Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: Any of the guys from last week back at practice?

BRIAN DABOLL: (Linebacker) Darius (Muasau) will be back. (Cornerback Nick) McCloud still won't practice today. Everybody else will be practicing.

Q: What went into the decision to go with (kicker) Greg Joseph?

BRIAN DABOLL: Thought he was the best option for us. So, he'll come out and kick. Had a good kick last time we played against him, a 61-yarder. But again, he's been on a lot of teams. He'll come out here and get the operation down with the holder, with the snapper, and see how it goes.

Q: Other than personnel obviously, how much has (Browns Defensive Coordinator) Jim Schwartz's defense changed now that he's with Cleveland versus when he was with Philly?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, I have a lot of respect for Coach Schwartz. He's been doing it a long time. Started way back in Cleveland with that group of young coaches. Tennessee for a long time. Obviously, the head coach of Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo. He's always had good success. He plays a certain style that I think he believes in, and they do it at a high level. That wide nine technique, four guys rushing off the edge. Good rushers. In the back end, there's a variety of things that they do. But he's always been pretty good at calling up defenses.

Q: You've known (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) now for a while, getting to know him and everything. How do you think he's going to handle the drop and the negativity and things like that?

BRIAN DABOLL: I try to focus on the stuff that we control. That's for everybody. I have a lot of confidence in Malik. He also made a lot of plays for us. Confident young man. Keep on building.

Q: He's not a guy who's probably dealt with a lot of failure?

BRIAN DABOLL: I think that'd be a good question for him, but I do know he's got the right mindset. Controls the things he can control. Works extremely hard. Knows the game plans inside and out and I have a lot of confidence in him.

Q: How much does third down percentage from an either offensive or defensive standpoint carry over from one game to the next? Or are they just all independent things?

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say they're independent. Each team plays a little bit differently. You're in different situations in terms of field position, maybe in a game. Maybe you have more third and short, more third and medium, third and long. Again, it's something that we practice quite often, and we'll continue to do that.

Q: Is (cornerback) Adoree' (Jackson) ramped all the way up? If so, do you expect him to have a bigger role?

BRIAN DABOLL: I think he's getting there. I think he feels pretty good. Again, we'll see. We have (cornerback Cor'Dale) Flott and (cornerback Deonte) Banks and we threw Adoree' in there in certain situations. We'll see how it goes this week.

Q: Do you want to see desperation from your team this weekend?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, I want to see consistency like we talk about every week. Go in, prepare the right way, come out, play a good football game, do good in situations, play together. Each week is its own week, and we'll just focus on the Browns this week.

Q: How do you think your defense has been adjusting to (Defensive Coordinator Shane) Bowen's scheme?

BRIAN DABOLL: Good in the red zone last week. I thought good in the first game. There were some things last game, really in every area, but I think Shane's done a really good job leading his group, our group, the defensive group. Obviously certain things we got to correct and fix and that's what he'll do and we'll do.

Q: Did you mention 0-2 in your team at all this week?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say once we talk in our meetings, we keep it in our meetings.

Q: Are records and going 0-2 versus going 1-2 or 0-3, is that up there or is that down there?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say the focus is on doing everything you can do this week, like we try to do every week. You put as much preparation time of going back and studying tape as a coaching staff, trying to scheme things up in all three phases and then the players come in and you have meetings with them. You really got to focus on the game you're playing this week, which is the Cleveland Browns. They're 1-1. They just played a good game down in Jacksonville. Played well defensively, started off the game fast, made some good plays early on in the game, got off to a lead. The first game, it was a competitive game, I'd say, all the way almost to the end of the first half and it kind of slipped away from them in the second half, (Cowboys wide receiver KaVontae) Turpin returns a punt there when they were in a backed up situation. Now you're playing out of sorts on offense against a really good defensive team that can get after the passer. They turned the ball over twice, gave up a punt return. That's where our focus is on, the Cleveland Browns.

Q: Do you change practice workloads this week with a short week and the game coming next Thursday?

BRIAN DABOLL: I wouldn't say a ton. That's something that we've talked about. (Executive Director of Player Performance, Medical, Strength & Conditioning) Aaron Wellman has done a great job since he's been here with practice schedules, reps, pulling back, adding more. We've kind of allotted, I'd say, the last two weeks the amount of reps, the accumulative of reps to... you have another one pretty soon right after this. It's really been a cumulative since the beginning of the season.

