Aug 122022
 
Daniel Jones, New York Giants (August 11, 2022)

Daniel Jones – © USA TODAY Sports

AUGUST 12, 2022 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Friday to discuss his team’s 23-21 victory over the New England Patriots (the video of the press conference is also available on YouTube):

Daboll: How’s everybody doing? Well, we had a late night last night. Got in pretty early in the morning. Just started getting rolling here. Had a meeting at one o’clock. The coaches are just getting in with the players right now and starting to review the tape. Long night, so we’ll get after this tape and make the corrections. In terms of injuries and where we are with some of those guys, I have a medical meeting here right after this meeting; so, I don’t have much to add from what I talked about last night, which was about 12 hours ago. So, with that, our guys played tough, physical, fast, which we were looking for. A lot of good situations to learn from and improve on, and that’s going to be our focus this week.

Q: At offensive guard, what did you think of (Josh) Ezeudu’s work last night and if (Guard) Shane (Lemieux) has to miss some time and (Guard) Jamil (Douglas) is out, do you think Josh has shown himself so far that he can handle that responsibility inside?

A: I’d say really with all the rookies, and this has usually been the case in my history coaching, is it takes them a little time to get warmed up. And I thought that that was the case with really all of our rookies. But I thought we saw a lot of good things from those guys as you went on. A lot of the things that I showed the team today, whether it be Ezeudu doing a good job with getting movement at the line of scrimmage or (Linebacker Micah) McFadden making some good instinctive plays, (Linebacker Darrian) Beavers, (Tight End Daniel) Bellinger on some back-side blocks, (Wide Receiver) Wan’Dale (Robinson), really all the guys I thought as the game went on, they improved. Which you like to see that and they’re going to need to take another step this week of having a good week of practice and going out there and playing again.

Q: You had 16 guys miss the game last night that you left home. You had another three hurt. We’re talking about almost a fifth of your team now. How much of a concern is that? How hard is it to function for the coming week if those guys can’t come back?

A: I think that’s always something you talk about. You like to have as many guys out there as you can. Again, our ultimate goal is to get to Week 1 as healthy as we can with the right roster. Anyone that is healthy that’s ready to go, we’re going to play. And the guys that we don’t think are quite ready or maybe need a little bit more time, we’re going to help them get as good as they can so that we’ll get the best version of themselves when they’re ready to go. But injuries, you talk about injuries every week. There’s constant roster management. Who’s going where.? That’s just part of the business.

Q: You mentioned Beavers. How did he look to you? What was he able to do? And what did you think of him calling the defense for a bit there it looked like?

A: I think he’s an instinctive player. He’s got good size and length. Much like Ezeudu, there were some really good plays he had and some plays that we need to correct and teach from so that next time, we’re a little bit better at them. But he’s a young man that loves football, that has good intelligence, that’s tough, that’s dependable. And he’s a good young player to work with.

Q: (Cornerback) Aaron Robinson. It looked like he was having trouble staying up with guys from the first step off the line. Is that a technique thing he needs to sharpen? Obviously, he played mostly slot versus outside in the past. Is it that? What do you make of Aaron after you watch the tape?

A: There’s some good things that he had I think and some things we can get better at. Again, really that’s for all of us – starts with me and goes all the way down. But Aaron’s had a good camp and it’s a good competitive situation. Corners are going to get beat once in a while and it’s how you respond the next play, the next game. And have a lot of confidence in A-Rob. He’s had a good camp. Really all the positions, there’s something that showed up that technique-wise we need to be better at and that starts in practice. Whether it’s defending the deep ball, whether it’s getting square on our blocks, or tackling or stacking defensive backs, throwing ball a little bit high, setting our feet – there’s so many different things that come up. That’s why this is a really good evaluation because you’re playing real live football. Everybody is practicing, and you can’t live tackle a quarterback or you can’t live tackle a running back. And it would be a minus two-yard run, but in this case again it was a holding penalty. (Running Back) Gary Brightwell splits two defenders and runs for 15 yards. That’s why these preseason games are so valuable.

Q: You mentioned Brightwell, I was going to ask about (Running back) Antonio (Williams) but, just overall the way your backup running backs ran the ball, what was your thought on that?

