Tight Ends Coach Kevin M. Gilbride
April 1, 2016
Re: Will Tye’s rookie season
A: It really wasn’t a surprise. He was a kid who we knew had some talent. It was one of those things where when he came in the spring last year—because that’s when he came in—he made a lot of mistakes, whether it be physical or mental. At the end of training camp, he was starting to show signs that he could really get the job done…just very inconsistent. Well, that’s a rookie—that’s a rookie free agent, so you should expect that from him. We kept him on the practice squad and then he developed. We always knew he had a skillset, especially receiving the football, and some of the explosiveness he has. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that he came on, but it was gratifying to see it happen because you knew he had it in him.
Q: What do you want to see from him in year two?
A: I want to see him develop as a finisher in the run game. He has an initial strike that’s impressive when he gets off on the snap count, which needs to improve. But I want to see him finish, and a big part of that is pad level.
Q: When you look back at the overall performance of the tight ends, I’m sure you can agree they can get better. How much of that was getting used to the new offensive line?
A: I think there has to be some continuity. No doubt you get better and improve with continuity. But for the most part, as long as the same techniques are being taught to the same men, which they are, typically you can develop as a player, and then the man next to you is going to develop as a player as well, as long as those techniques are being executed. So the in and out wasn’t necessarily a large factor, I just think we need to improve as a tight end group as far as our finishing in the run game, and then working those combination blocks with tight ends-tackles. That’ll come with the more they continue to do it, these are young guys still. Really Larry (Donnell) started to develop before he got hurt, which was a shame that he ended up going down for the year.
Q: Because Donnell is so tall, he struggles to get low. Do you see that as well?
A: He’s got two things: He can either stiff arm or lower his shoulder, so that’s one. Be aggressive with the defender, or jump over him. Those are the two things, that’s it. But either way, he’s got to protect the football. The last thing we want him to do is bend at the waist and straighten his legs, and that’s what he has a tendency to do, especially in the 2014 year. He improved in the 2015 year, but still, there’s growth still yet to be had in that area. It’s two-fold—it’s protecting the football, and it’s protecting himself—and that’s very important for him moving forward in his career.
