Pete Carroll quotes from Day 1 of Seahawks rookie minicamp

Here’s the transcript of Pete Carroll’s press conference at Seahawks rookie minicamp. As you’d expect, he was asked a lot of Frank Clark questions, but there’s also some football stuff in there too:

(Opening)“How about this day? What a great day, man. This is a great Seahawks day. We had a really exciting start to this minicamp – last night’s meetings and getting out here today on the practice fields. It’s fun to be back, but to see the spirit of these guys come out firing and practicing like we just did, it was a terrific first day. It’s great fun for the coaches to see the new guys after we’ve been thinking about them and getting through the process to get them here. Then to see them start battling and competing and knowing what lies ahead on this great journey that they’re on and we’re kind of trying to steward them through it. It’s fun to be back.”

(On long snapper and former Green Beret Nate Boyer) “Yeah, it’s hard to grasp for some of us to understand what he’s gone through and what he’s endured and the mentality that it’s taken for him to accomplish the things he’s accomplished and the guys he’s been with too – not just Nate – all the guys he shared time with while fighting for our country and all. He’s an amazing man. We’re thrilled to have him. He snaps the ball pretty sweet too so he had a good first day for us.”

(On DE Frank Clark’s first day on the field) “Yeah everybody’s scrambling out here. Heard that he had some cramping – he felt a little bit of that. It’s a big day for these guys the first day out – there’s a lot of expectations and it often can catch up with guys – their nerves and concerns and all that. But he made it through and worked hard – had a couple real nice plays out there. Showed some of the spark that we hoped to see in the pass rush. A lot of guys did some good things today. I thought Tyler [Lockett] was all over the field, catching balls and making plays – caught the ball really well in the opportunity in the kick return stuff. But there’s a lot of guys that did good stuff. Probably the most exciting area is to watch is what Tom [Cable] is doing with the three young linemen up there. He’s like a little kid in the candy store. He’s so excited about this challenge of bringing these guys along and the transition for [Kristjan] Sokoli and knowing that this is a big deal for our football team to add the competition and the support to the offensive line play. He’s having a blast.”

(On what the team is doing to help Frank Clark off the field) “Well right now it’s minicamp time and we’ve got him with us around the clock. We want to continue to support whatever’s necessary for him. That’s if there’s counseling efforts that he’s been involved with – we’re prepared to do that. Like he said, we’re going to support him in the ways that he needs as we learn more about him and uncover what’s really important. All of our young guys need a lot of help. Our program – you wonder sometimes why we are here and how we do it – we are really a relationship-based program. We care about these guys and we know that by doing that, by digging into who they are and what they’re all about and finding the ways to support them in the necessary ways to make them find their way to be their best, that’s what we’re doing. So we’re doing the same things with Frank we do with anybody else. He has some special things in his background that we’re going to tend to them, just like a lot of the other guys. But whatever we have to do formally, we’ll do, and we’ll figure that out as we go.”

(On Clark’s background and if there are parts that spoke specifically to Carroll having been so involved in the inner city youth in L.A.) “Well, it’s hard for you guys to understand what Baldwin Village (in Los Angeles) is like growing up. It’s a difficult area. It’s a historically challenging area. I’ve been in that area a lot and around it. So just knowing that it got to the point that his mother had to move him out of there, he was on really the most difficult end of it. His story’s not the only story. There’s a lot of kids who have grown up with similar challenges. Fortunately his mom figured out a way to put him in a position where he could grow and prosper and he found his way in the Glenville area (Cleveland) with Coach [Ted] Ginn at the high school there who I’ve known through recruiting over the years who’s a tremendous mentor and I’m sure, along with Frank’s family, really helped him formulate how to get his act together as a young man growing up. He was a heralded guy in Michigan in terms of his personality and work ethic and character and all that kind of stuff. They really supported him and we picked up on that. I think you just saw. He’s a very impressive young man. We’re hopeful to build on that and see if all of those background stories can really be the pillars of what makes him the great person he can become as he grows up. I think he also said that he’s a young man and he knows that and there’s a lot of growing to do and we’re going to help him do that.”

(On all the talk regarding the Seahawks’ research into Clark’s selection and if there’s anything Carroll would like to add or amend to that conversation) “Well I think what’s important to extend is that we really care about this process and we really care about the people that we deal with. So we’re going to go as far as we need to go to find out what the story is all about and I think that’s what we did from the very first early signals. The first thing, like John [Schneider] has said, if a guy has a troubled background, you’re looking for reasons to take him off your board, and we did that. We went through the process and we found out what kind of kid this guy is and what happened through the process that he’s been through, and we uncovered that we have a young man that deserves an opportunity. I think he’ll continue to show you why. We’ll support him through it, but he’s got a great opportunity and I think he’s going to take full advantage of it and do the right thing. I think he’s going to be an asset. I think he’s going to be a positive and a plus to us as we watch him develop.”

