Michael Clay

Q. How big an impact did P Braden Mann have on that game in field position? (Reuben Frank)

MICHAEL CLAY: It was outstanding. [P] Braden [Mann] did an unbelievable job. I know everyone has kind of seen, five of six punts inside the 20. You saw the one that got down at the one with [S] Sydney [Brown], then the one down at the four by [CB] Kelee [Ringo]. He did an unbelievable job.

Braden’s been doing a really good job. You look at everything, you’re like ‘He’s just going to have a quiet year.’ But he’s been doing an amazing job for us when it comes to putting the ball in a place where we can cover, putting the ball where we can down the ball, and help the team in any way we can.

In one of those games that turned into a field position game, it kind of sparked a little bit with that defense with the three-and-out right there. Then the punt, then the offense scored on a short field. It was fantastic out of Braden to kind of give a little spark off the special teams.

Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni talked up WR Britain Covey’s ability to field those punts. How is that taught? (Dave Zangaro)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, a lot of it just comes with natural feel. These punters are getting really good, hitting different type of balls, different flights, and everything of that nature.

But having [WR Britain] Covey, [DB Cooper DeJean] Coop – and it’s really another testament to Braden. When we get our punts in, he’s able to hit some of these weird balls from around the league, and they’re just getting more acclimated to it. Kind of hones everybody in that we have to be on our Ps and Qs when it comes to fielding the ball.

I know the stat book may not [make it] seem like it’s a huge return, but I know [Head] Coach [Nick] Sirianni was talking about how many yards were possibly saved on the ball. When the field is slick like that and the ball can roll from 10 to 15 yards and put you in a bad spot, Britain came up to make some plays.

I know there was one on the sideline where he got four yards, but he turned it into a net of 39. You’re feeling really good about that. Then the one that dove on him at the last [second], 42 yards, but he caught it. You never know what that is going to happen. That ball could roll 15 extra yards, and now you’re inside the 10. He gets a 10-yard return, turns that to a net of 32.

I think Covey does an outstanding job, same with Coop when he has been in there, of just fielding the ball and saving us some yards.

Q. How do you feel about the entire body of work from that day? It was a strange day for you guys. There was some real bad early, some real good. (Bob Brookover)

MICHAEL CLAY: I think that encompasses special teams as a whole. I’m not very pleased [when] you get three straight penalties on punt, regardless of if you agree with the call or not. Especially the one that Kelee hit the guy. Yeah, that’s definitely a penalty. We can’t have that happen whatsoever. That would have been six for six for Braden inside the 20 right there.

I think it’s also a testament to the guys to put those bad plays behind them and excel in crucial moments. Kelee came back and had a forced fumble on a 51-yard punt for four yards. We almost got that one. Then [LS] Rick [Lovato] being able to come back, protect. Things of that nature.

It’s almost like a roller coaster. We don’t want those roller coasters. We’d like to keep the ascent. But that’s just life in general. Sometimes bad things happen. How do you respond to it? I thought the guys responded very well to it, brought some energy back into the team.

Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni said you guys watch every plus-50 punt from the NFL and college every week. What do you gain from that? (Zach Berman)

MICHAEL CLAY: A lot of it is technique-wise, seeing it from around the league. And it’s a lot of coaching stuff for our gunners, for our interior, for our returners especially. Putting them in those situations, I do a lot of it on Saturdays, showing them what I see around the league.

These guys love seeing their peers, what’s happening around the league and everything. It gets them more honed in, gets them locked into what can happen, what we want, what we don’t want, things of that nature.

One, you’re just learning football, which is great in this profession. You just get to watch football, which is awesome. It’s also a teaching moment for a lot of these guys.

For the most part, they’re pretty locked in on it. You get the oohs and aahs of good, bad, indifferent. It’s nice to see from around the league what’s happening.

Q. Can you speak to the way that S Sydney Brown and CB Kelee Ringo have embraced the role of gunners and how important they’ve been in your punt coverage? (Dave Spadaro)

MICHAEL CLAY: One, it starts with the protection. We can’t cover anything unless the ball has been punted, obviously. Having those guys – their mindset has changed, especially Kelee from last year, watching Sydney and [former Eagles and current Seahawks CB] Josh Jobe to now taking the reins.

