Head Coach Brian Daboll
August 25, 2022
Daboll: How’s everybody doing? So, looking forward to a good practice today with the Jets. Try to improve our football team. We should have a good, competitive day out there.
Q: How will you structure practice? Will it be similar to what you usually do or are you changing things up?
A: So, this field right here – field one, closest to the building – that will be the Jets offense and the Giants defense. And then the field on the other side will be the counterparts. First half hour will be Jets on this field, Giants on that field. That will be special teams field – field three. But it will be similar to a structured practice.
Q: Throughout the league we hear about all the joint practices, right. And you hear these reports ‘there was a big brawl,’ ‘there was a big brawl,’ ‘there was a fight,’ ‘they had to stop,’ ‘they had to stop,’. Is that like this can’t happen today? Or is it like, ‘Well, we’d like it not to happen, but if it does, so be it,’?
A: All we’re trying to do is get better. Improve our fundamentals. Compete against another team that has different skillsets, different scheme. We’re not looking to go out there and fight.
Q: Did you go make that known to your team? Make any special instructions for today?
A: Yeah. We talked about it in a team meeting. We talked about it. Look, the season’s getting close, 16 days or whatever it is away. I think it’s important to be able to practice with one another. We’d like to do this for a while without anything happening like that again. I’ve been part of these, too. I understand how it goes. But we’re certainly going to try to do what we can do to just have a good, competitive practice.
Q: Is there any particular matchup you’re looking forward to seeing today, or just a general overview of what your team is going to do against another team?
A: No, not in particular. We’re just trying to improve our fundamentals, our techniques. It good to practice against a different scheme, different players and just try to get better.
Q: By “do this for a while”, do you mean you want to make this an annual thing? Is that what you mean?
A: Yeah, I mean, down the road hopefully. It’s good to have a team right here across the way to compete against. But again, you got to do things the right way, I think. Show respect each other, work hard together to improve and play football. Not interested in going to see a UFC or boxing matches or anything like that, although I love both of those (laughs). Just good, competitive football.
Q: What are your thoughts right now on how much, if at all, your starters will play in this game?
A: Not there yet.
Q: Does (New York Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh) Robert’s decision to play his starters affect any of that or it just...?
A: No. It has no effect. Nope.
Q: What’s going on with (Wide Receiver Kadarius Toney) KT? We saw him out there yesterday. He was grabbing his leg. It looked like he was struggling a little bit.
A: Getting better. I mean, he’s getting better. He’s rehabbing. Hopefully we’ll do a little bit more today. We’ll see how that goes. I think he’s making strides every day, and hopefully we’ll see a little bit more today. We’ll see how much he does relative to team periods and things like that. But hopeful that we’ll see a little bit.
Q: How much of it is related to the knee that he had this offseason?
A: I’m not getting into (that). I’m not getting into (that). Good question. But no answer for you.
Q: I know you weren’t big into 12 and 13 personnel in Buffalo, but what’s your overall thought on the tight end depth that you have right now?
A: There’s not a lot of it. There’s a bunch of young players that are competing. They’re improving every day. You know, (Daniel) Bellinger and Chris (Myarick) and Austin (Allen). We just added another player. So, it’s a good opportunity for those players to go out there and prove and earn the right to play.
Q: Is it kind of frustrating being in the preseason and having all the injuries that you guys have been having?
A: I said this the other day. Injuries are part of the game. You deal with whatever comes your way as a coach, as a player. It’s an unfortunate deal that people get hurt. But it’s a competitive sport. There’s high speeds and collisions. And unfortunately, yesterday, (Wide Receiver) Collin Johnson. I’d hate to miss this. What a great person. He was making a really strong case for himself in camp and had a non-contact injury where he just kind of slipped and popped his Achilles.
Q: How did (Wide Receiver Sterling Shepard) Shep come through yesterday, and do you expect him to continue to progress?
A: Good. We’ll just keep ramping him up. You won’t see him in a lot of competitive periods today, but we’ll just keep ramping him up. So, we’re getting closer to the season here.
Q: Because of how physical the pro game is, in a perfect world, would you rather bring your 90 guys into the regular season?
A: Whatever the rules are, are the rules. We got to abide by those and do a good job of having a plan if something does go – if somebody gets hurt, bring another guy in.
Q: Is (Outside Linebacker Kayvon) Thibodeaux doing his rehab here? Like is he here today? Was he here yesterday?
A: He is. Yeah. He is.
Q: What’s your history with Saleh? How long have you guys known each other? How did the discussion start about doing this?
