Friday Transcript: Head Coach Pat Shurmur

Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- September 6, 2019

Q: Who is your number two quarterback?
A: Our number two quarterback right now is Daniel Jones.

Q: So he’ll dress on Sunday?
A: Yeah. We’re going to dress two quarterbacks. (Eli and) Daniel Jones.

Q: If Eli got injured, how ready is Daniel to go in and excel?
A: He’s ready to go. If he has to go in and play, he’s ready to go. Excuse my weird face when you asked that question. It seems pretty obvious.

Q: You have an open roster spot now. Do you plan to fill that by Sunday?
A: We’ll see. We’re going to try to find the best player available. There are certain issues that we feel like we might be able to add some depth. But we’ll see. Possibly by the weekend, but there’s potential that we don’t.

Q: So there’s no plan to call up anybody from the practice squad?
A: At this point, no. But that’s always an option.

Q: You only have five defensive linemen. Is that a little light, especially against this (Cowboys) offense?
A: No, not really because we have our outside linebackers who are in theory defensive ends. We feel good about the group we’re going to put out there.

Q: How do you feel about where your offensive line is at right now compared to where they were a year ago?
A: We feel like we’ve made improvements. We’ll get to see how far we’ve come here on Sunday.

Q: How big of a challenge do the Cowboys present in that regard?
A: They’re a big challenge. We’ve talked all week about how active their defense is. Not only are they good one-on-one, but they also move a lot, which requires good coordination from the guys up front. They’re a big challenge.

Q: You’ve had good seasons, you’ve had bad seasons in your career. Do you know what you have at some point? Is there a point where you can kind of get a feel for how your season will go?
A: I think you play out the games and you get a feel as it’s going along. You learn about your team a lot. There have been years when you’ve won the first game and didn’t make it to the playoffs. There have been years when you’ve lost the first game and made it to the playoffs. What’s important is we keep playing. We do everything that we can to win the game we’re playing, and then just keep playing. If you keep playing, keep practicing, and you’re fortunate enough to stay healthy, then your team will develop and push through the year.

Q: I asked (Offensive Line Coach) Hal Hunter this. What do you make of the increased emphasis on the holding calls, especially for a team that wants to run the ball effectively? It seems like there’s a lot of attention being paid to kind of ticky-tack grabs.
A: I don’t know. We’ll have to see. I think there’s enough of a sample size from the preseason to say that they’re calling a lot more holds. So, you’re going to see a lot of second or first and 20s. The emphasis will be on the punters at some point. I’m making light of it, but there have been times in years where you could find a hold on any play and it didn’t get called. We’ll just have to see how the officials are going to call it. We all understand the rules, and we want to play by the rules. We’ll just see how they interpret it.

Q: What have you seen from your team this week? What’s your gauge on where they’re at emotionally?
A: I think we had a good week of training. That gives you a chance to have success on Sunday. You have to go do it. When you don’t train well, then Sundays are up for grabs. But when you do train well, you give yourself the best chance. I think that’s where we’re at.

Q: Because you guys played them in the last game of last year, for a coaching staff, were there any advantages, or do they have any advantages, seeing them Week 1?
A: I don’t know that. We’re both different teams at this point. I don’t know if there is an advantage one way or the other. We were a different team when we played them at the end of the year than we were in the beginning of the year. I would like to think that we’re going to continue and play more like we did in the second half of the year than we did in the first half, especially on offense. I don’t know beyond that.

Q: One of the cuts you guys made over the weekend was Kamrin Moore. What made that the right time, since he wasn’t taking up a roster spot? Is it difficult since you didn’t really get to evaluate him at all this summer?
A: Well, we had a chance to see him in the offseason. We felt like that was the best thing to do for our team.

Q: What area do you think Daniel (Jones) made the most progress from Day 1 when he got here to where he is today?
A: Knowledge of our scheme. He’s able to get a good feel for some of the things that we ask him to do that he didn’t do in college. There are some elements to an NFL offense that he wasn’t asked to do in college.

Q: This isn’t for Sunday. Big George (Asafo-Adjei), is his injury career-threatening?
A: I don’t know that. He’s on injured reserve, as you know. We’re just going to work with him to get him better.