Friday, September 25, 2020
CB Xavien Howard
(I wanted to ask you how good did it feel to get that first pick of the year last night?) – “It felt great, man, to get the first one on the team. Me and the guys had a little competition going on to see who would get the first interception. It was great, though.”
(If I can follow, you looked like you grab the back of your knee after the pick. Can you tell us what happened there?) – “I was just cramping. Just a little cramp.”
(How close do you feel you are now to where you were in 2018 when you had become one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL?) – “I feel like I’m just improving each game and just focused on just staying healthy and trying to get better each year.”
(I wanted to ask you, what did you think defensively that you guys did better compared to the first two weeks?) – “I feel like everybody – I’d say we’re just getting better and buying into the defense, and just really understanding what’s going on on the defense. I feel like we just play out there. I’d say we just – like before the game starts, I told everybody, ‘just play. Let your nuts drop.’ And that’s what we did. (laughter)”
(Do you feel physically like you did when you were playing at an All-Pro level in 2018? Are you totally back to that or do you think there’s still a little more ways would you need to get to with the knee or physically?) – “I feel great. I’ve played three games so far, so I feel good.”
(CB Noah Igbinoghene had a bit of a rough game against Buffalo but really bounced back in a nice way. What did you see from him last night?) – “We just really – Noah is doing great things and really just learning. This is probably his third game playing and we didn’t really have a preseason, so really just like I said, just getting better and knowing what quarterbacks want to do to us and just really understanding the game.”
(I know it’s early, but what do you know about the Seahawks and have you had a chance to watch Seahawks QB Russell Wilson in action this season?) – “Not really. I did watch the (Seattle Seahawks) game against the Patriots. Russell (Wilson) is being Russell, man. He’s a great quarterback – a lot of movement with the ball. Guys have to just stay in coverage playing against Russell Wilson, because he makes some perfect passes.”
(How much of a boost was it for the secondary to get the pass rush that y’all got last night?) – “It was great. Everything was working together, I’d say. So we’ve just got to keep that going, everybody being on the same page.”
(I noticed that you played every single play. What have you spoken to the coaches about in that regard in terms of being on the field for every play?) – “I want to be on the field every play. I won’t say – I don’t have to speak to the coaches about nothing. I’m healthy. I’m out there if I’m healthy.”
(How great is it going to be getting CB Noah Igbinoghene this experience for when CB Byron Jones comes back? So not only do you have two Pro Bowl corners but a young guy who will have gotten some playing time under his wings. How helpful will that be?) – “It’ll be great, man. If anything happens, we have the next-man-up mentality. No matter if it’s Noah (Igbinoghene), Nik (Needham), Jamal (Perry), Tae Hayes; there’s a couple of guys that we’ve got if anything happens to go wrong.”
Friday, September 25, 2020
C Ted Karras
(I have many questions about the QB Ryan Fitzpatrick touchdown run, but I guess I want to start with your pancake block where you wound up on the ground in the end zone and then Fitzpatrick almost looks like he just became possessed by whatever it was that gets over him. Can you just talk us through that moment real quick?) – “He definitely brings the energy and that was a big play in the game. We had to punch it in and (it was a) pretty fun play call, and we executed it. The celebration – we brought a lot of energy. We had that all week and I think that’s what this team needs to build on and keep improving that and keep stringing good games together.”
(What message does it send to the entire team when you have a quarterback that is sacrificing his life on every play?) – “It’s the best message. That was a gutsy performance, obviously 18 of 20, I believe, and then a rushing touchdown, throwing blocks, getting fourth downs. That was an amazing performance and it’s an honor to go into a football game with a guy like that. It’s a lot of fun to be his friend and work towards a goal together.”
(What’d you see on tape when you watched that first series?) – “A lot of good execution. Guys doing their jobs. The running backs really running hard. Myles (Gaskin) had a great game – running hard, finding the open lane – and just good execution. We went down there – I think it was 12 plays – that’s pretty good to do, a way to set the tone for the game, and we’ve got to keep building off execution like that.”
(How would you assess the state of the running game?) – “Pretty solid. Good enough to win, I guess right now, but always can get better. It’s a lot easier to make some corrections after a win and after some success; but obviously keep striving to improve. (It was) good enough to put us in a position to control the game last night.”
