| JAGUARS DE JOSH ALLEN (On sustaining an injury for the first time in his career and his progression) “It sucked at first just not being able to be out there and not be able to compete. [I] just never knew how that felt and especially at this high level. I know in college, if that happened to me in college, I’d probably be playing hurt, which is probably not smart, but my mindset was always going. Then, once I’m here in this situation now in the highest level, I have to start taking care of myself and taking care of my body because my body is what gets me to be the best and if that’s not 100 percent, then I can’t go. So, once I started to think like that, started thinking like a professional, I started to become real life and just get back healthy, just get back as soon as I can. The bye week, I feel great right now and I’m ready to go.” (On the status of his recovery from the injury) “I felt great last week when we played the Chargers. When we played the Chargers, I felt good just being back my first game back. Now, I even had more time to heal up, I feel even better and I’m excited for this week.” (On the development of rookie DT DaVon Hamilton) “It’s definitely cool to see. Just him progressing each week. It’s just something that we need. We need a lot of playmakers up front and he’s definitely been one of those guys and he just brings a lot of push and a lot of motivation for all the other guys to get at the run. [I] hope he continues to play like that and we need that for the rest of the year.” (On what the defense will do differently in the second matchup against the Houston Texans this weekend) “That was the first game I missed, so I wasn’t there last time we played them which sucks. But according to what I saw, we stopped the run pretty well. They didn’t have a lot of rushing yards until the last couple plays of the game, so we’re real confident about what we can do in the run game. We just have to play with confidence and now we just have to make plays in the backend and just get to the quarterback every play. Then I feel like if we do that consistently, I feel like we’ll dominate this game upfront.” (On the addition of CB Sidney Jones IV to the defense) “It’s definitely been huge for us with all the injuries that we’ve had here for him to come out and just produce like that against Houston. I know he got hurt when we played the Chargers. I saw him back out there today and he looks really good and I’m excited to play with him again and hopefully he has another big game like he did a couple weeks ago.” (On the Houston Texans adding three players to their COVID list today) “What? Do you know who the players are? Man, they just need to forfeit the game. They don’t need to play. They just need to forfeit the game, just get all the guys healthy and move on to Week 10. I’m just kidding, I hope everybody’s healthy over there. I don’t wish anybody to get sick or miss any games because they’re missing paychecks and they have families to take care of too. Hopefully, they get back healthy and I’m just ready to play. We have to play with the cards that we’re dealt with, they have to play with the cards they’re dealt with and we’ll just see how it goes Sunday.” (On the uncertainty this season in regard to COVID-19) “It just sucks. It sucks that it’s still here, but my thing is just I wish God… and it’s hard to say you can take care of yourself because I try to take care of myself and you never know who you might come in contact with. You know, you’re outside and you’re talking to a family member, you’re just talking to somebody just real cordial and you never know. That person might have it and now you think you’ve been doing everything safe and then I bring it in and then I get into people’s contact tracing. So, it’s definitely been real dangerous but it’s really crazy with all the protocols that we have. I know they’ve been fining the crap out of people if you don’t wear masks, so that’s something that gets guys to wear the masks inside the building. We can only do our parts inside the building and outside the building as well. I know I go straight home, and I don’t leave the house, so I try to do my part and I pray that guys do their part and that’s all I can really ask for. I wish everybody the best. I wish everybody is healthy because I don’t want to see anybody get sick or get anybody else sick and lose money from that.” (On the mood in the locker room) “We’re trying to win. Everybody in that locker room is trying to win. We prepare ourselves like we’re going to a battle to win each play and that’s the mindset we all have to have and that’s the mindset that we have in the locker room. We’re all excited about this matchup this week and we’re just looking forward to it. That’s what everybody’s mindset is. It’s just to come out here and win.” (On the political conversations within the team) “I feel like we only talked about that as a group when we had the talk about the standing for the flag and that’s when we got everybody to see what people were about and see how they felt. So that was the only time we talked about politics collectively, but I know I talked to a couple guys on the team just to see what they feel like. Nobody judges. I haven’t judged anyone, nobody judges me on what I say, which [is how] it should go. But [I] just talked to a lot of guys to see how they feel and their opinions on situations. In this locker room, I can honestly say that we have a lot of respect for everybody on both sides. I know people that voted for [Donald] Trump and they told me their reason and people that voted for [Joe] Biden, they told me their reasons. There’s not ever going back and forth with each other, it’s always ‘Why did you go for him?’ or ‘Why’d you go for him?’, so it’s a lot of that. I see a lot of people sitting down real cordial and it’s always good to see people small talk like that, but we respect everybody’s decision and whoever wins wins and I feel like we all respect that decision.” |
JAGUARS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR TODD WASH
(On the improvement on the pass rush game) “You know, I think we’ve done a [much] better job of getting them on third-and-7 plus, which allows our defensive line, obviously, to pin their ears back. It’s not a 50-50 down for them. And then we’ve also been bringing a little bit more pressure that statistically has shown, not only on just first and second downs, run-stopping pressures Then on third down we’re bringing a little bit more pressure. But I think a lot of it has to do with just getting those guys in third-and-7 plus situations.”
