Michael Clay

Q. How close were you to leaving in the offseason? I know you had an interview or so. (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: Yeah, no, it’s one of those things, obviously a business type. I mean, we’re a business just like anybody else. At times, a contract does run out, but I guess I could follow suit with [Eagles Defensive Coordinator] Vic [Fangio]. I wasn’t that close to leaving or anything of that nature. Going on, altogether, eight years in this organization, and like Vic said, this is a great organization and we’ve won a lot of games, gone through a lot of ups and downs. To see this thing out is always my goal. The players here, the coaching staff here, it’s always nice to have familiarity and they’re all great people. It was not close to me leaving or anything of that nature. I’m happy that they want me back. How about that?

Q. On a personal level, did that find anything helpful talking to somebody else? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: You see it in two lenses. Your first time ever getting interviewed as a coordinator to now having a few years being a coordinator, how vastly different it is. But it’s all a great learning experience and you’re able to sit down with other high-end people from different organizations and you just kind of feel out how different questions are being asked, what they are looking for. Obviously, a big learning experience from a professional development aspect.

Q. What’s been your early impressions of LS Rocco Underwood and why was he someone that you guys wanted to bring in as a long snapper? (Cayden Steele)

Michael Clay: Rocco, a couple weeks in, he’s jelled really well with the veteran guys. Athletic individual. It’s nice [that] he played under [Florida Gators Sr. Special Teams Analyst] Joe Houston, who had coached in the NFL. He knows the rigors of the NFL probably from talking to Joe, but he’s doing a really good job. Obviously, once the pads come on, he gets an actual real rush, but he’s taking it stride for stride, and him and [Special Teams Assistant] Tyler Brown meet every day. I’m in there poking fun at him still. I’ll rush him a couple times, [but] he’s going to get rushed by a far better athlete in game situations. I think he’s doing a really good job of, one, jelling with the veterans, getting familiar with them, then coming into work every day and trying to get better each and every day.

Q. Obviously, everyone needs a first chance, but what’s the thought process for having that here as opposed to a veteran long snapper? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: Obviously, I’ve been fortunate enough to have veteran long snappers that have played in the NFL, but it’s always a great challenge to have a younger guy, and hopefully the young guy takes the reins and he’s able to stay here for a long period of time. I’ve been fortunate enough to coach [former Eagles LS] Rick Lovato and being around [former Eagles LS] Jon Dorenbos, two guys that have been stalwarts here in Philadelphia for so long. We’re going to push Rocco to exceed those expectations, but we’re going to take it day by day. Obviously, you don’t want to pigeonhole anybody on this roster. We’re just trying to get day by day greatness out of Rocco and elevate his game even more than it is.

Q. With P Braden Mann getting that extension, what stands out most about his development in the years he’s been here? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: You guys asked questions about Braden during the mid-season. Like I always say, I could talk about Braden for days on end. First of all, very, very happy that he’s back. He’s earned every right to have that opportunity to be in that contractual obligation. But to have Braden back, a little bit of continuity with him, [K] Jake [Elliott], and having a new long snapper is always great, but Braden’s earned everything he’s worked for.

Obviously, being a drafted punter, there’s always a spotlight on you. You have to perform because somebody per se “wasted” a draft pick on a specialist. But coming out of college, Braden was that guy out of Texas A&M. And him being able to come back after being cut from the Jets, spending a camp with Pittsburgh, then coming in, I believe it was week three or week four in ’23 and do nothing but excel and help this team out, I think is just kudos to him.

Q. How do you feel after a year of seeing the new kickoff rules? Did you review that and how did that all influence what you wanted at kickoff return? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: Over the past two years, from a specialist standpoint or a special team standpoint, I think it’s great because it gives us plays to play. It gives guys opportunities, like the [TE] Cam Latu’s, the [LB] Jeremiah Trotter’s, guys that may not play a lot of offense and defense, but they excel at that and they’re able to put their name out there. I know we had [former Eagles TE] Kylen Granson. Guy had 18 tackles and a lot of them came on kickoff. So, it just gives these guys an opportunity to extend their career, put more money in their pockets for their family, for their wealth.

From a schematic standpoint, obviously, we didn’t play up to our expectations from a kickoff return standpoint and that all falls on me. So going back, I spent a lot of time looking at what the tracks I want the return men to have, how we want our kickoff return, blocking assignments, how we want that [to look]. I’ve spent a lot of time on that and I’m actually looking forward to it when we go [to] OTAs and mandatory mini camps and putting pads on, trying to implement those so we can use that kickoff return as an advantage. I thought our kickoff was very dangerous last year in terms of our kickoff coverage, and kudos for the guys on the 2025 team, but nobody cares about that going into 2026. We’ve got to start from ground zero and earn our right to be able to go out there with all these kickoffs and give our defense a long field.

Q. Is the plan to have K Jake Elliott as the only kicker in camp summer? (Tim McManus)

Michael Clay: With Jake, obviously long career, still confident in him. You could go game by game, situation by situation, but nobody really wants to hear any of that. Everybody wants to know, what have you done for me last? But for Jake, 10 years in the NFL, 10 years to do it in Philadelphia, big kicks, hard to go against a confidence in that. For me personally, it’s hard for myself to– Is everybody going to jump on the bandwagon to beat a dead horse? No. Jake’s going to be his hardest critic of all time. It’s for me as a coach to bring him up and keep the confidence in him because when he’s confident, a confident kicker is a dangerous kicker. So, for him, it’s just getting back to his basics, getting back to his routine and falling in love with the game again.

