Read the full transcript from STC Chris Tabor's media availability on August 3, 2026.

Tell me, what are you looking for in kickoff returner and punt returner? What's the difference in the skill set there?

Chris Tabor: You want in both dynamic players, right, to give yourself an opportunity to make some big plays. The kick return game, it's kind of after you watch it, you're going to get some blocks but there's going to be somebody that comes free. So obviously you got to have the ability to break tackles and get some YACs, yards after contact, so that's what we're concentrating on there. And then obviously someone that can play in open space in the punt return game, make people miss, create. And then it's our job to set up – we either score or set up the score, and that's our philosophy on that. That returner needs to reflect that.

Have you ever had practices where you're out the gate, here's my unit, my drills?

Chris Tabor: All the time.

So this is how you like?

Chris Tabor: I do. I do like it. The reason for it is, you can do some individual teaching, some skill development, and then you can get into the team concepts, and that's what we kind of concentrated early on. Now we're getting into the team concepts and getting it going, and it's just a lot easier. I'm dealing with 90 people, and you got to be able to get units in and out and work efficiently and at the same time, get your reps. I love that Coach Haf does it that way, I think it's very efficient. It's a really good way to concentrate on special teams as opposed to doing it in the middle of practice. And maybe a key guy is tired after a 7-on-7 drill, and then you start evaluating players at the end of the year. And you're going to ask me, Omar, how about on special teams? And then if you had it in the middle of practice, 'he's too tired, so his tapes not very good,' so therefore he doesn't get a true evaluation. I think that's the beauty of doing it at the beginning.

So how long have you been doing it at the beginning of practices?

Chris Tabor: In my career? This is Year 18, so about 18 [years].

With so much playing time open on offense and defense, how does that change how you go about kind of monitoring the guys on the roster and keeping those relationships fresh with those guys this time of year?

Chris Tabor: I mean, we're all fighting for jobs, right? I mean, as I said in the spring, I said it to the guys here, you're either trying to make our roster or you're trying to make somebody else's roster. So kind of going back to the 20 minutes of special teams at the beginning, I can help develop that player if he doesn't make it on our team, at least in the preseason game he has good tape and then he gets evaluated. For me, evaluating our guys, I just have to read the tea leaves as it goes. I have to watch who's running with the ones, who's running with the twos, kind of really what kind of burn is everybody getting and then start piecing it together. At the same time, I might be dealing with a guy that's a starter but maybe using him in a backup role right now training him, because throughout the 17-game schedule, somebody's going to go down and that player is going to have to be ready to go. So that's kind of what we're doing right now.

We know Malik Washington is an established return guy, but it looks like he's going to probably play a prominent role as a receiver here. What's your viewpoint on guys that have that prominence and doing those roles?

Chris Tabor: I have no problem with. I think the more times they can touch the football, the better, and I think everybody would agree with that. Obviously, we got to be real smart with it, but I've dealt with some good returners in the past, from (Devin) Hester, to (Josh) Cribbs, to (Cordarrelle) Patterson. Those guys were integral parts, but you want those players to have the ball in their hands, so to me, it's another opportunity to get the ball in his hands.

What's the common thread with all those returners that you just mentioned? What's the common gene that all those guys had?

Chris Tabor: They all had something a little different. But they're true pros pros, just as Malik (Washington) is. He has a lot of those qualities of game-changing ability. I'm glad he's on our team. I faced him enough to know the headaches that he brings, I'm glad I'm on his side.

How willing are you to train a guy in special teams? And I ask that – I think I saw a running back out there on punt return that usually doesn't play special teams. Are you pretty willing to train guys like that?

Chris Tabor: Oh yeah, and I think the stereotype – if I'm going to be honest, a guy that usually doesn't play special teams, I think that's just a stereotype. It's all three phases, right? We're going to get into the – as you move along the season, it's going to come down to a kick or covering a kick and those types of things, so those plays are important.

Is there a position group that you lean towards more on special teams? And how do you adjust that with such a young roster?

Chris Tabor: The nice part with the young roster is they're all willing and they're all fighting for jobs, so that part is awesome. But in our world, you're dealing with speed and space, so the linebackers, the tight ends, the running backs. You got to be able to hopefully get something out of your wide receiver room, and then your corners and safeties. It's really everybody but the bigs, but now you can begin to incorporate some of the bigs into the kick return deal, because you can shrink things down and they're now in their natural element of tightened spaces.

You talked about monitoring the ones and twos and who can be available to you on special teams. How do you go about a player like Kyle Louis who has so much sub ability and base ability, but then also not trying to put too much on his plate in special teams. How do you approach a guy that has a lot going on?

Chris Tabor: Oh man, those are the guys you want. Because when a guy can do all that stuff, you're saying he's a good football player, and that's what we want out there is good football players. So that's an easy one for me.

We saw the kickers out there at the end. We saw a missed kick, but he came back and made another kick. Tell me about how much you judge that missed kick, how much you judge his ability to come back and all those kinds of things?

Chris Tabor: Here's how I look at it, like right now, it's early on. I feel very fortunate; I think that we have two NFL kickers. I really, really do. And at the same time, I told them, I said, 'I kind of feel like I'm a coordinator for two teams,' because I think one of them is going to make our team, the other one I think could make someone else's team. So at the same time, I got to make sure our goal is to make sure that they're ready to go Week 1, and I want to do that for both players so that they can be successful. The other thing is this, we're working right now, just getting down. I mean, we were gone for six weeks, right? So the snap hold, we're still working some of those mechanics, but that got tightened up a little better today. It's still not game ready, but it needs to pick up another tick next week, and then obviously it has to grow as this competition begins to take off.

How else do you evaluate kickers other than the ability to make kicks? Like what else?

Chris Tabor: There's a lot more to it than makes or miss. I mean, there's rhythm, there's ball rotation. I mean, let's be honest, a guy could – if the ball is a helicopter, it's going through sideways and he makes it, you score it as a make. But I really don't score that as a make. Now you're in the AFC East and you head up to Buffalo, head up to New England, you head up to New York, that ball that is going sideways is not going through up there. So rotation, believe it or not, there can actually be a good miss and I'll count that as a good ball strike. Sometimes it might be just his line. It could be something just tweaking with his steps to sequence when his leg hits the ball, just to tighten those things up. So there's a lot of factors that go into it. Obviously yes, makes and misses are critical. That's how they make their money, but there are other things that I will be evaluating as we go through.

Do you ever use golf as like an analogy for that?

Chris Tabor: No question. And let's be honest guys, sometimes I've said it – I've told them like, if you go 3-for-4 on a day and you hit the game winner, that was an awesome day. But if you go 3-for-4 and you miss one, he's had a bad day, right? So that's how we kind of look at it.

With the changes to kickoff rules, have you kind of found the drills and how you're putting that together evolving over the last couple of offseasons?

Chris Tabor: I think I'm continuing to evolve, but I like where we're at, what we're trying to get done. It's now just a work in progress. Really at the end of the day, the kick return play, it's an offensive play, so it's about timing, spacing and all those things. Just like with the offense, when they're running routes and those types of things, it's the same concepts for us, so we're working to get that down right now.