OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2023
(On what he wants to see from starting offensive in final preseason game) “Yeah, similar thing as we
talked about in preseason Week 1 of just seeing clean operation. You want to see clear communication,
it’s our chance to be at home. You kind of want the butterflies of these guys getting in a game and
understanding they’re about to get tackled. There’s pressure on the line, if you don’t convert then
you’re punting, all that type of stuff. You really just want to try to get that smoothed out for the guys, so
that in Week 1, it’s not the first time they’ve felt that way or communicated in a huddle or broken a
huddle together. So, clean operation from a communication and substitution standpoint, then you want
to see them execute. Again, it’s still somewhat of a core gameplan for us. It’s not exotic stuff, so you just
want to go out and see clean execution out of these guys while making plays, too.”
(On quarterback plans in the second half of the upcoming game) “No, it will continue to be C.J. [QB C.J.
Beathard] getting the first action coming out of the half. Then, Nathan [QB Nathan Rourke] will get an
opportunity if the situation fits. It doesn’t always go that way, so again, we’re saying it, it’s not stamped,
it’s not in concrete or anything like that. Things can change and I think that’s the one thing as we reserve
the right to change depending on whatever happens within a situation, a game, today, tomorrow,
whatever that may be. C.J. continues to be our second quarterback and Nathan is continuing to compete
in that third role right now.”
(On if the number of snaps QB Nathan Rourke took in yesterday’s practice in concerning) “No, I think
that’s just our second quarterback takes the second majority of the reps and the third quarterback gets
the ones after that.”
(On what’s liked out of WR Jacob Harris) “Jacob’s done a good job so far. There’s only been so many
opportunities where it’s live, bullets are flying, people are trying to tackle the ball carrier, but he’s a guy
that’s done it in this league and in competitive situations. He’s got a tape out there; plus the things
we’ve seen from him. We feel like it’s a role that he can certainly contribute to.”
(On if QB Trevor Lawrence is ready for the season) “It feels that way, obviously you got to prove it every
down in this league. It’s certainly seems like he’s picked up where he left off at the end of the season
and carried that through the entire offseason, not necessarily training camp, to where it feels like we’re
lightyears ahead as an offense than we were at this time last year. Again, in this league, you got to prove
it every single down. It doesn’t matter how you feel, it matters how you perform. That’s what we want
to continue to see from all of our guys.”
(On difference between last season versus now with tailoring to QB Trevor Lawrence’s comfortability) “I
don’t know. I think you start with a certain vision of an offense and then week-to-week you would
change a little bit, you would tailor your approach to attack a certain defense. Not necessarily attack a
certain defense, but to win a game because a lot of times we need to take in account who we’re playing
on offense, how the big picture of what gives our team the best ability to win is how that’s reflected on
the way we play offense. Within a game, you got to be able to ebb and flow. I think in terms of where
we thought we’d be last year, where we were last year, and where we are now, I think they’ll be maybe
some of the bread-and-butter things that we felt like Trevor got really comfortable at and fit our
personnel, but then we have new personnel. How do we mix in Calvin [WR Calvin Ridley]? How do we
mix in Brenton Strange [TE Brenton Strange]? Tank [RB Tank Bigsby]? Those types of guys and fit their
skillset to continue to evolve our offense and grow our offense.”
(On if he feels the offense could be unstoppable) “I like to think all of our guys feel that way. Again, like
we said, it’s a down-to-down league so you got to bring it every single time. You got to be able to
execute, regardless of the circumstance. It really doesn’t matter how you feel or what you think of
something, it’s what you put on tape and how you perform for those three hours each Sunday.”
(On conversation of having three quarterbacks on the roster this season) “We’ve had those
conversations here and there; I think it’s a case-by-case and week-by-week basis. There may be a
situation where you keep that guy on the 53, but if you’re light in another position and you need the
bodies and you’re healthy at quarterback, maybe that week you don’t have a third quarterback,
however that looks. It could be, just like anything in this league, things can change so quickly. Everything
is down-to-down, game-to-game, whatever it is. I don’t know if there’s one blanket philosophy we have
on that situation necessarily.”
(On if there’s a concern of needing a third quarterback on the roster) “I think part of it is that you take
into account the health of your quarterbacks at the moment. If you had one that was going in maybe
injured a little bit and would be a little more likely to reinjure something like that, maybe then the value
would be having another one. It’s one of those situations where you don’t need it until you need it. All
the sudden, you’re in the NFC Championship game, as the 49ers were when the talk of this thing all rose
up, and all the sudden it happened, and you don’t have it. I know they did it a couple years back with the
third quarterback being available and went away from it and gone back to it. I think they’re just
continuing to try to meet the needs of whatever is going on within the league in that certain time frame
and coming up with the best role for it. I think each team’s philosophy is probably going to change on
how they approach it, and I think it should based on week-to-week situations.”
