The offense took major leaps last year in several statistical categories, but Shannon Dawson is nowhere near satisfied. He spoke with reporters about what it will take to get the group to the next level.
On the offense’s consistency: Not anywhere it needs to be. We'll make a few plays and we'll go backwards. It's not anywhere close where it needs to be. Our communication from play to play, the urgency that we need. We need to obviously be way more consistent than what we're doing. We’re doing some good things, but it's too up and down. We gotta clean up the stuff that kills drives. But it’s the fourth practice, right?
On the older players’ approach to practice: There’s a difference between people that have been here a while and people that haven't. Those guys are mature, they push through. Practice is meant to be tough. Those older guys come to work every day, which is awesome. We just need to teach people our culture here and how we practice, and they'll come along.
On the competition with the defense: I love it. You see everything. We're really good up front. Our offensive line is doing a heck of a job. That's very competitive every day. It's awesome to watch.
On Sam Brown’s knowledge of the offense coming from Houston (Dawson was his OC in ‘22): There's some things we're doing here that are different, too. There's a learning curve for him as well. He's no different than everybody else.
His effort's good and he makes plays here and there. Everybody needs to be much more consistent. But that group's competing. The competition in that group has elevated, which is a great thing. Those guys are fighting for reps right now, and that's awesome.
On the quarterback rotation: They're all taking reps. They're the same way. A lot of good and some bad, and so we learn a ton every day from practicing because of what we see.
On Elijah Arroyo: He’s a talented kid. He can do multiple things. He's a good receiver. He blocks well. You can hand the ball to him. So he's got a lot of tools to work with. Hejust needs to keep competing, which he's doing. Just keep banking reps and getting better at the offense.
On the optimal way to use Chris Johnson: Week to week we'll game plan and go play the game. He'll be a part of that, as well as everybody that plays. He’s got a unique skill set, which allows you to do certain things with him. But he's really growing at running back and doing a lot of good things. He can do it all.
He's not a guy that you put in there and it's a [gadget]. You can run every play in our playbook with him. That's the key. It doesn't matter what play it is, he gets in there and runs it.
On Damien Martinez: You can tell he's a mature kid that's played a lot of football. He's very calm out there. Protections come easy to him. He's very smooth. His ability to cut, lateral movement on unblocked players, you can tell he's played a lot of football. Glad to have him.
He just needs to keep learning in the offense and playing with these guys and gelling together. He's got a lot of experience, which there’s no substitute for that.
On the amount of wide receivers that will rotate: If you earn playing time, you're gonna rotate. We have to trust you. That’s the thing about rotations. If we trust you and you're making plays and you're doing the right thing, you'll rotate. You’ve gotta show consistency in practice and know what you're doing.
I think we'll have more rotations this year based on having more players that we trust and that are doing things the right way. Hopefully, we'll be rotating a lot of players. That way everybody's healthy. That's what I want.
On statistical categories he’s hoping to improve: Everything. In my opinion, we made a good jump, but turnovers weren't good. Red zone touchdowns were not good. Those two are the glaring ones. And some of the turnover stuff happened in the red zone, so that's double bad. That’ll take points off the board and hurt your touchdown conversion. It’ll also hurt your turnover numbers.
We have to take care of the ball better. If we take care of the ball better, everything else will probably fall into place, to be honest with you. Being more explosive on offense is key, too. Yards per play is a stat that I track, and I think we were 20-something in the nation last year in yards per play (24th). We can be in that top ten, top five. We need to be more explosive when we get the ball in our hand.
We’ve gotta make more plays down the field. We need to catch the ball and get vertical quicker. That turns into explosive plays. Running backs need to make the free guy miss more. Don't get tackled by the free guy. Last year, yards before contact, we were one of the top in the nation. But we gotta get more at that point.
We’re stressing that playing fast, getting up the field and making that guy miss is who we need to be. If you wanna be more explosive on offense, the plays are what they are. The touches are what they are. Once you get the ball in the hand, then make a play. Have great ball security, get up the field and make that first guy miss.
Asked if he sees signs of increased explosiveness in personnel: Yeah, I do. I think we have a chance to be a very explosive team. If you look at us practice, we're making plays down the field and we're missing some.
That pendulum flies back and forth. We see every coverage known to man and throwing the football versus those guys is challenging at times because of what they do. Going against our defense is awesome. I can't stress that enough. It teaches and programs a quarterback to be in the pocket and to see things very clearly. You’ve gotta be precise. We’re lucky to go against those guys every day, to be honest with you, because it's challenging for the quarterback. You grow every single day.
On Isaiah Horton: He's competing, man. He sees the light. He can make plays down the field. He's a big, physical guy. He's strong. He's urgent. He's really come a long way. I'm proud of him. But keep coming. Keep stressing.
