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Transcript: Center Jon Feliciano

Eric from BBI : Admin : 8/7/2022 3:12 pm
Center Jon Feliciano

Q: How are you feeling?

A: Great. I feel good. Happy to be back out there.

Q: What happened after that practice?

A: Right after the practice, got in the cold tubs. Went through and got an I.V. And then, I'm kind of a hard stick sometimes. And then, missed me a few times. And then after that, I started profusely sweating. And then, I just started full body cramping. Good times.

Q: Anything happened to you like that before?

A: My freshman year at Miami. Like the third training camp day. Almost the same. Not fun.

Q: So, they just over the course of the next few days gave you some I.V.s, rehydrated you?

A: They did a lot. They looked out for me, and they brought me back in slowly. I appreciate them, but I was fighting tooth and nail to get back out there.

Q: Were you at the facility the whole time, or did you have to go – you didn't go to the hospital or anything did you?

A: No. I was here most of the time.

Q: Did you know what was happening? I mean from the old experience.

A: Yeah. I went into the cold tub right after practice, and I was like, 'Ah I should probably be safe and get an I.V.' And then it was probably just, they missed me. And I started sweating more. I didn't really have much liquid in my body to sweat like that. And I kind of just went downhill very quickly.

Q: Was it scary?

A: It wasn't scary, it's just not a fun time. Imagine your muscles just – especially my legs mostly cramped up just like that for a while.

Q: How do you prevent that in the future?

A: I think if I would have gotten stuck the first time, I would have been alight. Staying hydrated and that's really it.

Q: Any other symptoms that happen? Forgive me for not knowing about heat exhaustion, were you vomiting?

A: No, just yelling from cramping.

Q: How do you like having your reps managed at practices?

A: I'm a little older now so it's not that bad. I come from a place where good ole Rodney Hudson, before I was in Buffalo when I was in Oakland, a guy that never practiced. You should see him now in Arizona. I'm just playing. No, it was cool but with our numbers dropping, I feel bad for the guys. Definitely getting back out there and taking all the reps.

Q: What do you make of this offensive line so far? Obviously, it's an area that needed a lot of improvement and they were able to do some things this offseason to work on that. Where do you think you guys are in terms of being the type of line that this fanbase envisions?

A: We got a lot of work to do. I think we can be; the thing is I think we can be really good. It's all about getting our reps together and getting our verbiage the same. Early on, it's just like guys are saying things but they're saying things from different systems, or in the heat of the moment, we got to get our communication down the best we can. (Offensive Lineman) Evan (Neal) and (Tackle) AT (Andrew Thomas), I've been around some good tackles in my career and I've never seen a rookie in Evan be a vet so early on. That dude is, after every meeting, at night we walk by the weight room and he's foam rolling or doing something. He's well beyond his years in that regard of taking care of his body and having AT back out there, in OTAs he wasn't there, is great. He's a really good young player and it's kind of my job to make sure that all they have to worry about is blocking the guy in front of them and not thinking about things.

Q: Evan has lost his share of the one-on-one reps. How have you seen him bounce back from that? He probably didn't lose many of those at all in college.

A: It's one-on-ones, it's a defensive drill and he's also working through some new techniques that he's getting better with. Honestly, one-on-ones right now this early in camp – we want him to, we don't want him to get beat, we want him to go out there and try things so that he can perfect them for the regular season.

Q: Are some of the communication things you talked about, do they contribute to some of the protection issues that you guys had the other night in the scrimmage?

A: It's my job, with (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones), to try to figure out (Defensive Coordinator) Wink's (Martindale) defense and try to get us all going in the right way. I embrace the challenge; it makes coming to work fun every day so it's not just the monotony – I actually have to make sure I'm sharp mentally every day to deal with good ole Wink.

Q: I know (Offensive Line Coach) Bobby Johnson is very aggressive and wants you to be aggressive with your sets. I'm wondering, how has that been received by you guys? I know you just mentioned Evan having to maybe learn some techniques.

