what he’s really trying to get done. He definitely doesn’t have a fear jumping into drills and getting his point across. You know stressing the points he wants done, how he wants practice run. The tempo he wants. The enthusiasm he wants. It’s nice.”
Q: From **** (Vermeil) and Al (Saunders) being in charge of the offense to you working with Mike Solari, are you going to have a greater influence than you did in the past?
GREEN: “I had a really good relationship with Al Saunders. I know Mike Solari and Terry Shea have been working a lot together. Obviously, Mike has had such a great track record with the running game and with our pass protection in terms of getting caught up on pass progressions and those kinds of things. He never had to worry about that. He would have to know that okay in this pass protection, it’s a five step, seven step drop. Hey, the quarterback is going to have to hold it a little bit longer than he normally does. He understood those facets of the passing game. In terms of understanding the progressions and hot reads and sight adjustments and those kinds of things, he and Terry have been really working hand in hand and I’ve come in the off-season and met with them a couple of times just to go over some things that we wanted to tweak from what we have done before. Obviously, every offensive coordinator I’ve been with has been in this system and it’s pretty much every team I’ve been with has had this version of the offense. Those coordinators all want their own personal stance. It’s not that they want to change it. It’s just that they all have different personalities and they all have different things that they want to emphasize and talking that with them. There’s been great communication.”
Q: Is it different than maybe last year?
GREEN: “Well, yeah you got to remember that I was with Al (Saunders) for five years. Early on for those first few years, Al and I were communicating all the time. Then, it got to the point where we were in such a comfort zone that we kind of don’t have to do that because we knew what each other was thinking. He knew my personality in terms of what I like to do on the field. I knew what his play calling personalities were like. Now, it’s really more back to early with my relationship with Al. It’s similar to what Mike and I do, there’s just more communication because you’re building that foundation right now.”
Q: “Do you see the opportunity to have your own little stamp on this?
GREEN: “I’m never afraid to kick my two cents in there. It doesn’t mean it’s always listened to. Because of the different people I’ve been with like Ralph Friedgen or Norv Turner, Cam Cameron, they’ve all had their own personal and I’ve been able to be in a number of different offenses. Now with Mike, when we got to St. Louis, he was like listen we’ve got Isaac Bruce. We’re going to draft Torry Holt. We’ve got Az Hakim. We’ve got Ricky Proehl. We’re not going to emphasize the tight end. So, we need to go more of a four wide, three and four wides. With Norv, he really liked to emphasize the tight-end with the success he had with (Jay) Novacek. He wanted to emphasize the tight-end and the fullback coming out of the backfield. When I first got here, that was really our emphasis with Tony Gonzalez and Tony Richardson. Then, Al wanted to switch over and get Dante (Hall) more involved. So, we switched back over and did some more of the Mike Martz things. Obviously, with the emphasis on the running game with Larry (Johnson), it may switch back more. I’m comfortable. I’ve been in all those different things. As long as the communication is there, I don’t need to have play calling and I don’t need to be the guy who calls the plays. I’m completely comfortable in my role. The thing I like is the communication. I had that with Al and I have that with Mike. The thing now is because Mike is learning the passing game with Terry. We’re just at that foundation stage where we are communicating quite a bit. It’s been great.”
Q: You talked about the need of some of the young receivers to step up. After five or six practices, do you see any outcome from some of those guys and are they making the progress that you were talking of?
GREEN: “I think with Jeris McIntyre. He is very comfortable in this offense. He understands it from the mental standpoint. He’s always in the right place. He fundamentally is sound. Craphonso (Thorpe) is still at that stage where he’s thinking a little bit too much on the field. Craphonso has a the talent in the world and I’ve told him that. Once he gets the mental part of it down in terms of hearing the play in the huddle, breaking the huddle, doing his shift, doing his motions, making his adjustments on the go. Whether it be cover two, cover three, cover eight, six, whatever the adjustment to his route may be. Once he gets all that and stops thinking and just plays because last year we would sit over there, Coach Vermeil and I would sit over on the side and watch the scout team. He’d be on the scout team and you look at the card and run the play on the card. He just showed tremendous athletic ability with what he could get done on the football field. It’s up to him and I said you’ve got to get to that point to where you’re not thinking. To where you’re just going and playing and that aggression takes over and I think he’ll get there. It’s just a matter of you have to put in the hours studying. You have to watch the film. You have to get the playbook. You know those kinds of things. I think as he gains more competence. We’re asking him to learn a couple different positions where last year it was only one position. People may be wondering well why didn’t you do that last year. Now when you lose a Marc Boerigter or a Chris Horn, guys who can play all three of the wide receiver spots, you need to fill that because on game day you are only going to have so many guys dressed. You can’t have a backup at every single position. A couple of your receivers have to know all the spots so you can plug in at different times and that’s the role he’s in right now. Right now, Samie Parker is our starter and Eddie Kennison is our starter. So he’s got to know both sides.”
