Michael Clay

Q. That field goal K Jake Elliott makes from 58, was that about his range? You go into a game, do you know how far he can make it? (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: We usually have a sense during pregame on how he feels going into it. Heck of a kick from Jake, obviously, 58-yarder. Still tough in the NFL to hit field goals, and there was a little bit of wind in terms of that face. He did a great job executing. Good job by the field goal team blocking, and that was a huge three points to make it a seven-point game.

Q. He had a pretty good chance and you guys obviously remained confident, but for him to see that go through earlier in the season from that distance, what do you think that can do for him? (Jeff Neiberg)

Michael Clay: You can ask Jake himself. It doesn’t change anything for me how I feel about him, but I think it’s more of a — Jake probably would give you a better answer than I can.

Q. On kickoffs, you had a holder as opposed to the tee. What was the reason for that? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: Something different, something we noticed from Week 1. I believe Atlanta did it with [Atlanta Falcons K] Nick Folk, and it just gave us a different opportunity, a different launch angle and they executed pretty well in terms of Jake and [P] Braden Mann holding on that. We’re always looking for ways to help the team in any way we possibly can. It’s a different technique, and we’ll see if we keep using that as the year goes on.

Q. With WR Britain Covey and punt returns, how do you want him to kind of balance being aggressive, being tough, and also maybe keeping himself out of harm’s way a little bit? Is that something he has to balance? (Reuben Frank)

Michael Clay: I don’t know if you can keep yourself out of harm’s way playing football. I mean, football’s physical. I think he has a good understanding of when not to be too crazy and when to take chances. Obviously, that first one, I thought he did a great job. I mean, he kicked the ball — Was it 65 yards? There’s nobody within 25 yards of him. That’s an opportunity to take a chance and return it from the 5-yard line.

If that ball is closer up in the line of scrimmage, you’re probably taking your chance of getting the touchback. But the 23-yard return, you gain a net of eight yards off if it did go into the back of the end zone as a touchback. I think kind of an underappreciated thing with Covey is that he understands field position, ‘when should I take chances, when do I not take chances?’ We have full confidence in him doing that. I thought he did a really good job. Last game and the game previous, the opponent net dipped under 40, which is great for us in terms of flipping the field.

Q. You said Atlanta used the different angle on kickoffs. Who notices that? Do you have someone who’s watching all the special team snaps around the league? How do you find that stuff? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: These two eyeballs you’re looking at right now. I watch every snap of the NFL on Mondays. That’s one of the great joys of this profession, is I get to watch every football game, special teams-wise, every play. I’ve got a whole, I think, whole library from 2015 of, I call them, plays of the week in different categories. It’s just something that you keep an eye on, and it keeps you refreshed and what other teams are doing when you do have to play them down the road. It’s one of the perks of this job.

Q. So then you see that and you want to bring it to your guys, how does that process go? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: Go in my office like, ‘Hey, we saw this, you guys want to try this?’ More often than not, the guys are pretty juiced up about it. It’s something different. Keep them wanting more, wanting to evolve their game in the best sense that they can. If they say, ‘We don’t like it,’ cool. No sweat off my back. They’re not confident or they don’t want to do it, cool. We’ll go with what we know what’s good. I thought Braden and Jake did a really nice job of implementing throughout the week and being ready for it on Sunday.

Q. [Regarding the Titans kicking and whether that was intentional in leading to touchbacks on kickoffs…] (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: I don’t think they were trying to hit touchbacks. I think it was just, you chalk it up to the game. Sometimes the guy hits it short, sometimes he hits it deep. I thought it was great decision making by both Covey and [RB Will Shipley] Ship back there, but I don’t anticipate that happening more often than not, unless you’re up a whole bunch of points and you don’t want to put anybody in harm’s way.

Q. Michael, how much time do you spend on Mondays watching other games and how often do you come up with something doing that that you can use? (Reuben Frank)

Michael Clay: I mean, however long it takes me. I think it takes me a few hours on Mondays. I try to get in here early, do my debrief of the game, have it all written out, my meeting and everything like that. Then after that, probably around, I would say 9 o’clock till probably about lunchtime, a little after lunchtime, I’m watching all around the league just to see the flavor of the week, what’s going on around the league, things like maybe implementing the game plan for our next opponent. I think it’s probably about three, three and a half hours, but you’re watching football. I could be doing way worse things in my life than that.