A: That's our starting point. If you are playing a guy that's a double arm, swipe big guy – a guy that is going to try to play the edges – we have different things to deal with that sort of thing. Our whole philosophy as the o-line is staying in the depth and width of the pocket so we can get on a guy early and quick so it will help with the depth of the pocket.

Q: When you watch film of the line after practice, do you sit there and say when you see Saquon Barkley 'This could be pretty good this year?'

A: Yeah, I mean Saquon – he's definitely up there. I've played with great backs like Marshawn (Lynch) and Duke Johnson, Latavius Murray. A lot of guys. Saquon is definitely up there in talent level. More importantly, I'm impressed with his questions of the game. He's always picking my mind and trying to just understand this new offense for him. Some of these runs are different than he is used to so it's just impressive, he's always asking me some kind of question about it. It's refreshing to have those kinds of insightful questions.

Q: Do you think this team is in football shape and how has this team received Brian Daboll saying we need to get better at this conditioning thing?

A: I think we can be better. Yeah, I think we can be better, and we will be.

Q: We haven't seen, for his first four years, Saquon Barkley in practice ever get taken to the ground. That kind of physicality is not really present in training camp for the run game. You guys had a pretty physical day today. Do you like that? Do you guys like getting to it early rather than waiting and waiting?

A: Yeah, today was basically like inside run for four periods. As a lineman, and Saquon in the huddle is all fired up, we are all out there having fun for probably after the first period and then we started realizing what kind of day it was going to be and, at least for me, practice got easier the longer we went. Just because run plays for a lineman, we like putting our bodies on people.

Q: Out of all the changes on the second team offensive line UNSURE- does that the wave behind you isn't really going to push you so you have to push yourselves?

A: not really. You just kind of feel for the guys like (Offensive Lineman) Jamil (Douglas) and (Offensive Guard Ben Bredeson) Bob, we call him Bob. It was more of after I got done with my reps just trying to make sure to give them some water and give them some encouragement because they are taking a lot more reps than we are and most of the other guys are.

Q: Why Bob?

A: You've got to ask OG (Bobby Johnson). That was OG, OG calls him Bob. I think there was some billboard of, I don't know if it was Bob Sandwiches or Bob something and Ben looks like that guy, so we just call him Bob.

Q: Was it like "Bob's Burgers" or something?

A: Yeah, it was something I don't remember. But yeah, good ole' Bob.

Q: You've been in the league here for quite a while, you've seen different situations obviously with what this team would say, rebuilding, the expectations are low. What do you guys think of that and what do you make of that?

A: We're just trying to win the day. We aren't here to make all; I'm not going to give you a record thing. As long as we win the day every day, the records should take care of themselves. I have full confidence in (Head Coach Brian Daboll) Dab's and,Bobby and (Offensive Coordinator Mike) Khakfa and, Wink. We'll see but I'm confident and I'm excited to get this going.

Q: This is Brian Daboll's first time being the head coach. The way he runs camp – is it different than other places?

A: Yeah, he lets us sleep in, which is great. Our first thing starts at 9 a.m. Usually, the first thing starts at 7:30 a.m. or 8 a.m. at the latest. With that extra time, you get to sleep in if you need some extra sleep or you get to come in early and get some treatment before practice. It's been great and I'm really happy to be here. I'm happy for him just to see the way he is handling this new job.

Q: So, you guys basically show up for work and get right on the field?

A: We go on at 10 a.m. We've got our first meeting at 9 a.m., just a little five-minute meeting, then we just get ready to go out there.

Q: Have you noticed that there are some places where the offensive line fly under the radar. Have you noticed yet that's not the case with the Giants?

A: Yeah. The last place I was we were kind of the thorn in the heel. Here it's different. It's nice being here and Dab's has really been honest and given us love so it's been great. I'm happy to be here and happy to be with Dabs.
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