(Opening Statement) “It’s great to see everyone. I hope everyone is having a great day. Great win for us against New York at home. I thought there were times we played pretty good. There were obviously some things we need to fix, like every game, but our guys I thought, overall played well and made some great individual efforts and it was great to get a team win.”
(On the progression of OT Jawaan Taylor) “I’d equate Jawaan [Taylor] very similar to Gardner [Minshew II], getting better in each game. With the exception of a few plays here and there, obviously like any rookie o-lineman’s going to have. And just through our schedule, Jawaan’s pulled some pretty decent pass rushers – not decent, really good pass rushers here through this first half of the season and he’s handled himself well. We were talking about our draft class the other day, and Jawaan’s just one of those guys that, again, you get better in this league as a player when you love football, you’re passionate about your job and you’re all about the team. And he has those three qualities and it’s not a shock he’s getting a lot better as we go.”
(On the toss play to RB Leonard Fournette in the Week 8 game vs. New York) “I’ve called 514 plays this year. Not every [play call] is going to be perfect, so that’s what I thought was going to give us the best chance for success at that time and that’s the play I called.”
(On WR Dede Westbrook’s toughness) “Incredibly tough, incredibly tough. He plays a lot bigger than his size, and just unbelievably tremendous toughness. Very rarely lets the first guy bring him down ever, I just can’t say enough about Dede [Westbrook]. He gets in there and blocks and runs good routes. We ask him to do a lot of things and he handles a lot of things well. We ask him to run option routes, and corners and get in the middle of the field, and there’s a lot of guys in there at times. So, I think he does a great job of doing a lot of the things we ask him to. The ‘F’ position on our offense is not easy to play, OK? I’m not trying to downplay any other position on our offense in terms of the skill players, but that is probably the toughest position to play on our offense, and a lot of times that can be a tight end or a receiver. But, when you’re inside, whether you’re a tight end or a receiver, we ask you to do a lot of different things.”
(On if the offense has made progress in minimizing penalties) “Yeah, I think we’ve made progress. You’re going to have holding penalties every once and while, it’s just going to happen. The thing that we have to do a better job of eliminating, to me, and not just on the O-Line, but all around from an alignment standpoint and those things, are the pre-snap issues, the things we can control. We’ve played some really good D-Line’s up front, I’m not trying to give our guys an out by any means, but there’s going to be some holding calls. And as long as those guys are going full speed, we want to eliminate those as much as we can. The thing we need to do a better job of, to me, is just some of the pre-snap issues we have. The third and one cadence issue we had, the alignment issue we had in the four-minute drill, that not only gives you five yards, but it stops the clock. So, those are the things that we can control that I think we can do a little better job at, but they’re getting better there’s no doubt.”
(On where Minshew’s progress stands out the most) “That’s a good question, and we were talking about this the other day as a staff. If you turn on his first game against Houston, his first start, compared to the last game we played, the Jets, his feet have calmed down tremendously. His vision has calmed down tremendously, has grown exponentially. He can tell you what’s going on when he comes over to the sideline and communicates great with [Quarterbacks Coach] Scott [Milanovich]. So, just those things when he gets the ball in his hand, I think he’s really starting to understand he has a chance of seeing before he gets the ball in his hand, in terms of the depth of the safeties, the alignment of the [Line]backers. The backers are bossed over, there’s a chance the free safety can come down and play 33-weak, little things like that. But from a physical standpoint, you just see he so much calmer in the pocket from just a footwork standpoint.”
(On if Minshew has a long way to go in his development) “There’s always a long way to go, always. I’m proud to say that I learned football – some of my mentors were in the 49ers [coaching] tree, and they tell stories about Joe Montana, and Steve Young and those guys and [they were] always asking for coaching on footwork and fundamentals, just always trying to get better. I bring up Tom Brady a lot, Tom Brady goes every year out west to a quarterback guy to work on his footwork. I mean, that’s a guy that’s arguably one of the best, if not the best, that’s ever played. So, I use those guys as an example [of] star players in our league that are just always looking to get better.”
(On if opposing coordinators assume that Minshew will learn from his mistakes in prior games when watching his film) “Yes, it’s like offense, we may run the same play out of a different formation or a different personnel grouping, and they may have been coached up on how to stop that play against a certain personnel grouping, or a certain formation. It’s like anything, they may give up a different presentation to a same blitz or may play a different coverage behind that same blitz. I don’t want to say you’ve ever perfected it, but I think once you see something once or twice, there’s no doubt you get better at recognizing those things.”
(On if it’s going to be hard to fool Minshew twice) “I would hope so. I would hope so. You see him and he just looks more relaxed in there.”
(On the communication and cohesiveness of the offensive line) “It starts with Brandon Linder. And it’s a credit to all those guys. I talked to Brandon this morning as I was coming in to work, and we were walking in together. I think he has really taken that protection piece – I don’t want to say off of Gardner’s plate – but he’s really helped him in that. And there’s a lot for any quarterback to see, but especially a young guy that’s in there, and he has done a tremendous job of getting everyone on the same page. And he is, I can’t say enough great things about Brandon Linder, and I said that to him this morning, and that’s a credit to all of those guys. But he is the glue that kind of holds that thing together.”
