Detroit Lions: Jim Bob Cooter’s Quotes on Final Day of OTAs
By Zac Snyder
It was Jim Bob Cooter’s turn to meet with the media following today’s Detroit Lions OTA practice, here is what he had to say.
On the feeling of having a full offseason as a first-time coordinator: “It’s exciting. It’s the first offseason for me to do this thing, and then obviously we’re doing some different stuff. There’s some new words and all that stuff, so it’s exciting to be a part of that and to be at the front of the room in March.”
On how different this year has been for him so far compared to last year: “Everything moves and changes. You know, like I said last year a bunch of times, try to do what our guys do best. It’s the same thing right now. There is some different verbiage, I think that’s important. Sometimes these days on TV you can hear just about everything and see just about everything, so I think it’s good to get a fresh start every now and then. We’re doing a little bit of that, so there’s some of that going on, but it’s bits and pieces.”
On what he is bringing to the offense this year that last year lacked: “I can’t speak to that. We’re going to try to keep the train rolling we had the second half of the year and hopefully have a good season this season.”
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On how far along he is in installing the offense: “We’re rolling along pretty good. This is the 10th OTA, we’ve got a minicamp next week, so we save a little bit for that. But we’re throwing a lot at our guys and it’s a lot mentally and it’s a lot physically out here. They’re handling it pretty well, but we’ve got a little bit more to come, but they’re hearing a lot of it right now.”
On how he sees TE Eric Ebron developing: “I see him fitting in as one of our tight ends, see him working hard out here. He’s working every day. I see him hopefully taking strides this year and making those big strides.”
On where Ebron has to make strides this season: “Well, I think we’ve all got certain areas to get better and we’ll share that with the players and we’ll talk about what we’re trying to get better at this training camp, this summer, this season with those guys. We’re not necessarily going to share that with the media.”
On if he feels confidence in the offseason based on the success of the second half of last season: “The reality of this business is every year is a new year, you know? You’ve got new people around you, we’ve got new coaches, we’ve got some new players. We’re going to go out there, you know, the pressure’s not going to bother me from that perspective. I’m more worried about how we handle it and how we learn the system as we’re putting it in right now, and as we get to training camp how we start executing it. So, now’s a little bit of a time of learning. We get to training camp, it becomes a time to really execute and succeed.”
On if he was pleased at how the offense worked in the second half of last season: “Sure, I mean, I think we had some success in the second half of the year and it wasn’t perfect by any means. It’s never going to be perfect in this game, but yeah, we were heading in the right direction. If we’d have had a couple more games I think we’d have kept it heading even farther in the right direction, but hopefully we’re going to pick up right where we left off.”
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On the players’ response so far to his offense: “You know, we try to have conversations with those guys, especially the quarterback. I talked about it a bunch last year, what does he like? What does he not like? Same thing’s going on with the receivers, same thing’s going on with the tight ends, running backs, O-line, and right now we’re putting in a system. We’re putting in a lot of things and sometimes it’s important to get all that stuff taught and get reps of it out here before you figure out what you’re good at, what you’re not that great at, what you like, what you don’t like. So, we’re still kind of in that process, but at the end of the day we’re going to try to do what our guys do best.”
On how different the defense will be for QB Matthew Stafford without WR Calvin Johnson: “It’s different. I mean, great player, it’s been said by 100 guys in 100 newspaper stories. I’ve read them all I think, but it’s going to be different, but that’s the NFL. That’s the NFL, there are good players, there are great players, there are guys you guys haven’t heard a lot of that come and go every year and they all have an impact on our team. Calvin’s no different. He’s an excellent player, but we’re going to go out there, we’ve got a bunch of good players, we’re going to go out there and try to score a bunch of points and win games.”
On what he likes about QB Dan Orlovsky: “His preparation, the way he handles the game mentally, the way he practices. He practices really hard, practices really sharply. You know, does everything you could ask of him mentally. Really prepared for everything we throw at them. Does a good job kind of running the show communication-wise. He’s been a really good veteran presence for our quarterback room and our offense.”
