Head Coach Ben McAdoo
July 29, 2017
Q: Nice weather, good cold weather for a cold-weather football team?
A: It’s good. We had a little practice with a wind chill out there. Doesn’t happen very often in July, but we’ll take it.
Q: I guess “Snacks” (DT Damon Harrison) responded well, feels like he did more today?
A: Yeah, he did a bit more today. We’re going to build him up.
Q: Odell seemed to have a pretty good day. Do you share that assessment?
A: Yeah, we had some good competition with the receivers and the defensive backs out there. They competed hard. They were smart when the ball was in the air. We didn’t have any big collisions out there, which is key to that. They’re working well together that way.
Q: How much does the first play, taking a shot down field, how much is that a planned thing?
A: It was just a play on the script.
Q: It seems like early on in camp, you guys have been utilizing a fullback a lot more often. What’s that been like for your offense and how many other avenues does that open up for your offense?
A: We have two on the roster. We want to teach them the system, give them a chance on special teams when we put the pads on and get to the games. Let them try to earn a job.
Q: QB Geno Smith was moving pretty well today, coming off the injury. Did you like what you saw from him?
A: Yeah, absolutely. It was good to get him out there in the team reps. First time we had a chance to put him out there in the team reps. He did primarily seven-on-seven in the offseason, so it’s exciting to see. Good competition at the quarterback spot.
Q: How do you plan on handling those reps with those guys throughout this summer?
A: We’re going to roll them all in there, give them a chance to get some reps. Whether it’s two, whether it’s three, whether it’s four, we’ll roll all of those guys.
Q: Is QB Davis Webb going to get some reps with the second team or are you going to give them to QBs Josh Johnson and Geno Smith?
A: It depends on which day it is.
Q: Is G John Jerry okay? I think he ducked out for a couple of plays.
A: I haven’t been in the training room yet.
Q: With the quarterback reps, are they (Johnson and Smith) also going to squeeze in some reps with the first team?
A: It depends on which day it is. Eli will get the first group reps. If we decide to push or pull a little bit, we’ll do that.
Q: WR Brandon Marshall was talking in the spring about developing chemistry with Eli and figuring out this offense. What have you seen through the spring and very early here with how he’s acclimating to all this?
A: Well, it was nice to see on the first play of training camp, he gets a ball thrown to him and makes a nice play. There’s going to be a learning curve there, there will be some ups and downs like there are. But Brandon’s played a lot of football, and we’re confident that he’ll come a long way fast. He’s a tremendous communicator. There’s a lot of teaching and learning going on both ways: coach to player, player to coach, player to player. That always helps, and being a great communicator is important, so that’ll help facilitate the process.
Q: I know it’s early, but do you sense the offense is maybe starting off a little faster this year as opposed to where it was last year?
A: No, it’s early. First day.
Q: What’s the challenge for S Landon Collins, who was such a big-play player last year, to kind of build on that this year and maybe manage your expectations in terms of the numbers?
A: I think the sky’s the limit for Landon. We know he’s a talented player, he’s a hungry player. He loves the game. You can see that not only with the way he plays on Sundays but with the way he practices. Like anything else, it’s not like riding a bike. You have to go out and earn it. You can’t be too big to do the little things. You’re constantly chasing your fundamentals and getting better there, and the physicality is going to come. But, practice is important and he loves practice, so he’s got a great chance.
Q: How did TE Evan Engram do during the break in coming back to you in terms of his knowledge of the playbook?
A: He didn’t go away for six weeks and take a step back. I feel he’s a guy who prepares on his own and he just doesn’t have to be in the building to prepare, which helps. We ask a lot of that position. It’s one of the most challenging positions on the team to play and learn. We throw a lot at him: to have to play fullback, line tight-in from a wing-type position, in the slot and number one receiver, as well as special teams. There’s a lot thrown at him. We feel he can handle it. He has to work at it, and it’s not going to be easy. He’s going to make some mistakes, but as long as he learns from his mistakes, he has a chance.
Q: Does he still have those rookie “big-eyes”?
A: No, I haven’t seen that.
Q: What was going on after the interception? It seemed like everybody got involved?
A: The game’s about the ball. Everyone wanted the ball.
Q: Even the guys on the sideline?
A: Yes.
Q: What’s your thinking behind wanting to do that?
A: The defense was returning the interception; it essentially turns into a punt return when they get the ball in their hands. Everyone on defense blocks for the guy who intercepted the ball, which was Jackrabbit (CB Janoris Jenkins). Everyone on offense goes and covers the ball.
Q: It looked like coaches were involved, too.
A: It’s a whole team operation.
Q: Where was S Jadar Johnson today?
A: He was inside today, he was ill.
Q: To what degree does training camp play towards skill positions, i.e. like when you have the shells on versus the pads? Is it much easier to evaluate the skill positions compared to the guys in the trenches?
A: I think the true evaluations happen when the pads come on and in the preseason games.
Q: How aggressive do you get with opening the playbook? Do you keep it base right now?
A: The playbook is the playbook we go through each year. We add, we take out, we change it and we correct it. We do a lot of different things with the playbook. It’s there if you need it. If you have the players you feel like that can execute what you need to get done, you use it. If not, you put it on the shelf and you pick and choose what you use each and every year. We can play doubleheaders for three years with that playbook. We need to. It’s all there if we need it, but we have to let the players determine what we use and what we need.
Q: Does there come a point in time in the summer where you’ll have coaches go to the players and let them know where they’re stacked up almost as motivation?
A: We do that every day, from the first day we go into the offseason program until now, every day we have a fluid board in there for the staff. They go in and they rank the players each and every day at their position. The players, I’m pretty sure, they have a pretty good understanding of where they are.
Q: Were you pleased with what RB Paul Perkins did in the offseason and now transferring that into camp?
A: Again, first day working against the defense for Paul. He’s really taking to it. Yeah, I go back, coming out of UCLA, he wasn’t here in the spring. He really had to buckle down in training camp to learn the book and did a nice job last year. He picked up where he left off, and he’s still a young player. He still has a lot to learn, but he takes steps every day.
Q: So the full offseason really has been beneficial?
A: It definitely helps.
Q: Has CB Donte Deayon improved from the player who almost made this team last year in training camp?
A: Yeah, he brings a lot of energy to our practice. We like that about him. He gets football, he’s been well-coached. He responds well to coaching. He’s a competitive, fiery kind of guy. He’s a good player for us.