Q: You kept like six or seven guys in the pass protection. More max protect than most teams. The way your O-line has played, does that give you more confidence that you don't have to do that as much?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, there was a reason for it too. It was some action stuff where you're making the run and the pass look the same. Again, we used quite a bit of action, I would say, last week that complemented the runs that we were running. Maybe it's more of a dropback. You can use empty; you can go drop back; you can do a variety of things. Last week, based on what we were getting and what we wanted to do as the game kind of evolved, that's probably why the numbers are high.

Q: When you were asked about Bowen before, the first thing you mentioned was that they did well in the red zone. I'm just curious, obviously you don't want to give up seven field goals every game, but is that philosophically where you want to be, giving up threes and not sevens and kind of buckling down in that red zone?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, absolutely. Four-point plays are critical. Three-point game. Playing well in the red zone, you've got to do a good job of keeping them out of the red zone more and continue to evolve offensively and score when we're down in the red zone, which in the first game we didn't. Last game we did. The consistency factor early on in the year on both sides we'll continue to work on.

Q: (Browns defensive end) Myles Garrett, what challenges does he present? How do you prepare to go up against a player like that?

BRIAN DABOLL: He's one of the best ones in the league. They've lined him up in a variety of spots. He's explosive. He's strong. He's powerful. He's got good size. He can run. He takes the ball away. He gets it away from the quarterback. You do the best job you can on practicing with the look team, but it's never the same until you're playing a player like that. He's a high-level player in this league. He's been for a long time. He's one of the really good ones. He's certainly a challenge.

Q: With the way that Nabers is producing, do you sense at some point somebody's going to say 'we're just not going to let him beat us' and they're going to force you to go elsewhere?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, could be. I think that's a good question for the defensive coordinators. Again, however the game plans out, then you adjust. Whatever the targets were, that was a byproduct of what we were getting too as well. See how it goes game to game.

Q: Is he a player that can transcend that?

BRIAN DABOLL: What's that?

Q: There's some guys that if the other team takes somebody away, you're kind of stuck.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say we're in game two. Again, I have a lot of confidence in him. A lot more football to be played here.

Q: Do you find in your head coaching experience so far that you have to approach a team differently after a close loss versus a close victory? Sometimes the game is almost the same. One or two plays and you lose. Do you find you go in a little different to them?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I don't think there's a carbon copy method. Again, you look at how you played, you are truthful with how you played, of the things that you need to be better at, really in all four phases: coaching, special teams, defense, and offense. You talk to them about what you see. How can we improve it? You really want solutions on days after or leading up to the week. Why we're doing what we're doing game plan wise. 'What do they do? This is why we got this in. These are the formations we're using. Rather do this personnel in this. This is what we want to do on kickoff, we'd rather kick it deep, we'd rather not.' Those are all the conversations you have. You spend a lot of time here. You put everything you got into it. You just try to be as truthful and honest as you can when you go through, whether it's a win or whether it's a loss, but consistency is important too. You don't want to ride a roller coaster.

Q: What do you see when you go up against a quarterback like (Browns quarterback) Deshaun Watson at this point in his career?

BRIAN DABOLL: I think Deshaun is a good player. They started out fast against Jacksonville last week. They had a 17-play drive. They utilized him in a variety of ways. He can operate the empty game well where he gets it out quick. They use him in the action game. They can zone read him. He's done that as well. Scramble to loose plays. He's a strong player to bring down. You saw that against (Cowboys linebacker) Micah Parsons in the Dallas game where he scrambles, gets to the right. He's got the ball in one hand, waves it around, throws it down the field strong. He's played the game for a long time. I got a lot of respect for Deshaun's game.

Q: In addition to Myles Garrett, what sort of challenges does the Cleveland defense present you guys?

BRIAN DABOLL: A lot. They can get after the passer. Penetrating front. They play a lot of man to man, and they mix in their zones. They do a great job of disguising. They've been effective. Coach Schwartz, like I said before, does a great job. And then they've got good players. (Browns cornerback Denzel) Ward's a heck of a corner. All three levels, they're well coached.

Q: What did you see from (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) this past week that you didn't see the week before?

BRIAN DABOLL: Each week's different. I told you before I thought he improved. Continue to try to do that. Made good decisions. Threw the ball where he needed to throw the ball. That's what we'll try to get him to do this week.

Quarterback Daniel Jones

Q: What did you think of your job from Week 1 to Week 2?

DANIEL JONES: I thought I improved on some things, overall. I think (there are) still some things I need to work on and clean up, but I thought overall there was an improvement.

Q: What has (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) done for the offense? We see the explosiveness and stuff like that. How much easier does he make your job?

DANIEL JONES: He's done a really good job. Come in and played well. I think in matchup situations where he's one-on-one with a guy, he's won and made explosive plays for us time and time again. He's done a good job and been a big help to us so far.

