Transcript: Head Coach Brian Daboll

Head Coach Brian Daboll

BRIAN DABOLL: So, injury-wise, (cornerback) Adoree' (Jackson) and (cornerback) Dru (Phillips) did a good job yesterday. They'll do more today. Trending in the right direction. (Running back Devin Singletary) Motor will do some stuff today during practice. And then (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers), still in concussion protocol, making progress, but he's not going to make it.

Q: How do you expect the coverage you guys face to be different on (wide receiver) Wan'Dale (Robinson), on (wide receiver Darius) Slayton, on (wide receiver Jalin) Hyatt when you don't have a guy who's been drawing as much attention as Malik has?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, I wouldn't say we've gotten a bunch of double teams with Malik. We've done different things and put him in different spots. That'd probably be a good question for (Seattle Head Coach) Mike (Macdonald). I'd say that Seattle kind of plays a variety of coverages. How they'll play us, I'm not sure. So, you watch the four games that they've played, and you base your game plan off what they've done in those four games. These other guys have taken reps. Namely, Hyatt has done a nice job this week. (Wide receiver) Ihmir (Smith-Marsette) has been in there taking some reps, as has (wide receiver) Bryce Ford (-Wheaton). So those guys are preparing. They've been preparing all week. And when their number's called, we expect them to go out there and know what to do and do it at a high level.

Q: I know you're probably going to tell me it won't be until tonight, but you have (wide receiver Isaiah) Hodgins on the practice squad.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, absolutely. I mean there's two thoughts of the practice squad. You either have young players that you think have upside that you could develop and maybe might not be ready but have tools to work with and develop. And then you have some veterans, obviously, that know your system, that can go in there and play when you need them to play. And you're right, that's something we'll talk about later tonight.

Q: Will Malik travel to the game?

BRIAN DABOLL: We won't travel him. Keep him home. He'll be inside today. He is making progress, but we're going to do everything we can do to get him as healthy and right as we can.

Q: How much is it a matter of just running out of time here this week?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, that's part of it.

Q: More days maybe?

BRIAN DABOLL: Maybe. But time frame and we're always going to do what's right. You take those concussions very seriously. He's made progress, but not to the point where he can go out there and play. But his safety, his well-being is first and foremost.

Q: I know you mentioned Adoree' and Dru are trending in the right direction. With Singletary, he didn't practice the last two days. Where is he in terms of trending?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say today will be an important day for him. He's kind of where Adoree' and Dru were yesterday, doing some things. We'll see how he feels today, put him through some drills, and make our decision after that.

Q: I mean, that's a big undertaking. If he's not able to make it, that's like 80 percent of your offense.

BRIAN DABOLL: You're talking about Motor?

Q: I'm talking about Motor and Malik. What's that like for an offense? If you have to go about it, replace 80 percent of your offense?

BRIAN DABOLL: That's why we have the other guys on the roster. Obviously, Malik is a talented player. Motor's done a lot for us, but that's the NFL. Every team deals with injuries, and you prepare the other guys that are backups to them to go out there and perform at a high level. So, we have a lot of confidence in the guys that are behind them, and that's just an opportunity for them to go out there and to play at a high level.

Q: Has Nabers' progress included any physical activity?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, he's done some stuff with the trainers. I'd say each day it's getting a little bit better, but just not at the point where he can take the next step in the protocol for us. Again, you don't want to force anything like that. You want to make sure that all the steps are very careful in that regards to concussions. So, he's better. He's getting better. He's in the meetings, things like that. He's doing some stuff with the trainers inside, and each day it's been a little bit more.

Q: How has he handled this process? He's a competitive guy. You've seen that throughout the draft process?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, he's very competitive. Obviously, he wants to be out there, but he's active in the meetings. We watch 1-on-1s as a group with the quarterbacks and all the skill guys, it's a good teaching lesson, but it's good camaraderie in there. He kind of took the lead yesterday, got up on the board. We do some things on it. So, he would love to be out there, but he can't be right now.

Q: Is he to the point where he can even be out here at practice on the side at all?

BRIAN DABOLL: We're going to keep him off for another day. Again, he's been getting better. We just want to make sure we're doing it the right way.

Q: How's (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) doing physically?

BRIAN DABOLL: He's doing good.

Q: The deep ball, I think, was a big talking point outside the building. Was that a big topic this week? Something you maybe repped more than you would or anything like that?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say we do stuff in individual drills, but based on what you're getting relative to the show team and the looks that you give the quarterback, certainly each week you do that. So, you take some shots if you have them or intermediate throws, something that we're working on. Make sure we throw it to the right guy when the right guy is open, and the coverage gives us the right look. But technique-wise, we certainly work on that.

Q: Just on Daniel, a lot of times guys will say when they come back from ACL they don't feel right for a full year. Does it manifest differently for a quarterback than if he was a skilled position guy who's cutting a lot?

BRIAN DABOLL: It's a good question. He hasn't mentioned anything. We haven't really talked about the injury that he had. He comes in early. His car is in here very, very early. He still upkeeps his knee and does everything. But I don't think he would ever make an excuse about any of that. But it's not something that we've discussed. We've just kind of moved on. It's been status quo for him.

Q: How do you prepare for the opposing team when they have that amount of injuries they have? Now that it's 20 plus guys.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. We'll see which ones come back. You evaluate off the fourr tapes, whoever's in there. You look at matchups. Again, who's going to be up, who's not, I'm not really sure. But you have to do a good job. Our personnel department does a great job of doing their presentations and going through each of the individual players, what they think their strengths, their weaknesses are. So, you spend a lot of time watching a lot of different guys.

Q: I don't know if you said this but Wan'Dale and (outside linebacker Brian) Burns being on the injury report. Any concerns?

BRIAN DABOLL: They'll be okay.