(On DE Josh Allen’s progress) “Yeah, I think it’s the key with a lot of players. If they stay healthy and they’ve got the skill set to play at this level, that they’re going to have production. And you see him out there in practice these last couple weeks, and even last week and this week when we practiced, he’s really moving around well. His change of direction, he doesn’t have a little stutter when he changes direction. So, I think we’re going to continue to see him improve as the season goes on; if he stays healthy.”
(On DT DaVon Hamilton’s performance and development) “You know, he’s a big, strong, physical guy. What we’ve kind of seen as the season has gone on, he’s played well. Maybe hadn’t play as well and then played well again, so we’ve had a little bit of ups and downs. And I think that is just part of being a rookie, at this phase, missing the whole offseason and stuff like that. They’re continuing to develop. But you see the stoutness that we like in the run game. His ability to run, he plays real hard and extremely smart, so we can do a lot of different things with him. Move him, have some design stuff for him, because he is intelligent. But I think he’s going to be a solid player in this league for a while.”
(On S Daniel Thomas’ progress over the next few weeks) “You know, I think he’s got a good skill set. Once again, he’s a rookie and that kind of stuff. He’s learning as we go. There [are] some things that we can do, packages wise, to get Daniel in there, but he does have play-making ability. We’ve got to make sure that he understands everything we’re asking him to do. And we’ll see what happens in the next coming weeks in the season.”
(On what creative plans they came up with during the bye week) “You know, looking back at the bye week, a lot of it, what we figured out is when our guys know what they’re doing and they’re out there, they can play well. And we’ve had some spurts of some good things, but the biggest thing for us, is we’ve got to continue to put them in the right spots. And when they get in those right spots, they’ve got to be able to make some plays. But I think any time you get a bye week, you get to build a self-scout yourself, even in great detail. You get a little bit more time to teach some stuff and as we say each week, it’s Thursday, so we’ll see what happens when we get to the game.”
(On what it’s been like as a coach with all of the uncertainties this year) “Well, I think a lot of it is, you’ve got to make sure your backups are ready to play. Obviously, we know injuries are part of the game and guys are going to end up getting necked-up and not be able to play. But this could happen on a Saturday morning, with the testing and the stuff that we have. So, I think it’s key that you’re making sure that you’re getting a lot of guys ready to play a game. We do a lot of rotating in practice, trying to get the backups ready in case that they need to play. The reps are a little bit different than we’ve done in the past, just to make sure if something does happen, we’ve got people ready to play and they’re ready to go. So, that’s the biggest adjustment. Usually, it’s only injuries—why guys aren’t playing. But this year, a lot of strange things can happen and we’ve got to do the best we can to prepare for it.”
(On whether it’s business as usual even with the Houston Texans player testing positive) “Well, you try to make it that way, we’re routine-driven; the players, the coaches and that kind of stuff. But I think we have plans in place in case something happened. But we just got [thrown] a curve ball about a player today—it doesn’t have anything to do with COVID-19, but all of a sudden, he’s not practicing and we have a package for him. So, we’ve got to make some adjustments and that kind of stuff and that’s just what you do as a coach and as a player.”
(On what the toughest challenges are for DE/LB K’Lavon Chaisson) “I think the biggest thing for him—it’s tough as a rookie d-lineman, especially as a pass rusher, to come in and make an impact right away, especially when you haven’t had an offseason. We see flashes of good rushes, we see him beating guys, maybe the ball is out and that kind of stuff. I know we’ve sat down and made a list of things that he needs to get better at. And he’s getting better as the season has gone on, it’s just too bad that we don’t have an offseason for some of these young pass rushers and some of these young players.”
(On whether there has been consideration of moving DE/LB K’Lavon Chaisson to another position) “No.”
