Michael Clay

Q. Michael with the kickoff, with the touchback moving to 35, how much does that impact kickoff strategy for you guys to make many adjustments? (Jeff Neiburg)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I think it’s just going to be league wide. We’ll probably see it tonight in the Hall of Fame game. Probably going to be a lot more returns, five yards. It does make a difference right there for the defense. In terms of our strategy, that’s the beauty of training camp. You get to work all aspects of special teams, especially our kickoff cover units. We’ve done a couple of drills to kind of get back in the swing of things. I think there’ll be definitely an uptick in both the kickoff coverage and the kickoff return.

Q. What led to the change in long snapper this offseason? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: I think that’s just how the NFL works. Sometimes you get blessed with a guy that you could be around for so many years, but it’s just an ever-evolving league, ever evolving roster. [Former Eagles LS] Rick [Lovato], the lore of Rick, he’s one of the few athletes that had two Super Bowls with one team here in Philadelphia and respect everything he did. Very happy to have [LS] Charley [Hughlett], he’s no slouch either, multiple pro bowls in Cleveland, big body guy. But again, that’s just the nature of the beast in the NFL is the roster’s always turning over and new adventures with new players. So very excited for Charley to be on our team.

Q. Michael, what have you seen from WR Ainias Smith in the return game? (Andrew DiCecco)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I think Ainias has done a really good job of just improving his feet, his hands. He’s put in the work. You could definitely tell in the off season wherever he was training at and OTAs to now him just being more confident, kind of just calm cool collected back there, which has been great. We’re excited to see maybe a little live action as we move forward with him catching and see what he can do. He was a pretty explosive return at Texas A&M.

Q. Seems like we haven’t seen WR Avery Williams with the punt returner group as much. What’s the reason for that? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: Avery is also known as a very good personal protector on punt. He’s coming down to a different set of language, new system and I’ve seen Avery catch punts for the past four years in the NFL. I know he could do it, but to him get comfortable calling protections in the punt pro now. You’ll probably see him out here today. It’s a punt return emphasis day that he’ll be doing his normal catching.

Q. With Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio wanting to keep DB Cooper DeJean on the field on defense as much as possible. How does that affect how much you might use him on special teams? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I mean everything’s always evolving. The communication between myself, [Defensive Coordinator] Vic [Fangio] [Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo] KP, [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] has been fluid and everything’s been great. He’ll catch a couple in practice right here just to make sure, just knock the rust off. But when push comes to shove, we’re going to put the best 11 out there.

Q. You’ve spoken before about wanting guys who play major roles on your units to sort of win jobs with the defense and the offense. I guess, what’s it been like watching guys like CB Kelee Ringo and S Sydney Brown compete for starting jobs in the defense? (E.J. Smith)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I always tell them when as rookies, the first thing I tell them is I love to see you guys go out and start an offense and defense. Now if you start with me on special teams, awesome, but it’s great to see them. Competition usually breeds greatness. To see Sydney out there competing, Kelee out there competing, but that’s the beauty of this whole roster. Everybody competes, whether it’s [WR] AJ Brown has a wide receiver down to [WR] Darius Cooper, an undrafted guy, everybody competes on this team. For me, outside looking in, it’s awesome to see these guys compete, but it’s also awesome to see them in the meeting room. They’re still taking notes like they’re out there playing on special teams as their majority of their play. It’s really cool to see that.

Q. We’ve seen you work with WR Terrace Marshall out there, not a lot of special teams experience for him in his career. What have you seen from him and his willingness there? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: I love that he’s kind of taken on that role of just wanting to learn special teams and get in there and it’s awesome to see guys that may have not played special teams in their career want to play special teams and that makes my job real easy to get these guys out there and he is done a fantastic job. He’s a bigger wide receiver. We’ve got a couple of those, the [WR] Johnny Wilsons of the world, big wide receivers that could block do other things for us. The more you can do in the NFL, regardless of what position you play, the better you’re going to have at making the team. But it’s been awesome to have all these guys out there competing.

Q. RB AJ Dillon likened kick returns to running inside zone. What do you like about having a running back there specifically Dillon back there? (Tim McManus)

Michael Clay: I guess I’d pose the question to you guys. Would you guys want to try to tackle a guy that’s 240 pounds running straight downhill at you? But again, he has a ball in his hands a lot of the time. Ball security is imperative, especially on kickoff return. We saw what [RB] Will [Shipley] and [RB] Kenneth [Gainwell] did last year for us on kickoff return getting downhill, which helped us out a lot in the later part of the year when the weather changes and the ball doesn’t travel. So having AJ back there, big body guy trying to make a one-on-one tackle with him in the open field as he’s going downhill, probably a little bit tougher than usual, but all these guys are competing from AJ to Will to [WR] Avery [Williams]. It’s a good group of kickoff return guys to one, bounce ideas off each other, then going through all these drills so they feel comfortable with all these new type of kickoffs and that’s great to have Jake because he can’t do some stuff of that nature.