A: I’ve known him just from coaching in the league. But I met him at the owners’ meeting in March or April, like I said. Good person. I always had a good amount of respect for what he did as a coach and then got to meet him as a person. What a great person him and his wife are. His family. And then we just started talking about it a little bit to see if it could work. And have a lot of respect for him and what his culture is. And thought we could get good work together.
Q: You obviously went against the Jets twice last year. What stands out about a Robert Saleh defense?
A: They play fast. They play physical. They play some zone. They play a little bit of man. They have usually a four-down rush with some blitzers. We haven’t really studied them for this practice, but he’s competitive. We played him when I was at the Bills. He was at San Francisco, and I just got a lot of respect for how he handles things.
Q: You guys are both kind of self-made in a way, you and Robert in terms of you weren’t really handed anything in this league. You came in and had to really grind at the lowest level to get to where you are now as a head coach. Is that something you guys bonded over? Similar paths.
A: I don’t think we talked about that. We kind of met each other and hung out by the pool a little bit and just started talking football. And just have a lot of respect for him as a man first and then as a coach second. And got to meet his wife, and just really good person.
Q: With practice today, do you ramp it up because it’s another team? Or do you practice the way you always practice?
A: We’re going to try to practice the way we normally practice. Again, there’s competitive juices out there. We all understand that. But we’re not looking to cheap shot or do anything to – it’s practice. So, what I told our guys is, ‘Let’s treat it, our offense, treat it like it’s our defense. Our defense, treat it like it’s our offense. Stay away from the quarterback. Try to keep guys up. You know, thud tackle. Don’t be grabbing and holding. Don’t put guys on the ground. Try to improve our techniques. Get in good position. And get something out of it.’
Q: Is there anything they do schematically on defense that’s going to prep you guys or mirror what you’re going to see in Tennessee?
A: I just think we come out here, we practice against a different look than we have been seeing every day. And that’s the advantage of practicing against another team. The looks, and they’re not really scouted looks. You just go out there and trust your rules and assignments and then also the players. The different levels of ability that those players have and the challenges that they would create, so it’s not the same guy you’re going against every day is, I think, what we’re trying to get out of it.
Q: Are there any benchmarks that you’d like to see (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones) hit during this joint practice today?
A: No. Just go out and have a good practice. Keep getting better.
Q: Are there advantages that you’ll see during the joint practice that you might not be able to analyze in a preseason game?
A: No. I don’t think so. Look, the game, it’s live competition. That’s the best way to evaluate your players. Tackling and blocking and cleaning pockets and doing all those things. I just think it’s good to get out here against another opponent and see a different color jersey and see different players out there and have to block different looks. I think that’s what helps the most.
Q: Is there a scouting component to it, too? Like you’re going to cut 27 guys next week. They’re going to cut 27 guys next week. As much as you’re coaching your guys – whether it’s live or on tape – will you be watching their guys to say, ‘If that guy shakes free, he fits here,’?
A: Yeah. I think you always do that. That’s another advantage. You get a whole other roster to look at. I don’t want to speak for anybody else, I’m sure that’s what happens at most practices. You’re able to go against people. See people that maybe not fit their scheme that they move on from that might fit your scheme or you want to take a look at. So, I think that has its advantages, too.
Q: You’ve seen a few of these joint practices turn sideways because of the emotions. Did you have to give your players a reminder to not let that get the best of you?
A: Yeah. We talked about that. We talked about it in our team. Again, I’ve been part of these practices. You do your best job you can. You want to treat it, it’s not a game, but you can’t go out there and fight and brawl in a game, either, get pissed off and do something you wouldn’t do in a game. You want to try to treat it like a game atmosphere without taking guys to the ground, doing all those things you’d only do in a game.
Q: A guy like (Running Back) Saquon (Barkley), will he get full go today out there?
A: Yeah. I mean it’s practice for us. Again, against another team. But it’s practice, and we’d like to get really good work today.
Q: What did you think of your team’s conditioning yesterday? It was a pretty heavy practice.
A: Yeah, it was hot. Yeah. We did it for a reason. Had a couple days off, so I elected not to run the cross fields. Some of the coaches did (laughs), so it’s really the period after the conditioning where they got to hear things and go fast and get lined up and make sure they’re not letting fatigue get the best of them. That’s why we do that.
Q: Did you ever do it when you were an assistant coach?
A: I did. I ran. Not very fast, as you know (laughs).
Q: What do you think of (Jets Cornerback) Sauce Gardner as a player? I’m sure he’s a guy you scouted quite a bit going into this draft.
A: Yeah, I haven’t seen him play in the NFL. But certainly, a good player. Good man skills, long, lengthy, good player.
