Head Coach Brian Daboll
October 20, 2023
Q: (Quarterback) Daniel Jones for Sunday?
A: He’ll be out here today doing some stuff. Don’t have a designation on him as of yet.
Q: Is he cleared for contact?
A: Not yet.
Q: You say that like you think that could happen in the next couple of days maybe?
A: We’ll see. We’re talking to medical people and just take it day by day here.
Q: So there’s a chance?
A: A chance, yep.
Q: Who is out officially?
A: Who’s out?
(Tackle) Andrew Thomas, (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.) and (tackle Matt) Peart.
Q: What about the other designations? Questionable? Doubtful?
A: We’ll go through practice here and we’ll see where it goes.
Q: (Tackle Evan) Neal, any feeling on him?
A: Questionable, yeah.
Q: What happened with (wide receiver) Cole Beasley?
A: Got a lot of respect for Cole. Just decided that—kind of both parties had a good conversation, and he won’t be on the practice squad.
Q: Was he healthy enough to play? He had that injury.
A: Yeah, he’s healthy.
Q: With what you said earlier this week about emphasizing (wide receiver Jalin) Hyatt and (wide receiver) Wan’Dale’s (Robinson) roles for development, was there just no opportunity for Cole?
A: I’d just say I’ll keep our private conversations private. Got a lot of respect for Cole. It goes both ways. It’s where we are right now.
Q: Is (kicker Graham) Gano okay?
A: Yeah.
Q: What did (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) show you last week?
A: Again, he’s done this a long time. Made some good decisions. I thought he did a lot of good things for us, and he’s had a good week this week.
Q: What’s your comfort level with playing a quarterback who doesn’t get any team reps all week, if that happens to be the case with Daniel? Could that be feasible?
A: Yeah, he’s played a lot of football for us. He’s been in the system for a while. So, again, we’ll take that one, get all the information and then make the right decision for him and for us.
Q: Are you worried, even if he is cleared for contact, that he hasn’t been cleared for contact up until this point if he goes on Sunday?
A: I’d take it day by day and talk to the trainers, talk to the doctors and kind of see what happens here.
Q: (Tackle Joshua) Ezeudu in the locker room yesterday, he deferred to you on this, but he said he got his MRI about whether he may or may not be out for the year. What’s the verdict there?
A: I’d say it doesn’t look good.
Q: When you see an offensive line that's allowed the most sacks in the NFL in Washington, and you know how invested you guys are in (defensive lineman) Leo(nard Williams) and (defensive lineman) Dex(ter Lawrence II) up front, is this a game that's on the shoulders of the defensive line?
A: No. I’d say everybody’s got to do their part. All three phases, coaching, everybody’s got to do their part. They throw it a lot, too. They might have a bunch of sacks, but they also throw it a lot, too. So, I think this quarterback (Sam Howell) does a good job. He’s a good young player.
Q: The first two home games went the way they did. How important is it for you to put a good product on the field for your fans?
A: Absolutely. It’s important to do that for the fans, it’s important to do that for us, it’s important for everybody, so that’s what we’re going to try to do.
Q: What could a win Sunday do for the morale with you guys? Obviously, you played well last week and came away with a game you probably thought you should’ve won.
A: Well, I’d say when you lose, it’s not a good feeling, and when you win, it’s a good feeling.
Q: Just given the state you guys are in right now, just to be able to maybe, kind of–
A: Yeah, I’d just say our focus is on doing everything we can do to win this week, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.
Q: Do you think (guard Justin) Pugh will be the left tackle?
A: Not yet determined. Possibly.
Q: So, Tyre (Phillips)—who else would be the next there? Tyre?
A: Yeah, we have four new players on the offensive line that have been here for some less than a week, some less than two weeks, and we’re working tirelessly with them in terms of meetings, getting them up to speed on calls, practicing them at different spots. You have to have plans, too. If one guy gets hurt, then here’s the next guy, they’re not playing that spot. There’s been a lot of shuffling. We’re trying our best to have as best continuity as we can, but those are the circumstances we are faced with.
