Wink Martindale and Brian Daboll – © USA TODAY Sports
NEW YORK GIANTS ROSTER MOVES…
The New York Giants made the following roster moves on Monday:
- Signed defensive lineman Henry Mondeaux off of the team’s Practice Squad.
- Activated cornerback Rodarius Williams from Injured Reserve.
- Waived offensive tackle Devery Hamilton and cornerback Justin Layne.
- Terminated the Practice Squad contract of offensive tackle Will Holden.
The Giants signed Mondeaux to the Practice Squad in September 2022. He has been elevated to the roster for three games, the maximum allowed in a single season. The 6’5”, 280-pound Mondeaux was originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the New Orleans Saints after the 2018 NFL Draft. He has spent time with the Saints (2018), Kansas City Chiefs (2019), and Pittsburgh Steelers (2019-2022). The Steelers waived him in late August 2022.
The Giants placed Williams on Injured Reserve in mid-October 2021 with a torn ACL. Before suffering the season-ending injury, Williams played in five games, including 15 percent of all defensive snaps. Still not fully recovered from the injury, Williams was placed on Injured Reserve in late August this year. The Giants drafted Williams in the 6th round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The 6’6”, 311-pound Hamilton was originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the Las Vegas Raiders after the 2021 NFL Draft. The Raiders released him from their Practice Squad in September 2021 and he was then signed by the Giants to their Practice Squad in October 2021.
The Giants claimed Justin Layne off of waivers from the Pittsburgh Steelers in late August 2022. The 6’2”, 192-pound Layne was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Steelers.
The Giants signed Will Holden as a street free agent in early August 2022. The 6’7”, 312-pound Holden was originally drafted in the 5th-round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He has spent time with the Cardinals (2017-2018, 2018-2019), Indianapolis Colts (2018, 2020), New Orleans Saints (2018), Miami Dolphins (2019), Seattle Seahawks (2019), San Francisco 49ers (2019), Baltimore Ravens (2019-2020), and Detroit Lions (2021).
NOVEMBER 14, 2022 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Monday to discuss his team’s 24-16 win over the Houston Texans (the VIDEO of the press conference is also available on YouTube):
Q: I wanted to ask you specifically (about quarterback) Daniel (Jones) and (wide receiver) Darius Slayton, who came into the league together, built up some chemistry. When you look at systems, offensive systems change throughout the years, different concepts and what not. What elements of chemistry can carry over from year to year to year regardless of the system?
A: I think a lot. Those guys work a lot together during the week and then in the offseason. They throw a lot after practice. Again, reading a receiver’s body language and having trust in them that they’re going to be where they’re supposed to be and make a play on the ball when you throw it to them, I think, is really important in quarterback play and receiver – call it skill play. That’s really the passing game. You can get some zone coverages, which we got yesterday. And we got some man coverages like you do every week. So, one is having the confidence that your player, as a quarterback, is going to beat the player that he’s going against, or in zone that they’re going to be reading it the right way, getting the head turn the right way, knowing when to let it go. So, the more you can do that with the skill players as a quarterback, I think the more trust develops. And that’s really what the passing game is. That’s where it all starts.
Q: Can that chemistry kind of elevate a receiver’s game, do you think, more so than maybe skill to a degree?
A: It’s probably a combination of both. Again, there’s a lot of things that need to go right in terms of the passing game. But certainly, the person throwing it, the person catching it – it starts there. So, you’d like to have as many talented players as you can (that) make good chemistry with one another. The only way you get that is by practicing, being out there and doing as much as you can do to improve that area.
Q: You said after the game that if you have to throw it 60 times, you’ll throw it 60 times, that it’s week to week. But you guys have kind of settled into a pretty steady run-heavy game plan week to week. Just curious the process of coming to that point. What goes into (it)? How did you figure out that that was the best path for this team to win games?
A: I think it starts after you go through – the coaches and the players right now are meeting, going through our game. You make the corrections that you need to make on our game, and then you sit down with the advance scout. You go through the scouting report of the team you’re about to play. Again, you want to try to use your players’ strengths the best you can. Again, it’s Week 11; I think we have a fair idea of what some of those are. But then the coaches sit down. They watch the opponent. They go through. They have a lot of discussions. When I’m looking at it, I’m looking at it holistically in terms of the kicking game, defense and offense and just how I think we need to play the game to win. As a coordinator, it’s a little bit different. When I was a (offensive) coordinator, you want to obviously score as many points as you can, you’re not really focused on the other areas of the team. So, I’ll give them my thoughts on what I think we need to do collectively to win. And then they do a good job of communicating with each other and coming up with whatever that might be. It could be a certain type of run or a certain type of pass we want to use. And then everything is talked about (and) put in. And we go through situations of what we like. And then I think ultimately at the end of the day, when you’re calling a game, you get a feel for how the game’s going – let’s just call it – after the first quarter. There’s a lot of things that happen in the first quarter where they’re kind of schemed up; maybe they are game plan things. And usually the game settles in, and you’ve got to do a good job of kind of figuring that out of how you want to play and the things you want to use.
