Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: Can you just talk a little bit about the new tweak made to the IR rule and how that maybe helps you or hurts you in putting together the final roster?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we certainly have discussions about that, particularly with all the injured players that we had the last couple days. We'll wait to get those results back from some of the MRIs this morning, late this morning, I'd say early afternoon, and go about making our decisions, what we think we need to do, how we need to do it. There's a lot of discussions that take place this time of year. Some of it is that, and then obviously the roster, which I can give you, we made 10 cuts this morning, if you would like them.

Q: Yes, please.

BRIAN DABOLL: Okay, so Kyler Baugh, defensive tackle. Breon Borders, cornerback. Christian Holmes, corner. Clayton Isbell, safety. John Jiles, (wide) receiver. Joshua Kelley, running back. Trey Kiser, linebacker. Lorenzo Lingard, running back. Marcus McKethan, offensive line. And Ayir Asante, (wide) receiver. That's what we did this morning. Obviously, there are more to come, but we're not at that point. We're still discussing a lot of things, but those were 10 players that we moved on from. Thank them for their contributions and wish them well.

Q: Then if I could real quick, do you look at statistics league-wide regarding injuries? And specifically last year, I think I saw a stat that 20 percent or near 20 percent of the starting quarterbacks last year were injured. And I'm just wondering if you look at that data in determining how many to keep at a particular position.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we look at everything. So, (Senior Vice President and General Manger) Joe (Schoen) is down with the doctors and trainers as we speak, I'm doing this. But yeah, certainly there's a lot of discussion. We look at a lot of different things, statistics, but ultimately, whatever we think is best for our team, that's what we're going to do.

Q: First of all, do you have any updates? You mentioned some MRIs. Do you have any updates on any of the guys from yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: The only one I got right before I came in is (defensive lineman) Timmy Horne. He tore his Achilles. I'll go see what the rest of the information gave us this morning off the MRIs or the things that doctors looked at. That's the one I have for you now. I do know that guys like (guard Jon) Runyan (Jr.), (cornerback Cor'Dale) Flott, (cornerback) Dru Phillips, (inside linebacker Carter) Coughlin, expect those guys to be back. They'll be doing more than they did last week or in Runyan's case, doing something with the guys that were out. But the guys from last night, they are more fresh, don't have the information on those guys.

Q: You mentioned yesterday you had some pretty detailed numbers about how many team reps increased from years past. First of all, how did you come to that determination? You sat down after this year and getting ready for this year, 'We need to do more of that'. And was that anything you took from any of your coaching stops in the past? Or was that just something the way the league is now? You felt you needed to do that?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, again, I've been doing this for quite some time at a lot of different places. Every year is a different year. (Executive Director of Player Performance) Aaron Wellman came in and we sit down, the sports science staff, training staff, strength staff, and I'll lay out, 'This is kind of what I want to try to get accomplished' and talk about how to do it. And there's a lot of discussion going on. But I thought as we spoke about some of those reps we talked about were in OTAs from one year to the next. We didn't do any team, which I thought was important to do that. And then really specifically designed for (quarterback Daniel Jones) DJ to give him more team reps and less 7-on-7, like we've talked about, to handle pressures and rush lanes, stepping up in the pocket. Thought that was important. We did more 9-on-7 than we did the year before. We did, like I said, a bunch more padded plays. We were 140 (more), I think it was. So, it was something that was a point of emphasis that I thought we needed, the coaches thought we needed. And we just try to do what we thought was best.

Q: Is any of this at all to try to get off to a better start? To be more ready for a real game quicker? Because last year, obviously, the team struggled early.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we looked at what you did the year before, whatever the start was, fast start versus... Again, the most important thing is playing well and coaching well. You try to make adjustments each year. We've talked about that every year and do what you think is right for the team. But, certainly you have an eye on the start of the season. But, again, the fundamentals and things like that. The year we started, when we first got here, was different than the second year. This year is different than the third year. The biggest thing is playing well, coaching well, doing everything you can do, leaving no stone unturned to try to get off to the best start you can.

Q: Do you have to make a move, some kind of a move, in case (quarterback Drew) Lock isn't ready? Or would you just go (quarterback) Daniel (Jones), (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito) as your initial depth chart there?

BRIAN DABOLL: That's the other person that they've mentioned to me. I think Drew (Lock) will do more. I think Drew (Lock) will be okay. Again, I can't predict it, but he's moving in the right direction.

Q: Did this last a little longer than you initially thought?

BRIAN DABOLL: He actually wanted to do some stuff last week to see how it felt. And he really pushed the envelope to be out there. He's a tough young man. And then we backed off of it based on how he felt. But I think he's feeling better. So, we'll see where we're at this week. This will be, I talked about this yesterday… This is still a training camp week for us coming up these next few days. And it'll be a good evaluation to see where he's at.

