COURTESY OF NEW YORK JETS COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Opening Statement…
Injury update, we’re still (Denzel) Mims with a hamstring, (Cameron) Clark with a shoulder, (Bronson) Kaufusi with a hamstring, (Pierre) Desir with a hamstring, (Brian) Poole with the dyhydration, (James) Burgess, low back, Jabari (Zuniga) with a quad, and then today, (Connor) McDermott went out with a knee. We’ll have an MRI this afternoon to kind of get the results of that. So, I’ll have that for you guys tomorrow. As far as practice goes, I thought seeing our guys out there yesterday helped. I felt like we had good energy, guys did a good job of practicing the right way. Having the pads back on for a second time, I thought there was improvement from the other day. We were able to go just a little bit longer, got some good work in situationally. We have, obviously, a lot of stuff to clean up and a lot of evaluation still to do.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: Hey Adam, (Breshad) Perriman seems to be showing up. He had the slant that he took the distance there. Could you maybe just comment on how he’s progressed with Sam (Darnold)?
It seems like those two guys have a good chemistry… very quickly. And I think Perriman did a great job of we went through the offseason, he was really good about staying on everything, studying and then continued that when our offseason was over, which we could tell right away when we started doing the walkthroughs, just the way he wasn’t making mistakes lining up. His knowledge of the playbook, he knew the basic things just from studying and then he’s quick to make adjustments when the coverage changed. Obviously, his experience and he’s been in a few offenses now, this is his fourth offense since he’s been in the NFL, I think that’s been extremely helpful for him to where he can translate things very quickly and he’s able to play with all his speed. You can tell he’s not indecisive on what he’s doing, he plays fast and then when he does make any kind of small mistake, he’s making that adjustment after film and then applying it on the field.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: With Breshad, has he surprised you at all with the number of things that he can do? Because I know in Tampa and some other places, he was kind of just known as the deep threat, but it seems like he’s making plays with the whole route tree.
We told him when we were working on signing him that he’ll determine how much he’s going to do in this offense. So, we don’t put limits on anybody, basically guys have to prove to me they can’t do something. When you go into this with the one at a time, that can get a little dicey, but with a veteran player like this, we’re able to do more and basically get to the point where he tells us, “Hey, this is not my thing, let’s focus on this.” He’s making it really easy because everything we’ve tried to do with him he’s been able to do.
Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Adam, going back to what you said about Breshad and the different offenses, what is it about the changes from playbook to playbook and team to team that can get guys tripped up as they try to learn new playbooks? What makes that difficult?
One, it’s a transition from college to pro would be the first thing. I know his rookie year, I think he had some injuries. I think had some soft tissue injuries and sometimes that can hamper you as far as if you’ve never been in that system before of slowing your progress up. Obviously, that’s always going to be a concern, especially with the situation we’re in right now, because we have a guy that’s actually hurt right now that he needs to be on the field because it’s the best way he’s going to learn. That can always kind of slow your growth up, and then when you go to these different offenses, the number one thing that can trip you up is the verbiage, because you spend so much time learning one system, now all of a sudden you’re in a different one and it’s: you know Spanish, now you’re trying to learn French all of a sudden. So, that’s kind of what can get guys stuck. But the one good thing I can say is a lot of NFL players learn how to adapt to this because this is what they do. There is change, there is turnover, there is changing coordinators, there is changing verbiage. These guys get used to being able to do that. It’s not ideal, the longer you can stay in the same offense, the more success you’ll probably have.
Brian Costello, New York Post: You said a couple times that Sam is processing things quicker, like he knows the plays before you even get them out. Are you seeing that translating into him now being able to kind of diagnose defenses quicker and pre-snap reads and kind of do that stuff quicker in practice?
I think everything is faster. To me, the thing that has been noticeable is the way he drops, how fast he gets back, how he steps up, how he’s sliding in the pocket. Last year at this time, if we put the film on back-to-back it would look completely different. That’s the tough part about when you’re a quarterback and last year was your third system in three years, that can slow you down. And the fact that this is his second year in the same system – I know he’s got new guys, but he’s not thinking as much, it’s more of reaction for him and then he’s able to focus on the things he needs to focus on, (his) footwork, using this cadence, seeing the defense, knowing where to go the ball. Just everything’s happening faster for him and you can just tell how much more comfortable he is playing quarterback right now.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: With regard to Quinnen (Williams), what are the things that you’re seeing different from him so far this summer? And what do you need to see? What are the things you’re looking for him to kind of produce in his second season here?
