Brian Daboll – © USA TODAY Sports
DECEMBER 26, 2023 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Tuesday (VIDEO):
Q: Where are you on naming a quarterback for this week?
A: We’ll talk about it as a staff. We’re finishing up this game and we’ll talk about it tonight.
Q: We only have two games left. Will anything for the future go in? Or is it just about these two games? Because obviously, as (Senior Vice President/General Manager) Joe (Schoen) pointed out, (quarterback) Tommy’s (DeVito) is the only backup quarterback under contract, so will that factor in? Or is it just about these two games?
A: We’re just getting ready for the Rams here; we’ll talk about that tonight.
Q: When you look at this season – and I know there will be time for a real dissection of the season, but how do you keep your players in these final couple weeks of just being sort of – knowing they’re out of it and maybe showing some of that in their play or approach?
A: Look, I thought we competed hard yesterday. We have a bunch of competitors that are going to do their jobs. Come in, get ready to go against the Rams and try to play and coach as good as we can.
Q: With your receiver rotation, I’ll call it. I’m not sure what else to call it, your rotation of receivers, are you satisfied with the way that the big plays were made? We see (wide receiver Darius) Slayton with a big play yesterday, that kind of thing. (Wide receiver) Wan’Dale (Robinson) gets a lot of opportunities for not a lot of yardage. Is that one of the things maybe that you’ll particularly look at?
A: Right now, we’re just going to try to do as good as we can against the Rams and put together a plan. There’ll be a time for all that but now it’s get ready to go here on the Rams.
Q: A couple of things. Down the stretch, you’ve been in a lot of seasons, in the playoffs, out of the playoffs, who you’re playing, who you’re not playing. I mean, down the stretch here, you’ve played the Eagles, you’ll play them twice, the Rams, obviously in the thick of the playoff race. Is that a carrot that you can show to your team? I mean, you’re playing against teams that are in it, hungry and need to win, you know what I mean? And you need to match that, obviously, or things won’t go well.
A: I’d just say we try to do everything we can do each week. Certainly, haven’t got the results that we want but compete and do everything you can do to get ready to play a game in this league. Regardless of where I’ve been or what I’ve been, if you’re a competitor, that’s what you get excited to do.
Q: Do you notice these games can be different against – two teams in it, two teams out of it, teams fighting for position. In other years, the Rams might be coming here, they’re not in it, they’re making a long trip, you can kind of sense it. That’s not going to be the sense that you’re going to get from the Rams, I’m sure, this week.
A: I don’t sense that (in) any game I’ve ever coached in. You’re playing pros that are competitive. You try to everything you can do each week to win.
Q: You have two players on your defense who played every snap this year, (inside linebacker) Bobby (Okereke) and (safety Xavier) McKinney. That’s obviously not an easy thing to do. Do they ever ask for a play off? Or is it a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell?’
A: They do a really good job of taking care of their bodies, prehabbing. They practice, too, almost every play, so durability is obviously an important thing and both of those guys have been good players for us. It’s certainly a hard thing to do.
Q: (Tackle) Evan Neal, was he not close? You put him on IR. It was a long time with the ankle but was it just not going to work?
A: Evan’s done everything he could possibly do but couldn’t make it here so there’ll be stuff down the road, but the young man’s done everything he could possibly do. Just didn’t work out.
Q: Stuff down the road as far as a procedure or something he may need?
A: Yeah.
Q: Were there any injuries out of yesterday’s game that might be a concern heading into next week?
A: We’ll have more – I haven’t met with the trainers yet. They’re still meeting the doctors, so I’ll have more for you tomorrow.
Q: Now that you’re eliminated, is there like this – for a moment you let yourself feel a sense of disappointment or do you worry about that after the season?
A: Certainly, you’re disappointed. You put everything you have into it each year to get an opportunity to compete in the postseason, but our focus and my focus right now is on to the next week and to do everything we can do to go out there and play a good game against the Rams.
Q: I wanted to ask about (punter) Jamie Gillan and how he was doing. There was a report on the broadcast yesterday that he had to wear a wrap on his kicking leg. Was there any consideration on him not going yesterday?
A: Jamie was good to go. He miss-hit that first ball – actually, what happened (was) that first return that they had, returned it all the way down to positive territory, he was going to make the tackle and he landed on his knee and that’s what’s bothering him right now. So, it was on the tackle on the returner on that first punt.
Q: How’s he doing today?
A: I haven’t talked to those guys yet.
Q: If he’s feeling badly, is there talk about I guess kind of maybe bringing someone in for workouts? I know you haven’t had those conversations.
A: We’ll have that conversation here in about an hour.
Q: Regarding guys who are able to practice, not miss a practice, not miss a snap, what goes into that thinking? Because obviously you guys, with the sports scientists, you monitor practice reps, you monitor game reps, obviously there is bumps and bruises, so how do you kind of determine, okay Bobby and Xavier, they’re good to go, this guy isn’t good to go. I mean, especially this time of year when guys are banged up.
A: Yeah, we try to take that into account with all our practice routines, so some are more walk throughs. There might be times where we give X or Bobby a little bit of – a couple reps here and back off them a little bit but they are as competitive as I’ve seen and I’ve been around some players a long time ago that took every rep at practice, every rep in the game, every rep on show team, every rep on special teams show team when they were on it, so these two guys, you call them throwbacks a little bit in terms of their ability to stay durable and perform down in and down out.
Q: Do you find that sometimes you have to protect guys from themselves because they really want to go out there and they are maybe not good enough to go out there, so to speak?
A: Yeah, sure and I think our guys do a good job in the training room and strength and conditioning of making sure that we’re on top of that, but you also appreciate players like that, that want to be out there all the time.
Q: When you make a move like you did yesterday at quarterback, you know seeking a spark, is that an in the moment thing for you? Or do you guys discuss going into the game circumstances and say, ‘okay, this is the week we are going to make a move if we need to make a move’? How does that decision making play itself out for you in this situation?
A: I made that decision at halftime. Just felt we needed to do something to try to spark us. I think we were one-of-eight on third down, 55 yards passing and that was a collective thing, though. For everybody. But it’s a decision I made at halftime and that’s how we went with it.
Q: Is that always a difficult situation to make in that situation when you’re trying to judge? Because the previous week, you guys had struggled offensively as well but you didn’t make that decision, go down that road the previous week.
A: Yeah, I just felt for that particular game that was the decision that I needed to make.
Q: Will you consider backing off (running back) Saquon (Barkley) and (defensive lineman) Dexter (Lawrence II), in particular, given the circumstances now?
A: No. No, if they are ready and capable to go, then they’ll be playing.
Q: I know in the moment yesterday; you are very wary of what you can say about some of those controversial calls. With some time to breath, I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the calls or if maybe you can dance around it like (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) did and say do you feel like a game should be officiated at the end the same way it is throughout the game and what the teaching point is for Bobby at the end of the first half, if that’s kind of a fine line between how you are supposed to know if that’s a fumble versus a delay of game.
A: Appreciate the question, well thought out.
Q: It really was well thought out, wasn’t it?
A: It was, but you know, officials have a job to do. I respect the job that they have to do it. Any decisions or calls, you can ask them about it.
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
Head Coach Brian Daboll and select players address the media on Wednesday.