Q: Is it more fun practicing in front of the fans in comparison to the average practice?
GREEN: “Yes. Definitely. It’s always a lot more fun because you get the feedback from the crowd. It’s always more fun because there’s sometimes where it’s a bad play and we know it’s a bad play, but to them it’s like a great play and they’re screaming and yelling. We’re like, yeah that play didn’t unfold like it was supposed to, but they all thought it was good and we’ll go with it. It adds a little bit more to it. The give and take that goes on between the defense and the crowd gets involved in it. It’s a lot more fun.”
Q&A with QB TRENT GREEN
May 22, 2006, 4:26:26 PM
Mini-Camp
May 20, 2006
Q: How does it feel to be back?
GREEN: “Good. It’s good to be back doing football stuff. You can lift and run and run around cones all you want, but it’s good to be back on the field. I think that if you talk to everybody in the locker room, they would much rather be doing football stuff.”
Q: What’s the difference from previous seasons having a new head coach in Herm Edwards?
GREEN: “Coach (Vermeil) was always a very positive and enthusiastic guy anyway, and now with Herm he’s the same thing except that maybe even more so. In a lot of ways it’s very similar. The difference is that his main focus is to get in and get your work done fast and with quality, but he’s going to get the guys out of here to take care of our legs where Coach Vermeil was more into having longer practices. That was his mentality, the more you practice and the more you work, later in the season you’d have success where Coach Edwards is more about keeping yourself fresh and keeping your motors happy.”
Q: How do you feel about Coach Edwards wanting to run the ball more?
GREEN: “I’ve said for the last three seasons that as long as we’re winning, that’s completely fine with me. As an offense we have been in the top five in passing the last three or four seasons, and we’ve also been in the top five in rushing the past three or four seasons. It’s whatever way we can find to win. If it means running the ball more, I’m fine with that. I told Herm that when he first got here. I told him we’ve been number one in offense the couple years, we’ve been number one in scoring a couple of times, we’ve been number one in all these different categories, but we haven’t gotten it done in the postseason like we all want to. Even though we’ve won a lot of games and offensively set a lot of records, I told coach that whatever he wanted to do and whatever he thought from a team concept we could get done that there were enough veteran guys on offense that aren’t selfish and who want to win. I think that’s very clear with veteran guys like G Will Shields, T Willie Roaf and some of the veteran guys who have chosen to come back. It’s very clear that’s what we want to get done.”
Q: How happy were you when G Will Shields and T Willie Roaf chose to come back?
GREEN: “I’ve been working on them for years. I’ve already started working on them now for the next year. I have pretty close friendships with all those guys, especially the four guys that I’ve been with the entire time: Will, Willie, C Casey Wiegmann and G Brian Waters. There’s just a relationship that goes with that. I’m glad they’re back and I’m glad that they’re healthy enough to come back. When you’ve done the things they’ve done in the careers other than win a championship, that’s what drives them to come back. They deserve to retire on their own terms and I’m just glad that they are healthy enough to come back and want to make another run at it.”
Q: Is it going to be kind of an adjustment for you, personally?
GREEN: “I think so. Anytime you spent the amount of time with one coach and been through so many different things. You know whether it be my whole knee ordeal or the trade here and then the first season and turning it around and then, obviously last season with the passing of my father, but you know there’s a lot of emotional things we’ve shared together. He’s been there supporting my family all the way through and he’s done great things for my career. Obviously, he’s always supported me on the field, as well. You know that’s a relationship that continues. I still talk to him quite a bit and that will continue. I’m building a great relationship or what I feel is like a very good relationship with Coach Edwards. I like a lot of what he stands for, of what he’s about, his approach to coaching, his approach to players, and having played before. He has a lot of insight to that about what players are thinking. A lot of times, he’ll beat us to the punch. He’ll be up in front of the team meeting and he’ll bring stuff up. He’s like you guys remember I was a player. I know some of the thought processes that you’re going through. You know what you’re going to go through in training camp and mini camps and those kinds of things. So, that’s refreshing. I’m excited about his playing. He’s a very organized person. I’m sure you guys have all been very aware of that. He is very organized and has a set plan and follows through with that plan. It started off with a real good relationship.”