Q: I was still connecting at the very beginning. So I apologize if you revisited (tackle Evan) Neal and (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.) again. Just the day after, where are you with them? And any regrets you had them in the game at all?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, not at all. I'm going to get the information right after this, right after our team meeting from the MRIs and the doctors and the trainers. (We'll) see where those guys are at. I saw (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.) right before I came in here. He was in the meal room. He's in good spirits. Don't want to give you information that… I want to make sure it's right from what I get from the doctors and trainers. But he's walking around fine.

Q: Is Evan (Neal) … ?

BRIAN DABOLL: I haven't seen Evan (Neal). So until I talk to the trainers and doctors and get the MRI results and what those are.

Q: When it's this time of year for you, you're kind of in the middle. You've got (Senior Vice President/General Manager) Joe (Schoen) working with the personnel staff and you're with the coaches trying to get everything ready. And then you kind of have this pseudo bye week and still in training camp mode. How much, from your perspective, can too much thought, too much planning kind of get in the way of what you want to get ready for, for the start of the season? Do you find yourself trying to separate and compartmentalize because it just can get too much too soon?

BRIAN DABOLL: That's a really good question. When you're getting ready to play the start of the season, I think the most important thing is to get your team ready. Early on in the season, you don't really know what other teams… You can go back and study them (other teams) all you want and get tendencies and things like that and look at preseason games. Some of our younger coaches have been doing that and breaking down tape and doing all those things. We've really been focused on our team and our fundamentals and the things that we can do to improve for us. If you start too early on a team, which we don't do with the players, I think it can get stale. It's like when you're going to a Super Bowl and you have two weeks to prepare, like how much you give the players versus not the players. You want to keep it fresh. You want to keep them locked in so it doesn't get dull later in the week. So we're really going to focus on us. There's certainly things from, from training camp, from the start of training camp to now that I'd say the defense needs to correct some things, the offense, the special teams. We'll compete against one another. We'll also do some carded things on plays we think or situations that we think each side needs. But the young coaches and the coaches that break down the opponents that we're facing early in the year, you do some of that work in the off season against the teams you're playing early on in the year. At least we do. So you can get a baseline. And then I'd say once this time of year starts to hit, after these cuts, you have two weeks. In two weeks time, we'll be playing right now. We've done some work. We'll continue to do work as a coaching staff, but the focus for the players will be the things we need to fix throughout training camp. We'll get into Minnesota soon enough, but not these next couple of days.

Q: In the past, you've only taken two quarterbacks on the roster. I know we've kind of talked about this before. In the past, I know (quarterback) Davis Webb was one of those decisions. What was your thought process when you did go in that direction? What philosophically, is that something you believe in?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, I think it's dependent upon a team and dependent upon the player. I mean, there was times when I first started, when we kept four quarterbacks, (former NFL quarterback Tom) Brady being one of the four. He was the fourth quarterback. Way back in the day.

Q: It wasn't necessarily your final decision though, right?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, but I'm just talking about experiences help everybody. I've been part of a lot of teams. Some keep two, some keep three, some keep four. Again, you take a look at the individual player. You see the strides that that player has made. You think if they've made the right strides or you think they can help you, then you decide to keep a player. If you need to make a move for the roster and have to put them on a practice squad, you put them on a practice squad. So those are all discussions that we're having at this time. But again, if you're referring to (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito), I have confidence in Tommy (DeVito).

Q: So, are you saying that you're likely to keep three quarterbacks on the roster?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, I'm saying I have confidence in Tommy (DeVito).

Q: How likely are you to keep three quarterbacks on the roster then?

BRIAN DABOLL: We have a lot of discussions that are going to take place. We've had them all morning. We've met with players that we've released. We're going to have them tonight. We'll have them tomorrow on the player's day off. And by the time Tuesday comes around, we'll have our decision of what we're going to do.

Q: On that same topic of the quarterbacks… Do you come to a decision on how many quarterbacks we want and then work from there to get to your 53 (man roster)? Or do you build your 53 (man roster) and say, if we can find the luxury to keep this third quarterback, we'll do that.

BRIAN DABOLL: I would say there's a ton of different conversations that happen, not just with the quarterback, but with every position. We'll try to do what we think is best with the 53. And then that 53 is ever evolving. Those change too. We'll do what we'll do. We'll sit down. We'll sit down with the coordinators. (Senior Vice President/General Manager) Joe (Schoen) and I will sit down with the personnel staff. We've done a lot of that this morning. We made a decision to move on from 10 players. And there's still quite a bit more that we have to discuss and make sure that the 53 that we keep are the right 53.

Q: And then you mentioned (Executive Director of Player Performance) Aaron Wellman earlier. How did he come out of the game last night? He took a pretty good shot.

BRIAN DABOLL: I saw that this morning. (Director of Coaching Operations) LY (Laura Young) showed it to me and that was a pretty big hit. So one, he's tough. He got right back up. And two, the clip that she showed me… He's not a big smile guy. He's pretty serious. I think that's the biggest smile I've ever seen him have since I've met him.

Q: He probably enjoyed that more than anything he's done for the (New York) Giants.

BRIAN DABOLL: He might have. He might have.