Q. There was a drill the other day where you were wearing the pads on your chest, why do you want to be the one to do that? (Bo Wulf)

Michael Clay: A little sense of being a masochist. I like to feel a little bit, but also when you ask these guys, you want them to do some sort of technique. For me personally as a coach, if I’m not out there, how are they supposed to really get what we’re trying to get to the coach? Me being able to feel a pop, ‘Hey, I didn’t feel you that much. You got to really strike me right.’ Then I tell them, ‘Hey, hit me. I’m a player. I’ll be all right. I got to pad, I’ll be just fine.’ But it also gets that more one-on-one in-depth coaching. Like, ‘hey, you could get this hand outside on a pad to get off a block or you could strike a little bit better.’ Or I think [LB] Jihaad [Campbell] almost got me on the ground over there. You could feel the power from these players. I’m all right, this guy has something that I could use. Whether it’s punt, punt return or just seeing them out on offense and defense.

Q. WR Taylor Morin, undrafted guy was a good punt returner in college. What have you seen from him so far? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: I think what he’s very cerebral in terms of where the ball is going. He’s gotten better of just calming his feet. There’s some things with his footwork where if he didn’t catch it square, you’re not going to be able to go left or right. I think he’s done a good job of getting it square to the ball where now he can make that first and second guy miss either right or left. He has really good hands in terms of just fielding the ball. So excited both about him, [WR] Giles [Jackson] back there, [WR] Ainias [Smith], you’ve seen [WR] Jahan [Dotson] back there. Those guys have been really doing a good job. I don’t think they’ve put a ball on the ground yet, so we’re going to try and keep that going. I think it’s just the added competition as well. You don’t want to be the first guy to put the ball on the ground. They’re doing a really good job and [P] Braden [Mann] helps them out by giving them a whole plethora of different kicks.

Q. What’s your general philosophy on kick returner, punt returner, that you want to split it or could one person do both jobs eventually? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I think that’s a skill. I think it’s almost a lost art in the college football ranks of having the dual returners, the [Former Eagles RB] Darren Sproles of back then where they could catch punts and do kickoff returns. But if you have a guy that can do both, it’s an added luxury, but we’re also going to put the best 11 out there where you feel the most comfortable, where you could have a big play going forward. So again, it’s just feeling it out. It’s still July. The more times we’re able to see them catch a ball, whether it’s kick or punt return, the better. We’ll have a better picture down the road.

Q. What are your thoughts on changing the onside kick rule? (Jeff Kerr)

Michael Clay: I just do as I’m told, we had a lot of conversations from the special teams unit, coaches and anything to help whatever they want to make help better for the league, so be it. We will adapt and adjust like we always do in special teams.

Q. With a new long snapper, how long does it typically take to get that operation flawless? (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: That’s the great thing they come in OTAs and now you have five weeks of them getting used to it. In the off season. When it gets closer to camp, they get together and they’ll be able to work their own. So that’s the beauty of having three guys that are NFL pros. They know what their job entails, they know what they have to do to get do it. I know offense defense going, they’re on that separate field and they’re working operations. [Special Teams Assistant] Tyler Brown does a great job with them in terms of if I’m helping out with offense or defense, he takes over there to get them well synced in. That’s the beauty of just being professionals, getting the job done.

Q. Are you guys planning not to have DB Cooper Dejean return punts? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: Yeah, you’ll see him[DB Cooper DeJean] pop in, pop out. Obviously we know he could catch, so that gives these young guys an opportunity to catch some more. But he’ll be out there, knock some rust off here and there. I’ll have some specific days where, ‘hey Coop, go and catch a couple’ or some like hey, ‘I don’t need to see these young guys.’ It’s all planned on when we want to see them catch or not.

Q. You don’t expect DB Cooper DeJean to be the every time punt returner like he was last year? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: Once we get closer to the regular season, we’ll have a better feel. But as of now, do I feel it? Probably not. But you never know what’s going to happen. You never know if he wants to be out there and if the player wants to be out there, he wants to be out there. But for right now, let me get these young guys, see if they could catch a couple punts out there.