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Here's what Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell had to say on Saturday following Seahawks' training camp practice #2.
LINK: Darrell Bevell Training Camp Day 2 Press Conference
Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell
August 1, 2015
(On the first days) "It's been exciting, it's fun to get back out here. I mean, what better place would you want to practice than with what we have here. It's great to be out here, nice sunny days. It's great to be out here with all the new guys, kind of see them moving out here and it's just exciting."
(On Jimmy Graham blocking and the run game emphasis) "I mean that's not going to change, that's something that's a part of, you know it's at our core, so we're going to run the football. Jimmy's going to be in there, he's more than willing to do it, he's excited to do it. We have to move along further in camp to be able to assess everything, but right now just his mentality that it's not something that he's going to shy away from. We have to get through pads, and teach technique and those things and we have to just move along."
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(On receiver rotations) "I don't know, I don't always like to assess pass groups and everything, but I really like the group, it's a deep group and I think that we have different style guys and you know we have big guys from Chris Matthews, Jimmy - obviously he's a tight end, but he fits in there with size - [Jermaine] Kearse, the good sized guys, then we have some little shifty guys with [Tyler] Lockett, with Doug [Baldwin], Ricardo Lockette with height and speed so it's a great combination of the group, now they're showing up every day, different guys, Kevin Smith, a lot of fun to see those guys make plays because they've really grown, they work hard in the off season, they spend some time with Russ, with the things that Russ does to different places, so it's good synchronization what they have."
(On making cuts) "You're always going to take the best guys, I think it's you know, we always tell them all the time ‘go out there, compete, make the decisions tough' and you know that's what's going to happen. We don't have 53 guys out here, we have many more guys that could make our team, these guys a lot of times go on, make other teams. We give them every opportunity to show themselves out here, and some guys are going to fall and we'll keep the best. Those are decisions we have to make, you know, and there's a lot of things that can separate them, it depends on a lot of things really."
(On setting themselves apart) "I think consistency is number one, trust is another one; that the quarterback can trust that they'll be where they're supposed to be, when they're supposed to be there is always a factor and all of these get to this level. They have great talents, some of them have different talents and it's my job to be able to find what their strengths and weaknesses are and be able to increase strengths and minimize weaknesses. We'll do that, but those things are what would help set them apart and we're a program that's played a lot of young guys, we're not scared to make a move and let the young guys play. Coach has done that throughout his history, and we'll keep giving guys opportunities."
(On Tyler Lockett) "I think what excites me the most when we were first talking about him was special teams. He was going to be our returner, kick return, punt return, all those. I wasn't necessarily thinking about where he could fit in as a wide receiver, and he's come in here and he's done a great job, and he's going to be a big factor at wide receiver as well, he's going to be able to play in the slot, he makes big plays, he's got great quickness, great speed, he can make people miss. It's something that after watching him the first day it's like ‘oh this guy's not just a kick returner.' I think it was just our conversation and because we'd talked about it so much, with ‘kick return, kick return,' that was kind of the focus of it, loved his tape, he had a lot of catches. He's done great things, but I think just the conversation was more on that side of it, that you saw, when I got to see him on the field it was like ‘wait a minute, this guy's not just that, he's the full package.'"
(On draft dynamic) "We loved his abilities, first and foremost, one of the things we felt like we were missing was the special teams aspect, and the kick return, the punt return, we wanted somebody explosive, somebody dynamic in that area and he fit the bill for it. Obviously he became a priority for us. We knew, like I said, I did know but there was so much talk about the special team aspect of it that kind of took precedence, and now as he's out here and watching him run around and catch balls, OTAs and the first couple days, he's going to be a nice player."
(On the biggest thing a receiver needs to master) "Without a doubt, it's the playbook. They need to be able to master the book and have a good grasp of that, because what usually ends up happening is that if they don't have a grasp of it, they can't let their abilities take over, and when they have a good grasp of it, and they can pick it up, and they aren't thinking of the playbook, their abilities are really able to show up, so they've got to get to that point where they're comfortable enough that they're not thinking of everything and every step they're taking so that we can see their ability, their hands, their change of direction, all those things take over."
(On size) "Yeah, I mean, we just have those type of guys and like we were talking about earlier, we have a great group, there's size, there's some smaller guys too, there is a lot of size and we're going to end up letting all of those guys compete and then we'll see how they fall, and we'll end up taking the best however many are able to fit on our roster. We do like the size though, it shows up quickly. Without a doubt, it helps Russell in different ways and it does show up for us. You can see them, you can see those guys particularly when they're running into traffic areas, between the numbers, between the hashes, you can see them hit Chris [Matthews] because he was in the middle of the field today, because Jimmy's a tight end, he's more in there, Luke's (Willson) got the same size, fits in there as well, but it can help on the outside as well, not a lot of times are there corners like [Richard] Sherman and [Brandon] Browner and those guy's size, with a guy like [Douglas] McNeil or [Ricardo] Lockette or Jermaine [Kearse], some of those guys, Chris Matthews as well, their size is really able to show up."
(On wide out/special teams crossover) "I think we have more wide outs who play special teams than probably anywhere. When you're talking about Doug and Jermaine, they're starters on special teams, then they're starters for us on offense, so throughout that group, there's not prima donnas, they go out, they ball out, they want to play, so you can see that from the first guy to the second guy, so really all of the wide outs have really taken to that on special teams, you'll see every one of those guys practicing over there. With Tyler Lockett, what we expect out of him, all those guys are willing to play and they know that's the kind of thing that can push them over the edge, Coach Snyder does a great job of grabbing all those guys and that's probably the better question to ask him on how they're falling right now."
(On Chris Matthews' performance in Super Bowl XLIX) "Chris was on our team then he was off our team then he kind of came back later in the season for us, and we kept trying to find a bigger guy, and it happened to show up in the biggest game. He practiced well so we gave him an opportunity. Sometimes you can go through a game he can have the opportunity and a ball never comes to him. Really the first one that Russell through up to him on the corner route where he made the catch all of a sudden I think once he threw it up there and he caught it then I think he came alive for Russell because he's an easy target to throw to. He sees him, he's got a great catch radius, so then I think a couple more balls were able to go his way."
(On Patriots' pass defense in Super Bowl XLIX) "The way they were matching up as well. They were putting [Darrelle] Revis on Doug [Baldwin] and said okay we're going to take Doug out with him and we're going to put [Brandon] Browner on [Jermaine] Kearse, so the third wide-out was going to get their third corner and the matchup was going to be hopefully in our favor."
(On Kevin Norwood's performance during training camp) "He's been quiet and I think he's been quiet because he's been banged up a little bit, so I'm excited to see him out there. What I've loved about him from day one is his hands. There's no question about his hands, he doesn't have to think about one ball. He can catch it so easy. That's something that we really like in our wide receivers is to be able to catch the ball with ease, but there's other areas that he needs to come along in, and the number one thing is being out there, and so far so good. He'll get an opportunity if he continues to stay out there."