(I noticed a lot of times when the opposing defensive line tries to get up and swat the ball down, some of you guys are out there burying those guys and punishing the jumpers. Is that a mindset you guys have that the coaching staff kind of teaches or what goes into that?) – “Yes. (Offensive Line) Coach (Steve) Marshall always talks about play style and that’s kind of been over the last – I guess since I’ve been in the league, a lot of people have been batting balls down. So it’s a good defensive play and it’s something that we have to be aware of if a defender stops his rush and starts to rise. You’ve got to either bring him down or make sure that he doesn’t want to do that again.”
(Obviously two rookies starting on the offensive line, four newcomers on the line and no preseason. Can you give us more insight as to how you guys have been able to come together and put forth the kind of performance you did last night?) – “I think everyone’s working extremely hard to get their specific job executed. We have a great coach – Coach Marshall – and our scheme is set up to put us in the best position to succeed, and I think guys are really taking things to heart. We have great men. I am very close personal friends with all of them now. It’s been fun, and we’re just going to keep grinding every day to keep getting better. We’ve got a long season ahead, but it was nice to get a win on Thursday night going into a long weekend.”
(It’s fine if you want to lump them together or answer this separately, but I was wondering the thing that’s most impressed you about T Austin Jackson and the thing that’s most impressed you about G Solomon Kindley?) – “Well lumping them together, they both work extremely hard and want to do the right things. I think they have great attitudes and just really a willingness to try to get better every day. I think Solomon (Kindley) is a mauler. It’s fun to play next to a guy like that – a guy that can come in and really move bodies and clean out the pocket on certain things. And then Austin Jackson, 21 years old playing left tackle in the league, that’s very, very impressive and I told those guys last night that I am very impressed with them, proud of them and they’re doing just a lot of great things. We’ve got to keep moving forward going into Week 4 now and we’ve just got to keep getting better.”
Friday, September 25, 2020
WR Preston Williams
(Can you take us through the touchdown last night?) – “We called a play where I had the back of the end zone. The dude was outside of me. I just knew I had to cross his face. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) threw a good catchable ball. I caught it. Touchdown.”
(How about the celebration afterwards? We saw a gif of it on Twitter this morning. What was that all about?) – “We’re just trying to be more together. We want to celebrate and enjoy those little victories. The dance, I got it from one of the artists that passed away, Pop Smoke. It was one of his dances called the Woo. I did it for Brooklyn, New York.”
(There was a fairly unusual occurrence last night with an awful lot of pass interference calls that led to touchdowns. As a receiver, can you sense when a guy is about to interfere with you? Is there anything that you do as a receiver to try to draw that contact?) – “Yeah. When the ball is coming and the DB doesn’t turn his head around or get his eyes around, you can jump into him to get that pass interference. There are a lot of little things that we can do to draw (those).”
(About a month ago or so, like maybe three weeks, you told us that injury – when you feel like you’ll fully be over it. So week to week, do you feel like you’re physically and mentally improving?) – “Yeah, I feel like my knee is getting better with more time. It will be a year in November, so I’m getting close to that year mark. It’s definitely feeling better every game.”
(What does a victory mean to this team and how does it change what this weekend will be like and next week as you prepare for the Seahawks to come in?) – “Winning is hard in the league. So when we get us a win, we really like winning, as everybody does. We are going to use this motivation going into next week. We’ve got a good opponent coming up so we just want to play a good executed game like we did, and see what we’re going to do. We’re going to work hard this week and see what the outcome is going to be next week.”
(All four of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s touchdowns this year has gone to you, WR DeVante Parker, and TE Mike Gesicki, guys who are 6-3, 6-5 and 6-6. From a player’s perspective, what does that length down in the red zone do as far as scoring touchdowns? How much does that help you to produce touchdowns when you get down there close to the goal line?) – “Us being big targets and DBs being smaller, it’s more of a 60/40 game at that point. I know ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) likes to have big receiver and people that can catch the ball. We’re all dependable, so he trusts us and we trust him, that we’re going to be at the spot we’re supposed to be at when he throws it.”