Q: Have you noticed any teams trying to take him out of the game already in the sense of doubling him so you can't go to him?

DANIEL JONES: I think there were points in the game in Washington, certainly not the whole game, but certain times where you could tell the coverage changed based off of him and how he was playing and some of the looks he was getting. We have to be ready for that and understand that when you have a player like that, and you feature him like that defenses are going to adjust.

Q: You brought up last week being more decisive and trusting yourself. Do you think you did a better job?

DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I do think I did a better job. I think still some areas to improve on and work on, but overall, I thought I did better.

Q: (Wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) seemed to take that drop on fourth and four pretty hard last week. Did you talk to him after the game and why do you think he'll be able to bounce back this week?

DANIEL JONES: He's a competitor and holds himself to a high standard. I think you realize that pretty quickly spending any time with him. He expects to make every play. It was a tough one for him, but I know he'll bounce back. He's a confident guy, and I think it was pretty clear we wouldn't have been in that situation without his performance and all he had done throughout the game. He'll be back, and he'll continue to be a huge part of what we do.

Q: Is there any talk from the coaches to the players or the players amongst themselves about 0-2?

DANIEL JONES: I think everyone realizes our record. I think everybody understands that, but no one's discouraged or no one's letting that affect our preparation and how hard we work going into the game. There's a great energy and feel in the building still, and I think that that's important and important to our preparation, important to our process and making sure we're practicing well and preparing to play well. We know the record, but it's a long season, and we've got a good football team.

Q: How do you expect your team to respond this weekend at Cleveland?

DANIEL JONES: Expect us to respond well, play well, come out ready to go, and play a good game. That's what we all expect. I think we've got to have a good week at practice. We had a good start today, and we'll build off of it. Yeah, expect to play well.

Q: The Browns' defense is good. It's even better at home. How do you deal with that?

DANIEL JONES: Yeah, they've got a good defense, got good players at all three levels really, and a lot of speed. We'll have a game plan. I think obviously the pass rush is something we've got to take into account and plan for and we'll do that. But it's always about us. It's always about focusing on yourself and making sure you're ready to go.

Q: How much do you need, though, to have a plan for (Cleveland Browns defensive end) Myles Garrett?

DANIEL JONES: Yeah, he's a good player, for sure. He's a good player and has the ability to affect the game from a pass rush standpoint and the run game also. You've got to have a plan, a protection plan. Luckily, we've got (tackle) AT (Andrew Thomas). AT is an incredible player, and we're very confident in that matchup.

Q: Does he move around at all, go from side to side?

DANIEL JONES: A little bit, yeah. He'll move around a little bit, so we'll get a sense of how he's playing.

Q: Daniel, what's your message to the fans after the rocky start?

DANIEL JONES: We have a high standard for ourselves and what we can be, what this team can be. We're confident in getting things going and we're working hard to do that. Nobody's happy with where we are, from a record standpoint, but we understand what we need to do to turn it around and catch some momentum. No one's freaking out. I think we understand that in order to get where we need to go, we need to focus on what we're doing from a preparation standpoint and then it's about going out and playing well on Sunday.

Q: [Inaudible]

DANIEL JONES: We've played two games, so I think looking at some stats like that you can kind of get lost in a little bit of that. But (they have) good pass rush, and good players at every level. They're aggressive. So, all those things that good defenses do, we'll be ready for it.

Q: Has Malik shown you the ability to beat a double team?

DANIEL JONES: I think guys can get doubled in different ways. In zone coverage, in man coverage and how you scheme or how you respond to that depends on that. But we're confident he can beat double coverage.

Defensive Lineman Dexter Lawrence

Q: Question about the defense in Week 2…

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Like you said, we were on the field a long time. We didn't do well tackling. We didn't stop the run well. And the penalties on third down. We won a lot of first and second downs, but those third downs really got us.

Q: What do you put your finger on?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Bad tackling and penalties.

Q: Two games certainly does not make a season. How do you expect your team to respond in Cleveland?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: I think our response was Monday, Tuesday, and today so far. I think we responded well. Coming out ready to practice today. Coming in Monday, lifting and watching tape on the game. I think our mind is in the right spot. And that's all we can control right now is how we approach each day and our attitudes.

Q: You have not been here for a New York minute, you've been here for a while. You know the fans and they're frustrated right now. What's your message to them?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: It's going to get better. Right now, it's just rough. These two games, you can't compare this season to last season. It's a whole new team. A lot of new players. A couple new staff. It's just a little growing pain through these first two weeks. I think the way the players control… how we control our minds and our body languages and our attitudes each and every day it can only be promising from there.

