JAGUARS OLB TRAVON WALKER
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2022
(On how things are going the first week of training camp) “It’s going good, getting acclimated to the heat, being back on the field with all the guys, everything back full speed.”
(On of the heat isn’t as bad in full uniform) “I definitely say it’s not. That’s why you see me with long sleeves on, to catch my sweat, the heat not bearing down on me.”
(On eagerness to get back into pads on Sunday) “I’m really ready to get into pads now because I’ve been out of pads so long, since the national championship, and to just finally really strike somebody and be as physical as I can. I’m ready to get back to that.”
(On picking up the defensive schemes) “I feel like I’m picking up the schemes a lot better than I was in OTAs, not saying I was struggling bad in OTAs, it’s just different terminologies I had to learn.”
(On OL Luke Fortner when he played for Kentucky) “He was very patient on the offensive line. That’s one thing that when we scouted him at Georgia, he was very patient. If he gets his hands on you, he’s very strong. More than likely, you’re not going to get out of that once he grabs you. He’s a great athlete, and he’s strong.”
(On his early goals for playing in the NFL) “Just establish myself as an NFL player. Transition from college to the NFL. Of course it will be a little different, but it’s not too much. I’d say it’s the change of speed on the field.”
(On working with OLB Josh Allen) “I have to say, I’m very grateful to have Josh. Josh is one of those guys, he’s still young, he can relate to me, he’s been in my shoes. He’s just taught me everything that he knows, and that’s a lot of knowledge that I need coming into the league. It’s very important [to work with Allen]. He’s a great player. I mean, look at him. I say he’s a unicorn. He’s a different type of player— long, agile, fast—and I feel like I’m a similar type player. I definitely would [say the same thing if he wasn’t standing here].”
(On if Kentucky will ever beat Georgia in football) “No. Definitely not. No sir.”
(On mowing the grass in heavy clothes growing up) “It wasn’t full pads. I had on like a helmet, a black sweat jacket with some long pants on and some boots, just as heavy gear. It was basically just training my mental. Of course it’s hot. I’m out there cutting more than one yard a day, so I’m probably cutting probably on average four yards a day. Of course it’s hot. To just keep me going.”
(On if his father paid for him the yard work) “I mean, I lived under his roof, I ate his food.”
(On if he had to sing a song for the team at training camp) “That is true, but like I told them boys, that ain’t me. I’m here to play football, I’m not here to do all that. You might catch me singing in the locker room, but at that point in time I’m not the center, all the attention is not on me at that time. I sang ‘Lifestyle.’ I ain’t doing that (singing again).”
(On working with Robert Mathis in the offseason) “I learned a lot from him. One of the main things he told me is be patient. Everything will come. Once I start to realize the small things within my moves, everything will start to tie together from there. Like I say, I was always trying to work on my hand-eye coordination. It all starts with my get-off. If I’m getting off the ball, the offensive linemen are going to have to commit to me at sometime, so I let my fluidity and my speed work for itself.”
(On former NFL greats passing down knowledge) “Definitely. One thing I can say about the NFL is that a lot of different players do a lot of different things. It’s just I’m the type of person to pick things out, pick people’s brains, find the things that I can do for myself. Everybody is not going to be able to do the same, but I can take some little small detail and put it into my game.”
(On his level of comfort) “I’m definitely comfortable. It’s just with me; I’m the type of person to take it as it is. I’m just going to continue to try to move forward whatever it is in life.”
(On the current most overwhelming thing the team has to accomplish) “I’d have to say right now, just getting rest. Sneaking in that little 30 minute nap in-between meetings and things like that. Just trying to take care of my body. Being on a set schedule with things like rehab, come in after practice and get in the cold/hot tub, things of that nature.”
JAGUARS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
(On how it feels to start training camp) “It’s nice to get out here on the grass, get these guys back, see where they’re at. What’s been cool to see is the retention, what they brought over from the spring and the things we went through and then we’re able to accelerate the learning process here early on.”
(On how much of the playbook has been installed at this point) “Through spring, I would say 90 percent of it was put in in the spring. Here, we start back over. This is day three, we put in install three last night. So we’re still working our way through it of what’s introduced. They’re responsible for what they learned in the spring, so we do go quicker through these install meetings. In terms of what we’re practicing today, it’s still a third of the offense in terms of it’s day three.”
(On if he has a game-ready quarterback sneak) “We’ll see.”
