Head Coach Brian Daboll
Q: How is (quarterback) Drew (Lock) doing?
BRIAN DABOLL: Good. He'll practice.
Q: Anybody you are ruling out yet?
BRIAN DABOLL: Nope.
Q: Do you expect (quarterback Drew) Lock to be able to be your backup this week?
BRIAN DABOLL: We'll go like we normally do. Practice and have our meetings and make all our final decisions.
Q: With having three (quarterbacks) on the 53, the emergency quarterback is just automatic, right? You'll have somebody be that role for the week, right?
BRIAN DABOLL: We will.
Q: Are you excited to actually have a real game and see what your team actually is?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. Again, (we) put (in) a lot of hard work. Guys have done everything they could possibly do through OTAs, through training camp. Coaches spent a lot of time preparing for opening game. The unique thing about the opening game is you have 17 games plus additional information to look at. There's information overload at times as a coach when you're looking at things. Yesterday, with the day off, (we) tightened things up, coaching staff wise, minimized some of the things to make sure that we can go out there and play fast, know what to do and play physical. That's what really, I'd say, the first few weeks are in the National Football League. We've done everything we possibly can do. We'll have a good day today. Friday, situational football. Go out there and try to compete and play as tough, physical, and smart football as we can.
Q: When (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) played his best, in 2022, he led the league with the lowest interception rate. You guys didn't really push the ball down the field the way you guys are pushing the ball down the field now. I guess my question is do you have to be willing to live with more mistakes and more interceptions to trade off for more big plays, or does he have to thread the needle of finding aggressiveness without making mistakes?
BRIAN DABOLL: That's a good question. You might call five, six shots a game and throw it to the (running) back four or five times, based on what the defense is doing. What I want him to do, which I want all the players and the coaches, all of us, is to make the best decision, whatever that is. If it is a 40-yard, 50-yard bomb or if it's an intermediate throw or taking a check down or throwing it away or taking a sack if there's nothing there and not jeopardizing the ball. Making sure we try to stay in rhythm on offense. That's the job of a quarterback. He handles the ball on every play. Make the right decisions, get us to the right plays if he needs to and turn it loose when he needs to turn it loose.
Q: Were there any corresponding moves to cutting (inside linebacker) Carter (Coughlin)?
BRIAN DABOLL: He'll go on to practice squad, and then we released (tight end/fullback) Jak (Jakob Johnson) off the practice squad because you can only have so many veterans.
Q: Did you fill the spot on the active squad?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, we didn't do anything with that yet.
Q: Are you going to?
BRIAN DABOLL: Before the game?
Q: Yes…
BRIAN DABOLL: We'll talk about that stuff tonight.
Q: You spoke and talked about (Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam) Darnold the other day. Can you speak to the importance of continuity? He hasn't had a lot of continuity in his career so far, and I'm kind of curious what you see out of him now. Obviously, he seems to be in a much more stable situation.
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. Again, I spoke to this. I've got a lot of respect for (quarterback) Sam (Darnold). Did a lot of work on him and had good communication with him through the whole process. Have gotten to know him over the years. He's pretty close with (Buffalo Bills quarterback) Josh (Allen). Good young man. I think he's in a good spot with (Minnesota Vikings Head Coach) Kevin (O'Connell). Again, it's a hard position to play. It's a hard position to win at. Last ten Super Bowls, seven of them have been won by two quarterbacks, (former New England Patriots/Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom) Brady and (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick) Mahomes. Sixteen of the last 23 have been won by five: (former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben) Roethlisberger, both (Eli & Payton) Manning brothers, (Tom) Brady and (Patrick) Mahomes. It's a tough position. I think he's in a good spot, again, with Kevin (O'Connell). Got a lot of respect for him. He's got all the talent in the world. Good young man.
Q: Back to the (inside linebacker Carter) Coughlin decision, what was the motivation?
BRIAN DABOLL: I would say roster management stuff. I'll leave it at roster management. Good question for (Senior Vice President/General Manager) Joe (Schoen), but that's where we're at.
Q: Do you expect (tight end/fullback) Jakob Johnson to be back?
BRIAN DABOLL: All those things… We're week to week here. We're moving, shuffling things around. I'd say that happens, probably, with a lot of teams in the early part of the year.
