Dan Campbell Camp Day 6 Press Event

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Dan Campbell Camp Day 6 Press Event 08/04/26

Dan Campbell kicked off his Day 6 press event with injury updates, including loss of Firkser to reserve/Injured list with a fractured fibula, Vaki getting a broken nose and the re-signing of TE Zach Horton.

Injury Summary

• New:

  • Anthony Firkser - Fractured Fibula. Placed on Reserve/Injured

  • Sione Vaki - Eye injury and Fractured Nose. Miss a bit, will come back with visor

  • Lawrence Keys - Hamstring

• No Changes:

  • Branch - Potentially Early September

  • Kerby - Likely will linger into the season on same timeline as Branch

  • Conklin - Calf in Spring, Two Weeks

  • Peyton Turner - Stiff back, nothing serious

  • Giovani Manu - Added to NFI/Injury List due to previously undisclosed injury form offseason

  • Rolder injury is a Hamstring, be out for a while

  • Kitselman - will be out for awhile

  • Derrick Moore - Strain, 7-10 day

• Updates

  • Gibbs - Campbell mentioned a "back" issue during conditioning test, but it isn't serious <wink>

    • Bijan Robinson signed his deal this morning, Gibbs should be back on field quickly

Quick Hitters

• Zach Horton was resigned as a result of Firkser going on the reserve/Injured list

• Campbell talked about putting the pads on and how the pad level and how both sides will continue to adapt. Wasn't long but will continue to add reps in padded and will add more today.

• loves Dortch, brings more to the WR room and return games than anticipated

• Campbell said Devin White and WILL LB are a natural fit, system suites him. Said he can still run, get his weight down, and work him into practice and be smart with him. Se where he can go with it.

• On TeSlaa, what does progress look like? more growth, can't just be down the field, expand route tree. Work at LoS, understand the route options are next progression. We see more than basics with him.

• Campbell changed 1-on-1 on Day 1 of tackling from a live tackling to a drill one that was more one-move only, allows to get some guys in there they held out in years past, but will get back to the full-on drill later in camp.

Dan Campbell Press Event Transcript

• Opening Comment How's everybody doing? How are you? Good. Good. Uh Vaki yesterday, you know, got poked in the eye, broken nose. Uh so he going to be out for a little bit here. Um uh we're hopeful, you know, vision should be okay in time, you know, uh we're not going to have him here today. Um just going to let him kind of recover a little bit. Um, so we think he'll be okay. He's just going to need a minute here. It was just one of those freak things. Somehow, you know, a hand gets through the face mask. It was unbelievable. Um, and uh, you know, Firkser uh, he's got a fractured fibula. Um, so he'll be out obviously. Um, and then, uh, Keys had a little bit of a hammy. So, got Horton back today, uh, at the tight end position. Um, and we move on. We move on. Day two of pads here and uh you know man I thought it was competitive. I thought uh there was some really good things yesterday man. I thought the D line came off the ball. They looked like they took the sled work uh to team and that was good to see. So I'm looking forward to the offense responding today. It'll be good.

• Dan. Obviously the eyes gravitate toward the big guys because you can't evaluate anything until those pads come on. What would you like? You mentioned the defensive line. What else did to maybe pop out to you? What did you like about the pads coming on with those guys in the trenches? Well, it just makes it real, right? And that's the first thing that always happens on one side of the ball is when you put the pads on you, you think you're playing low. You think you're doing the drill work at a until you get somebody on you. And now we all got our pads on and the pad level really becomes important and you have to get a taste of it. uh before you realize and it'll adapt players will adapt and adjust off of it. Like today you're going to see guys play lower today, you know, and so that old line's going to play lower. Well, then the D line's going to have to get under them to play. So, it it's just good, man. That's how you get better and it gets competitive. But, man, I love the violence of it. Uh the way these guys played, I thought they were aggressive. Um, I thought we were smart though too without you know we don't want to do anything stupid but I man I thought it was what we were looking for the first day and it wasn't very long. There weren't very many reps. We'll amp the wraps up uh the reps up today. It' be a little bit longer and get some good periods in. >> Obviously um some opportunities for some guys behind him on the depth chart.

• You guys clearly liked what you saw in Saylors all last year. He looks a little quicker maybe a little leaner. He [snorts] was coming off that UFFL season last year. you know, how is he different, I guess, coming into this camp after having a couple big plays from camp yesterday. Well, he's been in our system now. You know, he got a full year with us. He's banked a lot of reps, particularly on special teams, but he's been in that room. I mean, he's uh he's been in there with Choice and Gibbs and Montgomery and now this year with Isiah. Um, but he knows the system, you know, and he's a smart guy. He's conscientious. Um, and so that's always going to help when you come into camp. and you're like, "All right, man. Now I'm I know why we're doing what we're doing, what we're asked to do, the calls, all of that." Uh he looks much more comfortable. Uh and he's got ability. I mean, you see it. Um he he's got ability. So, um yeah, he he's about to get, you know, it's a great opportunity for him. This is a great opportunity. So, um it'll be good to see. And Small, too, you know. I mean, obviously Zay is Zay, you know. He's That guy's a stud, man. I'm glad he's here. Um but man, you talked about Saylors and Small is doing some things and he's doing some things on special teams, too, man. Low to the ground, center of gravity, he's stout, he's strong, he's got later real quick. So, pretty good, man. Guys are going to get a pretty good look here. >>

• Stay with the running back position real quick. The big news of the morning, Bijan Robinson got his extension. How much do you hope or do you think that can expedite the process with Jahmyr? How much do I hope? How much do I hope it it helps to get

• You think that that Bijan getting his deal will speed up this process? I mean, I think it it's certainly not going to hurt. I mean, it I it's not going to hurt. Um but we'll see, you know, we'll see. I'm Look, I'm anxious to get uh Gibbs back out there. um every day that goes by, you know, that's another day that you feel like you miss with him and getting him out there with the guys and him being uh doing his part. So, um but there again, man, it'll get done when it gets done.