(On if he feels like he has the pieces in place to run the offense like he wants) “Yeah, absolutely. We’re really excited about the talent and the type of team we have, and it’s our job as coaches to utilize what we have. You always have an idea of what your offense would like some day when you get everybody’s Calvin Johnson or Bo Jackson or whatever it might be. When I have those guys, here’s what I want it to
be. In the process, you take all of the guys you have and you take their strengths, you take what you like to do, what they’re really good at, and you build something that reflects that and puts everybody in the best possible position. I feel like we’ve been able to do that. I feel like it’s things that Coach Pederson is
comfortable with and things we all have experience with as a coaching staff, but also things that are going to put Trevor in a great position and then the guys around them and utilize their skillsets the best.”
(On the offensive line) “I think what’s pretty cool is you’ve got the experience. You have guys that have been around with (Brandon) Scherff and (Tyler) Shatley and even Cam Robinson. And then you’ve got some young guys that are hungry and eager to learn. There’s great leadership, there’s good experience, there’s youth, there’s talent. There are a lot of cool things to work with and see. What’s been cool is to see the culture they’ve created in their room, the way they communicate, the way they interact with one another. That’s been pretty good to see. Everybody is out here hungry to learn and get better at it and that’s what’s cool.”
(On Luke Fortner) “The biggest thing is the lack of experience in the NFL. He played a long time in the SEC and has been exposed to a lot of things. In my opinion, he was fortunate to play under (former Kentucky Offensive Coordinator) Liam Coen his last year at Kentucky and being exposed to a pro style system, if you will. He hasn’t seen a lot of the packages that you’re going to see in an NFL game, so it’s just a process of getting introduced to all that, what the communication is like. He’s very fortunate to lean over and Brandon Scherff is right there. Tyler Shatley is right there. Guys that can communicate well with him. (Offensive Line Coach) Phil (Rauscher) has been exposed to a lot of things and does a
great job of coaching that room up. We’re doing our best to challenge those guys. We put them in walk through situations. We have a second-year quarterback and potentially a rookie center, and those are two guys that are in charge of a lot of the communication process. We’re trying to overwhelm them a little bit in walk throughs and see where they’re at and go down and talk it through and make sure we’re all on the same page and do what’s best for us.”
(On if he knew Phil Rauscher was joining the coaching staff when he was hired as offensive coordinator) “I don’t remember the exact timeline, but Phil and I didn’t directly know one another, but I knew who Phil was. We have a lot of similar friends, so I’ve always known his name. When I did get a chance to speak with Phil, we kind of hit it off from the jump and it’s been a great process.”
(On if it brought him comfort to bring in Brandon Scherff when considering the youth on the offensive line) “Certainly. That is definitely a calming factor for us knowing we have a proven guy that, No. 1, I’m comfortable saying he’s a leader in that room. He does a great job of setting the tone for those guys. He’s a great communicator. He has a great presence about himself. You can feel that edge that he has, but he’s calm. He’s able to handle himself in those situations. I think it’s probably going to give the right tackle and the center some comfort knowing, ‘I’ve got this guy next to me working with me.’”
(On what led to the decision to put Luke Fortner at center to begin training camp) “It’s going to be an ongoing process finding the best five (at offensive line). We’re going to continue to work with guys. You may see them starting one day, you may see them someone else starting a period that day, whatever it may be. It’s going to be a fluid process. We’re fortunate we don’t have to release a depth chart right now and figure that out. We’re still in the process of figuring out who our best five is. The best five works together. You may have a guy that’s very talented, but he doesn’t communicate well and doesn’t help this guy play his best. So you’re working through that process. Even in walk throughs in the afternoon, we’ll mix and match rotations to see who communicates well and who gets the best out of each other playing next to one another.”
(On if Travis Etienne has a similar skillet to Brian Westbrook) “Brian was a little bit before I was really studying the Eagles and all that. Being there for a long time, I got to watch him a lot, but certainly he’s a weapon out of the backfield in the pass game. Travis, from that standpoint, yes, I would say so. Doug having his background under Coach Reid, the screen game is a big part of it. We hope to have the success throwing the football to Travis like the Eagles did for a long time with Brian Westbrook.” (On the wide receiver room) “That whole room, like I talked about with the o-line, they’ve done a great job of working together and communicating. You can see the veteran presence from guys that have been around – the Marvin (Jones Jr.), Zay (Jones), Christian (Kirk, (Laquon) Treadwell. Bringing these guys along, creating that tight-knit culture in that room. I think some of the veterans – I saw veterans, four years in or so – have done a great job of being that veteran presence for these young guys and talking them through things, hyping them up when they need to be hyped up. Maybe pulling them aside and saying something that (Wide Receivers Coach) Chris Jackson didn’t say or doesn’t need to say because they can handle it themselves in that room. Definitely those guys that have been around have done a great job and that’s kind of the focus of the way we’ve built the roster, I think you’d say. You can look at every position group and say that there’s a veteran presence right there. There’s a guy there that has leadership ability to him that we’re excited about.”
