Head Coach Brian Daboll
June 7, 2022
BRIAN DABOLL: So, first, really it’s just an extension of the OTAs is really what it is. Just a little bit push back. Had an extra walk-through. Everything else is pretty much the same.
One thing we'll do different is watch practice after since we got a little bit more time after this practice.
But the structure of practice, that will all be the same.
Q. This is the first mandatory activity, so is there any different feel because it is mandatory?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, everybody is here. I mean, everybody has been here. It really is an extension of what we’ve been doing with a little bit more time meeting and an extra walk-through.
Q. Is there any feeling looking at the end of the week that it's almost a finish line for the off-season program to make sure you get enough in knowing that you're not going to probably see a bunch of these guys for a while?
BRIAN DABOLL: We've been at it for a long time with the extra camp. We’ve had two. Guys have had great attendance. Feel very good about where we are at in terms of the spring and what we've got accomplished.
Thrown a lot at them. The guys have come in every day with really blinders on ready to work and get better and taking it day by day.
Great appreciation for the work ethic that those guys have put in and the coaches. Long way to go, but we’ve got a lot accomplished this spring.
Q. Any changes with the red jerseys with Kayvon and Kadarius?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, those guys will still be in red jerseys. Now what they do, and maybe it's a little bit more than they did, maybe a little bit less, but status quo with those guys, too.
Q. What have you seen so far from Daniel Jones from the time you got here to today?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, made progress. That's what we've asked him to do, along with all the players, but he's done a good job. He's really studied. You know, it's different. He's opened up I would say a good amount here. When you're installing a new system, usually players, particularly quarterbacks, they're going to do whatever you ask them to do.
It's really important for our coaches on the offensive side and the defensive side, but with the quarterback to get input and to figure out some of the stuff they like. Some of it is a day of, too, let's do stuff you don't feel comfortable with and see if we can improve on those type of things, those type of throws, those type of concepts.
He's been really good, and so has Ty (Taylor) and Davis (Webb). They've been good to work with.
Q. Is Daniel cleared for contact? If you had a game today, could he play in it?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. But we don't have a game today. Long way away.
Q. We’ve seen Josh Ezeudu at left tackle with the ones. Curious, what's the thought process with him? Do you think he is more of a tackle, more of a guard, going to have to move him around?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, he's got good position flex, so he's played inside, he's played outside. Again, we're doing that with a lot of our guys. You'll see them at center, and then in the same group might be at guard.
Not talking about Josh, but other players.
I think now is a good time in the spring to give as many guys different roles as they can do out there, and you can figure out maybe this is something that we missed on that he can do. It's good time to do it now. Again, we’re not getting ready for any games. Long way away from that.
Q. When you take over an operation that's been a losing operation for a number of years, how much of what you've done since you got here and maybe this part ending with the spring is about instilling what you want and what you think is most important and also breaking maybe some bad habits?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think all you can do when you have your job is to do the best you can and whatever you feel -- we feel -- I think we have a really good staff that communicates well. Not just the coaches, but the support staff, the trainers, sports science. We're all in this thing together, and you're trying to build a culture you think is right for your football team, when you're a position coach for your position room, a coordinator for the offense.
So I don't really look too far in the rearview mirror or don't get too far ahead of ourselves. Just try to do what we think was best for our football team and the guys we have right now working.
You know, long way to go still.
Q. What's your policy on conditioning and how important is that?
BRIAN DABOLL: For mine personally or the team?
Q. The team. We weren't here one day. I think you had like maybe the D-line running after something. How much of that do you plan on doing here?
BRIAN DABOLL: Well, hopefully you get conditioned throughout practice, the way you run to the ball on the defensive side, the way you finish, the way the offensive line runs down the field.
But I think there is certainly a time and a place for that. You map it out. We've done it throughout camp. The day you guys missed, the one you were talking about, that was what we call fourth quarter conditioning.
So it's pretty extensive. Those guys get pretty tired, and then after that maybe throw a couple more plays at them, because you have to execute in this league under pressure when you're really, really tired.
Again, just to do it just to say we're conditioning, that's -- we really have a mapped out plan of when we do it and why we’re doing it.
And if we're not doing a good enough job in practice running after the guys with the ball in their hand or chasing downfield as an offensive lineman or trying to get down there and get an extra block, then you have to offset it by doing something else.
But certainly I think being in top condition is -- fatigue makes a coward of us all. Somebody said that, I don't know if it was Bear Bryant or somebody, but he's right.
Q. How much did you think it hurts that a lot of top playmakers, Shep, Kadarius, and Kenny, didn't get to rep with Daniel? How important does that make the summer for them then?
BRIAN DABOLL: They've thrown with Daniel before. They've done a good job. Again, you can learn different ways, and we're just teaching them how we got to teach them right now.
You would love for everybody to be out here, particularly the skill guys to get reps with the quarterback, but that doesn't happen usually in most places. There is always some guy dinged up or you're giving them an off day. We'll get plenty in the summer here.
Q. How are those three guys doing physically?
BRIAN DABOLL: Coming along.
Q. When you expect them to be able to run routes and work with Daniel?
BRIAN DABOLL: I'm just focused on today. They’ve all been in the walk-throughs and been getting their reps, they're working, and they will be ready as soon as they're ready. And when they are, we'll get as many reps as we can.