A: So, I think the running back room has good competition and I said that in the meeting today to those guys. It’s a competitive room. They’re tough, they’re doing a good job with the system, they’re a supportive group even though it’s a competitive group, they run downhill with power, and they break tackles. There are certainly things that we can clean up, pass protection, physicalness without the ball, but it’s been a good group to work with. Gary did a nice job on special teams and so did Antonio and so did (Running back Jashaun) Corbin. Hopefully, we’ll get (Running back) Matt (Breida) as quickly as we can but it’s a competitive group. (Running back) Saquon (Barkley) was good in those first couple carries. I thought he hit the ball downhill, didn’t dance, and then (Running back) Sandro (Platzgummer) finished it off. Let’s not forget about him.

Q: I have a couple on (Wide receiver) Kenny Golladay for you. First, what did you see on the third down play at the seven-yard line? It looked like (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones) put the ball where he wanted to there. Just a larger Kenny Golladay question, when you look at like him, a tall guy, maybe doesn’t get the most separation and you want to get the ball to him, do you look at him and say “I’ve got to figure out things in my offense or our offense that can help him?” Or at some point do you say “well he has to maybe do a little more.”

A: I think as a coach you do that with every player that you have, not just with Kenny. Whether it’s receivers, running backs, or tight ends, you try to figure out what they do well and try to use it to your advantage. Again, in these types of games, too, you’re running some basic plays and you’re trying to get as much of an evaluation of all the players as you can. We didn’t really move much yesterday relative to motions or anything like that. It was fairly stationary and they played some man, played a little bit of zone, disguised some, blitzed some. So, it was good work for us on offense and I’d say the same thing on defense. They threatened the deep part of the field with some go-balls and tried a variety of runs. It’s just a good evaluation tool for all of us. Whether it’s Kenny or someone else, we’re always trying to do what’s best for the player.

Q: With that third down play though, were you happy with the way Daniel executed that play?

A: Yeah, I mean it always can be a little bit better and we can finish it a little bit better, but again that’s the redzone. Making tight throws, tight catches, you’d like the accuracy to be exactly where you want it, he put it a little bit low, and we just failed to convert on that. That’s part of the technique and the fundamentals that we’ll work on.

Q: When you have a guy like (Wide receiver Kadarius) Toney, who had a problem staying on the field and the first preseason game he’s not ready, is that a concern?

A: No. He worked really hard coming from the offseason to get to where he is right now. Things happen in practice, things happen in a game. If he was ready to go, he would be out there. We thought it would be in our best interest and in his best interest not to play this game relative to what he was going through, his injury, and hopefully these next few days will calm it down and we’ll be ready to go again.

Q: I had a question about (Wide receiver) Darius Slayton. He’s been running with the twos and the threes a lot through camp, and he was out there with the starters and then only played with the starters. Just curious as to why you used him that way last night?

A: Well, there were certain plays that I wanted to see him on. I think he’s had the last three or four days where he’s earned that opportunity. That’s something that we talk about with our guys. Really draft status and how you got here, if you’re competing and you’re doing well in practice, our job is to give you opportunities. I thought that he earned those opportunities. We’ll see where he’s at. We just pulled him out there after the first five or six plays. He tightened up a little bit, so hopefully he’ll be ready to go.

Q: (Defensive coordinator) Wink (Martindale) admitted the other day that he’s really comfortable with the starters at corner, but the depth is a little unsettled. Did anybody flash to you last night? Any of those young guys look good to you?

A: I think they all competed. We played a lot of man-to-man coverage, so it was a good evaluation. Made some good plays and then we have to do a good job of finding the ball and locating it in the deep part of the field. I thought those guys competed, tackled fairly well, tight in coverage. We’ve got to keep working on making plays on the ball.

Q: Can you give us an update on any of the PUP guys? Are they closer like (Wide receiver Sterling Shepard) Shep, I know (Center) Nick (Gates) is probably a while away, but Shep and (Linebacker) Azeez (Ojulari) and those guys?

A: I think they are getting closer. In terms of a time frame, I can’t give it to you right now, but they are getting closer. They’re improving day to day and hopefully they’ll be out there as soon as they can.

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players are off on Saturday and there is no media availability to the team. The Giants return to practice Sunday morning (10:00AM-noon). That practice will be open to the public. Head Coach Brian Daboll and select players will also address the media.

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Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.

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