COURTESY OF NEW YORK JETS COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Opening Statement…
The injuries, (Denzel) Mims with the hamstring. You guys saw him running on the side, so it’s good that we’re getting him out here starting to get deeper into that progression. (Breshad) Perriman with the knee, (Conor) McDermott, knee, (Josh) Adams, hamstring, (Pierre) Desir, hamstring, (Brian) Poole is still out, (Matthias) Farley with the hamstring, Jabari (Zuniga) with the quad, (Lawrence) Cager with the knee. We’re just going to keep looking at him, see what’s going on with that and kind of take a deeper dive into that, just make sure he’s OK. (Tarell) Basham with the ankle, we’re probably looking at a couple weeks with Basham. With today, Le’Veon (Bell), we pulled out, he just got a little tight. We just thought, for us precautionary. We didn’t want anything to happen with the amount of soft tissue (injuries) that we’ve had. And then (Greg) Van Roten went out with an oblique, we’ll evaluate him, kind of see where he’s at. A lot of good stuff, a lot of situational things that we were able to go through today. It was good to get that transition with the special teams and all four phases of that. Obviously some things showed up that we have to get fixed and we have to get fixed quickly. This was a good step for us without having preseason games, can’t get lulled to sleep by practice thinking, ‘Hey, it’s all good.’ Now we’ve got to put series together, we’ve got to figure out ways to transition if one side of the ball does well and the other side is not doing as well, picking up the slack, getting the momentum shifted and today was a good example of what we really can’t do. We have to really dial in and make sure that we do a great job in all the practices until our next scrimmage.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: You said Le’Veon (Bell) with the tightness, was that a hamstring?
Yeah. I mean we’re being precautionary.
Brian Costello, New York Post: What didn’t you like the most out there today? What did you see that troubles you that you feel like you need to get fixed?
Well I look at the two things, turnovers is what I talked with our guys about after practice. The most important thing we’re always looking at is turnover margin, and we didn’t do a good job protecting the football today, and explosive plays. We gave up a couple on defense, the defense getting a long run ripped off on them. We’ve got to get those two things especially cleaned up. I know that it’s a good kind of middle point for us to where now when we come back to practice, our guys realize, hey time is running out. We’ve got to get this stuff cleaned up as fast as possible, and the next time we have a scrimmage, we’ve got to be a lot smoother, we’ve got to execute a lot better, we need to make sure that we protect the ball better, be better with our run fits. There’s going to be a lot of great things that we’re going to get out of this film.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Adam, what did you like from the offense? What was the silver lining that you can take away from this?
We made some plays, the problem was we were getting them called back. Kind of how we have to operate with the officials where we’re only having them out there so many days. So, now it felt more real for guys, we’ve got to be cleaner with our hands and doing things right up front, we have to make sure our alignments are good. There’s just a lot of little things that we’ve got to clean up that will prevent us from having, I feel like (Jamison) Crowder had about three explosive plays, and we’re walking back. We had a couple downfield on screen, holding, those type of things when we have 15, 20-yard plays or conversions on third or fourth down, we can’t be going the other way.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: What you just said to us about time running out, needing to correct it, is that what you said to the team when you called them together after that that final fumble by Crowder that ended practice?
They’re aware, that date is not moving, and we’ve only got so many practices. Whatever the sense of urgency was, you’ve just got to keep increasing it, and you have to understand that that window is going to close quick and we have to do everything we can to prepare ourselves, and at same time you’ve got a bunch of guys battling for jobs. Those guys got to do everything they can and put themselves in position to force us to make a decision, and when we get to that week where we’re actually preparing for a game, we’ve got to make all those days before count.
Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: You’ve harped a lot, not just today but over the past few days, about situational awareness. What aspects from a player perspective and a coaching perspective of your situational awareness would you like to see improved?
It’s just constantly going over them. It’s one thing to talk about it in meeting rooms, right, showing them film, talking about, ‘Hey, here’s situations coming up today.’ But when it’s real time and things are moving really fast for your brain to just automatically be able to do it, you’ve really got to be dialed in, and that’s why really, really good teams do a great job of understanding it, there’s not a lot of discussion on it, they know what to do. And you just have to keep hammering at home, you’ve got to keep talking about it, you have to keep practicing it. And today is a good example because we kind of almost got to that end of the half, two-minute situation and who knows what would have come up. So every time we do a two-minute situation, there’s always something that comes up that’s a good teaching moment, or something that our guys, somebody will do either right or wrong to where you can make an example of, ‘Hey this is what we want, or hey, this is how we have to handle this moving forward. We keep doing this, it’ll lose us the game.’ So, when you do those situations, you can’t script out what’s going to happen. You can try, but when it’s competitive something different could happen every time, you learn from those experiences.
Brian Costello, New York Post: With Le’Veon, is that something where you might sit him tomorrow since you guys have the day off Friday?
When I revisit with the trainers later today I’ll have a better idea. I just know right now, it was precautionary. And he’s pretty good, he hadn’t been somebody that really comes out of practice. I always have to hold him and be like, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go.’ But he’ll try to go back out there, so that’s why we pulled him out. He won’t do it on his own. He’ll keep going out there until somebody else pulls him out.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: (La’Mical) Perine had a couple of longer runs, maybe you could summarize how he’s done in the camp because he wasn’t known as a huge breakaway back at Florida but yet he seems to have long speed.
