Head Coach Ben McAdoo
August 18, 2016
I’m going to open with the Josh Brown situation, regarding his suspension. We support the league office in their decision and their stance on personal conduct. I do support Josh as a man, a father, and a player. We treat these situations on a case by case basis.
Q: How do you approach not having him for the season opener?
A: We’re going to give Tom (Obarski) an opportunity to kick a lot this Saturday and we'll see how he does. He has a golden opportunity.
Q: Is this something you knew was a possibility with Josh for a while?
A: We knew it was a possibility. I'm not sure for how long, but we knew it was a possibility.
Q: How much did this go into the consideration of re-signing him this offseason?
A: That's a better question for Jerry (Reese).
Q: Did the team conduct its own investigation into this arrest?
A: I stay in my lane. I don't have any information on that.
Q: You were quoted saying the one thing there is zero tolerance for is domestic violence of any sort, so when they come to and talk about re-signing him, what do you say?
(Note -- this is actual exchange between Steve Serby and McAdoo in a Q& A that was published on 1-16-16 in the New York Post:
Q: What won’t you tolerate as head coach?
A: Domestic violence is something that we’re all cracking down on in this league. That’s something that’s important to us as an organization, important to me as a man, and important to me as a coach.)
A: That happened after, I got information after that. But that doesn't change my stance.
Q: Josh said he told the team the day the incident happened. That was a year before.
A: That doesn't change my stance. My stance stays the same. I'm a father, I'm a husband, and my stance on personal conduct stays the way it is. Stays consistent, and it stays strong. But I think it's important for an organization and the locker room to take it on a case by case basis.
Q: Just to clarify, you weren't the head coach when this incident happened. You didn't know about the incident until you were hired as head coach. Just to clarify what he just said.
A: I didn't know about it until I was head coach.
Q: What did you like about Obarski?
A: He seemed steady. I like the fact that he is going to have an opportunity, a golden opportunity, to make an impact for himself and this organization on Saturday.
Q: Do you have any idea why it took this long for the league to make a decision? Did they explain it to you?
A: No
Q: As a head coach, a leader of the team, do you talk to Josh about the situation?
A: Yes. Josh and I have had a couple of conversations. Yes.
Q: As far as you know, is everything physically okay with Odell Beckham? He seemed like he was stretching his back out a lot out there, is he okay?
A: Yes.
Q: You said Eli will play this Saturday
A: Absolutely.
Q: Will Odell?
A: Yes.
Q: Usually we see those guys first preseason game, does this one have any more interest to you in getting Eli, Odell and the rest of the ones together?
A: No, it's good to get the first group out there. A chance to knock the rust off. We played a few snaps in that first game but to get out there with Eli and Odell and get the whole group together and work the instincts. Anticipation is exciting.
Q: Odell had a fiery game in Buffalo last season in the regular season, does that worry you at all for Saturday?
A: No. Buffalo is a tough place to play. It's a tough crowd. They're loud. It's a physical football team and we're going to have our hands full.
Q: Do you still take it on a case by case basis regarding snap allocation, or do you have a set number in mind, or set number in the series?
A: We have a generic snap count for the ones, for the twos, and for the threes. Then we adjust it on a case by case basis after that. After we take a look at the injury report and building up guys for the game.
Q: Is Victor Cruz still on the up with his progression?
A: Yes.
Q: What about Justin Pugh, is he any better?
A: He's making some progress.
Q: Is it fair to say that the guys who didn't practice today won't be playing in the pre-season game?
A: It would be fair to say, but like we talked about yesterday, this isn't the league for fair. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Again, every day and every night, when you wake up the next day, things change. So you have to take a look at how guys get through their workout today and how they recover for tomorrow morning and take your latest and greatest information and go with it there. You never want to say when guys are out when you don't know for sure.
Q: Wouldn't it be fair to say that if a guy hasn't made it through a full practice in several days that you might be leaning more towards sitting him as opposed to throwing him out there?
A: You may be leaning that way, but if they can go out and practice. We're not walking through tomorrow, we're going to have a speed practice tomorrow. So we're going to go out, we're going to be on and off the field in about 55 minutes, and get some speed work in. If guys can go out there and participate in speed work, then they have a chance to play.
Q: This is a whole year of ‘firsts’ for you. So in dealing with Josh's situation, did you find yourself using his situation as a teaching tool? Did you do anything with it team-wise?
A: No, it happened very recently, so we didn't have an opportunity to have any conversations as a team.
Q: Do you think you would do that?
A: Nothing is planned at this moment.
Q: How is Jerell Adams progressing?
A: He's working hard. That's a thing you can say about Jerell. He's taken small steps every day. He's making some plays down the middle of field for us, like we like. We feel like there is a lot of upside there as a special teams player, which he hasn't done a lot of in the past. So we're excited about Jerell.
Q: When can you reasonably expect Victor Cruz to practice? Would he be a candidate for the speed practice you spoke about tomorrow?
A: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he could go tomorrow. Maybe the first practice back after Buffalo. We'll see how it goes.