The biggest thing I just keep looking for with him is how disruptive can you be? Within the system, doing your job, but at the same time making the offensive linemen think about you pre-snap, “Hey, this guy could come off the ball and penetrate and that’s going to ruin this run to this side or backside.” I think once again, it’s the second year in the system, you’ve already been through a training camp, he knows what to expect. Everything is going to just keep getting quicker for him. With him learning from the guys that he has in that room, I think that’s valuable because he’s kind of learning the shortcuts and he’s learning how – because our guys are really good at knowing run, pass, stances, when they’re going to cut me off, when they’re coming at (you). I think those guys do a great job up front with understanding that, and it gives those guys an advantage. And I think really now it’s taking that athletic ability and his strength and applying it all.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: Just as a follow to that quickly, anybody that’s picked that high in the draft, as you know obviously, you’ve been around these young guys – there’s that burden of expectation because of where you’re drafted. Were there times last year where you found that that was maybe kind of laboring him a little bit? And did you find yourself maybe wanted to speak to him or maybe that was Gregg’s (Williams) role or his position coach’s role?
I didn’t see that from him. Once again, I look at the leadership in that room, and when you have a Steve McLendon who’s in that room and that’s close with him especially, if (McLendon) saw frustration, he was knocking that out before any of us ever saw. And (Quinnen Williams) knew, “Hey, I’m going to do my job, I’m going to keep working on my technique, I’m going to keep trying to do what’s being asked me to do and getting better at the same time.” That’s all he can do. Expectations of being the third pick of the draft is irrelevant. Once you get here, we don’t care. We want you to do what you’re being asked to do, play team defense, and then we need everything you got. And I think the longer he plays, the more plays he’s going to make and the more effective he’s going to be.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: Any initial thoughts on having (Chris) Hogan out there, and how quickly do you think it’ll take him to get up to speed?
I don’t think it’s going to take him very long. I feel like half the offense he already knows because there’s some terminology crossover in some of the offenses that he’s been in. You’re talking about a guy that’s been in quite a few offenses. Yesterday when he came in a lot of things were clicking for him pretty quick. He’s a quick study too. And it’s amazing when you see a guy come in and he’s got the formations down and he’s been here an hour and he’s just rolling through that stuff. He’s a smart player, obviously he’s been doing this for a minute, and he understands how to get himself caught up to speed very quickly. We’ve just got to be smart, get him involved in practice and individual stuff and not to put too much on him too fast because he hasn’t done probably what most of these guys have already been through. But to see him out here, going against him as many times as I feel like I’ve seen him play, it’s fun to bring a guy onto a team that you’ve competed against that many times, just kind of hearing his opinion of some of the games that we’ve played in the past and then talking through a lot of the stuff we’re doing right now.
Brian Costello, New York Post: There we’re back-to-back plays today where (Chris) Herndon made a really nice catch, then (Trevon) Wesco made a really nice catch. We talked a lot about the wide receivers the other day in depth there, and you kind of said, ‘It’s the whole picture of the offense, the passing game.’ So, how encouraged are you with that tight end group? And if you get Ryan (Griffin) back at some point I guess, how do you feel about that group of tight ends right now?
I love that room. You have a whole bunch of different guys that have different skill sets, and when we get healthy, we’re going to be able to say that’s pretty deep. When you just look at the guys that played for us last year between Chris, Wesco, Ryan and Dan (Daniel Brown), and now the guys that we’ve added are pretty good players too. So, you’re looking at a group that has a lot of versatility, they can do a lot of different things. And then you throw the running backs in there, I mean Lev (Le’Veon Bell) can do quite a bit, whether it be running the ball or catching the ball, running routes – the variety he can do, and then Frank (Gore) and (La’Mical) Perine – you can see he’s made some plays out here, he has the ability to not only run the ball but catch the ball. Josh (Adams) has really shown some really good stuff. I like our skill players. I get it, they’re not the big names that people know, but these guys, they work well together and when you put them together as a group, they’re very effective.
Dennis Waszak, Jr., The Associated Press: Adam, with Brian Poole, he’s missed a bunch of days here with the dehydration. Is he close? Is it serious?
We have to go through this whole protocol with him. We should have him, I think you guys are going to at least start seeing them out there. He probably won’t be a practice, but you’ll see him working on the side and we’re going to make sure that we do this right because even going back to last year when we went as long as we did where he wasn’t finishing practices, we have to make sure that we handle this the right way because obviously that the other day when he went out of practice, after practice, that’s not what we want where a guy is that dehydrated to where he’s missed this much time. So, we’ve got to make sure that we do everything right with him and vice versa with him as far as communication and making sure that we’re all on the same page. I think we have a good plan in place.
