Q: How do you feel about the work Cole Popovich and Carmen Bricillo have done with the offensive line to this point?
BB: Yeah, I think Carm and Cole have done a great job there. It's the biggest position on the team in terms of number of players. We have a lot of different levels of players there – some guys with a lot of playing experience and other guys with not so much. The combination of the number of players and the experience levels and all that, there's a lot of coaching going on there and they've done an excellent job of working together, managing the needs of the position and mixing in both fundamentals and the scheme adjustments that we have to make in our offensive system. So, they've done a really good job there.
Q: What are your thoughts on what you saw last night from the Chiefs?
BB: Yeah, another impressive performance, like usual. They were really dominant in the first half – basically scored 31 points there in a half of football on the road. That's a good football team. They're a very explosive group. They played the Ravens well defensively. So, they're a good football team, very talented, well-coached, played with a lot of poise and discipline, so we know we're going to have our work cut out for us in Kansas City. It's a championship football team and we're going to have to play our best game and coach it.
Q: What are your thoughts on Patrick Mahomes as a player?
BB: Yeah, I mean, all the superlatives that have been said about him, I'd just be repeating them all.
Q: You've played the Chiefs several times the last few years. Do you feel like you have a good familiarity with them as an opponent? With Mahomes in his third year in the offense, do you see them progressing and building onto the offense from previous years?
BB: Sure. Yeah, Andy [Reid] continues to expand his scheme and they've always had a pretty broad attack. They continue to have that. Certainly, [Clyde] Edwards [Helaire] has given them an explosive player in the backfield. That's more than what they had last year, so that's why they drafted him and he's delivered that for them in the three games this year. But, yeah, they're very well-coached, they have an excellent attack, they have a lot of good players, they're very experienced in their system and they can do a lot of things, no question.
Q: What are some of the characteristics of Steve Spagnuolo's defense?
BB: Yeah, well, they mix it up. They mix a combination of man, zone, blitz-zone and some man blitzes, pressure blitzes. They're not afraid to call them. They make you offensively deal with everything, so they really test your execution and, again, have some pretty experienced and savvy players back there – the linebackers, of course, [Tyrann] Mathieu, [Chris] Jones is a very disruptive player up front, along with [Frank] Clark. So, they have guys at every level that are a problem and they have a pretty extensive scheme, kind of like they have on offense, so they give us a lot to prepare for.
Q: It looked like the Chiefs had a new formation last night where they had four players in single file detached from the formation. Is Andy Reid's offense one where you have to expect to see things that you haven't seen before? If so, how difficult is it to prepare your team for that?
BB: I think Andy continually comes up with little wrinkles here and there. You expect that a couple plays a game, but that's not really the core of what they do. Those gadget plays and those formations that are a little out of the ordinary, that will pop up from time to time, but they really win with good fundamentals, good execution and the core things that they do. But, yeah, they obviously put things in there to mix it up and give the defense a little bit of a different look. So, those are definitely coming in every game – a different one, ones that we haven't practiced – but we'll have to follow our rules and handle those situations when they come up. But, really their core stuff and their core execution and their good execution doing those things and their ability to do quite a few of them and hit the defense in a number of different ways. I think the way that they spread the ball around is obviously a problem. Those are the things that are, I'd say, the biggest things we have to contend with.
Q: Does the speed of Kansas City's receiving corps alter the way you have to get ready for a team, when speed is a key weapon overall? Or do you have to keep to the way you do things?
BB: Well, yeah, I think you definitely have to take it into consideration. They can out leverage you in a hurry, and once they get behind you, there's not too many guys on that offense that you can catch. We're going to have to do a great job of maintaining our leverage and our discipline and respect them. We play against fast guys every week, but I would say they have a lot of them on the field at the same time, and that just puts more stress on the defense and the quarterback is very good at getting them the ball. And, the offensive coordinator and Andy does a great job of stressing the defense and putting them in spaces that force the defense to stretch and create openings for other guys if you don't let them get behind you. They do all those things well. They're very well-balanced and the execution is outstanding. They really know what they're doing and they have a lot of good players and good coaches that can put the defense in a lot of compromising spots.
Q: Does the fact that you have to stretch when you are going against speed, does that make more room for Travis Kelce to get open?
BB: Yeah, they have five good receivers out there on almost every play, so it's hard to match up with two, three or four of them, but they've got five and a great quarterback and a great offensive system. They maximize the amount of pressure they put on you and they do a lot of different things. It's not just one route or one guy or a couple concepts. They have a multitude of ways to attack the defense and they do them all every week, so sooner or later you're going to get tested and you've just got to be ready to handle it.
Q: What have you seen from the four wide receivers on your practice squad, including the two you didn't get to work with over the summer?
BB: Yeah, I think our numbers at receiver are good. We have good depth there and the young players – including Gunner [Olszewski] who is on IR now, but I would include him in that group – those guys are all young and getting better and improving. Jakobi [Meyers] is on the roster and he'd fall into that category, as well – N'Keal [Harry], too, for that matter. We've got a lot of young players, and then some experience with Julian [Edelman] and Damiere [Byrd]. It's a group that's continuing to get better. We'll evaluate them as we go along and see who we feel like is moving ahead of other guys that might be able to help us. So, it's a good, competitive situation with some young players. We'll see how all that develops, but it's good to be working with them.
