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Friday Media Transcript: Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/15/2017 2:59 pm
Interim Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo

December 15, 2017

Opening Statement: We were inside again today. We were hoping to get out. I thought the grounds crew did a great job yesterday getting that snow off of there. The attempt was to get outside, but the field was a little bit too hard. I didn’t want to take a chance of somebody getting hurt. So we were inside, we slowed it down just a little bit. Just want to make sure we are fresh enough to play on Sunday. I thought we had a pretty good practice. Guys will get their bodies and minds right now and we’ll move forward and play the Eagles on Sunday. So with that, I’ll open it up.

Q: It’s not looking good for Landon (Collins)?

A: He didn’t go today, but we got a little work out of him yesterday. He’s a tough guy, so you know him. He wants to play. We’ll see what happens when we get to Sunday because tomorrow is just a jog through.

Q: How short are you at that position with Nat (Berhe) ruled out?

A: Yeah, we may have to do something. We’ll get it figured out, we’ll get it figured out.

Q: What are some of the most important avenues to take with athletes in this day and age in regard to a “me versus team” mentality?

A: I think what you’re asking is the makeup of the younger individuals today?

Q: Yeah, without using the term millennials.

A: It is all about buying in. In this business, I think what you’re talking about really helps when you have veterans on your team that can talk about how it’s done and preferably somebody that’s a veteran that has been on a championship team or somewhere where they had a lot of success and they can feed to the young guys that this is how you do or don’t do things. I think more than anything when a young player can get it from another player, that’s valuable.

Q: Is that out of the hands of the coach?

A: Well, I think coaches are mentors and good examples. I’m going back to when I was 22 and 23 years old, a long time ago. But I think a peer that I thought went through the same thing, nobody would ever listen to their mom or dad, right? I was bad that way, too. I do remember older guys that were either in the same or the next class up, respecting them and looking up to them, and certainly if they said something, it would mean a lot. So I think there’s a lot of that, I think it’s helpful.

Q: Is there more motivation to let the young guys play more and sit JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) and OV (Olivier Vernon)?

A: Yeah, we are going to try to do that. We are going to try to get that done.

Q: How do you think the guys are responding to the second consecutive Friday practice?

A: Good. It’s a little different for them, but the feedback has been good. I’d like the result on Sunday to say, hey, it’s because of that, but that doesn’t always happen. I think the guys have prepared well. Today, the execution was good, the work was good. I’m always looking for little things like dropped balls. I think we only had one. Guys didn’t have pre-snap penalties, I think that’s important on a Friday. And then tomorrow we will just polish it up a little bit and hopefully we’ll be ready to go.

Q: Have you made a decision on Romeo (Okwara)?

A: We probably won’t do anything transaction-wise this week, but obviously next week we’ll have to decide.


Q: Why not? Where’s he at? Is he not ready?

A: Right now if we did it, doing my numbers in my head now, he might be deactivated because he’s not up and ready, so the other guys right now have been getting all of the reps underneath their belt. It’s been a long time since Romeo has been out there. We’ll see where we go next week.

Q: Eli Apple and Landon Collins

A: Everybody was waiting to see who was going to ask me that question.

Q: Do you feel the need to get involved at all?

A: No, I really don’t. We are a family. There are going to be disagreements in families and grown men. I’m banking on it will all get worked out.

Q: Have you seen Landon grow as a leader?

A: Yeah, I have truly. It might have been back in training camp I saw signs of that and I went over and told him. I think it’s really good when a young guy grows in whatever area that we give him feedback so they understand. Every time that I’ve done that, I’ve found that they then make another leap. Landon is not a rah-rah, vocal guy. I think more than anything, Landon leads with how hard he works, how much he loves the game of football. He truly does. He loves the game of football and wants to be around it, wants to do anything involved with it and I respect that. I think the other players recognize that and a lot of respect comes with that.

Q: Do you see Landon Collins emerging to be a captain some day for this franchise?

A: Sure, down the road. I think we got a pretty good defensive captain right now in Snacks (Damon Harrison), but oh yeah, I’m with you. He has that kind of makeup. If your best leaders are also your hardest workers in this game of football, that tends to permeate throughout the whole team and makes everybody’s level go up and he’s one of those.

Q: Are you able to say if Eli Apple will be active?

A: We’ll see where the roster goes right now. You asked about Romeo, I’m kind of doing the numbers of the 46 and it’s flowing, but we’ll figure it out by Sunday. And I certainly would not want to say anything now anyway to the opposition.

Q: If you have to talk to Collins on Sunday and tell him that he can’t play medically, how much of a dilemma is that for you knowing it hurts him when he doesn’t play.

A: Because we want him to play and we know what he’s like, and yeah, I get it. I think first, you have to be concerned about the health of the player and I’ll talk to Landon about that when I know more from Ronnie and exactly what his status is. I don’t want him to re-injure himself, I don’t want to put him in a situation where it might be harmful going forward. So if we have to, if we get to that point, I’ll explain it to him that way.
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