Wednesday, September 4, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(I wanted to ask about the 2019 College Football Playoff Championship. What do you remember about that game?) – “We lost.”
(Does it haunt you?) – “We lost, brother. Any time you lose any of those games, they stick with you, and I wasn’t happy about that performance, the way we came out as a team offensively especially, but it is what it is. You learn from all those mistakes and you grow from that, but it wasn’t a good memory.”
(Is there any extra motivation facing off against Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence on Sunday?) – “No, because I’m not playing him; he doesn’t play defense. I’m not playing against him. I’m playing against their defense, the scheme that their guy has for them and they’ve got a good scheme. They’ve got a good scheme.”
(It’s our first time talking to you since Head Coach Mike McDaniel got his extension, you got yours earlier. We see the smile on your face. How great is it to know that you two are linked here for the foreseeable future going into the season?) – “Really cool. It’s really cool. Any time anyone on our team, I’m speaking for myself and I’m also speaking for other guys, any time anyone on our team gets paid and is able to change their life and their family’s life, it’s always something big.”
(You mentioned the Jags scheme. What’s the process like for you of going up against a defense that has a new coordinator that doesn’t have any real tape that you can go up and study?) – “So for me, I study their players that they have. Although not the same scheme, just who’s good at covering, who’s someone that we think, OK, maybe we have a little more leverage with this guy in coverage. And that’s how I sort of base it off of just watching film on the guys that are on the field. Then you go back to New Orleans when he was the DC to the Falcons – we had a joint practice with them last year. There were guys that were on the team last year that played with him in Atlanta and then there were also some guys that were on the team with him when he was coaching the Saints, when he was the DC. So we got a good amount of information that we can collect from a group of guys in the locker room and then just watching tape.”
(Going back to Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence for a second. You guys, your paths are kind of similar. You were both highly touted coming out of high school, played at big programs, won national championships. Are you friends? Do you have a relationship with him? Do you know him at all?) – “We’ve crossed paths before. I’ve seen him on vacation a couple times in the Bahamas. That’s all I can say and there’s just a mutual respect between us there.”
(Do you remember the first time you heard the name Trevor Lawrence, like when you had an idea that he might be something really big?) – “I mean, leading up to the national championship, they had to win their game prior and so we knew of him and then in that national championship game, that’s where, really, I think he made a statement in who he was as a player and just in general. That was his freshman year, too. Him coming in the national championship game, leading his team and we had a really good Alabama team, too, and he did what he had to do and they killed us. (laughter) They killed us.”
(I’m sure it was different the way you build up, but at what point do you know in camp or as you approach Week 1 that “Hey, we’re ready for this? It’s been a long offseason; we’ve put everything in place and we’re ready to go for Week 1?”) – “You want to think you’re ready for anything, but you never know until you go out there. Schematically, we think we know what they’re going to do, but until we go out and run our plays and get a feel of what they’re doing with their run fits, with the back end in coverage, how they’re trying to marry both up with each other, you really don’t know if you are. You’ve just got to go out there, get a feel and like I said, they haven’t really put on film as a team what they do and what they do well. So I think it’s also for them, they’re trying to figure that out as well, too.”
(I asked Head Coach Mike McDaniel earlier the biggest differences between you from Year 1 to now when it comes to preparing for a game and he mentioned that you’ve refined your ability to absorb the complex verbiage of the offense and also how to divvy up your time and understanding that. What’s been key for you in getting to that point?) – “Just continuing to look over the plays, continuing to look over what we’re going to do, what we want to do throughout the week. First and second down, that’s what we’re looking over Tuesday the day of and then working into the night with third downs on Tuesday, so that today we’re ready for first and second downs and we’re already ahead of the chains, we’re getting ready for third downs. And it’s the same thing, it’s the same process. We don’t know what they’re going to do. It’s just all right, here’s plays that we’re good at; let’s go and see what they’re going to present to us, let’s run it and then we’ll get a feel from there.”