On how WR Marvin Jones is fitting in: “Marvin’s doing a good job. We’re getting him a lot of reps like we’re getting all our guys. We’re trying to throw him the ball a bunch and he’s fitting in well.”
On if it is difficult to gauge T Taylor Decker’s progress without pads: “It is. I mean, the essence of that position is playing physical football with pads on, but you can watch the guy move, you can watch how he handles things mentally and he’s doing a good job. All rookies have a little bit of a transition coming into the NFL, but I think he’s doing a good job. He’s picking things up. Looking forward to seeing what happens when the pads come on.”
On starting Decker at left tackle right away: “Well, we’re working through some things, trying to figure out what our best five’s going to be. You’re not going to know your best five unless you try guys out at certain spots.”
On if Decker’s reps at left tackle in practice is an indication: “It’s just an indication of how we chose to use the reps early.”
On how he would describe his offense: “Efficient and successful. I mean, whatever that means. That could be throwing the ball. That could be running the ball. That could be fast, slow, you know, any adjective is whatever, but whatever it takes for our guys to win. That may be scoring a lot of points, some games it’s not. Sometimes you’ve got to play a little slow, you’ve got to help the defense out. At the end of the day, flexible, adaptable, able to do whatever we need to do hopefully to help our team win games.”
On if the term ‘gunslinger’ no longer applies to Stafford in this offense: “We’re not going to bury that guy yet. We had to do what we had to do last year with certain instances kind of where we were in the season and some of that showed up in the game tape. I don’t think we’ll put any restraints on our quarterback, you know, so there may be some short passes, there may be some long ones. So, we’re not going to restrain him at all.”
On if he thinks about the offense even when he’s away from the facility: “Well, I’ve realized in the last six months, eight months or whatever, I have a lot more things going through my head when I’m driving home and driving in here in the morning. So, it may be a little tweak, it may be a little note. Maybe I need to tell this guy this thing, I forgot to cover this yesterday, I need to cover it today. Those things happen a little more often these days than they did in the past, I’d say.”
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On if RB Theo Riddick can be a bigger factor in the running game: “I believe he will. Yeah, I believe he will. We’re still kind of ironing that out and getting all our reps out here and kind of letting it shake out how it shakes out. But I think Theo can be a really successful runner. Obviously, all you guys know it, he caught the ball really well last year, was really successful for us in the pass game. We’ve got to find a better way to let him be successful in the run game. I think he’s doing a really good job learning and executing and getting better out here. I see him making strides in the run game.”
On if being a coordinator in the NFL was what he always aspired to do: “It was. Yeah, it was. You know, I kind of grew into that when I was in college. I was in a good quarterback room. We ran sort of a pro-style offense. I learned a lot there and I kind of always said that was kind of my best class in college. You know, I learned a ton doing that. Kind of developed the love for it and the interest in getting up here and doing kind of what I’m doing now. You know, you take some bumps and bruises along the way, you have your highs and your lows along the way and I’m glad to be here in front of you guys talking about almost nothing.”
On where Riddick has to improve as a runner: “He’s getting better. You know, if you look back at Theo, he sort of played running back and receiver throughout his college career. So, I’m a big believer in reps. You know, I get better at things as I do them 10 times, 20 times, 100 times. I think everybody kind of does. You know, there’s some naturals out there, so the more reps he gets receiving a handoff and reading an outside zone or whatever run play you want to talk about, he’s going to get better at that and we can see it out here. I see it the more reps he gets, the better he’s getting.”
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On how much homework the players will take with them this weekend before minicamp: “Well, I mean, they’re going to be learning a lot. They’re in their (Microsoft) Surfaces. We’ve got a bunch of stuff electronically these days pushed to them, so they can – The good part about that is, you know, some guys will fly out on the weekend or they may be in town, but they don’t have these huge playbooks they’re carrying around. They kind of have the Surface and they get to study up on all their stuff. Those guys will tell you we’re throwing a lot at them. It’s a lot of words, it’s a lot of protections, you know, everything is a lot right now and that’s on purpose. You know, it’s kind of a stress test of sorts, so hopefully they’re all studying quite a bit this weekend.”
*All quotes provided by the Detroit Lions.