Q: If I could ask one more on (running back) Saquon (Barkley) – I think pass protection was viewed as a weakness, really, early in his career. What have you seen from him this year? What has he gotten better from (when you watch him)? Maybe it’s on film.
A: He’s sound in his assignment. He knows who to block, and he’s getting there. Certainly, we can still improve in that area. I’m sure there’s a few plays he’d like to have back. He got in the way. The biggest thing in pass protection is not letting the person you’re responsible for make the play on the quarterback, and he’s done that. But there’s certain things that we can correct – not just Saquon, but all the (running) backs on how we’d like to get it done.
Q: I’m wondering how you feel your offensive line is playing. And if you could possibly allow yourself to look ahead for a moment to an area when you have eight guys that you trusted yesterday, and you could get (guard Ben) Bredeson, (guard Shane) Lemieux and (tackle) Evan Neal back, and all of a sudden, you have experienced starters on the bench – what kind of luxury that is.
A: Depth at that position – I think we talked about this last week – depth at that position is always critical. And I would say it’s critical in November and December, and I think some of our guys are getting healthy. We’ll see where Shane is this week. I think Ben is getting a little bit better. Evan’s getting better. So, it’s good to be as healthy as we can be. (We’re) certainly not there yet, but (we’re) moving in that direction. And that’s the foundation of an offense is the offensive line play. Five guys or sometimes six, sometimes seven, sometimes eight working together as one. I think our guys up front have improved from a week-to-week basis. I think they understand what we’re trying to get done. It’s never going to be perfect. You’re playing against some really good defensive linemen, and things happen. But I think we’re making progress, and it’s good to have as many of them out there as we can.
Q: Now I’m going to ask you about the run game. We give Saquon his due credit all the time. How good an offensive line (do you have)? Like did you guys build an offensive line thinking ‘We’re going to run the ball. We want really good run blockers.’ Does it happen to be that most of these guys’ strengths, not to knock their pass blocking, but did most of these guys seem to be better run blockers? Was that the idea, or is that a fortunate coincidence?
A: I think we just try to find the best guys that we thought at that particular time fit our system and that we thought were good football players. It’s a tough job. It’s a lot easier, as an offensive lineman would say, going forward than it is backwards when you have those guys rushing at you. So again, our guys they got to do everything just like every offensive lineman in the league has to. They’ve got to pass protect. They’ve got to run block. They’ve got to be good on screen game, perimeter game. They’ve got to communicate well. So, it wasn’t just set, ‘Let’s get a bunch of run blockers,’ because I don’t think you can do it that way. You have to find guys that can do both. And I think our guys have steadily improved, and we’re still working at it. And we’ll continue to do that.
Q: You mentioned before that as a coordinator, your main concentration is you want to score points. Is the way this team is playing on offense this year more conducive to you as a head coach than it is a coordinator? You were a coordinator more than you were a head coach, and the way this team is winning – not scoring a lot of points – is it great for the head coach, but you might have dealt with it differently as a coordinator?
A: No. I just like to win. That’s the name of the game. It’s hard to do that in this league, and whatever we need to do for that week, you always put the team first. Whether you’re a play caller – obviously I’m the head coach now – but our whole objective is to do what we need to do that week to give ourselves a chance, coach and play well. That’s really all my focus is on.
Q: You think there will be a time this year when you will need to throw it to win – 35, 40 times? You really haven’t had to this year. Do you think you will, and is this offense built to do that if need be?
A: I don’t know. You practice that each week. You’re ready, and you try to be as ready as you can in every situation. I think you just take each game as they come, and coach and play the way you need to play for that week.
Q: Did you guys come out of that game healthy, or is there anything major that came out of that?
A: I think we’re in pretty good shape after that game. We’ll see on Wednesday, but I think it (the injury report) will be probably a little bit similar to what it was last week. (Tight end Daniel) Bellinger’s making progress. Evan’s (Neal) making progress. (We have) some bumps and bruises here and there, but (we’re) really fairly healthy.
Q: With (defensive lineman) Dexter Lawrence every stat, every metric you can find shows that his pass rush has been significantly more successful this season. I’m wondering what you attribute to that. Is there anything significantly different that he’s doing, or you guys are doing with him?
A: Well, he’s a good football player. Give credit to the player first and foremost. I think he’s worked hard at his craft since I’ve been here. He’s a great teammate, great leader, and he’s done a good job of getting better and improving his craft. So, he gets most of the credit, but I think that (defensive line coach Andre) Patterson and (assistant defensive line coach Bryan) Cox have done a great job with really all our defensive lineman, with every single one of them. They’re fantastic coaches, very good technique coaches. Have a lot of experience. I think they’ve helped the players improve. I think the players are very thankful that they have those two guys as their coaches. So, it’s been a good match.
Q: How much does him being lined up over the center as sort of a straight nose tackle you think benefit him in that regard?
A: Yeah, he’s a load and the centers whether they have their head down or they have them up they’ve still got to execute the snap. We’ve been playing him there; we haven’t moved him around maybe as much as he’s been moved around in the past, but I think he’s been very effective with what we’ve asked him to do. Obviously, we have a certain package where you see him in different spots and things like that, but he’s done a good job really wherever he’s lined up this year for us. He’s a very good teammate for us and he’s doing a good job.
