Transcript: Head Coach Brian Daboll

Head Coach Brian Daboll

July 30, 2024

Q: What happened to (Brian) Burns yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: Ankle, nothing bad. Still be out. Doing Individual. We'll evaluate him, see how he does, but he'll be okay.

Q: What about (Lawrence) Cage?

BRIAN DABOLL: Cager got a hamstring, so he won't be up. He won't go today.

Q: And John Michael (Schmitz Jr.), is that shoulder the same shoulder as last year?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, it's a different deal for him. Making progress. We'll keep him on the same routine we had him. We'll see where he is after this off day. But it's a little bit different than what he had.

Q: Is it the same shoulder?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah.

Q: Tyler Nubin, no practice again?

BRIAN DABOLL: Same thing. Hopefully he'll be ready to go after the day off here.

Q: How about Dex (Dexter Lawrence)?

BRIAN DABOLL: Dex is feeling a little bit better. We're going to put him out there, see what he can do, and then we'll just monitor it after individual.

Q: Are you signing (guard Greg) Van Roten?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we signed him. We signed him, we released (cornerback) Aaron Robinson.

Q: Where does Greg fit? Obviously, he’s a guard.

BRIAN DABOLL: Interior, so center either guard. He's had experience with Carm (Offensive Line Coach Carmen Bricillo) last year. Veteran player. Can see him at play in any three spots that we need inside. Left guard, right guard, center. I haven't seen him yet. He's just getting here now. He'll be out here at practice, just kind of observing for the first day.

Q: Based on his track record, it seems like he's got starter potential for you guys.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we'll see. Glad we added him and throw him in the mix. Like what he did last year when he was with Carm. Tough, physical, good leadership. So, put him out there and let him get reps.

Q: You said he could play all three spots. He played right last year. With Jon Runyan Jr., do you want him to stay right or would it be an option to flip him?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we’ve had conversations about it if this was going to happen. When everybody gets back healthy, we'll see how it shakes out. I wouldn't rule out left side, right side. We’ll just see how it goes relative to how we got to practice with the guys we have.

Q: I couldn’t hear, who did you release?

BRIAN DABOLL: Aaron Robinson.

Q: There's always outside expectations, which I know you don't pay attention to. When you guys make the playoffs, raises the bar last year, everybody's disappointed you don't get there. How do you manage that within your own locker room, the expectation?

BRIAN DABOLL: You just focus on this year. This will be my 24th season. I've been part of 15 winning seasons, eight losing seasons, one season won a Super Bowl, the next year not make the playoffs. It's really what you do each and every year. We've said that after the first year, I'll say it again after the second year. We have a new team, new people in the building, and we're going to work as hard as we can work to be as good as we can be.

Q: There used to be a saying, a lot of coaches would say, ‘we hope to hit the ground running’. You've heard that many times, right? That kind of seems not en vogue any more with a lot of coaches. ‘Pick up where we left off last year’.

BRIAN DABOLL: Again, I just go back to it's a new year, we've got a lot of work to do, and we're going to do everything we do to be as good as we can be.

Q: How’s (kicker Graham) Gano been? Kind of coming off last year, he was kind of Mr. Automatic for so long.

BRIAN DABOLL: Getting back into the groove, he's done a nice job.

Q: Can you talk about (inside linebacker) Dyontae Johnson and what you've seen for him?

BRIAN DABOLL: Making the most of his opportunities. He's done a good job I'd say in both phases, defense and special teams. This will be an important training camp for him. It will be an important preseason for him, which it is for a lot of young players.

Q: We see (Malik) Nabers getting open pretty regularly every day. What is your initial impression of him through four practices?

BRIAN DABOLL: Early, but he's a confident player. He's got a good skill set. I've said this before, it's why we took him where we took him. He's picked up our offense well for a young player. Things we can always improve on. Again, you see some of the plays he makes, but there's always little details. Again, he's humble. He's not complacent. He's competitive. He just wants to keep getting better each day.

Q: You gave him the opportunity to call a play. It looks like you're scheming plays for him specifically.

BRIAN DABOLL: I try to scheme them for everybody. Not just one guy. Five eligible receivers out there and move pieces around. One time he could be here or somebody else could be there next. Tight ends. But, sure, you want to do that with your good players. You want to test some of these young guys too in terms of where you move them, formations you call, shifts, movements. Go fast because things happen fast when the regular season starts. You have to get after it pretty early here.

Q: Do you have any hesitation? What's your track record with young receivers and throwing them right into the mix and asking them to do a lot early?

BRIAN DABOLL: It varies. First year I was a receiver coach, we drafted in the second round a guy by the name of Deion Branch at New England. He picked it up right away and he was pretty effective early for us. I've been in the receiver room where we drafted guys early and it took them a little bit of time. Everybody's different. We've had the OTAs. You can tell he's put the work in in terms of studying it. We've had four days. Long way to go.

Q: How often are you asking whether it’s in camp or in games where you ask a receiver what play they want to call at that moment? How often have you done it?

BRIAN DABOLL: I ask not just the receivers. I ask the linemen. (Jermaine) Eluemunor came up right after practice and was asking me for two different run plays today. AT (Andrew Thomas). It's good to have input from the guys that are out there on the field. You can see it standing on the sideline. What teams are doing or defenses are doing. There's times in practice where you just go off script and you see how the players react. You get feedback. You're trying to build into playing games and how things go throughout a game. Not just wanting to look at a call sheet and this is what we had. You got to adjust. You got to see things. You got to call it. The players got to react. There's got to be good communication between the coaches and the players. They come off the sideline. Maybe you as a coach saw one thing, but really that's not what it was. It's right there and they can give you good information. If you get good information, then you got to make good decisions with play calls and decisions. There's a give and take when it comes to that when you're running an offense.

Q: You haven't done it in a couple years. You haven't committed to calling plays. How much are you enjoying that process and how beneficial is it to be more involved?

BRIAN DABOLL: I love being out on the football field. It's been fun. We've had good OTAs. We've had a good start to training camp. There's been good collaboration, good communication amongst everybody on the offense. Coaches, players. Just try to keep getting better.

Q: Obviously, you wanted continuity on your line. You want the five guys set as soon as possible. How much of a concern is the injury to John Michael? You may be slotting Van Roten in there potentially as a starter? You're still searching at this point?

BRIAN DABOLL: It's day four here. Usually, we mix and match people. Obviously, you want to try to get your guys out there as soon as you can. With the injuries we had last year, we had to move people, shuffle people around. You do it now so that at least they've had some reps at it. You don't do it at all, and you just throw them in on game two and they haven't had one snap of moving to a spot. You'd rather work some of it now. But ideally, you'd like to get the five guys out there healthy, working together, communicating. But again, we're in day whatever it is. We're early.

Q: You've talked about versatility. You like guys who can move around a lot. How much more creative or challenging is that for someone like you when you want to design plays? Would you say that Wan’Dale (Robinson) and Malik are two guys who totally fit that characterization?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I think we place a high premium on bringing in intelligent people at all positions. So, again you can have five eligible receivers however you want to set it up. However many tight ends, running backs, receivers. There's five letters that we use. One time you can be this letter. One time you can be that letter. Just moving chess pieces around.

Q: How many letters can those guys be? Those two?

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say most of our guys can do all of them.

Q: Can they?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. They understand it. You could have someone play a letter and not ask them to do the same thing that you do someone else. It's just moving pieces around.