HEAD COACH URBAN MEYER
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2021
(On the importance of self-scouting during the bye week) “Oh we did about as deep a dive as I can remember. Our coaches stayed here after we let our players go and [it was] really interesting, the results. And then you couple it with the first time I, really in my lifetime, had a chance to take a Sunday and watch everything that goes on in this league. I’ve learned a lot. But the self-scout was priceless. Now, we’ve got to do something with it. There are some very tangible things that came to light that we need to get fixed.”
(On what he learned from watching all the games on Sunday) “Just how fragile every snap is, how fragile teams are. The Bengals go out there and play so well, and the Titans played so well, you know, it’s just the parody of the league, it’s incredible.”
(On what he learned about the Jaguars) “Well, the most important thing is the health. First of all, knock on wood, the soft tissue injuries, the sports performance model is working. We’ve had injuries, but those are—the hardest part of the whole job is the structural injuries. The [Brandon] Linders, the high ankle sprains, so we’ve got to keep our guys healthy, especially on this 11-game run we’re getting ready to go on. And then certain areas that—I don’t want to give up too much information—we’re just not very good at or that we struggle with. And a lot of it was self-inflicted errors that we’ve got to get fixed. And how difficult it is in the NFL because of a smaller roster and how do you get those reps without having reps, if that makes sense. You can only go—we’ve got some players that are 30 years old, and you know, the heat down here, how do you get those practice reps so they don’t make mistakes? You’ve got to [hold] the players out, that’s the biggest issue is that we’ve got to get fixed and be more efficient in practice. I actually met with our leaders today about that, we’ve got to—we have a really great group of leaders on our team—and how we just can’t have mistakes in practice, I know that sounds simple, but you can’t. You’ve got to really lock in, especially the younger players.”
(On the expectation of these challenges going into the season compared to now) “It magnifies. Now that I witnessed and experienced it. Because I could say I knew it, I knew it from afar, now I know it because I’m in it and that’s why I hired certain NFL-experienced coaches. And that’s another reason why I signed a guy like Marvin Jones and some older players. I felt good about our offensive line because you had a couple veterans in there that I would learn from. But just the how—when you start saying how many reps in practice you get compared to the college life and yet you still have these unforced errors that we’re making. So, I feel good about the second run we’re going to go on here, about just the efficiency. And now we’ve been in the system for a while, now the excuse of a new system, the excuse of a young quarterback, that’s all gone, because our young quarterback is playing pretty good.”
(On the development of the Jaguars defense) “Yeah, I think we went into the storm thinking that we were going to be playing a very high percentage of man coverage and we figured out quickly that we were going to have to mix in a lot of zone. And then that’s when you say, okay, the number of reps you
have to get the team ready to play that zone coverage, you can’t say, ‘Go play zone.’ So, that bye week was good, we spent some time on that. The combination of both, that’s the biggest thing on defense. And then the flat MAs, there was four times we just turned a guy loose in man coverage because of bunch routes, pick routes or whatever. You’re talking about four times in those games that were really close. So, I see—I really like where we’re heading in defense, but we need to start seeing it.”
(On how much of what he wants to start seeing is related to turnovers) “We’re not there yet. I mean, we had one, I think, right? I wish I could say that now we’re going to start emphasizing. We’ve been emphasizing that darn thing since March and it hasn’t happened for us for whatever reason. I think playing your back to the ball, which you do a lot in man coverage, doesn’t relate to interceptions. Keeping your face to the ball is how—so we’re going to rotate a little more zone coverage in there, which we have already, and that was the interception we had in zone coverage the other day. So, that’s been a high emphasis, taking care of the ball on offense and getting it on defense.”
(On the performance of the 2021 draft picks) “I feel really good. Trevor [Lawrence], obviously. [Travis] Etienne [Jr.], I just think I can’t wait to get him because of his explosiveness. You have Tyson Campbell, [he] should be back this week and ready to go. We think he’s going to have a long career as an excellent corner. He showed great strides. We have Walker Little, we still feel great about him. I know he’s had COVID issues, but he’s going to be, we feel, a very good player. Help me out. Luke Farrell I think is better than what we thought. Our coach [Tight Ends Coach Tyler Bowen] is really excited about him. Jay Tufele broke his hand—by the way, he had surgery, he should be back in a few weeks. We feel good about him. And our safety, Andre Cisco, we’ve got to get him on the field. He’s practicing pretty good, but we have to feel good about him. Jordan Smith still has a long way to go, but we knew that he’d be a developmental-type guy. Is that it?”
(On Seattle playing tonight affecting his preparation for playing them on Sunday) “Well, we’re going to watch them closely. We have a lot of familiarity [with the Seahawks]. One thing about [Seahawks Head Coach] Coach [Pete] Carroll, when I first went to Utah, they were the top team in college football at USC. [I] studied them quite a bit, I don’t know him really well, but obviously I respected his work and to the point where I really studied him, and we hired some guys off his staff because I think he’s done a great job I thought, the culture build, the competitive spirit that he has out there. We have a lot of guys that know their system and know their players. Will that help us? I don’t know. I think that stuff’s overrated but [it’s important] just learning about their [play]. We’re all watching tonight obviously.”
(On the coaches watching Seattle’s game tonight together) “I don’t have any idea. I think we spend too much time together anyway.”
(On stretching the field offensively with the absence of WR DJ Chark Jr.) “Yeah, it hurts a little bit. That’s where Tyron [Johnson] has to come on. The guy that’s really come on is [Jamal] Agnew. If you watch that Miami Dolphin game close, he was open. He had a couple where he pulled away. He’s our best separator right now. But an offense without speed on the outside, like elite speed, that’s the first time I’ve had to deal with that.”
(On WR DJ Chark Jr.’s status) “He’s out for the year. So, to answer your question, yeah, that hurts us.”
(On adding to the roster with the trade deadline approaching) “We’re having that hard conversation. So much of it [is] who’s going to be healthy the rest of the year and also what is [what] we keep on offense, how do you build this around your quarterback? What exactly do we need? I think last March we had
the conversation. Well [the] number one thing that I remember [Bengals QB] Joe Burrow and [Passing Game Coordinator Brian] Schottenheimer and [Offensive Coordinator Darrell] Bevell, we just had the conversation [that] you have to get a good run game and right now we’re starting to play a little bit. James [Robinson] is really playing well and our offensive line’s playing well. That’s why we got [Chris] Manhertz, that’s why we got Luke [Farrell], Carlos [Hyde]. And the other thing, our offensive line, to this point, has kept them upright. The thing we don’t have is when DJ [Chark Jr.] went down, do we have that home run hitter on the outside? I think Laviska [Shenault Jr.]’s playing very well. Marvin [Jones Jr.]’s playing really well. We’re just one speed guy short. It might be [Jamal] Agnew, maybe it’s Tyron [Johnson], maybe it’s something else.”
