Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett August 5, 2021 Q: What Have You
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Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett August 5, 2021 Q: What have you noticed from (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones) so far? Year two in the offense. Where is he further along than maybe this time a year ago? A: Daniel is one of those guys who just comes to work every day and he’s so prepared. He’s prepared physically, mentally, emotionally, and I just think he continues to grow and get better. The more you put him in different situations, you can see him just grow and develop. That’s his understanding, simply having physical experience running the plays against the different defenses. His approach is outstanding, and I think you see daily improvement. Q: Jason, there’s been a lot of confidence expressed in the organization about the offensive line being better. You just recently got into pads. I’m just wondering, what was driving that confidence without seeing them in pads? A: Yeah, I think we made progress over the course of last year. We had a lot of young guys playing for us who just simply were inexperienced, and I think over the course of the year you saw them grow and develop. Again, it’s the same thing we talked about with Daniel, if you approach it the right way, you get your mind right and your spirit right to come out and practice and get better every day, you’re going to improve. So, we try to put those guys in those situations and they’re responding well. We have a long way to go, every guy individually and certainly as a unit, but they’re going about it the right way. Q: Have there been times out there when you’ve told the guys who were here last year a couple of things you wanted and they got it right away, they already knew, as opposed to last year where it was all new? A: I think anytime you’re exposed to something more – hopefully, again, if you go about it the right way, you’re going to respond more favorably to that next experience. All those guys who have been around and have a year under their belt in this system, and now you come back the next year and ‘Oh, I remember that. I understand what you’re saying. I’ve been in that situation before.’ We have guys that go about it the right way. Q: Is it any more though? A: Again, we’re a work in progress individually, as a unit and as a football team. But the thing we emphasize to our guys is approach it the right way, come in here mentally, emotionally and physically prepared, and then take advantage of the opportunities. I think our guys are doing that. Q: How do you envision (Wide Receiver) Kadarius’s (Toney) role in this offense? And have you had a player with his skillset in the past that you can compare it to? A: You know, we’re excited about Kadarius. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a ton of him yet and we’re ramping him up here over the next few days, but you can tell he’s someone who picks up football easily, we saw that in the rookie minicamp. We’re excited to get him out there and just see what he can do. There were a lot of positive things on tape from college – obviously, that’s why we drafted him as high as we did, so we’re just excited to see him out here on the grass. Q: Frankly, there are questions about whether your offense is creative enough to fully utilize a player like that. How do you respond to that? A: Yeah, we’re just excited about him. We’re excited about all the guys and how they’re working. Q: Do you intend to use more motion as far as moving guys pre-snap trying to get the defense off- balance in that regard? A: Yeah, motion is, obviously if you followed our offense last year, a big part of what we’ve done. Last year, we ran a lot more of the no-huddle stuff around the line of scrimmage where you don’t run as much motion. We were using tempo, sometimes we went fast, sometimes we went slow. We weren’t in the huddle as much last year – I don’t know if you guys could see that on TV – but that was one of the things that we did. Motion and shifting and movement, all that stuff has been a big part of what we’ve done in the past and if we feel like it applies to a particular game plan, we’ll certainly use it. Q: The Chargers interview, how did that go? And how much are you, as a proven NFL head coach, working towards down the road and that next opportunity? A: Certainly a great opportunity for me to visit with them, but my focus right now is what we need to do to day to get better as an offense with the Giants, so that’s really where my attention is. Q: When you have a lot of your primary offensive weapons sidelined, like (Running Back) Saquon (Barkley), (Tight End Kyle) Rudolph, (Wide Receiver Kenny) Golladay, how do you continue to get them ready through August to make sure that when they’re on the field in Week One they’re ready? A: I go back to the guys. The approach that those guys take, it’s outstanding. They’re just true pros. If you watch them out here in practice, if they’re not involved with some rehab or something, they’re right there, they’re watching, they’re paying attention. Any walkthrough reps that they’re able to get they try to take advantage of. They’re really great in their interaction with their coaches and with their teammates. You can see them growing and we’re just excited to get them out there to get the physical reps along with the mental reps they’ve been getting, but their approach is outstanding. Q: Is there anything necessarily that should hold Daniel Jones back from taking that next step? We know how hard he works and how dedicated he is, but is there anything on the field that you see that’s holding him back or not? A: I just think the biggest thing for everybody with our football team is you’ve just got to go back out there, approach it the right way and try to get better every day. That’s our approach with Daniel and that’s our approach with everybody. Because he goes about it the right way, because he’s always so prepared and he has physical tools, we’re just going to keep trying to give him those experiences. We’re trying to put him in an environment where he’s comfortable. We’ve got some young players around him who are growing and they’re all growing together, and that’s a positive thing and an exciting thing. Q: As a former quarterback, do you see the other players reacting to Daniel when he jumps in the middle of a fight, which you probably don’t want him to do – did you ever do that? A: I didn’t ever jump into a fight like that. Absolutely not. Q: Did you tell him that’s the last time? A: You never want to take the edge off of a guy like that. Daniel is this guy from Duke who really presents himself beautifully, but deep down he’s a really, really tough competitor. He loves ball. His physical toughness and his mental toughness are outstanding. He’s a fun, exciting guy to be around and he’s a fun, exciting guy to coach because of that. He loves ball, you can see the competitive juices flowing. The best players I’ve been around, the best coaches I’ve been around, are people who fight. We talk to our team about that a lot. The way we talk about the word ‘fight’ is fight to be the best in everything you do. Fight to live up to the highest standard, fight to get the job done and fight for each other. We think that’s important, so we try to instill that in our team. That doesn’t necessarily mean a physical fight on the field, but you want to have that spirit. If you think about the people in your life who you admire most, they fight, they compete, they battle, they try to be their best regardless of what the circumstances are. We believe our quarterback is one of those guys. Q: Did you write ‘fight’ on your shirt? A: I did. Q: They didn’t give you a ‘fight’ shirt? A: I have one, but I only have one and so we try to wash these things. On days when I can’t wear the grey one, I wear the blue one and I put ‘fight’ across the chest. Q: Jason, you’ve been coaching for a long time and have your philosophy, but as part of your offseason, do you study other offenses around the league, see what they’re doing, steal stuff and that kind of thing? A: Yeah, absolutely. I think league studies are a big part of what you do. You have an offensive or defensive system or special teams system that you believe in, but it’s constantly evolving and growing. The DNA probably doesn’t change that much, but a lot of different parts of it do.