(On Laviska Shenault Jr.’s role in the offense) “It’s fluid. It goes week by week. You want to feature his skillset, and his skillset is that he’s a great ball carrier. There are ways you want to hand it to him, toss it to him, throw it to him in the flat. Within that, you have to compliment everything you do. He has the
ability, he has the speed to still get down the field and make some plays. As long as it fits the package and things we’re trying to build around it, we plan to utilize him when he’s in there and has the opportunity.”
(On James Robinson’s progress returning from injury) “It’s a huge benefit to know, right now, it’s looking like he’s going to be able to be active at some point and time in the near future. It’s a credit to the work he’s put in throughout the spring, through the summer. Coming off that injury, you never really know the timeline. I know there have been experiences where guys come back quicker and some guys haven’t, whatever it is. So that’s a testament to James, the training staff, the work he’s put in.”
(On if he views next week’s Hall of Fame game as a game) “Absolutely, it’s a game. They’re keeping score, so we’re going to treat it that way. But at the same time, we have a process for what we intend to get in as an offense, how we want to work this thing. We’re not going to accelerate just because we have this game. We’re not going to go crazy and cram everything in and overwhelmed the guys where they don’t have a chance to learn the foundation of the offense or the progression of how we want to teach. There’s a fine line of how do you massage these situations and at some point, there will be discussion of who’s going to play and all that, how do we feature these guys. It’s still training camp. It’s an evaluation process. We have questions on some guys on the roster, and we’re trying to build this like we talked about earlier. Building the top five (of the offensive line), maybe we want to expose a guy to test him in a game against a guy he does not know well and how is he going to hold up? Can he handle when it’s not a scripted session and we’re calling plays and he doesn’t have the chance to sit there on the sideline with his coach and go over the play, go out, hear the play in the huddle, break out. You have 40 seconds and the play is called and you’re walking to the line and you have to figure it out. Maybe the quarterback changes it. We want guys exposed to that. It’s a game, they’re keeping score and we’re going to try to do what we can to win the game, but at the same time, this is still an evaluation process for us and we’re trying to figure out some answers on some things we have.”
(On if it’s concerning to have three padded practices before the first preseason game) “When you haven’t put guys in situations where you can see full speed, you can cut, you can tackle to the ground. Those situations, we haven’t been able to go through those yet. There’s always a little bit of concern, how is this going to play out? At the same time, these guys have been doing this their whole lives. They understand and we’ve done our best to put them as close to those situations as we can within the rules of the league.”
(On the biggest points of emphasis for Trevor Lawrence) “Really, the biggest thing is consistent improvement. Every single day, we want him to get better. That’s not always going to show up on a stat sheet if you’re stating practice, but we want the decision making. I think back to day one, there was a movement play we had. I think it was actually the one he made the throw to Christian on the sideline. We talked about, hey, when you get out the edge, you can progress it like this. Then day two, it was a different play, similar situation. He did exactly what we talked about in the meeting room. That’s just good to see. It went from a 20-yard completion to Christian to maybe a 9-yard completion to Chris Manhertz. For us, he’s taking the coaching to the field and he’s getting better. That’s really all we’re looking for at this point. We want Trevor to come out here and have the best Wednesday possible. That’s all we really care about. Is he better today than he was yesterday? That’s what we’re looking for from Trevor and all of our guys.”
(On if Trevor Lawrence is mastering the offense already) “I’d say so. To steal a phrase that I’ve heard Doug say forever, we want him to say where all the bones are buried. When we call this play, what’s the
intent? What does Doug want out of this thing? What are we hoping to get coverage wise? And then something I’ve heard (Quarterbacks) Coach (Mike) McCoy say a million times, do the next best thing. There are going to be times when the defense gets us. They have a play call better than we have a play call. Still, the quarterback has the football. What’s the next best thing in that situation? You want to work through all that with Trevor. Like I talked about, we see progress every single day with him and the way he’s learned it. We’re very comfortable with where he’s at in terms of his knowledge of the system.”
