Matt LaFleur's a great coach.
— Sean McVay
Jon Gruden taught me the foundation of what I know about this game. Took me under his arm, taught me to see it from a big-picture perspective.
It's funny, if you've ever met my grandfather, he's probably one of the most even-keeled men you'll ever meet.
My job is to make the quarterback position as easy as we can.
Especially in this league, you can have a tendency to look ahead, but really, it's about one taking one day at a time, one game at a time.
What you realize is when you have an environment and an atmosphere like we had at Marist, where guys cared about each other, the coaches were great teachers and communicators, whether it's high school, college or pro, I think coaching is coaching.
I'm a fan of coaching.
As coaches, you want to be able to put your players in a system that's conducive to their success.
I have no life - other than I love football.
It's very important, when you talk about a player like an Aaron Donald, 'Hey, here comes Ndamukong. How do you feel about a player like that?'
I love being in a city with great weather.
I think once you stop learning, you're going to stop growing.
Since I got into coaching, Coach Carroll's been nothing but great to me and always been willing to help and share some advice and give a perspective.
When you talk about forming an offensive identity, it's about, first, let's figure out what our players do best.
When you're a position coach, your next goal is to be a coordinator. While trying to be the best tight ends coach you can be, I always wanted to be an offensive coordinator at some point. When the opportunity presents itself, you want to make sure you capitalize on that.
Some of my closest friends in life are guys that I was able to play high school football with.
The only thing I can control is working as hard as I possibly can to do a good job and make people right on the opportunities that they've given me.
You look at Matt LaFleur and where he's been. It seems like successful quarterback play follows him.
What I didn't realize is, getting out to L.A., you realize how normal it is, especially if you go eat or have dinner in West Hollywood: kind of everybody is somebody out there.
When you look at what we want our individual player to represent from that makeup, if you will, we're looking for mentally and physically tough players who are smart and want to compete. And when you say smart, you're talking about situational awareness. Guys that are instinctual. That are smart football players.
There are certain players, certain leaders where, genuine and authentic, their message is going to resonate different than a coach.
The Gruden and McVay family ties run deep.
Marist is a special place.
When you care about the players you are working with, that's when they want to play hard for you.
I probably don't have any room in my mind for anything but football. My dad tells me I'm a total vegetable outside of just knowing football.
There's no one I'd rather have as my quarterback. I love Jared Goff.
There is a mutual respect that exists between coaches and players, and ultimately, it's about us trying to help them reach their highest potential.
It's kind of ironic that the only Super Bowl I've been to as a fan was when the Rams played the Titans. I was at that game. My grandpa, when he was still involved in the NFL, he got me tickets for my birthday.
I think, a lot of times, we talk about asking our players to be accountable. But I know that I'm imperfect. And if I can't admit a mistake, then what does that represent to our guys?
My grandfather has a whole lot of respect for Coach Carroll and the way he handled himself and the contributions he made to the 49ers organization.
The No. 1 job is to help a player reach their highest potential, and that's not possible without being able to relate with them. That's been helpful, and as far as my knowledge base is concerned, that stems from being around great coaches willing to share.
I've been around great veteran coaches, and they want to help you grow as a coach if you're willing to learn.
Love that guy, and you can't say enough good things about Brandin Cooks.
It's not normal when you finish playing collegiate ball to be able to jump right into the NFL and work for Jon Gruden. That doesn't happen if you don't have your grandfather that has the connections and has earned the respect around this league. And for that, I feel very fortunate.
I've got a lot of respect for a handful of coaches, and there's a lot of great stuff put out there on film. So, I always want to stay up to speed on those current trends and figure out if you can steal something that fits your players and your system. I'm certainly not afraid to steal from some of these great coaches.
Anytime that you get a chance to go from Washington to L.A., I think it's really just getting used to the three-hour time difference.
Whether it's a guy getting a big contract, getting a franchise deal, that comes with expectations.
With the inexperience I do have, I feel so fortunate to be around Wade Phillips.
It's always a consistent approach of trying to get better, listening and learning from everybody else, and then that will help you become a better leader.
Some of the best coaches I've been around are those people I worked with in high school.
One of the things that are consistent amongst all great leaders is they're a great teammate that is invested in the guys around them to raise the level of play. You do that by believing in guys and caring about them.
If you get a chance to coach against one of your mentors, and a guy that taught you almost kind of the foundation of what you know about this game, I think it would be a fun, humbling opportunity.
What I think about is about the opportunities that Mike Shanahan gave me as an inexperienced coach. I think about watching a Kyle Shanahan work. Just seeing the stuff he was running, his approach to different scenarios, and getting another understanding of what you can do as an offense... all of that helped me grow.
I like to be outdoors as much as possible.
You always want to surround yourself with better people than you.
For whatever reason, I've always been interested in those types of things - leadership books and different ways to connect with people in a real, authentic, genuine type of way.
With any player, especially at quarterback, I don't care if you're talking Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Drew Brees: you want to make sure to continue to hammer down the fundamentals, and it all starts with your feet. Everything starts with footwork.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be a head coach at some point.
To be able to win a state championship my senior year with the coaches and with some of my closest friends in the world - that was a special memory.
I would say that I probably remember football stuff... but it's not like you see it once and then it's just there. I go back and watch film, watch plays, and, in my brain, I probably only have room for so much.
