HEAD COACH BRIAN CALLAHAN
Obviously not the way we wanted to finish this season off. Appreciate the effort, the preparation, the process that our team put in this entire season. That's the kind of thing that we can build off of which we're going to have to. I appreciate their effort, appreciate their work. Obviously, nothing much to report injury wise. Other than that, I'll let you guys go ahead.
Did you hear the news yet on the other front about the Buffalo game? Does that provide a small silver lining?
Yeah, I did. I'm obviously aware. I saw right before I came in here. Those aren't things that are exciting truthfully from my perspective. Not where I wanted to be this year, not where our team wanted to be. Those are the things that you get when you're not playing well enough and that's where we are. Yeah, not something I'm going to take a whole lot of solace in, but we'll move to that phase starting tomorrow.
Is there any relief in just having this season come to a conclusion after what it's been?
No, there's no relief to it. I'm ready for a bit of a break if we're being honest, but not relief. I've enjoyed the process. I think it's been a long journey from the time I got hired till now. There's a lot of things that I've learned and hopefully a lot of things to improve on, obviously. But no, I don't sense any relief in it. I've actually very much enjoyed the season and the process. But a lot of things that got to get better and I could definitely use a bit of a break though.
What did you tell them in the last time in the locker room today?
Same thing I just opened with, that I appreciate their effort. They never at any point deviated from the process that they had every week. We had energy in practice. We had focus, guys prepared. So those are the things that I appreciate and those are the things that are going to help us win games in the future and that stuff matters. It's all part of the process that we have to keep building on. I just tell them that I appreciated all the things that they put into it. I know how much they put into it, not the result we wanted to finish with obviously at any stretch or the record. We got to do everything we can to not be here again.
I know this is fresh for you, it's just over. But would you say this has been the most frustrating football season ever experienced?
I mean, it's up there. Any time you only win three games, we had one in Cincinnati very similar to this that felt very similar. There's not a whole lot of fun in that. It's a grind, and you got to work, and you got to keep coming back every Monday and you got to keep swinging. And I think our team did a great job of that. Our coaching staff did a great job of that of every Monday coming back in and picking back up and trying to go find a way to win. It's a long season when they go like this. A lot of things we've got to keep improving on, so we don't have to feel this way again.
How did you decide to go to Will Levis or Mason Rudolph? What was your process in picking which one went out?
Just letting them play a little bit. They both took a couple of series consecutively and then let Will (Levis) take the end of the game. But yeah, I was just let them play, have them try to get a little bit of a rhythm going and let them both have opportunities to go play football.
What made you want to go with Will Levis at the end?
I just felt like he had earned the right to go finish the game off. So yeah, just thought it was the right thing for him.
Those last couple of minutes as the clock was ticking away, what was going through your mind? Was it reflecting time yet?
Not yet. That'll be for tomorrow and the weeks to come after that. Plenty of reflecting. I reflect pretty continually throughout the season, just on each week as it goes by, things that were good, things that I could do better and things that come up. So there's kind of a sort of constant reflection and I'll take a step back and look at the totality of it all starting this next week, and you got some weeks to step back and refresh and get some perspective and find out where we got to go and then attack that like crazy this offseason.
You guys had a couple of fourth down opportunities. Fourth-and-two in the red zone. Why not go for it in that situation?
Just try to stay disciplined to what we were looking at from a book wise. The fourth-and-one would have been a go. Fourth-and-two was a kick. So just following through on the same advice. And so we took the points when we were down on that fourth-and-two.
That play you got to Calvin Ridley, Ridley got over 1000 yards, was that the same Nick Westbrook-Ikhine play earlier in the season?
No, actually a little bit different the one to Nick Westbrook(-Ikhine) was a two-man combination. It was a kind of an out route, a pressure route by number two that freed up Nick. This was just a true kind of Four Verticals. Knew we'd have a chance to go throw one up to Rid (Calvin Ridley) and knew they're going to try to be aggressive and sit on it. So, we just tried to run by him and then it worked out well. Rid made a really nice catch.
The throw to Tay Martin. Was that intended for Tay or was that intended for Bryce Oliver? they were both right there in the area.
Sure. No, it was intended for Bryce (Oliver) and ended up in the area and made a hell of a play. So sometimes you find yourself in those spots, and he made a play on the ball.
There was a lot of guys that dealt with injuries throughout the season. Jeffery Simmons looks like he's been beat up, had both those elbows taped up. What does it mean to have the leader of this team, the captain, to be out there and play really from start to finish?
That's hard to do in the NFL to play start to finish in 17 games. We've had a handful of guys that have done it. To have one of our best players be that guy to keep showing up for his teammates and keep showing up for the team and the organization, it means a lot. It means a lot. It is not easy to play that position for that many weeks in a row and not miss any time. But he's been a pro and he's fought through every week and he's shown up every week. And that's what you appreciate about how Jeff conducts his business is that every time he steps between his lines, you get everything he has. And he gave it all, all season.
Knowing it's fresh, just big picture wise, what do you imagine the number one pick or what that can turn into can do for a franchise where you are in terms of injecting you with either a premier talent or the picks that might result?
That's the way the league's designed. It's designed to continue to allow the teams that don't play as well to have chances to continue to improve their teams. And that's why the draft has always been the way it is. The order is why the teams with the worst records pick at the top. It's not a position I'd ever want to be in again. But there is the benefit of that is it does open up some opportunities for you to try to improve your football team. And not only that you get the first pick, you get the first pick in the rounds after that as well. So you do have a chance to improve your team. I've seen it done. I've been a part of it. It is the one bonus to a season like this. And again, not one I ever want to be a part of again. But we are here and we'll use it to our advantage to improve our team as best we can.
What will tomorrow look like for you?
Be a lot of meetings with players on their way out. I won't get to meet with everybody. I've met with a couple of guys over the last week as well, just to touch base to try to make sure I hit all the guys I need to talk to. A bunch of player meetings and then I'll start meeting with the coaching staff individually over the next couple of days as well. So, we'll get all our end-of-season evaluations done, all of our meetings and evaluations of staff and all those things and move on to the next phase. Take a little bit time off and come back ready to roll. The All-Star Games are in a couple of weeks and that's where our focus will turn.
When will you meet with the front office and with ownership regarding this team going forward?
Yeah, we'll meet probably once I get through all the players and coaches. That'll be the thing we'll finally finish the week with those meetings to make sure we're all on the same page with where we're headed. But I'll get all the normal post-season meetings and evaluations out of the way over the early part of the week, and that'll usually be the finishing part of the week, somewhere around the end of it.
It sounds as if you're feeling confident going into those meetings that, as far as you know, everything is a go?
Yeah, I keep showing up. That's all I got control over. So, I'll be ready to roll and ready to take the offseason.
As it stands right now, do you believe this team can become a winning football team, or is there going to have to be some serious changes in this offseason?
Absolutely, I think we can be a winning football team. I think if you look at the things that we can control, that we can improve. The turnovers, the penalties, the negative plays that we had, sacks are part of that. There's a lot of things that we can improve coaching wise. There's a lot of things we can improve schematically that I think will allow us to be a competitive football team. And we were competitive in games this year that we had opportunities, and we found ways to lose the game, which is—that's what we've got to stop doing. We've got to find ways to protect the ball better, less penalties, and we're going to put ourselves in a better position. Obviously, keep adding as many good players as we can add, and I think we have a chance to be a really good football team and we just got to keep building that process as we go along. But I've got a lot of belief in the guys in the locker room, the players that are here, the players that we'll end up adding at some point. We're just going to keep building and I got a lot of confidence in and where we're headed and how we're going to get there.