Q: Why do you believe in your team?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Because I know the guys we have in here. I know the leaders. I think it starts with us, getting guys ready to go. Just go out there and be ready for one day. We're really preparing all 364 days a year to be ready for Sunday. I think the biggest thing is come in ready Sunday and win it.

Q: What do you want to see out of your defense Sunday?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Better tackling. Great communication. And just guys doing their one-eleventh.

Q: What do you make of the tackling? Why do you think it was an issue?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: We just missed them.

Q: You said that you trust the leaders in this room, and I know different guys like different coaching. Some want a kick in the butt. Are you angry, are you frustrated after a loss like that? How do you react? What's the motivation that you give to the other guys on the defense?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Personally, I'm pissed because I hate losing with a passion. I take that hard, losing. I really don't like it. For me, it's just something that I'm not going to keep accepting. I want to see this team grow and be as good as we put on throughout the week in practice. It's just that one day. That Sunday or that Thursday or whatever day. We've got to show up.

Q: Do you want to see guys with that same mentality you have? That you're pissed and angry?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: I think a lot of guys do have that. You see it this week. Trying to do more to prepare better. Keep growing that confidence that everybody needs.

Q: How much are you excited to just get back on the field after these first two games?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Yeah, I was ready today. It sucks you've got to wait a whole week just to get back on the field after a tough loss like that. I enjoy the process. I know I'm going to do everything I've got to do to get myself ready to play.

Q: Are you convinced that your teammates are all doing their one-eleventh?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: I am convinced. That's why I have confidence in us. We've just got to show up on Sunday. That's the biggest message. Build that confidence throughout the week to show up on Sunday.

Q: When (inside linebacker) Bobby (Okereke) talked after the game about having to do other jobs and that kind of thing, do you relate to that as well?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: I don't know what exactly that meant.

Q: Do you take solace in the way you guys played in the red zone?

DEXTER LAWRENCE II: Yes. That's just about as good as red zone play as you can play, 0-6. That's a positive, but it's not a positive getting down there six times.

Wide Receiver Malik Nabers

Q: Obviously, you had some time to reflect now after the drop. How are you putting that behind you and looking to move forward for this week?

MALIK NABERS: Like I said, it's just a moment I've got to put behind me and continue to go out there and catch extra passes after practice. I've been doing it anyway, but just keep on trying to get catches afterward.

Q: You're not used to starting the season 0-2 here. What's the mindset going into Week 3, going into Cleveland?

MALIK NABERS: You've got to keep your head down, work a little bit harder. Stay together with the people in this locker room and stay together as a team.

Q: How do you expect the Giants to respond in Cleveland going in there 0-2?

MALIK NABERS: We've got to go in there with a great attitude. If you go in there with a sloppy attitude, you're going to go out there with another loss. Try to put that attitude back into a positive attitude into the locker room and just go in there and try to get a win.

Q: Do you think this team has lost any confidence at all?

MALIK NABERS: No, sir.

Q: Why is it? Is it because of what's in this locker room in terms of talent?

MALIK NABERS: Talent is everywhere. It's the hard work that overdoes talent. And we've got a great locker room. We've got great veterans in this locker room that like to lead the team. So, we're going in there with a positive attitude.

Q: You took the loss pretty hard last week. What were some of the things some of the vets, some of the captains told you after the game?

MALIK NABERS: They were just like, 'it's not on me.' That one play doesn't determine the whole game. We had a lot of different plays to change the outcome of the game. I had a lot of different talks with some of the veterans. I'm not going to speak on the conversations, but there was just a lot of uplifting from those veterans.

Q: How much have your teammates meant to you, especially during a little bit of a difficult time?

MALIK NABERS: It means a lot. It means that they've got my back. It only makes the bond stronger. I'm the new person coming in, so having those guys as my teammates it's a powerful moment for them to come up to me, take time after practice and come up to me and just talk through different kinds of moments that I've been going through. Just showing that they've got my back through it all.

Q: I know you're obviously disappointed with the one play, but the way you played overall, how much momentum could that give you?

MALIK NABERS: It just gives me confidence. It shows that I can go out here and compete. So, just going out there and trying to do the same thing every week.

Q: What do you want the fans to know about this team and how hard you guys are working to get the W?

MALIK NABERS: You work hard every game to get the W. It's not just one game. It's not just because we're 0-2, we're trying to get a W. You work hard for every game. The outcome is not the outcome, but as long as your attitude is right and you go out there and continue to grind, continue to try to get a win, that's all that matters. With the outside noise, it's just what it is. It's the people that's in this room that makes the team.