Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: Is (quarterback) Daniel Jones still your starting quarterback going forward?

BRIAN DABOLL: We're going to spend a lot of time here watching our tape and evaluating things. We'll do that as a coaching staff over the next week here.

Q: That's a little bit different than the 'yes' that you give us to that question when we ask it every week. So, I think, to be clear, everybody's going to assume that means 'yes', you're at least considering a change. Is that fair?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, I would say we're evaluating our team at the bye week is what we're doing.

Q: How is (running back) Tyrone Tracy? You had a long flight back with him. How did Tyrone Tracy handle it? Because obviously he was very emotional on the sideline.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, this is a young player for us that really gives everything he has and cares a lot about his team and about his role on this team. He's done a nice job for us. It was unfortunate there at the end with the fumble, but he's a young man that'll bounce back. He's got the right attitude, been a productive player in recent weeks for us. I got a lot of confidence in him.

Q: What goes into your evaluation of the quarterbacks there? What are you looking for from them? What have you seen from Daniel so far?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we're going to get started on this process here of going back and looking at everything you normally look at in a bye week. Schemes, situational stuff, technique, all the things you do in a normal bye week. You evaluate the players. You have a good amount of games to watch. Situational review tape, calls, all those types of things. We'll do that like we normally do on a bye week and try to improve in the areas that we need to improve on.

Q: What have you seen from the two other options on the roster at that position, (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito) and (quarterback) Drew (Lock)?

BRIAN DABOLL: Again, they get their reps in the show team, or they go off to the side and they work through with (Assistant Quarterback Coach) Christian Jones, our game plan things that they need to go ahead and get reps at. You look at the self-scout relative to them playing on look teams and things like that. They're active participants in the meetings on top of the game plans, just like all the backups to the starters are.

Q: Would you consider shuffling their order too? Two and three to three and two?

BRIAN DABOLL: I would say we have a lot of work to do here in terms of our evaluation process and that's what we'll start doing here shortly.

Q: Why did you decide to make the change to (tackle) Evan Neal at right tackle?

BRIAN DABOLL: He's been doing a good job in practice and, again, just trying to get the best five out there. A lot of respect for (tackle) Jermaine (Eluemunor) having to go over there to the left side. He's been doing a really good job for us on the right side. But Evan has increasingly gotten better throughout practice and wanted to give him an opportunity based off of his practice performance and what he's done in practice to see how those five players would go together. Ran the ball well, got movement at the line of scrimmage. It was good to see him out there and had some really nice plays and then some things we got to clean up on like everybody does.

Q: Is your evaluation sticking with him going forward then at the position?

BRIAN DABOLL: We'll go through all that this week. But I thought he did some good things for us. Got a lot of movement in the running game and did a nice job sealing off that backside on Tracy's long touchdown run there. Did some good things for us. Got to continue to improve with him, but it was good to see him back out there performing at a pretty high level for us. Certainly, things he can clean up on, but for his first time back after a long layoff, did some good things.

Q: Why was (cornerback Deonte) Tae Banks not out there, I think it was the final drive of the first half?

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say there's a rotation based on situations with some of the players that we have in the defensive backfield. Different situations come up, there's different packages and that's all it was.

Q: So far through the season, what have you seen from the run defense? Is there a recurring issue with that?

BRIAN DABOLL: It's a few plays each game where they break a long one and there's no reoccurring theme. Yesterday they got two edge plays on us and two different things happened on each of those plays where they broke out. Some games it's open field tackling, some games it's gap control. Certainly, something that, again, you get a couple big plays in the running game, two or three, that's really going to up everything. So, what we need to do is eliminate some of these explosives, continue to win the line of scrimmage, knock back, gap control, then tackling. So again, there's not one thing specific. Each week it's been a little bit different, and it's something that we need to continue to work on and be better at.

Q: The roster is pretty much what it's going to be the rest of the year. So, it's not like you can make wholesale changes in areas where you think you're deficient. So that being said, what else can be done? Scheme changes? Philosophy shifts? What can be done to shore up some of these issues that seem to be recurring each week?

BRIAN DABOLL: I think you go back, you look at it. You evaluate the things that… There's certainly things that are good. Then there's things that aren't up to standard. We got to make sure we identify those, which we try to do every week. When you have a little bit more time on a bye week, you dig in a little bit more and make sure that… Again, it could be a missed tackle. It could be a wrong fit. Whatever it may be. Our coaches do a good job of bringing that to the attention of the guys. They're going to try to improve it. That's the mindset we'll have.

Q: Just wondering, what has (tight end) Chris Manhertz meant to your team this season? What kind of respect do you have for a guy who's been in the league for 10 years now? Just really grinding for teams, doing a lot of dirty work, never really in the spotlight and not catching a lot of balls. But it seems like he's done a lot for teams.

BRIAN DABOLL: I appreciate that question. Total pro. For an older guy, he's out there practicing every day, never misses a beat. I think everyone in the room, both on the offense and the defensive side, have a very high respect for him on how he goes about his business. He's tough. He's asked to do a lot of the dirty work as a tight end, and as a former tight end coach, I appreciate that about him. He's smart. He's a good leader for the younger players, guys like (tight end) Theo (Johnson) and (tight end) Belly (Daniel Bellinger). Great teammate. Can't say enough good things about the things that he has brought to our team, the toughness element that he has. He's really helped us in the running game and in the protection part of it for the tight ends. A consummate pro.

