The news would be that Mason Cobb is not limited at all and they're trying to sort out the linebacker rotation, and Tyrone Taleni should be back this week.
What went into deciding to accept the early kickoff for Colorado?
"Yeah, we thought about it, we definitely had a little bit of conversation back and forth. In an ideal world, it probably wouldn’t have hit right after the late away game. That was honestly, to me, really the only potential drawback of it. So we were able to put out kind of a mock schedule and have a minute to scratch through it on our end of what that would look like. Obviously when you play that early, it moves some things up in the week. I think one of the big things for us was coming off a bye week, didn’t feel like it was going to be that much of a big deal, our guys are going to be pretty rested, I think we might have felt maybe a little different if we were maybe in the middle of a six or seven game stretch. You play that one a little bit earlier, but there’s a little bit more – you can get home at a pretty good time and you can get a chance for the guys to rest and recover with the stretch obviously coming up ahead of that game and so in the end, I know that’s a good window from a TV standpoint and so yeah, in the end, we really didn’t have anything to complain about with it and we’re good to go."
What is Mason Cobb's availability Saturday and what's the ideal rotation at linebacker?
"Yeah, Mason’s definitely taken advantage of the bye week, he’s going to be available to play, don’t think we’re going to have any restrictions or limitations there, which that’s a really positive thing. It’ll be great to get him back. Yeah, in the meantime, guys like Raesjon and Eric and Tackett, those guys, Shane of course, all of those guys have taken advantage of some of that time on the practice field and in games and done some really good things. So we’ll – I would imagine we’ll play a few different guys there, a few different lineups, and then of course if we settle in and guys are performing well, we may ride the hot hand a little bit but I would expect to see some or all of those guys. And again, certainly the linebackers have got to play in sync. There’s playing your job and doing well yourself, but then there’s obviously a lot of communication that goes on with those guys and really working well together, so I think we’re excited to find alright, is there that ideal combination of guys that really perform at a high level together? And that group has probably been more disjointed than most just because Eric and Mason both missing time. Shane missing basically all of fall camp. Tackett being new, Raesjon had an injury during fall camp, so that group has been a little bit disjointed so we’re hoping to find some continuity and I think we’re able to start building that some a little bit during the bye week and certainly during this week during practice."
What have you seen from Caleb Williams' improvement on the intermediate and deep passing game?
"Yeah, I think he’s bought in a lot that every deep throw doesn’t have to be a perfect shot. I mean, at some point, this thing becomes a little bit – a little bit of science to math to this. The further you gotta throw something, you’re going to miss more, right? Throwing a slant or throwing a shorter route perfect is not really that difficult, throwing something 20, 30, 40, 50 yards down the field and throwing it perfect, it’s obviously, those are much tougher throws and I think there’s just been a realization that he doesn’t always have to be perfect because sometimes when you are, you might have that guy wide open down the field or in the intermediate part of the field and you miss him by a foot. And we had a lot of those last year – I say a lot, we had more of those than we wanted to have, so I think we’ve made some adjustments and he’s made some adjustments in terms of just kind of mindset on those throws which has been good to see. He’s given our guys consistently and I think right now, through three games, our receivers have done a nice job of coming down with those. So I think it’s some of the trust that’s been built in, how we want to attack people down the field and in the intermediate part and the guys really buying into it and taking it from meeting room to practice field to game field and I think that’s shown up so far. So yeah, we definitely wanted to be more efficient in those areas and I think we’re off to a good start."
Is Tyrone Taleni progressing toward a return?
"He is, yeah, good news: we expect to have him available this week. The bye week was another one that came at a good time for him. He probably wouldn’t have been ready had we had a game last week, but was able to start to build in the practice and he’s doing much better. He had kind of a plantar fascia injury, which is just kind of a – it’s a unique deal, it’s kind of a pain for a couple of weeks and it starts to come back pretty fast. Really at the end of the bye week, he started to like, really accelerate and get better fast and this week, he’s been able to go with no limitations, has handled the entire workload. So we’ll be excited to have him back, another big body in there and another guy I think kind of along the lines with Stanley and Benton, a few of those guys we really feel like from what we’ve seen behind the scenes that have really improved. And talking about some of those interior defensive linemen that played some snaps for us last year that we feel like have taken some steps, they’re better players right now so excited to have him back."
