Redskins Offensive Coordinator Sean McVay Comments from OTA's by Redskins PR

June 9, 2015

Redskins Park
On Quarterbacks Coach Matt Cavanaugh’s influence:

“It’s been great. Having Matt Cavanaugh here with the experience he has as a player and a coach has been a great resource for myself and the quarterbacks. He’s done a great job implementing some of the fundamental techniques and things that we want to emphasize on a daily basis. From a work standpoint, just being able to kind of bounce around and have eyes on all position groups, it has been extremely valuable.”

On Head Coach Jay Gruden’s hands-on approach:

“He’s an energetic coach. He’s always been real to his personality and I think it rubs off on the players and his coaching staff, so he’s a joy to work with every day.”

On the players giving Gruden a hard time about his fitness when he participates in drills:

“That’s exactly right. They do give him a hard time, and I know he gets back at them pretty good too.”

On if he is seeing improvement from quarterback Robert Griffin III:

“I think we are seeing improvement. I think Colt [McCoy] and Kirk [Cousins] have also shown improvement as we’ve gone through the OTAs. Coach [Joe] Barry’s defense has done a great job giving us a bunch of looks where we’re seeing different types of coverages and pressures. I think all the quarterbacks have continued to improve each practice.”

On the schematic advantages of Griffin’s athleticism:

“I think one of the things you like about a running quarterback is that he does regulate the defenses. Robert was able to make some plays, and the one that comes to mind is against Minnesota — they bring a man-pressure against us, and he ends up sticking his foot in the ground and runs for a 70-yard touchdown. So, when you do have a quarterback with some athleticism and the ability to break contain and make plays with his legs, it definitely does regulate some of those defensive looks where guys are scared of him breaking contain and doing things with his legs.”

On the additions of Cavanaugh and Offensive Line Coach Bill Callahan:

“Any time that you’re able to bring in two veteran coaches like that, it’s been a great addition for us. Very influential guys toward me as far as learning from them, gaining from their experience that they’re able to offer me advice. I know that they’ve been really valuable for the position groups that they’re working with. We were able to add another guy working with the receivers in Dave Ragone, too, who has some experience working with the quarterback and wide receiver position. So, we feel really good about the offensive coaching additions we’ve been able to make this season.” 

On how the additions have changed his responsibilities:

“It takes a lot off my plate, just being able to kind of have an overview on the offense as a whole, being able to bounce around from different position groups, so it’s been very beneficial so far.”

On if he can tell a difference entering the second season of the offensive system:

“I think it’s been great. We were able to detail our meetings a little bit better, having some familiarity and some carryover from last year. Bringing Coach Callahan in, we will do a couple different things in the run game that I think has looked good when we’ve been able to get those plays repped in practice. So, we feel good about the progress. We know we have a long way to go, but going through these OTAs right now, we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”

On rookie wide receivers Evan Spencer and Jamison Crowder:

“They’ve done a good job. We throw a lot at these rookies early on. Our whole system is pretty much in place so far. I think Jamison is a guy that immediately when he came in the rookie minicamp, you could feel some of the quickness, his ability to separate, the natural hands, all those things that you like when you draft him. Same thing with Evan. He had a little tweak in his hamstring where he missed a little bit of time early on, but he’s been able to practice this last week and we’re seeing some encouraging things from him as well.”

On rookie running back Matt Jones:

“He’s done a nice job. It’s a little bit harder to evaluate running backs when we are in OTAs and you’re not able to tackle and do some of those things, but his ability to pick things up mentally and protections and then being disciplined with his courses as far as his running game, we’ve been very pleased with him.  He’s a guy that we’re looking forward to see compete when we can play live ball.”

On Crowder:

“I haven’t noticed anything. He’s handled it like a pro. It’s a situation that he’s dealing with and hopefully it will get resolved, but I haven’t noticed anything. He’s been a pro about going about his business in a normal fashion.”

On the process of getting himself, Cavanaugh, Gruden and the quarterbacks on the same page:

“It’s been great. Sometimes we’re all three in the meeting room, sometimes it’s just Coach Cavanaugh, Coach Gruden. But I think the great thing is we’re all on the same page communicating the same message to those quarterbacks. And again, like I was saying earlier, Coach Cavanaugh is a great resource with his experience as a player and a coach, where he might offer some different things and ideas and approaches that I think has been very helpful so far for our quarterbacks.”

On how the offense may differ this year as compared to last year:

“I think you’ll see a lot of things that will be similar. You look at the success that Coach Callahan has had at the different stops that he’s been, and one of the things that makes him special is he’s kind of adjusted. He has the ability to run a variety of different schemes in the run game, but he’ll fit what we do best to our personnel, and we’re continuing to figure that out as we go through these OTAs.”

On if he has any concern about wide receiver DeSean Jackson’s timing with the quarterbacks:

“No, I think this is the time of year where you are trying to develop some rapport and things like that, but DeSean had some other issues that he’s had to take care of and we understand that. We know when training camp rolls around, he’ll be ready to go and he’s a guy that we can consistently count on on game day, the way that he was able to perform last year and over the course of his career.”

On player attendance during OTAs:

“Certainly you want to be able to get all the work that you can, but there’s certain circumstances and things that come up that guys have to take care of and we’re confident that we’ll be able to make up for that when we get to training camp.”

On running back Alfred Morris:

“I think he’s done a great job. Obviously Alfred’s production over the last few years speaks for itself. I think implementing a couple of the newer schemes that Coach Callahan has will help Alfred, where we’ll be a little bit more multiple and balanced in the way that we attack defenses. And Alfred’s showed a great ability to be able to pick up some of those new schemes that we are implementing, whether it be the wide zone, some tight zone or those gap-type plays that we’ve been utilizing in OTAs.”