Head Coach Brian Daboll
October 25, 2023
Q: Where are we at with (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) at this point?
A: Same as he was last week. He’ll do stuff at practice, non-contact. Getting better, but same.
Q: Same workload, no team reps still?
A: Yeah, no team reps.
Q: How does he go about getting cleared for contact? What’s the process for that?
A: See the doctors and then the doctors clear him.
Q: You say he’s getting better—
A: He’s feeling better and then when the doctors tell me he’s cleared, then cleared.
Q: Are those daily checkups? Weekly? How often?
A: Well, I mean, he sees our trainers and we have a doctor in. Last week it was at the end of the week. But he’s in constant communication with those guys.
Q: Are we still talking about nothing more than a neck?
A: Yes.
Q: When he is healthy, is he definitely your starter?
A: Yep.
Q: Why him and not (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor)?
A: I’m not getting into that. I mean, he’s our starter. I’ve said it, I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked, but I’ve said it a bunch.
Q: In terms of logistics, if he’s cleared later in the week and hasn’t been taking team reps, can he jump in and play Sunday?
A: We’ll see how it goes. He’s played a lot of football, so I am not going to—what happens two days or three days. When he’s cleared, you guys will be the first to know.
Q: Is (tackle) Andrew Thomas going to practice today?
A: He is. Everybody is practicing except (running back Gary) Brightwell and (defensive lineman) Leo(nard Williams) will have a vet day.
Q: Anybody limited?
A: Yeah. Andrew Thomas, yes. There will be some guys limited.
Q: Is Andrew in that group?
A: He is, but he’ll be out here doing stuff. Limited, I’ll just give them to you. (Running back) Saquon (Barkley), (cornerback) Adoree’ (Jackson), obviously Daniel we’ve talked about, (tackle) Evan (Neal), (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.), AT (tackle Andrew Thomas), (tight end Darren) Waller, and then we’ll give Leo a vet day.
Q: What’s your feeling on Schmitz for Sunday? You said it wasn’t going to be an IR thing, which probably would mean three games or fewer.
A: I think let him practice and we’ll see how it goes by the end of the week, but I’d say all those guys that have been out for a while are getting better. So, this is kind of their next step here, see how they do at practice.
Q: How did you feel your young cornerbacks played on Sunday? You didn’t have Adoree’ and you really played kind of four of them.
A: Yeah, again, I think Tae (cornerback Deonte Banks) has been improving. (Cornerback Tre) Hawk(ins) was out there, I thought he did a good job, was physical. (Cornerback Cor’Dale) Flott’s doing a good job inside. Those guys worked hard and compete out here at practice, and I thought they did a good job.
Q: You’ve gone to a younger thing at wide receiver. Is that something you’d consider at cornerback too, where, ‘Hey, let’s look at these guys and see what we’ve got from them?’
A: No, I would just say whoever we want out there, those are the guys that are going to be out there for that particular game or that particular defense. So, whoever we think is ready to go and fully healthy, that’s who will be out there.
Q: This team invested a lot of money in Andrew. What would it mean to get him back out there?
A: It would be great. He’s a really good left tackle.
Q: What would it mean for the whole group? Maybe you can move someone, (guard Justin) Pugh, inside. Is it a trickledown that affects everybody?
A: Sure, yeah. It would be great to have a good left tackle that you had signed here to be out there, but again, we’re not going to rush him. Whenever he’s ready to go, that’s when he’ll be out there.
Q: What goes into the IR decisions? Say (tackle Matt) Peart was out for two weeks and then you put him on IR, other guys you put on right away, other guys you don’t put on at all and they miss four weeks.
A: Yeah, I’d say we discuss with the doctors, (General Manager) Joe (Schoen) and I discuss it, see where their injury is at, see how long we think it could be, could not be. There’s a lot of conversations.
Peart, we thought it would be a little bit of time. (running back Eric) Gray, same thing. Some guys you hold out hope that maybe it’s a little bit, maybe it’s not. Every injury is different, as you know.
Q: Where do you stand at returner?
A: At returner? So, we signed (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski). He will be on the practice squad. He’ll get some reps. (Wide receiver Darius) Slay(ton) gets reps. (wide receiver Sterling) Shep(ard) will continue to get reps. Adoree’ will get reps. I’d say those four guys.
Q: What was your approach in the preseason when you were going against the Jets starters? Did you have to measure that, how much you showed? Because they were going with their 1s, you weren’t necessarily playing yours.
A: That’s a good question. You don’t run a lot in the preseason. It’s good to have it on tape to see some of those guys. We practiced against them last year, too. Obviously, played them in the preseason. But relative to scheme and things like that, I would say it was pretty basic offensively. We pressured a little bit defensively that game, but it was pretty basic stuff.
Q: You did have (wide receiver Jalin) Hyatt do the double move on (Jets cornerback) Sauce (Garnder). Was that something you just wanted to see him do? Because you put that on tape.
A: Yeah, I thought it would be a good first play.
Q: Statistically, one of the things the Jets have done well this year is takeaways. Do you talk about that this week?
