COURTESY OF TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS MEDIA RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
(On if solidifying his role as the backup quarterback has helped his performance)
“I just try to put my best foot forward every day. Anything I can do to help the football team, help Tom [Brady] and our quarterback room, that’s what my job description is. I’m ready and willing – if my number is called – to get ready to go, but at the same time, my job right now is to help Tom get ready to beat New Orleans.”
(On working with QB Tom Brady and helping teach him Tampa Bay’s offensive system)
“It’s been wonderful. Tom is a great guy on and off the field. It’s been a collaborative effort in the meeting room with myself, Bryon [Leftwich], Clyde [Christensen], Griff (Ryan Griffin) – all of us in there kind of working as one, talking through things [and] how we see it. It’s been great so far. If he’s got any questions, we’re there to answer them. We’ve been in this system a little bit longer than he has, but he’s the greatest of all time for a reason. Any questions that he has, we’re going to answer and get him ready to go.”
(On helping Brady understand the playbook better throughout training camp)
“Any time you have to learn a new system, it’s tough. It’s even harder when you’re in a condensed offseason [and] a condensed training camp getting ready to go Week 1. The thing that helped us is we did a great job all summer of getting our workouts in, being on Zoom meeting calls, really going through the system and installing it more than once, so once we hit training camp, we installed it again and again and again. This is the third, fourth or fifth time we’ve been through our install package now. It’s starting to become second nature. In the early stages, it is tough. Like B.A. (Bruce Arians) always says, you’re missing the reps in OTAs and minicamp. We’re just trying to catch up on lost time.”
(On Tampa Bay’s defense)
“They’re extremely talented. When our front seven and our back end in the secondary can play complementary football and play off one another, that’s a tough group. When you’re in a sub package and you’re going against Vita [Vea], [Ndamukong] Suh, Shaq [Barrett] and JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul), and then you bring Will Gholston in and Lavonte [David] and D-White (Devin White) – there’s a bunch of guys in that front seven that can roll through who are extremely talented players. Just the pass rush that they will provide will help our secondary because quarterbacks are going to have to get the ball out and the DBs definitely know that.”
(On the improvements of TE O.J. Howard, WR Scotty Miller and WR Justin Watson over the past 12 months)
“They’ve been doing a tremendous job. You see that confidence rise, you see their level of play rise just being more comfortable and confident in the system. Any time you’re learning a new system, a lot of the time you’re thinking and not just playing and reacting. Just going into the second year in this new offensive system for all those guys – O.J. [Howard], J-Wat (Justin Watson), Scooter (Scotty Miller) – they’re doing a tremendous job and Tom [Brady] is doing a great job building their confidence [and] getting them ready to play at a really high level of football. They’ve been making big plays all camp.”
