With the first week of fall camp drawing to a close, head coach Mark Helfrich gave his thoughts on some of the key issues facing his 2016 team.

Opening statement

“I need to make an opening statement. It has come to our attention that Larry David is looking to do a little coaching. We would welcome Larry David with open arms to come on out and shadow coach Lubick and dip his toe in the coaching waters.”

On the state of the LB group

“We have worked to address depth at linebacker. There is so many new faces at linebacker A.J. (Hotchkins), De’Quan (McDowell), Troy Dye, Eric Briscoe, I am going to forget guys. There is just a bunch of competition in there right now. We were taping guys together, spackle it all together and get it out there. But now I really like where that is headed from a depth standpoint.”

More on De’Quan

“He just works his tail off. He is a physical guy. He is just relentless as far as how he works whether it is kickoff coverage, punt cover, playing defense he has done a great job at linebacker. Again, whether it’s A.J. or Johnny Ragin or Jimmie Swain all those guys, there is a ton of competition which is good.”

On being deep at tight end

“That’s huge. To be a two tight end team you have to have four or even five tight ends because that allows us to practice those things and then have confidence in your backups. If you have just two good tight ends it is really hard to be a two tight end team.

“That sounds kind of weird but you have to have backups to come in to really commit to that part of your game plan. We have a good issue there and then a good issue at receiver hopefully emerging.”

Helfrich also mentioned that defensive coordinator Brady Hoke is working hands-on with the defensive ends during some drills while Ron Aiken focuses on the defensive tackles. During spring camp, right after Hoke was hired, he was in more of a walk-around role.

The Ducks continue their first week of fall camp with a closed practice on Friday.