Q: I don’t know how much you guys pay attention to what guys say in the locker room to the media, to us after the game’s during the week. We had a conversation with (wide receiver) Kenny (Golladay) yesterday, what you thought about his answers and if you have had a conversation with him about what his role is going to be moving forward.
A: I have conversations with our guys all the time, I’ll keep those private. Again, all I expect these guys to do is come in on Wednesday, learn from the tape, go out to practice, have a good week at practice and then by the end of the week we’ll decide where everybody fits and that’s how we approach it. Really not much more than that.
Q: On the defensive side of the ball, obviously going into last week’s game with (safety) Xavier (McKinney) out, there was so much talk about communication, relaying the signals whether it be (safety) Julian (Love) or somebody else. Now that you’re out of the game, how would you assess how that entire process went? Do you anticipate sticking the same way moving forward to the next game based on what you observed yesterday?
A: You’re talking about with Julian as the green dot wearer?
Q: Yeah, and just in terms of the communication.
A: Yeah, it was good, Julian did a great job like he did all week leading up to it. Now he understands our system and I think he’s a good communicator, he’s intelligent. I think it was smooth. Really from his point to the second level of the defense to the defensive line. I think those guys did a good job of communicating throughout the game and obviously he’s the one that’s wearing the green dot and it starts with him.
Q: Is there any more of your children who have a birthday coming up and have they asked you to make the playoffs?
A: No, the next birthday in our house is January 27th. That’s our oldest daughter.
Q: Has she asked you to go to the Super Bowl?
A: No, she’s going to be 18 she knows how the routine works. The little one was happy yesterday and so was I, because she was.
Q: I guess I’m kind of beating around the question, but have you let the playoffs get into your thought pattern yet?
A: No. Again, it’s fairly easy not to let that happen. Maybe when I was younger starting out in this league, in 2000, 2001. I remember 2000 we were 5-11 I think and then we started out 1-3 and each game we built a little bit of momentum, and I’m a young coach. Then the next year we don’t make the playoffs and then the two years after that we win two more Super Bowls, and when you’re younger a little bit and just starting out I think maybe you think about things like that. Now it’s the God’s honest truth you just worry about the next day, the meeting we were just having, practice. I know it’s boring but that’s the truth. We have to focus and stay in the moment because it really doesn’t matter. There’re so many games to be played and it’s good to be 7-2 but again it will humble you really quick when you start worrying about the wrong things or thinking about the wrong things to me in this business.
Q: Obviously Detroit is your focus Sunday, but you do have a game four days later on Thanksgiving. So as a first-year head coach can you start peeking into Dallas a little bit before Sunday or do you wait until Sunday night? How are you going to approach it?
A: We’ve had a routine here the last few years of playing on Thursday night games and you get your work done for the opponent you’re playing this particular week and then when things settle down towards the end of the week, there’s no other way to do it then to start getting ahead on the next team. That’s not big elaborate meetings, that’s just position coaches having to stay a little extra and put some work in because there’s only so much time in a day that you’ve got to be ready to go once that other game is (done), they’ll be working in here Sunday after we play. I think right now the focus for today all the way through Friday evening is really where we’ve got to stay at. There is definitely scheduling processes and conversations that need to be had to make sure you’re prepared the way you think your team needs to be prepared. That’s physically and mentally.
Q: You had an animated conversation with (guard) Jack Anderson after the false start. What makes you feel like you have to communicate in that way in that moment? What’s the purpose behind it?
A: I don’t know, I don’t think about it. You see it after and you’re like, ‘I wish I didn’t do that’, sometimes. I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and I’ve told Jack that. I talk to my players all the time or my coaches. There’re some things that I like to help but I can’t help sometimes, probably how I was raised. I’ll even get that way with myself. I talk to myself when I think I’ve made a dumb decision or do something that I shouldn’t have done. Again, I don’t think about it. It just happens naturally and we’re in a critical situation of the game. Fourth and one that we were going to go for it, again I understand mistakes happen and I’ve got a lot of confidence in Jack just like I do all the other players. At that particular time, I (was) just, not happy and whatever I say I say. I think I apologized later.
Q: Do you think it’s good sometimes to try and get your message across that way?
A: I don’t know. At that particular time probably, yeah. Whatever I’m feeling I do.
Q: I think you’ve kind of alluded to this. Do you always feel the need to circle back (with the person)?
A: Yeah, no doubt about that because it’s a relationship driven business too. Look, I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I’m hard on myself. I understand that got caught on camera. Do I like it? No. There’re times where I say, ‘Man I wish I was a little more laid back?’ Probably. But that’s me.
Q: You’ve never yelled back at yourself, have you?
A: Yeah. Probably, yeah. I don’t mind it when other guys yell back either.
Q: Just wondering if (center) Jon Feliciano is going to be able to practice this week or he’ll be limited only because he seemed like he was laboring late in the game.
A: Yup. I think he’ll be good.
THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and on YouTube:
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players are off on Tuesday and there is no media availability to the team on that day. The Giants return to practice on Wednesday.