(I haven’t seen the exact schedule yet, but I’m assuming you guys will get a little bit of time over the weekend, which is rare for you guys. How do you expect to spend that free time?) – “Just everybody get their bodies back right. We had a quick turnaround – two games within like (four days). We just want to get our bodies back right, come in and be professionals. Stick to the game plan when they send it out. It isn’t really different, just a day off.”
Friday, September 25, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(How encouraging was it to see CB Noah Igbinoghene come back from obviously a tough game last Sunday to how he played last night? What does that say about him? And your other boundary corner – CB Xavien Howard – just how encouraged are you by how he looked last night? Obviously coming back from knee surgery is not easy.) – “Encouraged – I’m not sure if that’s the word. I expected both guys to bounce back. ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) is a mentally tough guy; so is Noah. We’ve got a lot of mentally tough guys on our team. They practice hard. They prepare for the game. They play with great energy. They played as a team. I wasn’t surprised that they bounced back. They’re prideful guys. We have a lot of prideful guys on this team, especially at that position. Look, you’ve got to have a short memory to play really any position in this league. There’s a lot of good players. Occasionally they make plays on us and we make plays on them. You’ve got to be able to just move on to the next play, next game, and try to be better, which they were last night.”
(You addressed this a little bit last night but that now that you’ve had 12 hours or so for it to sink in, what does it mean to this team to get in the win column?) – “I was just checking to see the time. Yeah, it’s been about 12 hours. (laughter) Look, that’s why we practice, that’s why we prepare. We do all of those things – we put all of the time in – to win ballgames. I’m excited for the players, our players, our coaches, to see the fruits of their labor. They’ve worked extremely hard and now the goal is to try to string them together and continue to do the things we’ve been doing. We can do them even better so that we can play better. Again, after watching the tape, there were a lot good things. There were also a lot of things we can correct. We didn’t play a perfect game. There’s never been a perfect game played. You try to make the corrections and try to play as well as you can. While there were a lot of good plays, there were a lot of things that we can get fixed so we can play better, play more consistent and make it harder on our opponents. Those are things that we’ll focus on this afternoon when we get to the players and watch the film with them. While there was a lot of good, there definitely is an opportunity for us to get better. I think if we can improve – good or bad, there’s always improvement that can be made.”
(I asked QB Ryan Fitzpatrick about this last night after the game but just that first drive, completing four passes to four different guys and kind of setting the tone to get a lot of people integrated early, how important is that and how does that kind of change maybe the start of a game?) – “I think it’s very important to get contributions from different guys that can’t lock in and key on one person and say ‘Hey, this is a guy we have to take away.’ I think we did a good job of spreading the ball around, getting the run game going a little bit. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) ran it a little bit, so you just create issues for the defense – or our opponent – and force them to guard everyone. Force them to defend every inch of the field. That’s what you want to do offensively. We were ready to do that early. I wish we would’ve sustained it a little bit better in the second half but it’s always good to get off to a fast start and integrate everyone, and spread the ball around and get the running game going. Those are all good things. They led to a fast start and then we played well in the kicking game and made some stops defensively, and we were able to string some points together and build a lead. That’s how we want to play. ‘Fitz’ knows that and understands that. He made some good decisions last night and hopefully we continue to play that way.”
(You talked about the bounce back from CB Xavien Howard and CB Noah Igbinoghene on the first question of this presser. During the broadcast, Troy Aikman kept talking about the shift of the defense kind of playing more off-coverage. I’m curious if that’s something you can confirm for us and if that was more based on what the defense did in Week 2 or based more upon what the Jaguars presented on offense for you guys?) – “Every week we’re going to try to do whatever we can or what we feel is best to win the game. I thought (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) and our defensive staff came up with a good game plan for this particular team this particular week. It was a mix of zone calls, man calls, blitzes. I thought we mixed it well and kept them off balance. You never want to do just one thing or do just a couple of things. You want to be able to mix the calls, mix the fronts offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. So to keep our opponent off balance, that’s what we always try to do; and I thought Josh did a great job of that defensively, (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) offensively and (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny (Crossman) in the kicking game. Credit to those guys and credit to the players for executing the game plan.”
(What has impressed you most about what RB Myles Gaskin has done?) – “He’s been productive. He goes in there and runs it effectively, catches the ball, blocks in pass protection, plays some in the kicking game. He’s tough, he’s competitive and he’s been productive. If you’re productive in this league, you get more opportunities and that’s been the case for him.”
