Head Coach Ben McAdoo
Postgame at Jets, August 27, 2016
I’m going to start with some injuries. Leon Hall and B.J. Goodson are being evaluated for a concussion and Whitlock has a foot. About the game. I thought there were some great shots of individual effort out there. Some guys were playing hard. A gritty performance, especially in the second half hanging in there. It’s always nice to get the first win.
Q: How would you evaluate the starting offense tonight?
A: The starting offense, it was tough sledding tonight early on. We have some work to do, but we’re confident that we’ll be able to get it fixed.
Q: How much in your eyes is it the same problems that were there last week?
A: I don’t think it was the same problems as last week. Different defense. We had some cleaner looks at things and we just didn’t execute that well.
Q: Your confidence is just because of the talent you have or are you seeing any encouraging signs?
A: We’re seeing some encouraging signs. We feel when we are able to put in a full week of preparation and get into the game plan part of things, we’ll get this thing going in the right direction.
Q: Even though it’s just the preseason, how important was it to pick up a win tonight?
A: It’s always good to get the first one. Again, it’s about going back and evaluating the film. We’re going to go back, see what the tape looks like and take it from there.
Q: What was your impression of the running game?
A: We made some progress tonight in some areas. It was a gritty performance. We need to go back and look at the tape, address some things that we need to fix.
Q: Can you talk about the play of Victor Cruz? Getting him finally back out there and maybe the best play he had was one where he didn’t catch the ball on that deep route when he was able to get past the defender?
A: It was good to have him out there for a healthy amount of snaps. We would’ve liked to get him the ball a little earlier in the game, let him get his hands on the ball, but he looked comfortable out there. He looked confident.
Q: What can you say about the play of Tavarres King tonight?
A: He had a gritty performance. He’s a guy that hung in there, had a nice double move. Actually both of his scores were double moves. He held onto the ball on the reverse, and took a pretty good shot. Again, it’s what he’s been showing us this offseason and what he’s been showing us so far in camp. He came out, had an opportunity to execute and make plays and he did just that.
Q: How would you evaluate the offensive line specifically?
A: We’re going to go back and look at the tape. We need to clean some things up.
Q: What was the result of Jonathan Casillas’ X-rays?
A: He has a rib injury. I’ll know more tomorrow.
Q: Can you talk about Jasper Brinkley?
A: Jasper and (Kelvin) Sheppard are battling it out in there. They had a lot of reps inside with the MIKE linebacker position. Again, I’m not going to comment until we look at the film.
Q: Did you say anything to Victor? What was that like? Did you say anything to him about coming back maybe before the game, during the game?
A: I had a couple conversations with him but nothing major. Just encouragement.
Q: How big a step do you view this in terms of his progression?
A: It’s a big step. Big step. Got back on the field, had a chance to win on the double move. We couldn’t get the ball out cleanly and he caught another ball. He looked comfortable and confident.
Q: Did the team know about Josh Brown’s second arrest when he was re-signed?
A: I think John Mara addressed everything about that situation earlier in the week. I’ll leave John’s comments at that.
Q: It looked like you did the play calling today? Is that accurate and why?
A: We switched up some play calling duties today. We took a look at a couple of different things.
Q: Why did you want to change it up from the last couple games?
A: It was planned going into the season.
Q: Did you also move Mike Sullivan upstairs in the second half?
A: Yes, we moved him up in the second half.
Q: Was that just to get a different perspective?
A: Yes, just a different perspective. It was planned.
Q: Are you going to make a public announcement of what the play calling situation will be after Thursday?
A: No.
Q: Not after Thursday?
A: No.
LOL
And moving Sullivan to the booth in the second half tells me that going into the game they still weren't sure of which set-up they preferred.
But all along it was going to be McAdoo who calls plays during the season. There was never a doubt and for good reason.
Who is calling the plays next week will come down to what's more important to McAdoo: being free to evaluate talent of another dry run at what it's like calling plays and head coaching at the same time. They also may want to further test Sullivan in the booth versus on the sideline.