Q: What's your plan at the second cornerback spot?
BRIAN DABOLL: We'll find out. We'll go today with (quarterback) Drew (Lock). We'll take a bunch of reps. We'll see how he feels. I think he feels good.
Q: Cornerback he said…
BRIAN DABOLL: We'll make that decision. We'll have someone in mind.
Q: Would you like to have one guy play the majority of the snaps or could you have a different guy series to series?
BRIAN DABOLL: Again, we'll talk about that after practice today.
Q: What have you seen from (cornerback) Adoree' (Jackson)?
BRIAN DABOLL: He looks good. In shape. He's had a couple good practices. Picked up the system well. He's been with (Defensive Coordinator) Shane (Bowen) before. Encouraged by the last few days with him.
Q: Is he in football shape, game shape enough at this point?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, he's done a good job in practice. Upped his reps. He's been out there. He looks good.
Q: What are your expectations for (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) this season? What do you want to see from him?
BRIAN DABOLL: I would just say we're focused on Minnesota. Again, making the right decisions. Putting the ball where it needs to be put. Taking care of the football. He's done a good job up to this point. OTAs. Training camp. Done everything he possibly could do to get ready for this game.
Q: How much are you expecting him to be more of a playmaker? You want to throw the ball down the field more and take more shots possibly. Are your expectations for him that you need him to make more plays?
BRIAN DABOLL: I expect him to go out there and do everything he can do to play as good as he can play. Know the game plan, which he does. Whatever those decisions are. Like I said, it's a tough position to play. Make the right decisions whenever that's called upon.
Q: You've been pretty open in this camp though. I think even the one game the starters played, the emphasis was to throw the ball down the field.
BRIAN DABOLL: In the preseason game?
Q: Yes… All training camp we saw that it was an aggressive throw the ball down the field. You had stats one day, I think, on why that is. Why are you guys trying to become a more aggressive down the field offense?
BRIAN DABOLL: I just say we're trying to be as good of offense as we can. Again, whether that's down the field, intermediate, run game, inside or outside. It usually takes 11 guys to operate a successful play. Whatever the situation is, when you live in a world of just throwing the ball down the field, the more you throw down the field, the lower the completion percentage is. Staying on track is important. Being able to execute all facets of offense is really important, not just one area. But big plays help. You skip third downs. You move the ball a little bit further down the field. There is less plays in a drive. All those things happen. You've got to be really, really efficient on long drives. Again, the amount of big plays that happen each and every year is small. But it is significant in terms of outcomes of games and points.
Q: You mentioned information overload from a coaching perspective going into the weekend. Do you have to strike that right balance? The idea that you don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole saying, 'If they do this and they do that and they do this.' How do you work that with your guys going into the opener?
BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say you do that as a coaching staff. That's what you do right now this time of year. You study as much tape as you can. You have those conversations and then you boil it down for the players to digestible information that they can handle. Then you rely on your rules and the things that you went through in training camp. The practices against other teams. The different looks that you get. The communication it takes down in and down out to have a successful play. Whatever that facet is. They do a good job of rushing the punter and their eight up looks and the twists and the movements and their overloads. You practice that in OTAs, not necessarily against Minnesota, but so you can improve your communication because you don't know what you're going to get in the early part of the year. I'd say probably the first month, everything is changing. Teams got to find themselves out. Schemes are a little bit different. That's why you do so many things in the off-season, training camp and try to practice against other teams so that if it happens the fourth play the game, 'Hey, remember when we were back in this practice? This is what we did when we got this look. We adjusted to this on the sideline.' You've already been through that process.
Q: Do you have a swing tackle? How do you look at your backup tackles?
BRIAN DABOLL: They are the two guys that aren't starting.
Q: Has (tackle) Jermaine (Eluemunor) taken any snaps at left tackle? If something happens, is it automatically one guy with both of those spots or does it depend?
BRIAN DABOLL: I would say that we have a plan for that. Who our backup tackles are, who our backup center is, who our backup guard is or if we had to move somebody. We've talked about that. We'll continue to talk about that and put the final touches on it tonight. But, definitely have an idea.