(You’re entering your third season with Head Coach Mike McDaniel. Your relationship I’m sure has evolved immensely. That synergy – better than ever I’m sure together on the sideline – how does that help you in 2024? How will you foresee it that the synergy that you have when it comes to moving that offense?) – “I think I’m seeing it a lot better. It’s a little clearer than it was last year. It’s a little clearer than it was the year before and continuing to grow in the offense, continuing to – we’re trying to continue to maneuver through a lot of the minutia that happens within his offense of a lot of guys moving and I think that’s all it is. Both me and him, I think we’ve both grown together in becoming more vocal together and then with our guys that we’re playing with, that we’re out there with.”
(One thing we keep hearing from your teammates is how much more vocal of a leader, vocal of a person you’ve been this offseason. Is that something that you’ve noticed within yourself?) – “I would say yes and I would say no. A lot of the guys know who I am off the field. Just on the field, it’s just I guess coming out now. That’s just what it is. I guess feeling more comfortable bringing my own personality onto the playing field.”
(Just to follow up so it’s not like – you didn’t come into this offseason with some concerted effort, like “I want to be more vocal,” “I want to make sure I talk more and pull my receivers aside?”) – “No, no. I would just say it’s just bringing my own personality into playing the game of football. That’s it.”
(Do you still approach a new season like you have something more to prove after you’ve proven so much the last two years?) – “Yeah, I think that’s how you’ve got to come into the season every year. You’ve got to come in with something to prove every time. Everyone else is – the rookies are, the 17-year vets are. So I don’t think anyone comes into the season thinking, ‘Oh, let me just see if this is going to be a season where I’m healthy, if this is a season where I could do good, I could be average or whatever.’ I think everyone wants to be really, really good at coming in this first week and trying to sustain that throughout the entire year.”
(You’ve got a whole offseason at maybe a little bit lower playing weight than you were last year. How much have you felt your mobility and maybe even your speed increase from where you were last year?) – “I would say it’s not anywhere near where I was at Alabama, and I say that with humbleness because I wasn’t as fast still at Alabama, but I was able to move a lot quicker when I was there. But I think after the hip injury, it kind of did take a toll still on my mobility, but I think I’m a lot better than I was last year and the year prior, so I feel a lot better.”
(Earlier this week WR Tyreek Hill was talking about the excitement level and I know every year has an excitement, but do you sense – he talked about it being a little different, that you guys feel like you’ve really evolved as a team and are ready to take that next step? Do you feel that as you enter Week 1?) – “Yeah, I do feel that. I say that just because of the practices that we’ve had, the intensity that we practice with going against our ones and the ones going against us. There’s been a lot of things that have trickled into the locker room that hadn’t happened in years prior and so I would say that’s just the feel of ‘Dang, this does feel different,’ and we’ve got some dawgs on the team.”
(To go back to QB Trevor Lawrence, what do you think of the way both your careers have taken off and also, he’s another guy that got paid this offseason?) – “Yeah, I mean congratulations to him and his wife. I think they just had a newborn, so congrats to them on that as well. When I’m trying to connect both of our journeys, I would say definitely two different journeys. Two different journeys, that’s for sure, but also there are some similarities in the way. But I think the way he’s handled everything that he’s gone through there in Jacksonville has been really commendable and has been really good for him, and as you can see, it’s worked out really good. So I’m very happy for him.”
(Going on to the leadership question from earlier, Head Coach Mike McDaniel kind of said he noticed an it factor in you I guess in regard to how the team responds to you when you speak up and when you’re vocal. I’m curious for you at what moment kind of did you realize that you had gained the respect of the team as a vocal leader?) – “Like the it factor? I’ve had the it factor. (laughter) No, I’ve had the it factor since I was in high school, then going into college, and then coming here. That’s how I’ve always viewed myself as – going out and competing. Yeah, very, very nice, very cool, calm collected, but inside just very competitive. So a lot of the guys know how I am and whatnot, but I guess it’s just only now showing that I’m becoming a little more vocal so that’s it.”