Q: Has times of meetings made it very clear that he is a defensive coach?
GREEN: “Oh yeah. It’s a little different for us.”
Q: Could it be a good thing for the team to have that type of bias way from a coach who right now seems to be rooting for his defense?
GREEN: “Yeah, you know what it is and I have a lot of fun. I don’t know if it’s because of my age or my experience or whatever it is, but you got to have a little give and take. I’ve had that with Gunther (Cunningham) in the past and with a number of the defensive players in the past. I mean that’s what makes practice fun when you get competitiveness going and now with a head coach that tends to side towards the defense. You got to have some fun. He’s definitely brought that. I don’t think it’s a negative for the offense. Offensively, like I stated earlier, we’re a very veteran group and everybody is very focused and determined on what we want to get done and what we want to accomplish. We’re just excited to see the improvements that the defense has made. We feel really good about their growth and about some of the new players we’ve added. I know talking to the defensive players that there’s a new confidence. They know they haven’t done it yet on the field and by no means are they overconfident, but they feel really good about the system that’s being implemented. They feel good about the way it’s being coached. They feel good about the way it’s being carried over onto the field and in our first few mini-camps and OTAs. When you see them walking around with that confidence that only helps us out as an offense that they feel good about it.”
Q: What do you think of those new quarterbacks?
GREEN: “They’re good. Gosh, they got a lot of talent. Casey Printers has got a cannon for an arm, great feet. You can tell he’s been in Canada because it’s a much different game. I was only there for three or four weeks and got to watch it because it’s a bigger field, 12 on 12, three downs. He just needs to get a little more fine-tuned in terms of understanding the pocket and it’s a little bit different from that aspect, but he’s got all the tools to do it. He’s got a cannon for an arm and he’s done a great job studying. He’s with Coach Terry Shea all the time learning the offense and I think that’s carried over. Anytime that you can step into a huddle and call the plays with the wording that we have he’s obviously spent some time. Brodie (Croyle) has a calmness about him that he doesn’t seem to get rattled or flustered or you know. He has a quick release, a very strong arm. He’s obviously not as big and strong as Casey is. Casey’s a more bigger guy and can run a lot better, but Brodie has more of that pocket awareness and pocket presence and the calmness about him that he’s not really gonna get rattled. Like I said, with the amount of words that we have in our offense, he’s adjusted really well to that. He doesn’t panic when all of the sudden there’s a fifteen word play that you got to shoot out in the huddle with all these guys staring at you with their mouths open because they’re like what did he just say. They’re all learning it. He’s done a great job with it and has great calmness and great leadership about him.”
Q: Do you feel the same way yourself? You’re both said to be too undersized to play quarterback in the NFL and do you see any similarities?
GREEN: “I guess. I don’t know if I was that calm. He really carries himself well. Coming from Alabama and playing a lot of big games and obviously the pressure that is there with Alabama football, not that Indiana is. You have a lot of pressure playing football there, as well. I just think he has a different calmness about him than I had at that stage in my career. I think that when you start talking about size similarities and some of those things, yeah I think there’s some there. I have to see more of him to really give you a large amount of feedback on that.”
Q: Coach Edwards is very hands-on. As a player, what do you think about that?
GREEN: “Coach Vermeil was very hands on with the offense. When he was on the field, he would go station to station which is very similar to what Coach Edwards does. The difference is Coach Edwards actually gets in the drill. Where Coach Vermeil would be drill to drill and have things to say. He spent the majority of time on the offensive side and if you seen a practice, Coach Edwards spends the majority of his time on the defensive side and probably more so on the defensive back drills because that’s his comfort zone and that’s what he played and that’s what he’s really trying to get done. He definitely doesn’t have a fear jumping into drills and getting his point across. You know stressing the points he wants done, how he wants practice run. The tempo he wants. The enthusiasm he wants. It’s nice.”
Q: From **** (Vermeil) and Al (Saunders) being in charge of the offense to you working with Mike Solari, are you going to have a greater influence than you did in the past?
GREEN: “I had a really good relationship with Al Saunders. I know Mike Solari and Terry Shea have been working a lot together. Obviously, Mike has had such a great track record with the running game and with our pass protection in terms of getting caught up on pass progressions and those kinds of things. He never had to worry about that. He would have to know that okay in this pass protection, it’s a five step, seven step drop. Hey, the quarterback is going to have to hold it a little bit longer than he normally does. He understood those facets of the passing game. In terms of understanding the progressions and hot reads and sight adjustments and those kinds of things, he and Terry have been really working hand in hand and I’ve come in the off-season and met with them a couple of times just to go over some things that we wanted to tweak from what we have done before. Obviously, every offensive coordinator I’ve been with has been in this system and it’s pretty much every team I’ve been with has had this version of the offense. Those coordinators all want their own personal stance. It’s not that they want to change it. It’s just that they all have different personalities and they all have different things that they want to emphasize and talking that with them. There’s been great communication.”
