Head Coach Brian Daboll
December 13, 2023
Q: Where we at on – any injuries? Guys that –
A: Everybody will do everything today.
Q: Huh?
A: Everybody will do everything today.
Q: That includes (tackle) Evan Neal?
A: Yeah. We’re doing a little bit more of a walkthrough so.
Q: But he’ll be listed as like a limited participant in practice, I assume?
A: Yeah, but he’ll be out there. There’s nobody that’s not doing anything.
Q: (Tight end) Darren Waller?
A: We’ll see where we’re at here, making progress. Getting closer.
Q: What do you think of Waller’s chances of playing this Sunday?
A: We’ll see. Go through the week and determine it at the end of the week.
Q: Is it a strong desire to get both those guys on the field as soon as you can?
A: Yeah, whenever they’re ready to go, then we’ll have a plan for them.
Q: Did (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito) hurt his shoulder on that fumble return? It looked like when I went back and watched it –
A: No, he’s good.
Q: What’d you think of (outside linebacker Azeez) Ojulari? He had the sack and then he had the – he gets criticized sometimes for his run defense and he made a pretty good play there on that run.
A: I thought he played one of his better games for us, since we’ve been here. He played with a lot of energy, did a good job in the run game, made some plays. They missed that field goal, he got that big tackle for loss, rushed well. He’s making progress. I thought he played a good game.
Q: Just to be clear on Waller for a second, when you say everyone’s going to practice does that include him?
A: No.
Q: Not him?
A: Yeah. Everybody that can practice, will.
Q: Everyone on the Giants active roster?
A: Yeah.
Q: It looked like they really wanted to hit you the other night with a lot of misdirection, I know that’s part of their offense and if you go back earlier this year, you guys seemed to have a lot of problems with that. Especially in the Miami game, they caught you a lot pre-snap. What do you attest to it? Just time and the defense gelling or do you think it’s something you guys did gameplan-wise that allowed you to overcome that?
A: Well, we made some good plays too. That two-point play was a heck of a play by (inside linebacker) Bobby (Okereke) and the rest of the guys where they motioned the back, handed off on the outside. There’s a wide variety of runs you get nowadays in the league whether it’s jet sweeps to the receivers, reverses, outside zones with the receivers, kind of a different way than the traditional way. I think every team tries to attack edges, inside, gap, zone. I think each team differs, but I thought we played some of them exactly the way we need to play them, and they made some good plays on some other ones.
Q: What is it about (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux)? What area have you seen the biggest improvement with him this year?
A: Really all of them. I’ve said this before, I’ve got a high amount of respect for Kayvon, glad we have him. He’s made progress since the day he walked in this door. He’s got good leadership traits about him, he’s a talented player, he loves the game of football, he’s a great teammate. I’m glad we have him. He’s really made a lot of progress and he always strives for more. He’s done a nice job for us.
Q: What seems to be standing out about him? The pressure percentage isn’t off the charts, but when he gets his opportunities, he’s turning those into sacks. Is there anything you see there, a reason why?
A: He’s done a good job of finishing on the quarterback. Again, we ask him to do a lot of different things in our defense and he welcomes it with open arms. I can’t say enough about what a good teammate he is. He’s made a lot of progress since he’s been here and it’s a testament to him, it’s a testament to the coaches, but he’s the one out there doing it.
Q: There's a cliche about defensive backs that they have a nose for the ball, that they just find interceptions, fumbles, things like that. Is there that for a defensive lineman like Kayvon where he just happens to consistently find himself around sacks?
A: There's probably some truth to that, yeah. But I mean, he's doing a good job with our rush plan, of how we're rushing players, whether it's with games, pressures. I give him a lot of credit, but (Outside Linebackers Coach) Drew (Wilkins), Dre (Defensive Line Coach Andre Patterson), those guys work with him a lot. He’s in there on afternoon meetings. You have the whole defense up there and different guys talk about different things in just the players meeting. It's good to be able to see him to do that, too.
Q: Do you think your right tackle position has stabilized now that you’ve had one guy in there for a while after Evan Neal got hurt?