(On if there’s a fight to have a sixth receiver on the roster) “We try to work together. When we go
through our offensive personnel evaluations as a staff, Heath [Special Teams Coordinator Heath Farwell]
and Luke [Assistant Special Teams Coordinator] are in the room with us. We want to hear their opinion
and all that because we understand the big picture of the roster development. Now, if you get to ask
me, ‘Do you want a defensive guy or offensive guy?’ I’m always going to fight for the offensive guy
because I’m the offensive coordinator. We all understand Doug [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and
Trent’s [General Manager Trent Baalke] roles and shaping the whole roster and understanding the big
picture of everything. We all understand that, and we want to be able to present the most useful
information for them. There’s a lot of times, like I’ve said a couple of times, if our top four are healthy,
really, you’re assuming that fifth guy is going to get four to five snaps on offense if all goes well. So yes,
then we would differ to how Doug, Trent, and Heath see that role for us.”
(On how to balance roster conversations of veteran players and young players) “It’s all case-by-case. You
get into all sorts of factors. A lot of times, that goes beyond us. That goes to Trent [General Manager
Trent Baalke] and Doug [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and understanding maybe the salary cap fits,
whatever. There’s a ton of factors that you can involve in it. A lot of times, you’ll go to experience of the
player, maybe potential development, if there’s certain closeness, health history, whatever it may be of
what you project of long term for certain players in that battle. Again, I don’t think there’s a certain, ‘you
always go with the young guy.’ I think it’s a case-by-case, what are we looking at right now? What are
we dealing with big picture wise to make the best decision in that moment.”
(On what makes Head Coach Doug Pederson so good working with tight ends) “I don’t know necessarily
that it’s the tight ends in general, I think it’s just the pass game, the way he sees things, the way we
want to feature the best possible matchups. He [Head Coach Doug Pederson] came from Kansas City
where Travis Kelce [Chiefs TE Travis Kelce] was a great player. In Philadelphia, we had Zach Ertz [Eagles
TE Zach Ertz] and Dallas Goedert [Eagles TE Dallas Goedert]. They were great players, so we did
everything we could at least in Philly to utilize great players. Here, I think you see that we’ve probably
had better success statistically with outside receivers or slot receivers than we ever had at our time in
Philly because we feel like those were great matchups for us. Certainly, tight ends and dominating the
middle of the field, there’s somebody that whether they’re matched up on linebackers or safeties, you
hope you have the talent at that position that could exploit that matchup. I think that’s something that
Evan [TE Evan Engram] brings to us, Brenton [TE Brenton Strange] continues to have a role moving
forward and trying to feature the same ideas.”
QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2023
“…You never want to see guys get injured, especially up front. It’s my livelihood, our livelihood, run
game, pass game, everything. You go as your front goes, offensively and defensively. You never want to
see guys get banged up, hopefully we get those guys back as fast as possible. I think they’ve done a great
job all training camp of playing well, whoever is in there, playing together and meshing. Now, it’s like
everyone is swapping around and moving positions to try and learn everything. I think the guys have
done a great job of that, but you want your guys to be healthy. Hopefully they get back quick, and
definitely just next man up always has to be ready. I think it’s a good example of that.”
(On level of readiness currently versus this time last year) “I feel really good. I think we built a lot of
chemistry even more in this training camp, obviously had a lot with the guys that were here last year,
and I think me and Calvin [WR Calvin Ridley] are just clicking more and more every day. I think it’s been
really great, we got some great work in. I like the direction that we’re heading in, just got to keep getting
better every day. It’s such a long season, you just got to get better every day and every week. I like
where we’re at right now, we got to keep getting better and this will be a good challenge for us to get
some good reps on Saturday against Miami.”
(On reasoning for having such high confidence) “I think it’s a lot of things. I think it’s like you said,
second year in the offense, just that consistency, the communication between myself and Coach
Pederson [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and Press [Offensive Coordinator Press Taylor] and the whole
offensive staff. I think we have a really clear vision of what we want and what our objectives are. I think
we have a better idea, too, of what we’re good at and offensively what we want to try to do. We’re in a
good spot there, and just the rapport with the guys offensively. Whether it’s receivers, tight ends, O-
line, running backs, all those guys. We’re just a close group and I think with that, that gives everybody
confidence. You can count on the guy next to you and the guys have played well, performed really well.
Even our depth throughout the preseason has looked great. It’s just encouraging for everybody,
everybody feels like they can go play free. I like where we’re at right now.”