On the offense’s consistency: Not anywhere it needs to be. We'll make a few plays and we'll go backwards. It's not anywhere close where it needs to be. Our communication from play to play, the urgency that we need. We need to obviously be way more consistent than what we're doing. We’re doing some good things, but it's too up and down. We gotta clean up the stuff that kills drives. But it’s the fourth practice, right?
On the older players’ approach to practice: There’s a difference between people that have been here a while and people that haven't. Those guys are mature, they push through. Practice is meant to be tough. Those older guys come to work every day, which is awesome. We just need to teach people our culture here and how we practice, and they'll come along.
On the competition with the defense: I love it. You see everything. We're really good up front. Our offensive line is doing a heck of a job. That's very competitive every day. It's awesome to watch.
On Sam Brown’s knowledge of the offense coming from Houston (Dawson was his OC in ‘22): There's some things we're doing here that are different, too. There's a learning curve for him as well. He's no different than everybody else.
His effort's good and he makes plays here and there. Everybody needs to be much more consistent. But that group's competing. The competition in that group has elevated, which is a great thing. Those guys are fighting for reps right now, and that's awesome.
On the quarterback rotation: They're all taking reps. They're the same way. A lot of good and some bad, and so we learn a ton every day from practicing because of what we see.
On Elijah Arroyo: He’s a talented kid. He can do multiple things. He's a good receiver. He blocks well. You can hand the ball to him. So he's got a lot of tools to work with. Hejust needs to keep competing, which he's doing. Just keep banking reps and getting better at the offense.
On the optimal way to use Chris Johnson: Week to week we'll game plan and go play the game. He'll be a part of that, as well as everybody that plays. He’s got a unique skill set, which allows you to do certain things with him. But he's really growing at running back and doing a lot of good things. He can do it all.
He's not a guy that you put in there and it's a [gadget]. You can run every play in our playbook with him. That's the key. It doesn't matter what play it is, he gets in there and runs it.
On Damien Martinez: You can tell he's a mature kid that's played a lot of football. He's very calm out there. Protections come easy to him. He's very smooth. His ability to cut, lateral movement on unblocked players, you can tell he's played a lot of football. Glad to have him.
He just needs to keep learning in the offense and playing with these guys and gelling together. He's got a lot of experience, which there’s no substitute for that.
On the amount of wide receivers that will rotate: If you earn playing time, you're gonna rotate. We have to trust you. That’s the thing about rotations. If we trust you and you're making plays and you're doing the right thing, you'll rotate. You’ve gotta show consistency in practice and know what you're doing.
I think we'll have more rotations this year based on having more players that we trust and that are doing things the right way. Hopefully, we'll be rotating a lot of players. That way everybody's healthy. That's what I want.
On statistical categories he’s hoping to improve: Everything. In my opinion, we made a good jump, but turnovers weren't good. Red zone touchdowns were not good. Those two are the glaring ones. And some of the turnover stuff happened in the red zone, so that's double bad. That’ll take points off the board and hurt your touchdown conversion. It’ll also hurt your turnover numbers.
We have to take care of the ball better. If we take care of the ball better, everything else will probably fall into place, to be honest with you. Being more explosive on offense is key, too. Yards per play is a stat that I track, and I think we were 20-something in the nation last year in yards per play (24th). We can be in that top ten, top five. We need to be more explosive when we get the ball in our hand.
We’ve gotta make more plays down the field. We need to catch the ball and get vertical quicker. That turns into explosive plays. Running backs need to make the free guy miss more. Don't get tackled by the free guy. Last year, yards before contact, we were one of the top in the nation. But we gotta get more at that point.
We’re stressing that playing fast, getting up the field and making that guy miss is who we need to be. If you wanna be more explosive on offense, the plays are what they are. The touches are what they are. Once you get the ball in the hand, then make a play. Have great ball security, get up the field and make that first guy miss.
Asked if he sees signs of increased explosiveness in personnel: Yeah, I do. I think we have a chance to be a very explosive team. If you look at us practice, we're making plays down the field and we're missing some.
That pendulum flies back and forth. We see every coverage known to man and throwing the football versus those guys is challenging at times because of what they do. Going against our defense is awesome. I can't stress that enough. It teaches and programs a quarterback to be in the pocket and to see things very clearly. You’ve gotta be precise. We’re lucky to go against those guys every day, to be honest with you, because it's challenging for the quarterback. You grow every single day.
On Isaiah Horton: He's competing, man. He sees the light. He can make plays down the field. He's a big, physical guy. He's strong. He's urgent. He's really come a long way. I'm proud of him. But keep coming. Keep stressing.