Sydney wasn’t able to be out there the first few games of the season. Going out there and still playing at a high level. You just see the confidence kind of ooze out of [Kelee] and Sydney to go out there and say, ‘All right, it’s one on one, let’s make a play there.’ Whether it’s a fair catch or making a play, getting the ball out.

The confidence out of those two guys has been outstanding. A lot of behind the scenes goes to [Special Teams Assistant] Tyler Brown, giving them all the tools he possibly can to get these guys to succeed.

Then the veteran guys, some guys that you don’t see, whether that’s [CB] Parry Nickerson, [DB] Avonte Maddox, that have played in the league for a while pushing these young cats to be the best they possibly can. I think it’s shown a lot, and those two have been doing a really good job in tandem.

Q. Speaking of veteran guys, what has LB Oren Burks brought to [special] teams? (Bob Brookover)

MICHAEL CLAY: Oren brings that kind of old-school mindset, and seeing a lot of ball, just how smart he is. You see [LB Jeremiah] Trotter [Jr.] making some plays out there, kind of taking [Trotter] under the wing, but he’s still playing at a high level for us.

Having a guy like that, you can move him to multiple different spots without feeling anxious or worried about that. So, Oren brings that older veteran knowledge, seeing a lot of ball, playing in some big games, bouncing ideas off of him, [LB] Zack [Baun], they sit in there, [LB] Nakobe [Dean]. Just to see for these young guys what we expect on special teams and what you can expect on special teams.

Q. You had a core guy in LB Ben VanSumeren, unfortunately. When that happens, he’s played so much for you on so many units, how do you replace a guy like that? (John McMullen)

MICHAEL CLAY: It’s hard to replace a guy like Ben. One of his tenacity, physicality, and athleticism. You always feel bad for a guy that you lose due to injury. You kind of take a step back, both as a coaching perspective and player perspective, that it could go away just like that.

In terms of replacing him, I think that’s the beauty of special teams. You’ve got to not just coach the guys that may be up on game day, but everyone else to get them ready.

I thought two guys did an unbelievable job being on short notice. [WR] Parris Campbell, I know he played a lot on offense, but he was out there on special teams. Then [LB] Ochaun Mathis. You never know when your number’s going to get called, but he was ready to fill a void in that situation. Same with [TE] C.J. Uzomah going out there.

It takes a village to get us right. I think all these guys are locked in from Wednesday all the way up to game day because you never know when your numbers going to be called. They played at a high level. We’ve just got to keep repping it, keep getting everybody ready because you never know when your number’s called.

Q. The physicality on all three units has stood out for this team. What perspective can you give on what sort of goes into the team adapting that collective mindset? (Tim McManus)

MICHAEL CLAY: It all starts with Coach Sirianni, what he preaches, everything about physicality and being here. Then it goes into the practice field. On Wednesday, we have that tackle circuit. On our punt drills, we have pads on.

The physicality, it has to become second nature for us because I think a lot of the time for football, the essence of football gets lost. It’s a physical sport. You’ve got to be able to have pads, you’ve got to be able to hit, you’ve got to be able to tackle to be good at it.

I think our Wednesday practices, the intensity is fantastic. Not just from Coach Sirianni, but all the coaches. It takes all of us to get these drills ready and bring the energy for them.

For us, from a coaching standpoint and from my standpoint, you’re only going to get the energy out of the players if you bring the energy. You want to see six minutes of a coach getting beat up during a tackle circuit? I’ll put the pad on and see if I can give them the best look I possibly can.

The players bring it. It shows on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, whenever we play. I think it’s cool, the trickle-down effect from Wednesday when we start all the way up to Sunday on game day.

Q. It’s been a couple weeks since the Commanders game, and K Jake Elliott’s game. What did you see from him that allowed him to rebound over the last couple weeks and get back on track? (Olivia Reiner)

MICHAEL CLAY: Jake just being the same Jake he’s been since I’ve been here for the past four years. Like I said, maybe it’s just chock it up to it’s not your night.

