ChiefsPlanet - Herm Q&A

Do these guys really get paid to think up these questions? Anyway, Herm seems to have calmed down after the finger shaking. Even makes a couple of them seem stupid.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2007/05..._edwards__530/

Q&A with HERM EDWARDS – 5/30
May 30, 2007, 3:27:54 PM

VIDEO: Windows | Real | Audio

OTA – Highlights
HERM EDWARDS: “We talked this morning about getting back our focus. We had very good practices last week – the three that we had. We had another one today. I thought the guys focused well and we’ll have another (practice) tomorrow similar to today, and then we’ll actually come together and bring the big guys out of the sandbox and actually start playing some football – without pads obviously. So, that’ll be kind of fun seeing the linemen going after each other.”

Q: What do you want to accomplish in these OTA’s?

EDWARDS: “Really tempo, how we’re going to try to throw the ball and how we’re going to defend the pass. There is a lot of competition at a lot of spots. You see guys surfacing; you see guys who are consistent and you see some guys who have a good day and the next, not a good day. I just think we’re evaluating players at this point. But tempo is the key. We want to be a fast-moving football team, fast-thinking. We’re able to do that right now. I think the young guys are learning what we want them to do on offense. So this is kind of a way of teaching the skill guys what we’re going to do offensively when we throw the football – with our backs especially, getting more defined in our passes to our running backs and working on some different combinations of routes.

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“Defensively, we’re primarily a zone football team. To be a zone football team you have to have great eyes and great vision. We’re trying to do that right now with our linebackers and our secondary guys. We’re dropping in zones and breaking to the football.”

Q: When you talk about competition are you able to see that in OTA’s or is that more when you get to training camp?

EDWARDS: “You get to see a lot of athletes move without the pads on. The thinking part is the same. When you put shoulder pads on maybe the guy who wasn’t as fast as the guy with shorts on is all of a sudden because you’re talking about physical football and that’s a whole different animal. You do it in phases and this is one phase of it. We’re really finding out more about our athletes and how they move and how they’re put under situations in the passing game. It really won’t get real physical until we get to camp.”

Q: We talked to you in the off-season about Larry (Johnson) and attitude. He’s been to off-season workouts and OTA’s. What’s he been like here and is he working on catching the ball, blocking and that kind of thing?

EDWARDS: “He’s working on catching the ball and he’s working on being more defined in his routes, and I think we have to do a better job of defining the routes for our running backs. The quarterbacks have to have the ability to get the ball to the back, and when you look at us and you break us down and see how we played last year a lot of times the back is a quarterback’s friend and keeps the drive alive. If you’ve got athletic players like Larry who can catch the ball out of the backfield they can make plays. All of a sudden if he catches 60 passes, to me, that’s an extended run. It’s almost like a toss play. He’s out of harm’s way and he’s in the secondary already and when he gets the ball he doesn’t have to run through the line. When you can do that with a guy who has some talent and has some speed and is hard to tackle in the open field because he’s big and strong it gives you another weapon.”

Q: Do you see some difference in him in attitude?

EDWARDS: “Oh, he’s been great. He’s been the leader of the backs. He’s finishing all his plays. He’s very conscious of coming out of the backfield and being a productive pass-catcher. That’s the next step in his development as a running back in this league – his ability to come out of the backfield and running routes.”

Q: You talk about him going out and running routes. Would you like to see more screen passes in your offense next year?

EDWARDS: “We’d like to score touchdowns and if it’s screen passes or whatever it may be. Right now it’s kind of hard to throw screens because there is no defensive line. So, right now it would kind of be a moot point to throw screens.”

Q: When you see a running back catch a pass out of the backfield it looks like child’s play, but looking around a lot of guys can’t do it. What makes it so much harder than it looks?

EDWARDS: “Generally when you catch a ball out of the backfield you have your back turned to the defense most of the time. You’re going to get hit. And, the ball has to be on time because you’re going in a short area where linebackers live. So, if the ball isn’t thrown properly or thrown behind you you’re going to get hit. I think the running backs who can catch the ball out of the backfield can really pose a big problem for you. We need to get the ball to our backs a little bit more than we did last year.”

Q: What about Jared Allen who’s not here today?

EDWARDS: “He’ll be here Friday. There are a couple of guys that are not here today but I anticipate all of them to be here Friday.”

Q: Dwayne Bowe was making some plays today. Does he look more comfortable to you now?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he makes catches. The receivers have done a pretty good job. (Jeff) Web has done a pretty good job, (Chris) Hannon, and there have been some guys who have caught the ball well. The quarterbacks have thrown some pretty well at times.

“That’s what you like about competition. Every day they come to work they’ve got to compete. You want an environment like that; you want to create an environment on your football team where guys have to compete every day. If you can do that you can get players better. That’s what we’re here for – to improve.”

Q: You said last year you don’t want guys to be comfortable. Could you explain what you mean by that?

EDWARDS: “When you come to work if you get comfortable in what you do – in any job, its human nature – you lose a little bit of your edge. You have to have an edge to be competitive every day when you come to work and this is a competitive game that we play. The great athletes that I’ve watched compete against themselves every day. That’s not a natural thing for guys. But if you can create an environment like that when they walk through the door they know they’re getting evaluated today – in the classroom and to the field.”

Q: Did you feel that some of the guys were becoming too comfortable?

EDWARDS: “No, I just think when you’ve been a place for a long time and you’re a veteran guy there is some sort of comfort. But you have to make sure you’re pushing those guys too. If you do that you become more competitive and get better as a player. That’s what your job is as a coach: make them play up to their talent level. They’ve got to practice that way and if they don’t practice that way it’s very hard for them to play that way.”

Q: If you are evaluating every day what are you looking for?

EDWARDS: “How guys improve.”

Q: Even veterans?

EDWARDS: “Oh, even veterans. That’s even more important because as the veterans improve they show the young players how we do it. That’s important. If a young player watches a veteran not working hard then that young player in five years thinks that’s the way I’m supposed to act. That’s not a good example. You want guys to work. You force the veteran guys by creating competition at their positions and they’re going to work.”