For a lot of these players, whatever bad things happen, they fall into that pit hole of like, “Am I good enough?” Obviously, you’re good enough to play in the NFL. There’s only 32 kickers in the NFL or vice versa. There’s only 64 starting DNs. So for him to fall in love with the game again and keep that energy and keep that confidence up, I think is going to be huge for Jake. That’s where I come in being his caddy and keeping him up in all those situations.

Q. You’ve got a guy like S J.T. Gray who’s that accomplished at special teams over the years. Obviously, you’ve got to get him on the 53, but what makes him so good? What has made him so good? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: With J.T., obviously a multi All Pro special teams player. I’ve always been fond of his game, even back when I was an assistant in San Francisco. His tenacity, his understanding. A guy that plays so many special team snaps, he’ll bring something to the table that maybe us as coaches don’t see in between the plays, him able to adjust on the fly. He was coached by a lot of good coaches, like Darren Rizzi. I actually played for Rizzi in Miami when I was coming out of college, and he played for him in New Orleans for a long time. So having a veteran guy like that– and it’s been a while since we’ve had a veteran guy like that in terms of seeing a lot of a ball, blocked a lot of punts, made a lot of tackles as a gunner, kickoff guy.

Again, he’s had some injuries that have kind of derailed him the last year and a half, but him to get back staying healthy and out there providing the spark is what we’re really excited about.

Q. What’s the value of having a guy like that, that veteran guy that doesn’t really play offense or defense and can just be the special teams leader? (Reuben Frank)

Michael Clay: You’re able to bounce ideas off of him. You’re almost having him as the coach on the field. Now, I try to bounce ideas off of every player we have out there, regardless of what year in the NFL you are, but it’s always an added plus to have a guy that’s seen a lot of ball, that’s played at a high level and bounce, “Hey, what do you see here? What do you think about this technique?” Then you could elevate [CB] Kelee Ringo from the gunner spot. I think Kelee Ringo’s a high-end gunner, but maybe there’s a release that J.T.’s work could get Kelee to that next level. When you have two comparable gunners, which we’ve had the last couple years, I think it’s only going to help the team.

Q. For WR Makai Lemon, is he part of the kick return rotation? (Jimmy Kempski)

Michael Clay: Everybody’s part of the kickoff return rotation. Makai, obviously he had that one year at USC where he was really good. They had [former USC WR] Zachariah Branch, obviously hard to pass up that guy. But Makai, I like Makai. He has that California feel, that California confidence. Being from California, you always love it and it may be misunderstood, but he’s out there in the tackling drills, the takeaway circuit, and he’s been able to catch a couple punts as well from Braden and that kickoff return. He’ll definitely be in the mix just like a whole bunch of people will be.

Q. You and Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion go pretty far back, I think, right to when he was at Oregon State and you were at Oregon. Did you guys play against each other? Can you give us any insight into your relationship? (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: Another Bay Area cat. Sean’s from the East Bay. I’m from the South Bay, so that’s always great. Played against Sean a couple years. I believe the first year I played against him was my junior year, his sophomore year, maybe his redshirt freshman year, then obviously the following year. It’s funny, playing against Sean, I think it was my junior year, the third play of the game, I intercepted him when he was at Oregon State, but he was a heck of a quarterback at Oregon State. They gave us a run for our money my senior year.

Being able to have another Bay Area cat’s always nice down here.

Q. Tell us about the play. (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: It was third-and-long. I faked like I was going in the A gap. I dropped back. I think they tried to throw a backside dig and I was fortunate enough that it hit me in between the four and the six that I didn’t drop it.

Q. Any return yards? (Jeff Neiburg)

Michael Clay: Absolutely not. Went down to the ground and off to the sideline, I go.

Q. Asked Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio about DT Uar Bernard on defense. Said patience is key with him. What does he bring on special teams potentially? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: I will reiterate what Vic says. Patience is key. He’s already got enough on his plate in terms of playing a new sport and everything of that nature. But again, that’s the beauty of coaching. You get guys that may never play the game or have only had one year, and you’re going to try and coach them as hard as you possibly can without killing their confidence and seeing what they can do to help out the team. Again, him and [OLB] Josh [Weru], guys that we got through the IPP, it’s going to be great to see them evolve and see them blossom into what football players can be. It’s always great to be able to mold something new with these players.

Q. If I can circle back to the first question about your career, do you view there to be upward trajectory from your role or have you thought about pivoting to defense? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: People ask me that question all the time, do I– not all the time, but in passing like, “Hey, do you always want to be a special teams coordinator? Do you want to go for more for that?” And it’s like, the beauty of special teams coaches, you’re the closest thing to being a head coach because you get to talk to everybody. Vic probably doesn’t get to talk to the offense. Sean probably won’t be able to talk to the defense. In special teams, you get to talk to everybody. I tell people this, if I could do this for another quarter century, then hit the deuces like [former NFL coach] Brad Seely did in Houston, then I’ll be very happy with my life and how it turned out.