(You talked a lot about that excitement with the offense coming in and we’ve talked about it a lot as well with these rookies that have come in as well. Now with camp over and getting ready for that first week, how excited are you for these new additions with WR Malik Washington and RB Jaylen Wright and things like that?) – “It’ll be cool. It’ll be cool for them to get their first live reps in a game, and it’ll be cool to see how they respond to adversity. Everyone on the other side of the ball gets paid, too, and they know that. They know they’re going to have to bring their A-game every time they’re in there and just going to have to study up because we’ve got a good amount of stuff that are going in.”
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
S Jordan Poyer
(Even as a veteran, does Week 1 still excites you to get back out there?) – “Absolutely, it’s football season. This is what we play for. This is what we trained for all offseason. That’s what OTAs are for, training camp. Week 1, we’re excited to play. I’m excited be out here and get the season going.”
(What does the Jags present challenge wise with QB Trevor Lawerence?) – “Obviously an experienced quarterback. He’s got an arm, he’s got legs, he’s got really good talent around him. (Evan) Engram, obviously (Gabe) Davis coming over there, Christian Kirk, and obviously their running backs. We’re going to have to play extremely well to win, but we feel good about our practice today and the game plan. We just want to continue to get better each and every day.”
(You got QB Tua Tagovailoa taking pictures of you while you’re being interviewed. What’s it like being neighbors with him?) – “My dawg, man. I love Tua. We’ve gotten to get to know each other really good over the last four or five months now. He’s just a really good guy. We hung out off the field on a boat and our families getting to know each other. It’s been really cool to get to know Tua.”
(There haven’t been many days where the starters at safety and the starters at corner have played together. Is that a concern at all? Or because it’s smart guys, experienced guys back there, does that not worry you?) – “I think we rely on a lot of our experience. We’ve got guys that have played in the league for a long time on the back end, so just being able to understand our jobs, understand the jobs of the people around us and communicate. I think the biggest thing on defense is being able to communicate with the guy next to you. If you’re all wrong, you’re all right together. Like I said, we had a really good day at practice today, we’ll continue to build on that and move forward.”
(You’ve been playing for a long time, been a part of a lot of different teams. What’s special this group that stands out to you to start of the season?) – “I just feel an energy. It’s a different energy than what I felt even playing against them last year. This groups seems really close. It seems like they got something to prove. Obviously, we understand we’re a very talented team, and it’s in those moments of adversity, in those moments of – whether through a game, throughout a week, whether it’s throughout a season, being able to stick together through those moments and continue to just stay the path, and continue to work and continue to grind. You want to go 17-0 – we hope to go 17-0 obviously – but at the end of the day, you might drop a game and it’s in that moment right there, how do you handle those moments. This is a well-equipped team with a lot of veterans and a lot of leaders on it. So we just want to continue to build off that and hopefully get that momentum going in the season.”
(Can you talk about what’s the importance of being a player driven team? Why is that important?) – “I think that’s huge. We’re the ones out there playing obviously. That’s not taking anything away from the coaches; this is a great coaching staff. They understand where to put us in position to be able to make plays offensively and defensively. When you’re out there playing with your boys and playing for your boys, I think that’s a huge factor in the game. In the fourth quarter, it’s your boys. These are my guys. These are the guys that I’ve been grinding throughout training camp, OTAs. You want to look them in the eye and understand that this is our job and we’ve got to get a job done. I think that team camaraderie, that player-driven leadership is a huge part of the team, and we do have that here.”
(You were one of the guys that everybody says that you get everybody together. What’s the importance of that?) – “Like I said, I think just being able to understand who you’re playing with. We’re not just teammates; we’re brothers. We’re friends. Our families have gotten to know each other. We all essentially got each other’s lifelines on the line each and every down. In the fourth quarter when it’s crunch time, I want to be able to look at the guy next to me and understand he’s playing for me and I’m playing for him. Those are important moments in the game and whichever way the coins flips at the end of the game, you know that your boy’s got your back, you’ve got his back.”