A: Yeah, they’re excellent at it. They had three on (Chiefs quarterback Patrick) Mahomes, two counted, three on (Bills quarterback) Josh (Allen), three on (Eagles quarterback) Jalen (Hurts), I think. Played Philadelphia, Kansas City, Buffalo, beat Buffalo and beat Philadelphia.
I just think (Jets Head) Coach (Robert) Saleh does a great job. His defenses are always well coached. Competed against him when he was in San Francisco and I was in Buffalo. I think the world of him as a guy. He’s got a defense that plays with high energy, specific type of guy that plays extremely hard. They rotate their front four like hockey shifts. They’ve got two really good corners. I’d say they kind of do what they do on early downs, and they do it very, very well and then they give you some issues schematically in some passing situations.
Yeah, certainly. They take the ball away, they play good redzone defense, they play fast. They’ve got a lot of good players. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Saleh, that defense, and how they go about it.
Q: Do you know (Jets Defensive Coordinator) Jeff Ulbrich at all?
A: Yeah. Obviously, we were here last year practicing. Another good coach. They’ve got a lot of good coaches, (Jets Defensive Line Coach Aaron) Whitecotton, some guys that I’ve been around, and it shows. They play a certain way. I’d say they have a really good front four, call it more than a front four with the amount of times they rotate in there. They have two good cover corners. (Jets linebacker C.J.) Mosley, I think he’s an unbelievable middle linebacker. Instinctive, can read routes, knows when to jump. He’s as good as they come inside. So, this is a challenging defense to get ready for and it shows. I think they’ve done a great job with it.
Q: What have you noticed or what have you learned about (Jets running back) Breece Hall and what a difference he makes for them?
A: Yeah, he’s a good one too. He’s a big back that runs really fast. If he gets out in the open, he can make a guy miss, he can slash and one-cut. A couple runs he had backed up in the first game of the year, then he had a long one against Kansas City, 43-yarder. You’ve got to put a lot of hats to the ball on him. He’s a big back, but he’s fast, too, and he can take it a long way. Good player.
Q: Your inside backers with (Bobby) Okereke and (Micah) McFadden, I know we have talked about the defense as a group the last couple of weeks, but it seems like those two guys together have really emerged as a pair. What does that do for all three levels when those two guys can play as well as they have together?
A: Good communicators. Kind of tie in the front end and back end together. Bobby plays a lot. Micah plays a lot but he also plays on special teams. We have different roles for Zay (Isaiah Simmons) in there. But two good communicators, they both can run, they’re instinctive, they’re fast. They’ve done a good job for us.
Q: What do you remember about your time working for the Jets?
A: Getting old, it was a long time ago. It’s a good organization. Got the chance to meet the ownership, good people there. (Jets President) Hymie (Elhai), now (Joe) Douglas is the GM, who I’ve got a lot of respect for. Saleh. There were some people that were in there that are still there that are good people. I remember one year, it was not really good, the other year I think we had a winning record but kind of fizzled toward the end. I was only there for two years.
Q: Saquon said the other day after the game that you and Joe pulled him aside last week and reassured him that he’s wanted here. Why did you feel the need to do that?
A: Well, someone told me that there were some rumors out there. So, I walked up to him at walkthrough and said, ‘Yeah, that's not happening, let's go to walkthrough.’ That’s it.
Q: So, he’ll definitely be here after the trade deadline?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did you get any kind of feel from the other side of this rivalry about how the Jets feel about the Giants in that short time?
A: I mean, look, it's a long time ago. I couldn't remember the exact conversation, but obviously, it's competitive. They’re both in the same town. You understand it’s a ‘juice’ game, so, yeah.
Q: Inside here, do you get the sense that this game means something more than just Week 8 of the regular season?
A: I think you understand when you have two teams in the same town, sure. But for us, we’ve got to play a good game, regardless of who it's against and perform at our highest level. So, understand it, appreciate it, respect it, totally. But our focus has to remain getting better and doing the things we need to do against a good team that's beat some good teams.
Q: 15 years ago wasn't the same. You might say something in the locker room, it might not get to San Francisco as quickly. But when you have those two teams in the same town it’s pretty easy for them to follow you guys and you to follow them. Is there a dynamic there that you guys are aware of as you go into a week like this knowing that it’s the same town, it’s pretty close?
A: I don't know. I’m just focused on the team we're playing that week. So again, got a lot of respect for the Jets-Giants games and everything that entails but my focus is on let's get ready to figure out how to play well against their defense, their offense, their kicking game. Kind of same process we go through.
Q: What I was getting it is the idea that this is a league filled with paranoia nowadays. The idea of what you let out, what people say, what schematics are. Is there a difference now when it's two teams in the same area?
A: Probably the same. Probably the same.
Q: These are two teams that may be going with their backup quarterbacks as starters. Just what does that say about the futility of trying to plan long term as a football coach and who's going to be available?
A: That’s the league we're in. You all know that, too. So, whoever’s the next man up, that's why they're on your team and you get them ready to play, whether that's the quarterback or left tackle, running back, whatever it may be, middle linebacker, corner… That’s why you have a roster. You try to build it as deep as you can build it and keep the guys on the roster that you think when their number is called, they go out there and execute it.
