Head Coach Brian Daboll
Q: Anyone not going today?
A: (Safety Jason) Pinnock. He won't make the game.
Q: Anyone else in jeopardy of not playing on Sunday?
A: Two guys that'll be practicing today, (cornerback Deonte) Banks and (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.). We'll see where they're at after practice.
Q: (Safety Dane) Belton will be back?
A: Yes. He will be, yep.
Q: What went into the decision to bring back (quarterback) Jacob (Eason)?
A: (Quarterback) Ty(rod Taylor) was on the injury report, so we figured we'd get another quarterback in here, see where he was in practice, and he's done a good job.
Q: Has Tyrod been fine?
A: (Yes).
Q: What do you make of (cornerback) Tre Hawkins' (III) overall season? Obviously, he came in like a lightning bolt, was a starter the first game, hasn't played much in the second half of the season. For a rookie, what do you make of his season?
A: Yeah, I mean, those are conversations we'll have down the road. But he's been a true pro, done a good job in terms of everything we've asked him to do, and look forward to working with him.
Q: Do you feel like his future is still bright?
A: Yeah, those are all conversations… I'm glad we have him.
Q: I'm curious if you're aware when guys are three catches away from making $100,000, that type of thing? Is that even something you're aware of?
A: Sure, you're aware of it. You just try to do what you've got to do to win the game. Any of those players that have anything like that, I mean, heck, I want them to have 200 yards or seven sacks. I mean, anything that can help us win the game.
Q: If you're in position to get a guy to that, would you make an effort?
A: We're just trying to win the game.
Q: With the weather forecast for this weekend, what went into practicing inside?
A: They said the field wasn't good enough to practice on when they measured the whatever it is they measure.
Q: I'm confused. Why would the field not be good enough to practice?
A: You measure it, you take a whole contraption, you look at the density or whatever you want to call it of the field. If it's good enough to practice, we go out. If it's too hard underneath, we don't go out.
Q: So, it's a matter of the grass being too hard? The ground being too hard in the cold?
A: Yeah. Right now, underneath it, just a little bit. I could have Rob Davis, our field guy, come up and measure for you.
Q: The reason I say it is it hasn't even been excessively cold. It seems weird, that's why I asked you.
A: I'll get you with Rob at practice.
Q: (Outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) played for a while there in the middle of the season, like, every snap or 98 percent of snaps for a while. Production hasn't been the same the last few weeks. For lack of a better term, has he hit a wall? From playing every snap, did he hit a wall that he wouldn't hit maybe if he was playing 80, 85 percent of snaps?
A: No, I think he's done a good job for us.
Q: These last couple of weeks, you feel like he's made the same impact?
A: I mean, look, the numbers sometimes are different, but he's doing everything we need him to do.
Q: In your mind could this be (running back) Saquon's (Barkley) last game as a Giant?
A: My mind is on the Eagles. So, there is discussions and all that, that happen at the end of the season. Those will all take place at the appropriate time.
Q: He's going to have a full workload on Sunday though?
A: Who's that?
Q: Saquon.
A: Yeah.
Q: Obviously the Eagles have struggled here. Do you look at them as the most vulnerable they have been since you've had the opportunity to face them since you've been the coach?
A: No. I never do that in games. Every team is good you play, and you got to play well to give yourself a chance.
Q: Do they look different for you than they have dating back to last year?
A: No. They got good players, good coaches. Everybody goes through stuff during the season. That's a good ass football team.
Q: Have they changed a lot with (Senior Defensive Assistant Matt) Patricia calling the plays?
A: I mean some but not – you can't do so much different when it took over relative to just a few weeks ago, so they do a lot of same things, they do a couple new things that Matt has put in, but pretty similar.
Q: Against them, what do you guys need to do better to keep the game close early? So, that you stay in it in the second half.
A: Yeah, we got to do a good job coaching and playing. I mean it's – we've talked about it, we talked about it last game, we've talked about it last year early in the game and I give our guys a lot of credit coming back and fighting back but obviously getting off to a fast start is something we talk a lot about every team we play but particularly this team. So, we're going to just have to do a good job of executing, coaching, all the things that it takes to get off to a fast start, which we haven't.
Q: I know you value consistency. (Wide receiver) Darius Slayton has between 45 and 50 catches and 710 and 750 yards in four of five seasons. That's remarkable. Like, this is his window, like pencil him in for this every year. How do you explain that? Different offenses, different quarterbacks. How do you explain that level of consistency?
A: Yeah, I just go from our experience with him. He's really done a nice job. We talked about last year and the stuff that he's done but he's a big play guy. He's made some plays down the field. He's been productive. I mean, he has more production in the NFL than he did in college, so that's hard to do sometimes.
Q: One thing that he's changed I think is certainly last year and earlier in his career he had drops and I can't think of a big Darius Slayton drop all season. Did you notice that he's worked to cut that out?
A: Oh yeah, he works – I mean all those guys work at it. That's the job of a receiver is to make the plays and to finish the catches when they come your way and he's done a nice job with it.
Q: How meaningful would it be to beat the Eagles Sunday?
A: Yeah, just like every game. A win is a good thing. That's what you try to do each week and that's what we'll try to do this week.
Q: What has Tyrod given you the last two years?
A: In what regard?
Q: Just evaluating his play. I mean you guys signed him to be backup to (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) and just wondering how you evaluate what he's done?
A: Well, I've said this plenty of times, he's a true pro. He's good in the meetings, he's good with the players. He's done a good job when he's had to go in and play, so I'm happy we have him.
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