(1:00 p.m. kickoffs at Hard Rock Stadium are kind of infamous around the league. What’s it going to be like to be on the shaded side now.) – “(laughter) That will be interesting. I’ve never been on the shaded side, so we’ll see how that plays out. No, I’m extremely excited for this home game, man. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, ever since I obviously signed here. Just to be a part of this football team and this part of the organization is such a cool opportunity for me. I’m just taking full advantage of it and just trying to be the best version of myself I can be.”
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
RB Jaylen Wright
(Is this a moment you’ve been waiting for?) – “Oh yeah, a dream come true. I’ve dreamed all my life, always dreamed to play at the highest level. Not only that, but to produce well at the highest level, so I’m really blessed with this opportunity.”
(How many friends or family tickets are you going for?) – “I think this week I just got two – just my mom and dad. Nothing crazy.”
(And if you score, you know what to do this time, right?) – “Oh yeah, I’m keeping the ball. (laughter) Yup.”
(With four really good backs in the room, are you mentally in the state where if you don’t end up getting many snaps or carries you’ll be OK with it?) – “Yeah, it’s a long season. That’s how I look at it. Preparation creates opportunity, so just me being prepared and being ready for whenever that moment comes, I’m fully confident that I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity. We’ve got four good backs, but all four backs are going to produce really well.”
(How does your feeling of preparation for your first real pro game compare to what you remember about your first college game?) – “Preparation, I still kind of got the same preparation schedule as far as watching film, taking care of my body, just knowing what the defense will do, what they like to do and what are their weaknesses and strengths. Preparation wise, I’m taking the same approach that I had in college, but of course it’s a lot more talented people on the field on this level. So I just let my preparation take care of everything on game day.”
(Do you get anxiety or nervous the night before the game or morning of the game?) – “I mean yeah, that’s what comes with it – anxiousness, anxiety, nervousness. That’s the beauty of the sport we play, that’s the love of it. It’s always once I get that first contact, once I get that first play in, it all goes away and I’m ready to ball.”
(What’s part of your ritual before the game in terms of either walking the field and listening to music or sitting at your locker? What do you like to do between the time you get to the stadium and kickoff?) – “I just like to stay to myself. I like to stay locked in, just have time to myself, pray. I pray a lot; if it weren’t for God, I would be nothing. Prayer, me praying, that calms me down, calms all my nerves down. Just have my confidence and be ready to perform on game day.”
Monday, September 4, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I know you don’t want to ruin the surprise of the first injury report of 2024, it comes out in a few hours, but with that being said, can you share with us what’s been keeping CB Jalen Ramsey out of practice? And do you expect him to play on Sunday?) – “He’s gone anti-grass; he just doesn’t play on grass anymore. (laughter) I’m very proud of him – I’ve never been prouder of a player not practicing, like honestly. No puffery. On the regular, the dude practiced both with starters and on the scout team, did the entire practice last year as he was coming back. He’s just making me proud because he knows how important he is to this team and what he’s looking to accomplish with the team as a captain. So I think everyone’s kind of impressed because – that’s a different headache, dealing with him trying to be on the field when he’s not supposed to. So it’s good, and the human body tells us, I don’t really forecast that, but I know he’s doing everything he can today and there weren’t any setbacks today. So you know me, that’s where my mind lies – good day.”
