Ben McAdoo Discusses Baker's Biggest Jump, Rotating More WRs, Saints Defense + More
3rd down issues
"Obviously, we need to convert at a higher rate to stay on the field. That's something we already spent some time working on this week. We're still in the middle of figuring out who we are on offense and third down is a big part of it. I need to do a better job of putting guys in position to make plays. It was a rough afternoon last week, but we'll learn from it and grow from it."
Getting more receivers involved
"Yeah, we worked a lot of guys in this week. We need to do a better job during the course of the game of getting them in there and that starts with me. We certainly have a lot of trust in our players, not just the three we've been throwing out there for the most part. We're looking to get more attempts at the plate. Converting on third down, staying on the field a little bit. We have trust in our guys to go out there and make plays for us."
If Laviska Shenault is close to being a factor
"Yeah, Laviska is on the come-up. He's out there. He's getting more and more reps with us. He seems like he's more confident. He's spending a lot of time whether it's before or after the day starts. He's coming around."
Getting Christian McCaffrey more targets in the passing game
"They had a plan for him last week obviously and that helped us run the ball - what they decided to do to play us in the early downs. We took advantage of that but we still need to make progress on first and second down throwing the ball. When you run the ball at that clip your opportunities in the passing game are there too and when you can put both together, you start to click and that's what we're looking to do now."
Where Baker Mayfield made his biggest jump
"Just technique. What you see in practice when you're fairly new to an offense you go out and you practice, get the reps in practice in your feet look a certain way. Then when you get into the games sometimes you revert back to what you're used to doing. From Week 1 to Week 2 he took a jump. Now, from Week 2 to Week 3 we're going to take a jump. That's what we have to do and that's what we're working for this week."
Challenges the Saints defense presents
"They're really good. They're really fast on all three levels. Tremendous instincts. They have guys that have played together a bunch and their new players in the back end have played a lot of football and are very bright instinctually. They're well-coached. They're well coordinated."
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