What went into deciding to accept the early kickoff for Colorado?
"Yeah, we thought about it, we definitely had a little bit of conversation back and forth. In an ideal world, it probably wouldn’t have hit right after the late away game. That was honestly, to me, really the only potential drawback of it. So we were able to put out kind of a mock schedule and have a minute to scratch through it on our end of what that would look like. Obviously when you play that early, it moves some things up in the week. I think one of the big things for us was coming off a bye week, didn’t feel like it was going to be that much of a big deal, our guys are going to be pretty rested, I think we might have felt maybe a little different if we were maybe in the middle of a six or seven game stretch. You play that one a little bit earlier, but there’s a little bit more – you can get home at a pretty good time and you can get a chance for the guys to rest and recover with the stretch obviously coming up ahead of that game and so in the end, I know that’s a good window from a TV standpoint and so yeah, in the end, we really didn’t have anything to complain about with it and we’re good to go."
What is Mason Cobb's availability Saturday and what's the ideal rotation at linebacker?
"Yeah, Mason’s definitely taken advantage of the bye week, he’s going to be available to play, don’t think we’re going to have any restrictions or limitations there, which that’s a really positive thing. It’ll be great to get him back. Yeah, in the meantime, guys like Raesjon and Eric and Tackett, those guys, Shane of course, all of those guys have taken advantage of some of that time on the practice field and in games and done some really good things. So we’ll – I would imagine we’ll play a few different guys there, a few different lineups, and then of course if we settle in and guys are performing well, we may ride the hot hand a little bit but I would expect to see some or all of those guys. And again, certainly the linebackers have got to play in sync. There’s playing your job and doing well yourself, but then there’s obviously a lot of communication that goes on with those guys and really working well together, so I think we’re excited to find alright, is there that ideal combination of guys that really perform at a high level together? And that group has probably been more disjointed than most just because Eric and Mason both missing time. Shane missing basically all of fall camp. Tackett being new, Raesjon had an injury during fall camp, so that group has been a little bit disjointed so we’re hoping to find some continuity and I think we’re able to start building that some a little bit during the bye week and certainly during this week during practice."
What have you seen from Caleb Williams' improvement on the intermediate and deep passing game?
"Yeah, I think he’s bought in a lot that every deep throw doesn’t have to be a perfect shot. I mean, at some point, this thing becomes a little bit – a little bit of science to math to this. The further you gotta throw something, you’re going to miss more, right? Throwing a slant or throwing a shorter route perfect is not really that difficult, throwing something 20, 30, 40, 50 yards down the field and throwing it perfect, it’s obviously, those are much tougher throws and I think there’s just been a realization that he doesn’t always have to be perfect because sometimes when you are, you might have that guy wide open down the field or in the intermediate part of the field and you miss him by a foot. And we had a lot of those last year – I say a lot, we had more of those than we wanted to have, so I think we’ve made some adjustments and he’s made some adjustments in terms of just kind of mindset on those throws which has been good to see. He’s given our guys consistently and I think right now, through three games, our receivers have done a nice job of coming down with those. So I think it’s some of the trust that’s been built in, how we want to attack people down the field and in the intermediate part and the guys really buying into it and taking it from meeting room to practice field to game field and I think that’s shown up so far. So yeah, we definitely wanted to be more efficient in those areas and I think we’re off to a good start."
Is Tyrone Taleni progressing toward a return?
"He is, yeah, good news: we expect to have him available this week. The bye week was another one that came at a good time for him. He probably wouldn’t have been ready had we had a game last week, but was able to start to build in the practice and he’s doing much better. He had kind of a plantar fascia injury, which is just kind of a – it’s a unique deal, it’s kind of a pain for a couple of weeks and it starts to come back pretty fast. Really at the end of the bye week, he started to like, really accelerate and get better fast and this week, he’s been able to go with no limitations, has handled the entire workload. So we’ll be excited to have him back, another big body in there and another guy I think kind of along the lines with Stanley and Benton, a few of those guys we really feel like from what we’ve seen behind the scenes that have really improved. And talking about some of those interior defensive linemen that played some snaps for us last year that we feel like have taken some steps, they’re better players right now so excited to have him back."
