New Orleans Saints Senior Offensive Assistant Curtis Johnson
Video Conference with New Orleans Media
Thursday, August 20, 2020

Earlier in the summer, you were talking about your first meeting with Michael Thomas. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on, I guess that second meeting, when you learned you're going to be working together and also just how long it took you to figure out what makes this guy tick?
"Well, Mike was an extremely great competitor. So it really doesn't take much to make him tick. The only thing I had to do is just figure out the way the best way to motivate him. You don't have to do much you just draw the plays up. He'll get it figured out. But in our meetings he's, we're very, I would say closer than close right now. He comes over to my house. Matter of fact, he's closer to my wife than he is with me, so I hope nothing's going on there (laughter)."

One of the things we've heard about Ty Montgomery is that he's kind of bouncing between the receiver room and the running back room. Can you just talk about sort of the vision for him and how you guys are working together to kind of find a good place for him?
"Extremely good player. He's been spending most of time in a running back room. I love what I see. He has great hands, he can run real real well. He's a catch and run guy. extremely good balance, great vision. He runs routes tat let you know he's a receiver, also. I look as much as I can give time and I would love to have (him) but he's spending a lot of time right now in the running back room."

Following up on an earlier question who actually really have to do much to motivate Michael Thomas or something where you kind of like jab at him and you know, it's going to make him really mad and then he's going to use that to fuel?
"Mike's the type of guy that I've never been around a guy that loves to practice loves to compete, loves to have success. So it's just kind of putting him in a right position and every once in a while, I'd say, once every two weeks, I have to say something just getting (him) going a little bit, but, but that's very seldom. Mike's going (to) come (out), he's going to practice, he's a pro, he's competitive. Unlike a lot of guys in pro football, this guy's a competitor. For example, I call him a violator because it's supposed to be a walkthrough and he doesn't run through, he just goes fast all the time. So, that's the kind of kid Mike is. I love working with (him)."

Emmanuel Butler is the guy that really kind of got all of our attention last training camp and, you know, we saw some clips him, you know, starting off this training camp pretty good. Where do you see him improving? And what do you think he needs to do to kind of find a way to, to kind of improve his chances of making this roster?
"He's playing well right now. I just think as the installs go, it's early in camp, we're really just starting to practice. We just need to see him just continue to get better and better. And I think all those things sort itself out. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out who's in, making sure guys get lined up. It's just so early, just like our third real practice, getting them lined up, making sure these guys get enough reps. So right now, the evaluation process is a little bit slow. It's just getting them being able to compete to evaluate tools, so we can evaluate them."