A: I think the five of those guys that have been working together have continually improved. They’re communicating well. There’re obviously certain things we can all do better, but it's good to have those five guys out there for consecutive games. All five of them have done a good job.
Q: What about in particular (tackle Tyre) Phillips?
A: Good teammate, good communicator, tries to do the things we ask him to do on a consistent basis, is out here, he does a great job at practice and in meetings of doing everything he can do to be as good as he can be on Sunday or Monday, or whenever it is.
Q: How hard is it for a young quarterback to learn on the job like Tommy DeVito has been doing?
A: I think for any young player, the more you play, the more experience you get, the more things you see. There's always going to be mistakes; there's mistakes for everybody, coaches, players. I think if you have the right mindset of—he prepares really well. He's in here on his days off, spends a lot of time with the coaches. He just tries to do everything he can do to put himself in as good a position as he can. Again, as young players, whether it’s receiver, a defensive back, a quarterback, this is a difficult league. Difficult assignments each week. Different game plans you get. Coaches are going to game plan you different each week. He’s done a good job of just trying to execute his job. Right mindset, knows he's got things to work on, like we all do, but comes to work every day.
Q: The outside world is obviously in a frenzy over him. Do you have to keep him grounded at all, or does he do that himself?
A: He’s been pretty consistent. The thing that he can control, and we talk about it all the time, is how you prepare each week. Each week is a different challenge. We’ve talked about it since OTAs. Each practice was a different challenge, the limited amount of reps you get, staying focused on the things that you can control, which is not always the easiest thing really for anybody. But he's tried to be as consistent as he can. Don't ride a roller coaster, try to improve, whether it's your footwork, your reads, creating loose plays, whatever that may be. That's his mindset. So, he's like a sponge. He tries to soak everything up, he knows he's got a lot to learn. But he handles himself the right way.
Q: We saw a picture of the locker room doing the celebration, you on board with that as well at this point?
A: I leave that to those guys. Just trying to put one foot in front of the other and be as good as we can.
Q: Where does the outside, kind of on Tommy, the outside media frenzy, kind of outside stuff stack up to in your career what you’ve seen around players?
A: With all due respect, I try to just focus on the things in here and keep our guys as focused as we can of doing the things we need to try to do.
Q: When the pass rush did get to him the other night it seemed like he wasted no time to just get out and use his legs. Did you encourage him prior to the game to do more of that or was that him?
A: Well, I think he’s an instinctive player. That’s something that we talk about with – again every quarterback is different that you coach, everyone has a different skillset. We try to coach to our quarterback that’s playing. It’s something that, based on who you have, you emphasize it maybe less, maybe more, but he did a good job of preventing negative plays, of getting yards when he could get them, of staying on track so we could stay on schedule. I think that’s important for any offense. But he did – if guys can run, I encourage them to run and try to take as limited of hits as you can, but use your athletic ability to your strengths, try to stay in positive downs and distances. It’s easier for everybody, play callers, quarterbacks, skill players, linemen to stay in favorable situations. It’s hard to do, there is a lot of good defenses in this league, but certainly if you have that ability, go ahead and use it.
Q: He had not done that in the previous games, he took some sacks. Was that like a really concerted effort?
A: Yeah, I mean we had some sacks, but again, sacks are a result of everybody.
Q: Some were certainly him.
A: Yeah, I mean it was everybody. Put it on everybody. But again, he’s improving the more he plays. It’s not always going to happen every time, but they’ve got a really good rush right now that we are going to have be in a loud environment and make sure we do a good job of trying to stay on schedule the best we can against a really good defensive coach in DA (Saints Head Coach Dennis Allen) and some really good players.
Q: Is there anything that you’ve seen tangible in (safety Xavier) McKinney’s game over the last month that has allowed him to kind of – it seems like he’s taken it to another level.
A: Yeah, he’s playing good football. He does a great job in the film room, great job in walkthroughs, been a good leader for us. He’s played really, I’d say, the last month of the season a high level of football, and we need him to do that.