(You are 6-1 in September in your tenure, including two 3-0 starts. Why have you had immediate success the last two years early going?) – “I think the key, we were better at the point differential, for sure – scored more points. (laughter) No, I think it’s a multitude of things; each team is different, there are some commonalities. I think for me, people talk about starting and finishing and all the things in between. I think you do your best with what you can and max out your team and everything works itself out. I think there’s been times in the first two years that we’ve, as a team, won some games – correlation, causation… No, I think what you get to see in the first month is a – it’s probably 230-some days from the last time that you’ve competed in a box square that sustains. And in that time, from one season to the next, you get to see what people have put in and how guys have been able to come together in a short amount of time relatively. It’s a new team, generally half the team is new each and every year, for every team, and you get to see where their game is at from last year to this year. I think far too often people just take names as names and almost look at people as how they viewed them last year. Every season, every player is either better or worse and no one is really staying the same. There’s generally competition that (General Manager) Chris Grier makes sure that will heat you up if you start getting complacent. So I think where the team is at – 2022, that particular team, 2023 – this team I will say, regardless of we haven’t played a game fully, this is our first Wednesday practice, but I think I wouldn’t be the only person to say that the team has tried to build upon what the former teams have taught them. And how you can get a lot out of each and every single day in the offseason and really transform yourself, and behind closed doors, it’s unveiled on Sunday.”
(You’ve got a couple of rookies making their professional debuts on Sunday including LB Chop Robinson and RB Jaylen Wright. In general, what have you said and would you say to a youngster playing a real game on this stage for the first time?) – “This juncture, you kind of just wait. Ironically, the major ones have already occurred. It’s weird for guys to play in rookie minicamp. They don’t talk about it but you can feel just uncertainty, that’s with every person. The unknown is the No. 1 cause of stress. And in that, I think guys, they’re football players that want to feel comfortable. You do that, you earn your stripes with your teammates; it’s not given, but you can feel when the guys are anointing you – one of the people that can help them accomplish a team goal. That’s a big deal, especially for a veteran team. So there’ll be a moment, but it’s football and it always comes back to that. There’s a lot of stuff in between. We’ve talked about football for 230 days since the end of the season. We’re all very fortunate to be a part of something like that, however, it’s all built up for your opportunities that are few and far between. Even the longest career, relatively – NFL games are special. I think there’ll be a moment for those guys. They are ready for it, but it probably won’t even get to my desk because they’re right in the midst of the locker room, the team, where it would probably take two seconds for Duke Riley or any – we have some characters in our locker room that will get guys’ minds right and they’ll be good. They’ve proven their stripes with their teammates.”
(I can’t tell you how many texts I got yesterday about your depth chart, mostly from fantasy football players, about the F position. Could you explain what the F position is?) – “It means a lot of things. Namely, for our team in particular we’re fortunate to have some – I think everyone has been talking about the different type of weapons we have or the good football players we have that have a multitude of skill sets. So in that, when you say starters, to me you’re talking about a caliber of player and there’s about 15 of those guys on our team. No one has noticed that fact that there wasn’t one depth chart last year that was the first play of the game exactly right. Right? It would’ve been illegal every game. There’s 12 – there’s only 11 on the field. For our football team, you can have – in an F position, the starting point is you are inside the X and Z away from the tight end, or to him, to 3 by 1. And then whether that you’re playing any iteration of those formations, 2 by 2, 3 by 1, 1 by 3, whatever, there’s five eligibles. Any one of those you kind of get more of a sense like you are in the blocking core. Maybe you’re in the perimeter, maybe you’re doing both. You have skill sets that sometimes we have – most of the time our fullback by definition of what a fullback is known to be isn’t playing fullback. He’s playing receiver, or tight end, or a multitude of things. For us, F can be a third down target, can be a core blocking tool, an asset, a guy you’re trying to get the ball to in space. Maybe if you have some players that occupy a lot of space that defenses have to regard, Fs can take advantage of underneath space in defense. Really, I don’t even know by – it’s not fair to categorize certain guys as just one thing. I think the strength of our offense is that we have a bunch of people that are cross training, because the idea is that everyone is moving in unison. So to move together and to appropriately execute your job relative to your teammates, that multiplicity is endless. What is an F? He’s not the Y, Z, or X, and he’s a good football player that probably has some skills that the football team can benefit from.”