(I just wanted to follow up on DE Jason Strowbridge. Are you able to provide any detail about why he was unable to make the trip and if you would expect him to be ready to practice next week?) – “Yeah, we expect him to practice. He was inactive and we left him and decided not to travel him. That’s just a week-to-week – who we’re going to travel and who we’re not. But ‘Strow’ (Jason Strowbridge) has worked hard. He’s done a good job. He’s developing. We expect him to be part of the future here. He just has to continue to work hard and improve. I wouldn’t make too much of whether he traveled or not. He’s doing a very good job and when his opportunity presents itself, hopefully he’s ready.”
(Do you have any updates for us on any players who may have gotten banged up in last night’s game? I saw TE Adam Shaheen for example go down. And secondly, the main thing I wanted to ask you about, clearly QB Gardner Minshew II is a different kind of quarterback from what you faced before; but what have you seen defensively that you can build upon because QB Russell Wilson is your next guy up.) – “To the injuries, we had a few guys who were banged up. All are getting treatment. All are rehabbing. You mentioned Shaheen. Shaheen actually went back into the game last night so he’s just getting treatment and rehab from some nicks and bruises here. We’ve got a handful of guys from that standpoint but we’ll see what that looks like. We’ve got a couple of extra days to improve and get better. We’ll see what that looks like next week. As far as some of the things that we’ve done over the last couple of weeks, in respect to Russell Wilson, this is obviously one of the best players in the league. We’ll do our due diligence as far as scouting it and evaluating him and the rest of their team, and try to put ourselves in the best positions to contain him and contain that offense. But it will be a total team effort. Just defensively, it will be the d-line, the (line)backers, the secondary we want to play a cohesive game filled with really good communication and good tackling and a good pass rush. Look, this is one of the best players in the league. Again, I haven’t watched all of the film yet. That’s kind of the next step in my routine here after I get done doing media the day after a game, but we know this is going to be a great challenge. I think we’ve seen some good quarterbacks and some guys who are mobile over the last few weeks; but this is one of the best guys in the league. It will be a challenge.”
(I wanted to ask about the defense. You mentioned the game plan that they had. What specifically did they do after watching the film that you were happy with? Or that you thought they did better in comparison to the first two weeks?) – “I think there was better communication, better awareness. I think we just had overall better energy. It was just better overall. I would say the communication was at the forefront. We rushed the passer better. We had better situations to rush the passer, I would say. Having a lead and rushing the passer is different than rushing the passer when you don’t have a lead. I think defensively, when you think about it, there’s a lot of other things that go into it: how you play in the kicking game, how you play offensively, do you have a lead, do you not have a lead, is it two-minute. There are a lot of things that go into it defensively. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we played well early, we got a lead, and that kind of changed their game plan and made it more of a passing game so we were able to put pressure on the quarterback and create a couple of turnovers. That’s how we want to play.”
(Last night on your defensive line, DT Davon Godchaux’s snaps were down and DT Zach Sieler actually played more than him. Was Godchaux banged up or was that just a lineup decision? And what has led you to play Sieler more the last couple of weeks?) – “Well Sieler has gone in there and been productive. He’s been productive in practice. He went in there and had production in the game yesterday. Again, like we’ve always said, it’s no different than the Myles Gaskin conversation; if a player goes into a game and has a good rush or has a good pass rush or a good run or a good catch or a good play in the kicking game or a good punt or a good hold, to me, that warrants another opportunity to see if they can have another successful play, and that’s what happened with Sieler. That’s no knock on Godchaux. He’s had many good plays himself. That’s why he’s played a lot in this league. But last night, we called Sieler’s number. We’ve got a locker room full of team players there. They’re happy for each other and happy for each other’s success. They pick each other up when we have failures. That’s what I like about the locker room. I don’t like pitting whose numbers against somebody else’s numbers. I think we’re all in here just trying to win ballgames. The guys don’t care about who gets what reps. They just want to do what they can to help us win. Now they’re all competitors and they all want to play, but they also understand that we’re all trying to just go out there and put the best group out there and try to win ballgames. Sometimes you go with the hot hand. When Godchaux is the hot hand, we’ll leave him in there and he knows that too.”