Q: You’ve been around football for a minute or two. Have you ever experienced an offensive line situation like this with the shuffling?
A: I can’t say that I have.
Q: How much does that hamstring your offense?
A: No excuses. This is the National Football League. People get hurt. You’ve got to get the next guy ready, and you’ve got to get ready to play a game.
Q: How late are you staying this week with the offensive line? What does that look like?
A: Yeah, I'd say it's late every week. There’s obviously a lot we’ve got to clean up, but it was late. Regardless of when you're winning or not, we go through our procedures during the week of things we’ve got to check off and make sure we're good on. (Offensive Line Coach) Bobby (Johnson) and Smitty (Assistant Offensive Line Coach Chris Smith), they’ve been working a lot with these guys early in the morning, staying after practice, but such is the case in the National Football League.
Q: Is (cornerback) Adoree’ (Jackson) good to go for Sunday?
A: He’ll be questionable.
Q: Do you consider both (tackle) Josh Miles and Tyre left tackle candidates, too, and is there anyone else that you think you can put over there at this point besides Pugh?
A: We’re working through that right now. Obviously, Tyre has some experience with us. We're working with Miles here and getting him acclimated to our system. So, we've used a couple other guys during practice, just in case something does happen, but those would be the guys.
Q: You talk about acclimating him to your system. Obviously, it’s probably easier if they just go in one spot. Do you just try and concentrate on one spot for them? Or are you moving them around because of the need at this point?
A: There's certain people that we just put in one spot. I'd say the newest of people. And then there's other people that—again, (center Sean) Harlow has been here for a day. I know he was here earlier, Sean, he’s got some recollection of the system. Tyre does. Again, it's just kind of reacclimating yourself to the calls and communication and all those things. It takes five guys to operate an offensive line. I'd say that (guard Ben) Bredeson has been important in terms of his communication, but they're all learning new things, new words, and we're working hard to make sure that they’ve got it and I know they're working hard to get it.
A: I can’t say that I have.
ASK THE NEXT QUESTION.
Q. You ran what many refer to as a 'soft' training camp. You rested your starters through most of the preseason. Your team came out slow and out of sorts to begin the season, and your team has suffered a rash of injuries. Will you run next year's training camp and preseason the same way and just hope for the best, or have you learned from this offseason and you plan to adjust?
Lol!
And after every game we hear about clean up. I would like to hear something about accountability for the mess. Maybe something like we made some mistakes in roster management and player evaluation and we have learned from that and are doing our best to correct things in season.
At least acknowledging where you screwed up would give fans hope for the future. Otherwise they don't deserve any more years although I realize they will get them basically by default since Mara will not want another quick change.
Daboll 100% takes accountability every time he’s at the podium. Also, let’s hear what you would have done differently with the roster? IIRC most of us were pretty excited about the roster they put together until they started losing. It’s always easier to point out mistakes after they happen.
The OL mistakes I see this preseason were a couple fold:
**Not that there is a a huge supply, but shame on Schoen/Daboll not putting a serviceable Swing Tackle option on this team last Spring. The risks with Neal alone called for it but now with injuries, it has become a joke.
**What really was the point of having guys like Peart and Lemieux make this roster? They are basically fodder from the prior regime and weren't even the first guys off the bench when injuries hit so it's not like there was any faith in them. There simply had to be better choices around the league than them. These are wasted roster spots and moreso liabilities.
**Something went on with Glowinski early on. I think he was always figured as the likely starter at Guard but maybe they bruised his ego by doing all that rotational stuff this summer to try and replace him? He was simple a joke versus Dallas in game 1. If you look at the film, he wasn't even trying and got benched because of it which was the right move. Now he is back in because of all the injuries and actually playing pretty decent, probably to his ceiling. Did he get "dressed down" by the coaches and this is the result? If so, then Schoen really needs to restructure the whole OL Process - from scouting to drafting to developing and coaching because it is simply broke with this team.