Q. Was WR Britain Covey being back there isolated to this game or anticipate using him more kick returns? (Jeff McLane)

Michael Clay: Every week is a week-by-week case. Obviously, what’s their kicker doing? Things of that nature. There’s always not everything set in stone with guys and it just happened to work out that, unfortunately, [RB] Saquon [Barkley] got hurt on that first play. Then you get down, you’re like, ‘Well, there’s only two running backs left. I got to somehow keep everybody fresh in that case.’ It’s always nice to have the luxury of Covey being a dual returner. Everything’s a case-by-case study in terms of who’s going to be back there.

Q.: What does Chicago do well on special teams? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: I always say I could talk for days about different guys. I could talk for days talking about [Chicago Bears Special Teams Coordinator] Richard Hightower. Obviously, I learned a lot from him. We spent so much time — They are a very disciplined and physical group. [Chicago Bears DL] Daniel Hardy, No. 92, he has been a fantastic rusher, fantastic coverage player for them. [Chicago Bears DB] Josh Blackwell, who we had here, he’s done a really nice job on the outside. They’ve got a returner in [Chicago Bears WR] Xavion Thomas that has speed to burn. They’ve got a lot of good players – [Chicago Bears RB] Roshan Johnson, running back out of Texas. They’ve got guys that play both offense and defense that commit to the special teams and they want to help out as much as possible. I think their kickoff coverage unit is dynamic in terms of what [Chicago Bears K] Cairo [Santos] can do with the ball, then their coverage lanes. Again, every week I say is a challenge. Every week is a challenge. It’s a familiar coach in terms of Hightower, but it’s a different type of players that we got to get ready for. [It’s] nice having a little bit of a longer week. We spent some good time to have the game plan ready, and we’ll implement it tomorrow when the players are in, but it’s going to be another NFC battle in Chicago Monday night. It should be a beautiful night, so we’re looking forward to it.

Q. In Head Coach Nick Sirianni’s post-game speech, he singled out the decision making from Shipley and Covey as you just did. How much of that is them following your rules and how much of that is their instincts in that moment? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: It’s a little bit of both. I mean, going back to what you guys — When I watch around the league, I pluck out returner teaching plays and I bring from their peers, ‘Hey, in this scenario, we should probably do this,’ or ‘Hey, in this scenario, we have to do that.’ Hopefully, it rings into them, and some stuff has to do with their instincts, where they are on the field. The communication with Ship or [RB] Tank [Bigsby] or Covey saying, ‘Hey, we’re in the end zone. Let’s take 35-yards. We’ll take that,’ or ‘We’ve got to bring this out.’ A lot of it has to do with the work we do Wednesday walkthroughs with Joe P [Assistant Special Teams Coordinator/Director of Team Relationships Joe Pannunzio] in terms of it’s a controlled environment. He puts them in a tough scenario, whether the ball’s near the sideline, you’re close to being in the end zone. Do we take a knee? Do we have to bring it out? We try to put them in all the different scenarios possible. Thursdays, Jake hits them, the dirty balls during a punt return session. They’re getting as much work as we possibly can to get them ready, so when it does come up in the game, they feel confident in it.

Q. What’s it like for you to watch WR Darius Cooper have a moment that he had with the game winning touchdown? Young player puts a lot of time in on special teams. (Johnny McGonigal)

Michael Clay: That’s awesome for anybody. You go down there in a two-minute scenario, you have all these scenarios popping up, then he goes in, back to the ends of touchdown. It was super cool to see just from a coaching standpoint, a fan standpoint, and he didn’t have much time to celebrate on the sideline. We had kickoff and he was ready to go at that point. It’s just the fruits of his labor coming. I think we saw that the latter half after his injury last year as a rookie, playing a little bit more special teams. Now, through training camp, all the fruits of his labor are starting to pay off for himself and I’m just happy for him more than anything else.