• Uh there's been a lot of moving pieces along the offensive line. One of the guy who kind of brings continuity at his position is Tate. What have you liked about the way he's kind of come back after his first, you know, full off season? Yeah, I love where Tate came back in the spring. Looked good. You could tell he worked all through that time and then certainly being in a building with us. Uh he looked much more comfortable, more confident. And then he showed up at camp, man, in great shape. I mean, you know, you could just tell, man, he's worked and he's trying to be conscientious. One of the things we talked about for him was, you know, obviously consistency. That's what when you're a rookie, but the pad level, you know, and it's still, you know, it's up and down, but you can tell he's trying and he wants to do it. And because that's if when he bends and you got to bend when you got Alim McNeil across from you and Tyleik those guys low center of gravity and they can get under you and they're quick as heck. Uh and so I mean that's a blessing to be able to go against Alm every day that that you got to be on it. But man, his attitude is right. You can tell that man he came in saying I want to be much better than I was last year. I'm going to clean a lot of this stuff up. And everything I've seen to this point has been good. I mean, he's uh he looks good. I'm glad he's here.

• What have you seen from Dortch so far? Greg, He surprised you at all, Dortch, with the way he's played or is this what you expected? Well, uh I there again until we really get into a lot more of some of these team settings, particularly in the return game. Um, I want to be careful but just watching his movement skills and the drill work as a returner and even some of the little things as a receiver, it's even better than I thought. Just, you know, there's things about him. I mean, you watch him maneuver through some of these drills and it's and it looks pretty good. So, um, so that's pretty exciting, you know, like Dortch, you know, he man, he's working. He's wants to be one of the guys and adapt to what we do and how we do it. And I think every day he gets he gets a little bit better and learns how we go through and do what we do.

• Dan, we saw we saw Devin White mix in with the first team defense yesterday. I know it's early with him still, but how do you maybe see him fitting into this defense? Well, you know, obviously the Will linebacker is something that that suits him very well. um you know just his body type, the type of linebacker he's been and our system too. I mean the system suits him. So um you know I thought I thought yesterday I mean there was a couple of wow plays in there. I mean one he just I mean came downhill and just you know that's what we expect. I mean and he can still run. You can see that. And uh so we just get his weight down a little bit and uh you know make sure that we keep continue to work him into practice. Be smart with him, you know. Um and then see where he can go with it. But uh it's an opportunity, you know. So

• When you open padded practice yesterday, you did the kind of one-on-one tackling drill that we've seen a lot, but um not live tackling as I think we've seen on the first day of padded practices before. Kind of what went into that. Well, yeah, it was all right, let's just do it to where these guys get a feel. It's crazy how you saw that drill under control and all this and then the minute you say, "Okay, hey, it's live." Even though the runner cannot run you over, you're not allowed to. You cannot run over the tackler in that drill. We're not That's not what we want is collision. You get one move, but the minute you do that, all of a sudden, a lot of techniques change. Now, some of them don't. Some of these guys are on point, but it's amazing. So, man, let's just fundamentally let's get it go through it a couple times. The other thing is there was there were some guys I held out of that drill last year and that are they got some juice and they got some cuts and they got some so by not doing it live you get them and keep them in the drill which works you know the tackler a little bit. So we will get to that drill and do it live for you Jeremy. It is coming my friend. I I'm telling you I'm glad that you're looking. That's good stuff. So, yeah,

• At this time last year, a lot of people were curious about what you had in Isaac TeSlaa. Then we saw the one-handed catches, the touchdowns. I'm just curious in year two, what does progress look like for him in in another [clears throat] new offense? Well, more growth, you know, um it can't just be that. It can't just be down the field one-handed. It can't be, you know, he uh he's got to expand his route tree. He's got to get better at those things. Um and that's growth into the second year. I mean that's part look the guy is smart. He busts his tail, he's going to block in the run game there, but now some of it is man work at the line of scrimmage, you know. Um some of it is once I get into this route is at the top of the route, you know, some of these digs, maybe it's slant, maybe. And so that that's kind of the next progression, man. Because we don't see him. He's not just a we don't just see that. Okay, this is all this guy does. Now, with every player we have, what do they excel at? And we're going to ask him to do a lot of those things, but we see more than that with him. We think this guy can run the tree and uh and then he's just got to work through it, you know, every day like everybody else.

• We haven't seen any plays out of him. Is he still doing everything, you know, all the other little things? Has he improved in those areas that that you guys see behind closed doors that maybe you miss in in camp? That is, you know, running the roads. I I think I think there's things right now like even some of the one-on-one stuff, you know, I it's when you start getting into some technique stuff and you're a young player, it's a lot like golf. Look, who you guys play golf? Anybody? Okay. I don't either. All right. So, but apparently it uh man, if you're off just a little bit with your technique, you know, you're man, everything is it's perfect and uh you're in the flow and you can feel it and but all of a sudden if one thing gets off just a little bit and you kind of get in this there's a little bit of this funk, right? and you and then you you're trying to solve the issue and so you change your swing a little bit and then you've corrected the wrong way and now you're and that's what comes with all this and it comes with all these players too. I mean um and so I would say there's a little bit of that right now. He's just you know he's working and Scott and uh Scotty's working with him and so he he'll get there man. The guy works his tail off. Um but that's what practice is about. Okay.

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