Q: Is it different than maybe last year?
GREEN: “Well, yeah you got to remember that I was with Al (Saunders) for five years. Early on for those first few years, Al and I were communicating all the time. Then, it got to the point where we were in such a comfort zone that we kind of don’t have to do that because we knew what each other was thinking. He knew my personality in terms of what I like to do on the field. I knew what his play calling personalities were like. Now, it’s really more back to early with my relationship with Al. It’s similar to what Mike and I do, there’s just more communication because you’re building that foundation right now.”
Q: “Do you see the opportunity to have your own little stamp on this?
GREEN: “I’m never afraid to kick my two cents in there. It doesn’t mean it’s always listened to. Because of the different people I’ve been with like Ralph Friedgen or Norv Turner, Cam Cameron, they’ve all had their own personal and I’ve been able to be in a number of different offenses. Now with Mike, when we got to St. Louis, he was like listen we’ve got Isaac Bruce. We’re going to draft Torry Holt. We’ve got Az Hakim. We’ve got Ricky Proehl. We’re not going to emphasize the tight end. So, we need to go more of a four wide, three and four wides. With Norv, he really liked to emphasize the tight-end with the success he had with (Jay) Novacek. He wanted to emphasize the tight-end and the fullback coming out of the backfield. When I first got here, that was really our emphasis with Tony Gonzalez and Tony Richardson. Then, Al wanted to switch over and get Dante (Hall) more involved. So, we switched back over and did some more of the Mike Martz things. Obviously, with the emphasis on the running game with Larry (Johnson), it may switch back more. I’m comfortable. I’ve been in all those different things. As long as the communication is there, I don’t need to have play calling and I don’t need to be the guy who calls the plays. I’m completely comfortable in my role. The thing I like is the communication. I had that with Al and I have that with Mike. The thing now is because Mike is learning the passing game with Terry. We’re just at that foundation stage where we are communicating quite a bit. It’s been great.”
Q: You talked about the need of some of the young receivers to step up. After five or six practices, do you see any outcome from some of those guys and are they making the progress that you were talking of?
GREEN: “I think with Jeris McIntyre. He is very comfortable in this offense. He understands it from the mental standpoint. He’s always in the right place. He fundamentally is sound. Craphonso (Thorpe) is still at that stage where he’s thinking a little bit too much on the field. Craphonso has a the talent in the world and I’ve told him that. Once he gets the mental part of it down in terms of hearing the play in the huddle, breaking the huddle, doing his shift, doing his motions, making his adjustments on the go. Whether it be cover two, cover three, cover eight, six, whatever the adjustment to his route may be. Once he gets all that and stops thinking and just plays because last year we would sit over there, Coach Vermeil and I would sit over on the side and watch the scout team. He’d be on the scout team and you look at the card and run the play on the card. He just showed tremendous athletic ability with what he could get done on the football field. It’s up to him and I said you’ve got to get to that point to where you’re not thinking. To where you’re just going and playing and that aggression takes over and I think he’ll get there. It’s just a matter of you have to put in the hours studying. You have to watch the film. You have to get the playbook. You know those kinds of things. I think as he gains more competence. We’re asking him to learn a couple different positions where last year it was only one position. People may be wondering well why didn’t you do that last year. Now when you lose a Marc Boerigter or a Chris Horn, guys who can play all three of the wide receiver spots, you need to fill that because on game day you are only going to have so many guys dressed. You can’t have a backup at every single position. A couple of your receivers have to know all the spots so you can plug in at different times and that’s the role he’s in right now. Right now, Samie Parker is our starter and Eddie Kennison is our starter. So he’s got to know both sides.”
Q: Is it more fun practicing in front of the fans in comparison to the average practice?
GREEN: “Yes. Definitely. It’s always a lot more fun because you get the feedback from the crowd. It’s always more fun because there’s sometimes where it’s a bad play and we know it’s a bad play, but to them it’s like a great play and they’re screaming and yelling. We’re like, yeah that play didn’t unfold like it was supposed to, but they all thought it was good and we’ll go with it. It adds a little bit more to it. The give and take that goes on between the defense and the crowd gets involved in it. It’s a lot more fun.”