Q. LS Rocco Underwood is a rookie obviously stepping in with a couple vets, P Braden Mann and K Jake Elliott. What’s his demeanor like away from the field or on the field and how do you keep the moment from getting maybe too big for someone like him? (Ed Kracz)

Michael Clay: Rocco’s done a really nice job for us. His demeanor — He’s had family members in the NFL. Obviously, it was a cool moment for him going against his cousin [Titans P Tommy Townsend]. I’m sure he’s leaned into him asking questions about the NFL, but I don’t know if there’s two better veterans he could be around in terms of Braden and Jake, in terms of just mentoring him and just letting him be who he is. We’re never going to be one to change who you are because you’re in our room. We want you to be who you are. We want you to be Rocco Underwood from North Florida, the Orlando area. We want him to be like that every week, every day of his life. He’s done a really good job, and we’ll adapt to him like he adapts to us. I think Rocco’s done a really good job of just integrating with the veterans, with the rookies, with the punt team, with the field goal team. He’s been a pleasure to be around, and he’s going to continuously get better and better as we move forward. The more times I’m around Rocco, the funnier he is, the more charismatic that he is. I’ve been fortunate in my career that I’ve been around some good specialists throughout whatever team I’ve been on.

Q. Will TE Dallas Goedert’s injury impact how you use tight ends on special teams? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: It was business as usual. We find ways to alleviate some stuff. We find ways to keep them on. Like I’ve always said, we try to put the best 11 out there, and it’s kudos to those guys on Sunday. It was hot, and they didn’t bat an eye. We had some guys go down, some guys stepped up for us. You saw [S] Maximus Pulley out there, you saw [S] Marcus Epps in a PP rep, things of that nature. It’s just how cool it is for all these guys that sit in our room and be ready for the game regardless of injuries or whatever happens.

Q. I’ll belabor the questions on the Monday film session. What was the play of the week elsewhere in the NFL? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: Oh boy. Play of the week? I don’t know. There was some stuff that we could all learn from. I mean, there was a couple blunders, but outside of that, I think it’s just all teaching moments than anything else. I don’t know if I want to throw anybody out on main street with that, but there’s just a lot of stuff we can learn from situationally to things that can’t happen or can happen. I think it’s just great for the guys to see what’s happening around the league at the end of the week.

Q. Can I throw out Minnesota Vikings CB Isaiah Rodgers block for you? Did you see that? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: I sure did. He’s got a knack for it on the outside, obviously. In ’24, he got one for us against Tampa Bay. He’s always a danger out there. I thought he did a really good job in terms of the jump and knocking down the outside hand of the wing from the Bears. He just has a knack for it, and kudos to him because he studies it. I kind of got a little taste of what his thought process is going into it. Isaiah’s just been a heck of a player for a long time, and it’s really cool to see. Obviously, doing his son’s celebration is also pretty cool to see. You can see these NFL players are family men, and they try to do the best way they can for their family.

Q. On the staff, you’re one of the only guys who’s here from TE Zach Ertz’s first game. What do you recall from a young Zach Ertz? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: Shoot, I’ve known Zach further back than that. I think we played against each other in high school basketball, and I’ve always been around Zach. I’ve had really good friends that went to Stanford with Zach. Zach is a true professional, a great player. Obviously, he’s had his roots here in Philadelphia, done a lot of great things, and won a Super Bowl. It’s hard not to want a great player in the sense of who Zach Ertz is, but even better person. I saw him — Monday or Tuesday morning. I was in the sauna. He was the first one in, and it’s cool just to see a familiar face again.

Q. How was the hooper TE Zach Ertz? (Jeff Neiburg)

Michael Clay: Zach was darn good at Monte Vista Danville. They were a good team. He may not have been the best player on their team. They had a point guard, Barber, I think was his last name, that was a baller, but they were a very good basketball team.

Q. Who won? (Reuben Frank)

Michael Clay: Oh, they killed us. We stunk that night. Monte Vista put it on us that night.