Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial
Q: Where are you with your punt return at this point? Who do you look at as your primary options, obviously (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski) and who else after that?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Yeah, you have Gunner and (wide receiver) Isaiah (McKenzie) who have done it in this league. When I'm judging these guys in the preseason, the biggest thing is I'm looking at practice, all our preseason games, their history. But those two guys have obviously done it at a high level in this league. So, I'm going to give those guys opportunities to show me what they can do.
Q: What is it about Isaiah that makes him a good returner?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Again, the experience in this league is huge. Being in those situations, being in weathered games, those things all factor into the comfort of having a returner that's going to make smart decisions and everything. Isaiah works his tail off and so does Gunner. That whole group does a heck of a job in terms of being intentional and deliberate with everything we're asking them to do. So, I'm excited for both those guys to get more reps.
Q: You talked last time about some of the vets that are like leaders of the special teams group. What young players have jumped out to you?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: It's hard to single any of them out, and I know that's maybe not the answer you're looking for. I think our staff has done a heck of a job in terms of assembling a great group of young players. And all those guys, like I said, look to the veterans of how it's supposed to be done. And when you have that veteran leadership, those guys believe that is the only way it's supposed to be done. So, that's why it's incredible having those older guys in the room. So, all those young guys, legitimately, like I have no knock on any of them. They're very intentional and deliberate. They're trying to learn. They're always asking questions. It's hard for me to point one single person out, but for the majority of them, they're all looking to continuously get better, and that's where having those veterans in the room really help.
Q: Gunner had a history of ball security issues before he came here, and last year he did not. So, when you say experience is so important, do you look at that and say, 'well, he's fixed that, so I don't have to worry about that', or do you look at the whole breadth of someone's history?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: I think whenever you're dealing with any veteran, the biggest thing for those guys is they've got to self-scout themselves. What have they put on tape. What are things that they've had challenges with. What are some things they've got to bring more attention to. In terms of coaching, you're always coaching the fundamentals of owning the football and taking care of the football. I know that's important to him is to make sure he's always putting that ball away and making smart decisions with it. So, that's something we harp on with all our returners or all our ball carriers is making sure they own the football. The one thing I always challenge all our veterans is can they look at themselves and truly find one part of their game that they truly need to improve every single day, and that's something I want them to share with me to where I can make sure they're holding their end of the bargain in terms of that as well.
Q: (wide receiver) Isaiah Hodgins hasn't played much on special teams in his career. How important do you think that will be for him to get a spot, and what have you seen from him on special teams?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: In terms of obviously the roster, big picture of that, that's not something necessarily that I can speak to. But I will say that Isaiah is a guy that has played ball in this league and has been very involved in all the drill work, all the positions, and he got some special teams reps. He's done it before in his career, maybe not to the same magnitude of some other guys in terms of volume, but he's great in terms of just approaching the game the right way. Obviously, his experience as a receiver also helps him in certain situations on our units, and that's a thing that I've got to handle with my job is just making sure he understands, 'well, this is the similarities of what you're already doing. Let's do this in this spot when we're asking you to do this on KOR', for example, or whatever unit that may be.
Q: In your meetings with us and across the league, people have talked about, 'well, after the first week of the preseason, we'll have a better sense of what the kickoff is going to look like'. Did it have the appropriate reaction for you? What you watched? Did you see what you saw? Were there a lot of surprises?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Absolutely.
Q: Where are you at?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Absolutely it did. Number one, it was so cool with this new rule to see obviously all 32 teams come up with their own little spin of how they viewed the advantages of it and certain things that you saw them coaching their players to do. Because in your mind, when you're game planning and you're looking at what is the best way we can coach this, sometimes you can't always put yourself in somebody else's shoes because you haven't seen what they've done yet. So, when you have that volume of games now, we watched literally every single game, every single play multiple times, and we studied it just like we studied the XFL tape. It was great to finally see our rule come into play because of the little nuances and changes that the NFL implemented with our kickoff and kickoff return. So, it was great, and that's one thing I promised our players as soon as we get a volume of plays that we can show you, we're going to show you, and we're going to make technique tapes. We're going to show you situations that you may be in. We're going to show you why we're doing this this way. We're going to show you, 'oh, this is something we'll have to tweak'. So, it's great that we finally had a good crop of plays to show guys, and I have a smile on my face because there's a little bit more certainty. There's some conviction in terms of some things that we're teaching that we're excited about with our players, and then now you're starting to hear players more interactive in our meetings. So, when these players ultimately were gathering information, there were some things that they were giving back, but ultimately until they practiced the play against another team, they didn't necessarily know all the nuances that they felt in their involvement. Well, now that they were able to play that play, they could say, 'oh, this is what we've got to do here. Oh, this is what we've got to do here'. So now my coaching points, I give them the keys to it. 'Okay, coach me up on this guy. What didn't he do? What did he do well? Why was he in position to make this tackle?' Those things are all so critical in terms of having success, and then makes me proud just to hear our players be able to give that information back.
Q: But even with all that new data that you now have, isn't it also true that the teams that figure it out faster are going to have an advantage? Two or three years from now, everybody's going to know the nuances. The first couple weeks of regular season, you guys are still kind of figuring this out, aren't you?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Yes, 100 percent. I think that with any play, though. You're always looking at trying to gain advantages and being able to adapt and evolve, especially with this play being new. But at least there's more volume of plays that we can look at to where some of those principles that we're teaching on kickoff, kickoff return, we can feel more convicted about. Ultimately, we're going to have to evolve. And it's going to be great to see more plays this week. And then once we figure out what those new fundamentals are going to be, we're going to continue to evolve this play until we are extremely happy with the product.
Q: What was it like the last few years being on the other side of Jets-Giants' practice or preseason? And are you looking forward to facing them next week?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Obviously, I have a lot of great relationships with players and coaches that are still in that building. I've always had tremendous respect for the Giants organization. It's so cool to be here with the New York Football Giants. And again, I say it with a smile on my face because I think I have one of the greatest jobs in America. I do and I'm so happy that I'm here. The nature of this league is you cross paths with people that you've coached with, that you've played with. So, it's going to be exciting to see those guys. But ultimately, like I'm so excited to just be here and be with the guys and develop relationships here.
