TITANS HEAD COACH MIKE MULARKEY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
August 1, 2016
(on the first day in pads)
It got better, I'll say that. It was not acceptable early on, especially in the early drills when we were running the nine-on-seven drill—a half-line drill which is basically a run drill. It's down and dirty, O-line against the D-line, the fullbacks leading on the linebackers. We had too many false starts, a couple mistakes mentally. A lot of them were young guys. A lot of emotions running in that locker room before the practice. I mean I know a lot of them (had) nervous energy, very tense. I walked into that locker room and there was a lot of energy amongst the veterans, and I looked in the corner, and the rookies—there was dead silence in there. I mean that's normal first day in pads, and it showed up early in the practice. It wasn't acceptable. There were too many, way too many. We had to start the drill over, and I don't want to do that—penalize the defense for mistakes by the offense—but we had to do that.
(on what he saw in terms of physicality from the running backs)
I liked what I saw. I'm talking about the whole group. They were hitting, especially in the red zone, you could see they were moving the pile. Obviously, there's no tackling going on, but they were not shy about making guys get out of their way. I like to see that. That was everybody.
(on if he was pleased to see the defense getting penetration)
Very happy, very happy. Somebody is going to lose on the play. That's the matter of fact, and some of them are going to be bad. I mean everybody saw (Brian) Orakpo beat Taylor Lewan pretty badly. That's good for us, in one sense, that he's playing at a high level and he's tough to block. He always has been and he's still showing it.
(on if the defense takes the offense's "smashmouth" approach as a challenge)
I don't know if they take it as a challenge. I know they want to be physical, as well. I think that's just their mindset. I don't know if it's because of the talk of the offense trying to be a physical offense. I think defense is always that way. That's their mentality since they've been young and growing through college. That's what they do.
(on if Dorial Green-Beckham had a bounce-back day after yesterday's practice)
He did, he did. It was good to see that, again. Now I'd like to see that again tomorrow and Thursday and Friday and then scrimmage in front of fans. I'd like to see that, but yeah, he did some good things again today.
(on how telling it will be to see Dorial Green-Beckham compete well again tomorrow)
Yeah, I'm anxious to see. We counted it one good and one bad. Now it's two-to-one. We want him to win with a lot of good ones. Hopefully just all it does is give him more confidence when he comes out here. I can't imagine there's nothing more that's going to boost his morale or his confidence as thinking that I can beat anybody. I like that. I'm hoping that's the case.
(on if he senses that the team is self-policing itself for errors, especially the offensive line)
There is a lot of that going on. I had to do it early and then I watched to see if anything would happen from veterans and leaders you hope, and that happened. Even a DeMarco Murray who put the ball on the ground, he knows we can't have that and came back in and said, 'Look, that ain't going to happen again. It can't happen. I won't do it.' And then he was, again—we started that drill over and he was like, 'We've got to start it over. This is not going to be tolerated at any time. This is not what we want.' It's not about me. It was what they didn't want.
(on how curious he was to see the one-on-one drills between the receivers and defensive backs)
I'm anxious to watch the tape. A lot going on—I'm watching more of the protection at the time, and obviously I see the tail end of the play—so I need to see the whole play over and over. I'll have a better feel next time I talk to you about today.
(on how Harry Douglas has stepped up to the challenge considering the competition at wide receiver)
You wouldn't know that about Harry. Harry comes to work every day like a pro. He hasn't even blinked with anything we've done here with the draft, with signing of players. He's the same Harry. He's going to come out here and work and make it a tough decision on us when we have to make up the roster.
(on his impression of Derrick Henry on the first day in pads)
I saw some things. I saw some vision on some of the runs that we had. We had a lot of runs in this practice early. We were focusing on first and second down. Obviously, the nine-on-seven drill is all run. There were some holes in there that looked slim, and they are at this level. He hit them pretty good.
(on what Matt Cassel brings to the team as a veteran presence)
I know a lot in the huddle—command in the huddle, respect in the huddle. He's been in a lot of games, and I think players respect that. He's done well since he's been here. I mean he's picked up the system very quickly and done very well.