(On feelings of playing more than a quarter on Saturday) “It’s kind of a tough situation. You want to
keep everybody healthy and we had a couple of dings, so you want to keep everybody healthy but then
again, you want to get reps and you want to get in a rhythm. Then, two drives in, that’s when you kind
of start to get a rhythm and then you come out. So it’s like, what’s the best thing? It’s a fine line. I think
our coaches have done a great job of handling that. It’ll be good to get a little bit more work this week
and however much that ends up being, just go play well. I think that’s the biggest thing for us; let’s be
clean, let’s execute, take advantage of all the possessions we get offensively, and just go through our
plan to execute. I think that’s the main focus, you want to feel good about that. Especially the last one
going into the regular season, let’s end on a good note and get ready for the season.”
(On difference of preparation this week) “In preseason, I don’t know if everybody is different. I’m
assuming everyone is a little bit different, a little similar. There’s not a ton of game planning. Obviously,
in this one more so than others, you try to do what you think is good versus those looks but you’re not
crazy scheming, putting in a ton of new plays, doing any of that like you might do in a regular season
game. That’s different, but I think you are, especially now that we’re going to get more reps, you are
trying to fit our offense to the defensive scheme you’re going against more so than the other games.
You might just call our base stuff and see what happens against different looks. In this one, we’re kind of
trying to match it up a little bit better.”
(On if 5,000 passing yards means anything to him as a number) “Yeah, I’m not sure who’s on that list.
Probably not a super long list. That would be great, I’m honestly not a huge stats guy. I think it tells part
of the story, but I think if we were to do that, that means we had a really good year offensively so that
would be really good. Like I said, I don’t really think about stats too much, usually that does tell part of
the story of if you’re a good offense or not. Usually you’re going to have goods whether that’s yards,
passing yards, rushing yards, all that. Kind of like it started to line up for us last year. Really the focus is
on winning and whatever it takes to do that. If that comes with it, that’ll be cool.”
(On what having a clean game looks like to him) “Unlike the first one [first preseason game], no
turnovers, not a lot of penalties which I think the guys did a really good job of cleaning that up from
Week 1 to Week 2 of the preseason. Not a lot of penalties, no turnovers, let’s just execute our
assignment and block the look or whatever. Execute the concept we’re running, let’s be sharp, let’s not
miss a bunch of throws, not have many drops, any of that stuff. I think when you look at the game, let’s
just be polished, let’s move quickly in and out of the huddle, and just execute. I think that’s what you’re
looking to do. Obviously, no game is going to go perfectly, there’s going to be some things that you got
to work around and some obstacles. But I think that’s the main idea, to just be clean and execute.”
(On if he would ever go into meetings to voice whether or not a player should make the roster) “I
haven’t up until this point. More casual conversations I think about players throughout camp. Who is
having a good camp? What do you think of this guy? Especially skill guys that will be mentioned to me,
but it’s not a sit down where I’m going in there and standing on the table. If people are asking me what I
think about someone, I would definitely tell them and give my opinion and I think they value what I
think. I wouldn’t say I play a huge part in that.”
(On trying new things out in practice this year) “I think I try to play practice like a game from the
standpoint of my decision making, but there are sometimes where say you got Calvin [WR Calvin Ridley]
one-on-one, it’s a single receiver to the boundary or whatever, and you got a shot with him. In a game, I
might work my concept of the field because I like the leverage for whoever in the matchup over there. I
haven’t gotten a ton of reps with Calvin up until this training camp. So, I might want to work that one-
on-one route to him or whatever it may be. I think that’s changed a little bit for me, of just getting to
know him and working that stuff. Kind of overdoing some of that so we can get our chemistry up to
speed like I have with the other guys. I think it’s paid off; I think it’s really getting better and better every
day. I think we’re starting to click; we’re starting to get on the same page and just constant conversation
with him. He’s given me a lot of feedback on things that he’s done in the past and what he does well. I
say I do more of that. Even with other guys, if it’s a new route and we’re going against our defense, it
might not be the best look for that, but I still want to get the rep of working that new route that we’re
running instead of just going to the other side because I didn’t like the coverage and I might try to get
that extra look to get it done.”
(On thoughts of QB Nathan Rourke) “The great Canadian. He’s done a great job; the guy works really
hard. So it’s cool to see him have success and everybody has been talking about that play against Dallas
and he broke a couple of tackles against Detroit and had that ball he threw to the sideline to D’Ernest
[RB D’Ernest Johnson]. He’s had some great plays and that’s what you got to do, the guy is looking to
stick in the league and get a spot. I think he’s played really well, and it’s been impressive to watch him
work. Everyday he’s like that in practice, too, just really committed and works super hard. I know the
guys have a lot of respect for him.”
(On excitement to play in the stadium on Saturday) “I can’t wait. First one, next time we’ll be in here will
be Week 2 against Kansas City. That’ll be fun. Seven o’clock game is a little late for a preseason game,
but it’ll be good though. It’ll be good to see The Bank packed. It won’t be as hot so I am happy about
that. It’ll be good.”