Q. Is Shep running at this point?
BRIAN DABOLL: You would have to ask the trainer that.
Q. The issue that Toney had looked at, was that something lingering from the season or new this spring?
BRIAN DABOLL: I'm not going to get into those. I'm not answering those questions.
Just in regards to injury, guys, I'll give you what I can give you. I'll probably be pretty vague most of the time. Just being honest with you right now.
I'm not going to get into what it is three weeks or five weeks or when it happened. I'm not going to do that. Just out of respect to you guys, I'm just telling you that's the way we're going to approach it.
Q. Going back to the conditioning, how do you balance pushing the guys versus being cognizant of the fact that injuries do pop up, hamstrings, whatnot?
BRIAN DABOLL: Sure.
Q. Striking that balance.
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I think our sports science and our medical staff, our trainers, we talk about that a lot in the meetings. We’ve been doing training camp schedules right now, and when to fit it in and not fit it in.
You can get a feel outside here when the guys need it and when they don't. You hope you never get an injury; can't buy insurance all the time. If we need to condition, we're going to condition. These guys been working hard, and I think they’re in pretty good shape.
I think the strength staff has done a good job with them through all the phases, phase one, phase two, phase three.
Q. How do you evaluate offensive linemen in these unpadded practices?
BRIAN DABOLL: Really know what to do, good communication, footwork, hands, the physicalness and moving guys. We're not running any plays where we're double teaming. Most of it is a passing camp so it's primarily passing.
We're not running any twists or games or things like that. Just be where you're supposed to be, have good technique, and be a good communicator out there.
Q. I'm sure you have a plan for every day. This is what we want to install, this is what we want to get done. As you've gone through that this spring, have there been times you had to hit a speed bump a little bit and say, I thought they could handle this and they really can't. We’ve got to push it back. Is it all according to plan or do you have to make adjustments?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, I think you make adjustments every day. Practice plan, out here. We had something last week where I kind of just scrapped the periods and just made them all call it where Kafka has got to call it, Wink has got to call it.
You know, there are times when you're a position coach where you're reading the scripts and looking at what the next play is. (And you say to your group,) ‘Hey, the next play is this. Make sure you got that in-cut 16 yards,’ because you're a position coach.
So then you put the coaches under a little bit of pressure to not have scripts, the players to hear the personnel, turn the music up, turn the crowd noise up a little louder, and try to make them do it under pressure.
Q. How did they do?
BRIAN DABOLL: They did good. Look, these guys have worked their tails off. The coaches have worked really hard. We've made improvement from the first day we got here; we’ve got a long way to go.
But it's been a good spring.
Q. Is Aaron Robinson going to be able to practice or be on the side?
BRIAN DABOLL: We'll see on that one. I'm going to go in there and talk to Ronnie and those guys right now. He'll probably be in a red jersey, but not 100%.
Q. What did you think of Michael Jocquet, what he's done?
BRIAN DABOLL: I’d say all those corners are in the same boat right now. We're down some, so they're getting a lot of the reps. We're trying to keep them off the receivers because it's not a big press camp. They've all acclimated themselves well.
Q. You spent the past five months learning about your team. What have you learned about yourself and about what it means to be the head guy?
BRIAN DABOLL: Good question. I haven't really thought about it. That you need a good staff around you. You need players willing to work that put in the time and effort, and everyone in the organization is important.
Can't do this job by yourself. Laura Young is outstanding and really done a good job of helping me and keeping me on track. So more about the people in the building than it is about me.
Q. When you build an offense in today's NFL, can you do it without pre-snap motion or movement? Why is that such a big part of it?
BRIAN DABOLL: You’d have to have like every play caller up here on that question. We just try to do what we need to do to attack the defense.
There are plays out there where we just go line up quick and snap it. There are other plays where we move one guy, you can move two guys. I think it's up to the individual play caller and the designer of that offense.
I think the most important thing before shifts and motions is the execution of the overall play; 11 people being on the same page. So whether you decide to shift or decide to use three tight ends or four receivers, you know, that's up to each individual play caller.
The biggest thing is execution of the play and understanding of the concept.
Q. There are a lot of different ways to use tight ends. How similar is what you want to do with Daniel Bellinger to what you did in college?
BRIAN DABOLL: There is some similarities, but, again, there are some differences. It's a little bit of a different system that we run. He's really done a good job for a young player of picking things up. We have thrown him into the mix right away. He's -- again, you'll hear it, a long way to go.
But he's got some traits that we liked when he was coming out. Good size, some quickness, good speed. He catches the ball well. He didn't have a ton of catches there, but he didn't have a ton of targets either. He's done a good job of picking up our stuff.
Q. There was a report about a joint practice against the Jets. Are you going to do that? If so, what do you hope to get out of it?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, plan is right now we're going to do it. I think it's good to practice with the guys from down the street, play in a different conference. I know Coach Saleh. He's a really good coach. We've had some good talks.
I think it's a good chance to come out here and be competitive against some other players that you're not practicing against throughout the summer as long as you do it the right way. We want to treat those guys that they’re just like our teammates when you're practicing.
So I think that Coach and I have had some good conversations and looking forward to it.
Q. Going to do that here?
BRIAN DABOLL: Going to do it here.
Q. In the stadium or...
BRIAN DABOLL: I think we're going to do it outside on the fields here.
