Q: How'd you feel out there today?
Reece: It's football now, I feel great out there. No choice but to feel great. Get out there, have some competition with the guys, mix it up a little bit. It's fine.
Q: Quarterbacks didn't look especially sharp, is that fair to say? Is that a big deal at this point in time?
Reece: No, that's what OTAs and mini-camps are for. I feel like all the quarterbacks made some plays today and it says nowhere in the playbook that a quarterback has to be perfect, or anyone has to be perfect. And as playmakers, we got to go out there and help them and make plays for them, and get the timing together, and make things happen for them. They make us look good in so many ways, so we've got to help them out sometimes.
Q: What have they told you about how they want to use you this year? Have they said, 'here's our personal goal for you?'
Reece: No, it's not necessarily a crystal ball at all. And always the type of guy who comes in and he says, 'I'm going to get the ball into the playmaker's hands, so whoever can prove out there that they can make plays, I'm going to get you the ball.' And a guy like myself, I pride myself on going out there and making plays on whatever they want me to do. That's what I'm going to go out there and do and do my best at it.
Q: No one ever said you were over-utilized or under-utilized last year?
Reece: No, not at all. They just said that we're going to give you a chance to go out there and do what you do. I told them, I appreciate it.
Q: Nice catch out there today; some bragging rights over the guys back in the locker room?
Reece: No, not at all. That's top free safety in the league right there on Tyvon [Branch], so there's no bragging rights in there yet. It's a long, long season and a lot of practice for him and I to go up against each other. We'll trade off a few times, I'm sure. We traded off a lot over the past six years, and I'm just hoping I get him more than he gets me.
Q: You've had three offensive coordinators in the last three years, and you pretty much thrived with all of them, but what jumps out at you about Greg Olson so far?
Reece: He just has this aura about him that you can just feel the creativity coming off of him walking through the building. He's always thinking about football. He's always thinking about matchups and I feel great about that. I love that. I know he knows that I love it. So we have fun about just talking football. He's always talking about it, he's always thinking about it and it's a great feeling around the building right now.
Q: Hue [Jackson] got so much out of you, he was the first one to discover what you can do and some of the mismatches. Do you ever say that to Olson, 'this worked when Hue was here? Maybe try a little bit of that?'
Reece: Never. I would never limit [Olson] by saying something else works because he's always thinking of things. He's like a mad scientist. I don't think I've even seen half of what he has in store for this team, and it's just not me, it's all the guys. It's Darren [McFadden], it's Jacoby [Ford], it's all the guys around, and Matt [Flynn], and TP [Terrelle Pryor], it's everybody. We're all looking forward to unleashing this playbook and seeing what we have in store.
Q: Does he come to you and ask, 'hey, what plays do you think we should run with you?'
Reece: We always have football talk. It's always football talk. And we never set anything in stone; we just throw ideas off each other all the time. Most of the time, to be honest with you, I'm a student of the game. I'm more so listening than talking. And I'm just trying to soak as much up as possible.
Q: But now, you do have a body of work, you have a resume so to speak; what is he saying to you that he notices about you? How does he identify you? What do you think you are to him?
Reece: I think [Olson] is one of the first guys to realize that I pride myself on knowing the playbook, period. Just not one position, not just two positions, but knowing the entire playbook and priding myself to just being able to go in and do whatever is asked of me no matter where they put me on the fly, on the run. And just taking care of business and trying to help my team out. And I feel only [Olson] recognizes that from day one, just watching films from last year. So there's not much for me to say to him.
Q: Did the zone blocking scheme hold you guys back last year?
Reece: No, I don't think any scheme can hold a playmaker back. To be honest with you, I don't think we're even thinking about last year. We have our heads forward and we're looking forward to the future and what our team and this scheme has in store for us.
Q: You had said that you guys are playmakers. You've got to go up and make plays for the quarterbacks. [Matt] Flynn earlier said, 'sometimes the ball is not going to be pretty but if you've got playmakers on the team, you can't throw the ball out of bounds, you've got to give them a chance to make a play.' Would you say that catch you made earlier today is an example of that? And plays like that are what cause him to believe in you?
Reece: I think trust and timing are a huge part of the game of football. It's the ultimate team sport and that is part of it. If Matt gets pressure and he knows I'm on the outside, he knows — I tell him all the time — 'I'm going to take care of you the best way I can,' and if he gives me the chance to make a play, I'm going to go up there and hold to my promise.