(On three days of rookie minicamp and how much the coaches can find out about the drafted and undrafted signed players) “We get a really good first impression is what I think happens. It’s not real football. We’re having to use our imagination out here like it is real football. But you can see the guys’ initial signals about how they learn, we can see how they match up with our other guys and do they have the quickness, do they have the movement that we need. And sometimes we can really uncover an indication of the kind of special qualities that a kid has for us – the competitiveness, the chip on his shoulder, that drive to prove who he is – those kinds of things, they start to show up in three days. We can figure that out. How it is going to wind up, we don’t know, but we can get early indications.

(On how they envision Frank Clark’s role on the field) “We’re going to wait and see on that one but we’re going to start him as a defensive end and see where he goes from there. He weighed in at 277 pounds and he’s really fast and he’s really strong. We have a couple different ways that we play our defensive ends. We have guys with a lot of movement, we have the real big long guys for us and then we have the edge guys that play the Leo position. He’s got a chance to play two of those three and he’s never going to be a 300-pound guy that’s going to load up so we’re going to uncover the movement skills that he has – the savvy – what he feels comfortable doing and like always, we’re looking for the unique qualities that he has. He’s explosive and he’s fast and he’s got some real nice stuff. We’ll see where he fits in. And there’s no rush, we’ve got plenty of time to figure that out.”

(More on Clark’s role) “I’m kind of curious to see what he looks like rushing on a guard in third down situations. Because he has really long arms, he’s a real asset in pass rush and he’ll always be a real fast guy inside, we just need to see what kind of feel he has. That’s all part of the process. That’s not really the defensive end thing on first and second down there. That’s ‘Can he contribute as a third down specialist?’ If he could, and he could play next to Mike [Bennett] as we like to play him inside, then that’s could be a real nice combination. It’s going to take us quite a while to figure that out though.”

(On the teams’ responsibilities in deciding if a player should be drafted, after the league has cleared the player) “Oh I think the teams have all the responsibility. If they’ve cleared a guy, then he’s eligible for us to go through the process and figure it out. So it’s ultimately, the club has to do it. I think it’s easy to say let’s just go on to the next guy right away. That’s not how we do it. Every challenging opportunity we have to add personnel, you watch us, we’ll go all the way to the end to figure out is this a prospect for us, somebody that could help our club? We’ll exhaustingly go about it in that manner. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, that’s just the way that we work. In this case, we stayed with it long enough so that we figured out what we thought were reasons to give him the opportunity.”

(On Nate Boyer’s physical characteristics that would allow him to compete) “Well he’s very accurate snapping the football. He’s got good skill there. I don’t know where he got it but he got it somewhere along the way. We need to see if he can hold up blocking-wise, because he’s not a big man. We know that he’s going to give you everything he’s got, which is all we’ve ever asked of our guys. So that’ll be fun to see how that translates. He’ll be in a big competition with [Clint] Gresham and we’ll see how that goes. He’s a very accurate snapper. I don’t have the times on him out here today but I’m anxious to see what his times were snapping the ball.”

(On how valuable Boyer’s life experiences might be in the locker room with some of the other players) “Well I don’t know. I don’t know that but depending on how it plays out, let’s just see how it goes. I don’t know Nate well enough yet to know how that will come to light, but I like to think that anybody’s background can benefit us in some ways and when the timing is right and we’re able to mix it into our regular routines, I’m going to try to call on it and I’m not going to treat Nate any different than anyone else.”

(On what it is about the culture on this team that can help a player who’s had some issues in his past) “Well I think that we are committed to the individual guys. Let me back up. When I left S.C. to come here, one of the thoughts that I had was I wanted to see what it was like if we go to the NFL and we treat people like we had done there at school where we looked after them, we really cared about who they were, their background, where they’re going, what we could do to support them and help them on their way – that’s just what we’ve done here as well. We’ve given ourselves to helping each guy be the best he can possibly be. In that, we have developed guys in our program that understand how we do it. We’ve pulled guys into our program that have a real sense and a savvy for taking care of people around them as well and they’ve bought into the way that we do it. So it’s not just the message that I would make or some of the coaches but it’s the players as well and I think the entire organization has realized that there’s a unique quality about that. The people in your program when treated really well and you look for the unique qualities that they have and you care for it and you accept the differences that they bring, there’s extraordinary places you can go. That’s why I think it’s a good place. We’re willing to utilize that to our best and so it’s worked out okay.”

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