(It’s that simple?) – “It didn’t dawn on me; I should make it a lot easier. (laughter) It would be a lot easier just to kind of give you depth charts of any personal package, but I don’t even know what those are until a given day because players decide when they make plays, how much they want to be used. We may have our five running back set come out. Who knows?”
(From a game preparation standpoint, what would you say is the biggest difference in QB Tua Tagovailoa from the first year you were coaching him to coming into this season and what you’ve noticed in him from that standpoint?) – “A complete refinement. The first year, you’re engaging in conversation to make sure the expectations of what preparation – everyone knows preparation. So am I doing a good job of preparing? What are those kinds of standards, what was he used to, and the one benefit I knew that I could offer Tua (Tagovailoa) as well as our tremendous coaching staff is examples, connections. We had Drew Brees come out, just trying to understand just how you can find different ways to be better prepared for when you’re playing football. There is nothing more fun for these guys than to be confident and execute on things that they’ve trained for hours and hours and hours, but that’s only affective if you’re doing it appropriately. Those are things that we were talking about Year 1. This year, he’s in full – he thought he had exactly the way he wanted to operate nailed down and then went the extra step. I can feel him being – even Wednesday walkthrough, which is the hardest for quarterbacks in our system by far, it always has been because we’re so verbose. You can just tell by that walkthrough that he’s refined how to divvy up the time to effectively absorb what he’s learned and what he already knows.”
(One of the things that seems to be agreed upon on the part of teammates was how vocal QB Tua Tagovailoa is now compared to year’s past. What have you told him in terms of demanding excellence out of everybody and how to get that point across to teammates in the correct way?) – “I’ve told him that the way he wants to lead, if he wants to lead, he’s fully capable of doing in a manner that no one should tell him how and he has – you just knew there are certain guys that have an it factor with large groups, especially teams. You know when a team believes in the quarterback, quite honestly, and the appreciation for what his skills were I think were strong, but nothing compared to the respect and the regard that his teammates had for not forced, ‘OK, this is my first rep at being a quarterback in the National Football League. I’m going to do this, this and this,’ and finding himself as a person. That’s been front and center with the team, so he’s being him. I think that’s – I don’t know the measurements, but there’s ways to measure energy waves, and the strongest energy wave you can give off it authenticity. Write that down. (laughter) So I think that’s what people feel and that’s why people follow, is not only do they like and believe in him, believe in his skills and his ability to lead them to places they haven’t been, but they also trust it and regard it for what it is, which is true. And that’s why I think everyone can feel there’s – we talk a lot about Tua (Tagovailoa), and as we should, he’s an incredible part of this franchise, but there’s a lot of players on the same trajectory – I just hog all their press conference time because I talk too long at questions. (laughter) There wouldn’t be a better way to represent his leadership in that people aren’t copying what he’s doing but they are seeing and adjusting; he’s found his way to make sure we are on our business, our walkthrough tempo, we get all our plays in with extra time to spare, but does so while being able to make fun of, I don’t know, Jaylen Waddle’s shoes or something. Guys can feel that; they can feel his confidence level. I think you guys can too, it’s just real. He’s more confident because he has more confidence.”
(How is LB Jaelan Phillips? Will he operate with some kind of snap count limitations Week 1? Or how will you kind of manage his situation?) – “Yeah, you know the ‘Jaelans,’ they’re always messing with me with the way that it’s the greatest problem to have, quite honestly. Just naturally, I think there’s a couple components – for so long, there’s just been positive checkboxes. I think realistically we’re just trying to – I think everybody is kind of on board to, we’re not trying to play a whole game either. You got to manage it in some regard. I think we’re getting closer to what that will be nailed down to with maybe 15-20 reps to spare. Who knows? But regardless, we also have to keep in mind that it’ll be his first game back, we have a game four days later and just being able to manage professional athletes.”