Q: Are you aware that he actually didn't even play football until after he graduated college?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, Canisius. Basketball player. Back in Buffalo. I know about his story. You can see why he's played in the league for as long as he's played in the league. That type of player at the tight end position, there's not a lot of them out there nowadays. It's someone who puts the team first. Again, does a lot of the dirty work for our offense and has really helped us in terms of the running game and some of the (play) action plays where we're able to attempt to pass the ball down the field.

Q: Getting back to the quarterback evaluation, I assume the bottom line is going to be, 'Who gives us the best chance to win?'

BRIAN DABOLL: Again, we'll go back and we'll evaluate everything and decide what we want to do here. But, we've got a week to go ahead and really dig into this.

Q: Because the other question I have is if you're paying the guy $40 million, is it a waste of money if you bench him?

BRIAN DABOLL: Again, what we'll do is we'll go back, we'll evaluate the tape and we'll make the decision that we think is best for our team.

Q: The quarterback position is a different beast, right? It's a lot of money, it's a big percent of the cap. When you have something like that, is that something that ownership needs to sign off on if you decide to make a decision there and move on?

BRIAN DABOLL: I've said this before, (Senior Vice President and General Manager) Joe (Schoen) and I communicate with our ownership group on a daily basis. Not just about the quarterback, but about every position. So, there's good communication there. We'll do what we normally do. If there are any changes, regardless of the position, we'll always communicate.

Q: It doesn't work any different than that? I'm sure you have freedom to make line-up changes regularly. Does that change with the quarterback position?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, even when we make line-up changes or there's things that come up, we're always in constant communication. Myself, (Senior Vice President and General Manager) Joe (Schoen), and ownership. I think that's very important and healthy for the organization.

Q: When you say you're going to evaluate things, I'm not just talking about the quarterback position now, how much do you feel that you need to make significant changes? You can't just make little tweaks here or there coming out. That you need to change something substantially. Maybe even for morale purposes, for the guys to say, 'Okay, we're trying something.'

BRIAN DABOLL: I completely understand the question. Again, you go back and you evaluate a lot of different things. I was just meeting with (Executive Director of Player Performance) Aaron Wellman here about these upcoming days here and leading into the next half of the season, if you will. Meet with (Medical Services/Head Athletic Trainer) Ronnie Barnes. Meet with (Director of Strength and Conditioning) Frank (Piraino). We'll meet with all the people in the departments and go through the things that we've done up to this point. If there's changes we need to make, we'll make them. Again, you only have about a week to do this and look at things. But, you're always doing that throughout the season after a game. It's just here, you've got some more information. You've got back-to-back-to-back of cut-ups of things you want to look at. Practices, meeting times, all those types of things. Then you make the necessary adjustments that you think you need to make. How drastic? I couldn't give you that answer. But, I understand the question.

Q: From a processing situation, when you're the offensive play caller and you design plays the way they're supposed to work, are you getting enough out of the quarterback position from the plays you're designing? I know every play has a bunch of different things that has to go right, but yesterday in particular, it just seemed like there were plays that were drawn up to succeed and it did not happen. It looked to be from a quarterback perspective. Now, you may tell me otherwise, but how much of it is a balance between the plays you're calling versus what the quarterback is actually seeing when the ball is snapped?

BRIAN DABOLL: Look, it takes everybody. From the call to all 11 players out there on the field operating and executing. So, it's a collective thing. We're all in this thing together and we're all looking to make improvements.

Q: I'll ask you about (wide receiver) Jalin Hyatt. He was another guy who got an opportunity yesterday, like (tackle) Evan Neal did. That last drive, before overtime, it seemed like he really found something there. Did you see something in Jalin (Hyatt) this week that showed that he was ready for this kind of opportunity? Does this set him up, regardless of what happens with (wide receiver) Slay (Darius Slayton), to see that Jalin (Hyatt) in the second half can have an opportunity here that maybe he's earned now versus waiting for that spot?
BRIAN DABOLL: Jalin (Hyatt) has been a pro since he's been here. Again, I've said behind (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) and behind Darius (Slayton), I think both of those guys have done a nice job since they've been in the games and been productive for us. Jalin (Hyatt) has worked extremely hard. Even though he wasn't the starter, he had an opportunity to make some plays and it was good to see him make some plays for us. Not just the pass game, but for a slighter build guy, he was going in there and trying to throw himself around in the run game that helped spring some runs, particularly later in the game. So, I thought that he had one of his better games for us. I was happy to see some of the production that he had. He's got the right mindset. He's, again, another guy that's waiting for his opportunity. His opportunity came and he made some plays for us. So, it was good to see.

Q: What did you hear from ownership after this loss?

BRIAN DABOLL: I keep all those conversations private. But, we have plenty of them. They're good conversations. Myself, Joe (Schoen), ownership and players, no one's happy with the results and where we're at. But, we'll sit back. We'll evaluate the things. We'll go to work. We've got a little time here before we play the next game to try to get everybody healthy, with the right mindset and evaluate our procedures, the way we do things, our schemes, our players, all those things. That's no different than any time you have a bye week.