He goes in, and he’s so disciplined about what his technique is, his process and everything of that nature. Going out there and just taking a step back, taking a breath, and going out there understanding that he is a very, very good kicker in this league.

It’s cool to see. He gets all the love in the world from the guys in this room, having his back and everything. For Jake, it’s always nice to go back out there, put the cleats on, and kick balls around. Hopefully we keep that up for him. Just staying the course, staying with this process.

Q. To see Ravens K Justin Tucker have a rough game, he’s actually had a rough season, does that give you an appreciation of how K Jake Elliott has been able to recover? And what does it say about kicking outside in the cold? (Martin Frank)

MICHAEL CLAY: You always want to respect and appreciate everyone. We have obviously ties to Baltimore with [Ravens Senior Special Teams Coach] Randy [Brown] and Tyler [Brown]. You never want to see a guy fail in that situation.

Within the game, obviously there’s no rules in love and war and everything of that nature. I’m not saying that football is war, but it’s always hard to see a peer go through that. It’s also a testament to Jake being able to come back and be on the right track.

For us, we only have to worry about who we have in our building, and be able to fix our issues, whether you want to call it an issue or not, or a speed bump.

To go back to it, just being able to stay the course, put your head down, and be able to work out those little kinks you may feel. Talk about it with Tyler, Braden [Mann], Rick [Lovato], and have the whole core talk about what we need to get better at. The last couple weeks we’ve been able to do that.

He’s been having some great foot-to-ball contact. When we come back out tomorrow, it’s the same thing. Just get ready to work. You never know when this game is going to come down to a last-second field goal or a huge field goal to put up a couple possessions.

Q. How do you differentiate between a bad night and cause for concern? (Zach Berman)

MICHAEL CLAY: I think a lot of it, I kind of touched on it, all those kicks that Jake did miss, those three, they were in the same spot. Just wasn’t his night at that point. You come back, be able to look the whole thing in the mirror and say, ‘I can change this,’ whether it’s the aim point, a little technique thing, things of that nature.

Again, it’s no different than seeing the ball go through the hoop as a basketball player. You start seeing it go through the uprights, your confidence builds. You feel great about it.

It also helps when the offense is moving the ball down the field. It gives you a shorter kick. Now you feel a little bit more confident going into it than when you have to hit a longer kick.

Again, whenever our numbers are called, we expect nothing but putting points on the board. Having that same mindset.

Q. On LS Rick Lovato’s holding penalty, it looked like the Ravens brought pressure up the middle. Maybe they had a punt block going, I don’t know. Do you think maybe if LS Rick Lovato doesn’t hold in that situation, maybe disaster strikes at that point? (Ed Kracz)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, most special teams coordinators would say you’d rather hold than have a blocked punt, and rekick it.

Just a little thing technique-wise for Rick. He was in the right spot. Just [needs to] get his feet a little bit quicker right there, push him a little bit wider to get away from the block point.

Again, we never want to have penalties out there. We want to make sure we’re disciplined, get our blocks right. It is always tough for long snappers. He has his head between his legs, then he has to snap it and get back.

We can do a better job helping him out, whether it is the guards helping him out or him getting his feet back. Again, we don’t want any more of those penalties going forward.

Q. When you mentioned P Braden Mann kicking those weird punts, is that scouted week to week? Like, opponent to opponent? (Dave Zangaro)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I mean, you watch all the film, especially coming up this week with [Panthers P] Johnny Hekker. He almost brought the banana ball back when he was in L.A., and everything of that nature.

To scout it out and give these guys different looks so they’re able to feel comfortable going forward, whether that is Britain, [WR] Ainias [Smith], [WR] Jahan [Dotson], Coop. The more reps they get, the more comfortable they’re going to get seeing these different ball flights.

When we come back out tomorrow, they will get a few of those to feel comfortable going forward. Then Thursday, they’ll get some more. Again, it’s all week to week. At times there’s a lefty punter, you have to bring one in to make them see the spin right there. So, it’s always week to week for us.