There’s a lot of runs on tape. I mean there are some runs and I was thinking the same too, what you’re saying, when we first kind of start watching him and you saw his 40 time you’re like, it doesn’t match-up. What you saw in college, didn’t match up to that 40 time because there’s some runs there. I mean, he had some really big games against really good opponents and players on the other team. And, today was the first time that we got to see it in a situation like that. And I mean he pulled away from those guys, you saw, there’s something to me when he gets into a game situation, his speed looks completely different than what a 40 time might look like.
Al Iannazzone, Newsday: What does having Chris Herndon do you for you guys? I mean he made a couple plays and I think Sam (Darnold) missed him once, could have been a touchdown. Just having him every day now and you know you’re going to have him for the season, what does that mean for your team?
Yeah, him and Sam have a unique chemistry I think. You guys were able to see it their first year. And when I watched these guys and we saw it in training camp last year. When things go horrifically wrong, those two guys find each other. When those guys hook up on third down, there’s something there, they just have a good connection to where Sam knows where Chris is going to be and Chris’s knows where Sam’s going to throw it and they just seem to hook up the majority of the time. Today I was shocked that we didn’t hook up on that because that’s one that those two guys usually, something good happens there. So, having him back and, I mean, not only in the passing you but Chris is one of those guys you don’t have to take off the field, he can do everything. From his ability to pass (protect) and run block, he’s a unique guy. And as long as he stays healthy and that’s what that’s we’re hoping for and he’s trained extremely hard to make sure he does, that’s a huge weapon for us.
Dennis Waszak Jr., Associated Press: Adam it looked like Cameron Clark was out there, was this his first practice out there since the shoulder deal?
Yeah. He was trying to sneak in there the other day, but we we’re trying to progress him coming back, didn’t want to have any kind of setbacks. So, it was good. Hey, the more guys that we have that I’ve been reading off this list, hopefully we start getting these guys back by bunches. And it’s the right time because, like I said, the sense of urgency has got to be there. Everybody’s got to earn their spot and we need guys to be out there, we need guys going in that first game knowing what to do. We need to have some kind of chemistry heading in that first game. I know the entire league’s trying to do the same thing and it’s going to be really a race, who can develop the best chemistry and then who can get better as the season develops.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Adam, what happened on the play that Sam threw to Ashton Davis, what happened on that play?
I’m mad I called that play. I mean he’s basically, we had nobody, (Darnold has) to dirt it. It was just one of those things where we got caught up when we’re our number one in the progression got caught up, nobody flashed in his face. I think he tried to force it, I’ll have to go back and look at exactly what happened. We were just trying to hit (Trevon) Wesco real quick, he got held up and that kind of threw everything off, we just got to throw that one away.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: Going back to (Lawrence) Cager for a second, you said on the knee you are going to take a deeper dive.
We didn’t think it was that bad at first and then it has swollen up overnight. So, now, we got we got to go back and it didn’t look like it was something we needed to do an MRI on, and then now we’re going back. The swelling kind of alarmed us a little bit to where we got to go back and look at this.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Adam, do you need to add receivers? I mean how long can you go with this number of receivers?
I’ll get with those guys today, we’ll kind of see where we’re at injury wise, if we’re getting anybody back, if we’re going to be low on numbers. If we do, you know, Joe will get the right guys in here.
Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Adam I’m not sure if you saw yesterday but the Detroit Lions had a big, I guess, demonstration outside their facility. I was wondering following up on yesterday’s question, have you guys discussed anything with the guys as a team.
Yes, it was a long conversation. We started off our squad meeting with that. Christopher (Johnson) did a great job of kind of starting it and we had a lot of guys involved in the discussion. It was good to hear the amount of guys speak. And, I thought it was good that we ended up having a walkthrough, just because it allowed us to get back together. I was less concerned with how many reps we were going to have and I just liked the fact that that group was back together in the building since we’re doing everything virtual. When this group talks, we have a lot of guys that are concerned, from other guys giving advice on certain things. I just think we have the right leaders.
Andy Vasquez, The Record: Adam with Frank Gore, what did you see from him today and how does he look compared to how he looked two years ago when he was in camp with you in Miami?
He looks the same as he did 12 years ago. It’s, I can’t explain it. It’s unbelievable how, when I watch him, I mean I flashback to 2008. He looks the same. I don’t know how, it doesn’t make sense. But, Frank has been one that refuses to listen to what anybody else says, and he goes out there, he is an old school football player. And he looks good, his burst looks good, his vision is never going to change, it’s got to be like that when he’s 60. And Frank is special, there’s a reason why he is third all time in rushing.
Dennis Waszak Jr., Associated Press: When you look at that, and you say that, Adam, how many years do you think (Gore) can keep going because you know conventionally, he shouldn’t be even playing anymore. Do you think more like three, five (more years)?
I would never put any ceiling on Frank, I would just say this, I’m glad he’s here. I’m glad I’m lucky enough to be around him, again, for the third time on a third different team. Just watching him and Le’Veon (Bell) work together is a cool thing for me to see. I really love how he always seems to have a young guy in his room and to see how Perine looks up to him and Frank tries to guide him to do things the right way. I mean, Frank has a son that’s two years younger than Perine. I mean it’s crazy to think about, but Frank’s special, that’s why nobody is like him.
