Ron Rivera Presser: “We look forward to seeing what some of these young guys can do”

Ron Rivera speaks to the media after practice

Montez Sweat:

Trading Montez was a really tough decision, but something that we felt was in the best interest of the football team. We really appreciate everything Montez had did for us. A heck of a football player came in and did some nice things and really fit well. But again, football’s a very difficult business and a lot of things change and things happen and so we made the decision. Really do appreciate everything that Montez did for us and wanna wish him the best in Chicago as he finishes up his opportunities there.

Chase Young:

Trades:

Well, I think, again, when you look at some of the things that have happened for us this year in terms of growth and development and looking at what’s happening on at the quarterback position, you know, we feel really good about who Sam is becoming for us. And again, looking at some of the things that are going on and with the compensation we’re getting for these players, it’s gonna give us an opportunity to continue to build for the future and do things a little differently. So yeah, there may be a little bit of a shift in terms of the paradigm and how we’re gonna construct things. Been a lot of things that we have talked about. It’s been an interesting 10 days probably as far as those things are concerned.

Giving up on the season after trades?:

No, what I would say is, based on some of the things that we’ve seen and some of the growth and development we have, it’s an opportunity to see what else we have. It’s an opportunity to go out and win football games using different guys. And we feel that we have an opportunity to go out and play and play well. We look forward to seeing what some of these young guys can do. We do think that there’s every opportunity in front of us and I’ve gone through this before in 2014, I went through the same thing. We were late in the season, and we put a bunch of young guys that we felt had the opportunity or deserved the opportunity and put’em out on the field and ended up in the playoffs. We won some games that gave us a chance. Do we have that opportunity? I think this is what this is. I think it’s the same kind of an opportunity.

We do feel strongly about the quarterback. It’s something that I talked about in the off season, I’ve talked about through training camp. I’ve talked through the beginning of the season about the growth and development and, and we’re seeing it. And so we want to see what we have and see if we can win football games and put ourselves in that same position.

Young players:

Sam Howell:

Trade process with owner Josh Harris:

Well, for the most part, the process, probably started about 10 days ago. Our front office fielded a few calls about some of our players. And when we talked about it, one of the things we talked about was gathering information and what potentials were for some of our guys.

We talked about that, we talked about what the plan should be in terms of decisions being made. And then we did reach out to Mr. Harris. We had a nice conversation about that. We talked about our plans basically, we talked about what the potential could be and what the compensation could be.

He liked the ideas, he agreed with the ideas, and so we were all aligned with everything from coaching to personnel to Mr. Harris. And with that, we went out and the front office they did the deals that they did yesterday.

l think working with Mr. Harris and again, the whole group of us coming together, talking about the plan and what we see and what the potential is and listening to everybody’s ideas and then talking with Mr. Harris and answering his questions and listening to his points. You know, we all really found that this is a deep thinker. I mean, this is a guy that really, as you bring stuff to him and he digests all that, he’s really thoughtful and it’s something that doesn’t happen quickly. There’s no knee-jerk reaction to anything. It was really kind of cool just listening to him in terms of, ‘Hey, I like what you guys are talking about. I like division’. So, it’s one of those things that if you bring the work to him, work’s prepared, ready to go, it makes it an easier conversation, a better conversation.

Message to the team after the trades:

The biggest message more than anything else was guys, it’s always difficult when you say goodbye to guys that help you and help grow and develop together, but it’s also part of the business. It’s the business side of it and that’s never easy. And for us, the biggest thing more than anything else is this is creating some opportunities for some other guys. It’s creating a different opportunity for us as a football team, and we’ve got to make the best of it.

Reports on Chase Young after the trade:

I’m not sure why it got out. That’s probably a bigger question. If you’re not going to put your name to it, then please don’t do it. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to the player as far as those things are concerned, it’s just not palatable. It’s a tough thing.

As far as the direction we’re heading and what we’re doing, I think the biggest thing that’s not a driving force in what we’re doing, what we’re doing is we’re doing what we feel is the paradigm shift of what we want to do. We feel we have a quarterback; we feel we have a guy going forward that we have a chance to grow and become what we think we can. And to do so, you’ve got to be able to afford the situation. And I think that’s what’s growing for us right now, is that we’re putting ourselves in position to do those things.

And it’s not just saying we’re going to build everything on offense, but it gives us a chance to spread it around and keep some of the guys that we want to keep, go after some of the guys we want to go after and draft who we want to draft. If we end up with the five picks within the top 100 or whatever that number is, that’s pretty good for us going forward.

Lack of consistency with four first-round defensive linemen:

l think that’s a big part of it, but I think a lot of it, consistency, lack of consistency too, has also been trying to find and develop that quarterback. I think that’s a lot of the things that we’ve had to deal with, is that if you can get to that point and you have your guy sooner, then maybe things turn out differently, but we never got to that point. That was the hard thing. I know this franchise has been looking for quite some time and for the first time in a while, I think that that guy might be here. I really do. I mean, I just got done looking at a bunch of stuff the analytics of football and they’re all pointing in the right direction as far as the quarterback is concerned.

DEs James Smith-Williams and Casey Toohill:

Yes, for the most part, really just talked about opportunity and as well as some of the younger guys too, they’re going to get chances to step out on the field and play a little bit more as well. I think that’s the thing that’s exciting is really to find out where that

Preparing Sam Howell for the New England Patriots’ heavy blitz defense:

The biggest thing again is just what we’ve been doing is we watch tape. You go through the walkthroughs and you go through practice, you come back, you watch the tape, you watch the corrections. And again, just trying to make sure we cover all the bases in terms of those things as to, ‘hey, this is what they do when they do this, this is how we want to be able to handle that. This is what your reads are, the best decision to make is this.’ That we’ll go over those things over and over and over. Again, just try and make sure Sam is comfortable with everything that we do. And have some specific checks for it or audibles or options for him to go to and use.

4th down decisions:

Whether we go or not, it’s typically my decision. I most certainly do ask him and we talk about it earlier in the week. We have a checklist that we go through before the game and one of the questions on it is everything from fourth down calls to whether we go for two or not, what are the plays that he has set up for those twos, those go for twos or for the fourth down situations, what he feels is the best pass option and what he thinks is the best run option. We discuss those things. One thing that we also do is if we get into third down situations and we’re at the right spot on the field, I will typically tell them, ‘Hey, you’ve got two downs.’ And in those two downs, the idea now knows that you don’t have to get it all at once, but if you can get it as close as you can and ‘hey, we’ll go for it again on the fourth down.’ We try to make sure those things have been already discussed before we get to those situations.

Senior Vice President of Football Strategy Eugene Shen:

l think when you look at what the options were and what the opportunities were in terms of the value, and that’s where Eugene Shen comes in, is being able to talk about what the potential value is. Those things all came into play.