Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Ryan Nielsen on Rookie Growth and Roster Evaluation
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: All good, beautiful day. Everybody doing good. Okay, awesome, good
- 0:05Speaker 1: to see you.
- 0:05Speaker 2: What do you like about what do you need to
- 0:08Speaker 2: see from Trayvon Walder the one more game.
- 0:11Speaker 3: In the preseason. What do you like about his game?
- 0:13Speaker 3: His versatility, everything that comes with that.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Sure, I mean the player can do it all. I
- 0:17Speaker 1: mean he's he's a good run player. Trayvon is a
- 0:20Speaker 1: good pass rusher, can rush with with speed, finesse. It's
- 0:24Speaker 1: a good power rusher in the run game. He can
- 0:26Speaker 1: play head up a guy, or he can play on
- 0:28Speaker 1: the edge. So there's a lot of things that he
- 0:31Speaker 1: does really well. So just the continuation of, you know,
- 0:34Speaker 1: just taking his game to the next step, playing a.
- 0:36Speaker 3: Little faster, playing a little bit more violent.
- 0:38Speaker 1: You know, as we go with the system, you know
- 0:41Speaker 1: his place and how he just sees where he fits
- 0:44Speaker 1: in in terms of and this is how I set
- 0:46Speaker 1: the edge or I rush or those type of things.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Just faster, more violent things like that. But it's coming,
- 0:51Speaker 1: like he had a really good practice yesterday, so look
- 0:55Speaker 1: for that to continue on Friday.
- 0:58Speaker 3: To the regular season.
- 0:59Speaker 4: How close is I guess the defense to where you
- 1:01Speaker 4: feel like it needs to be.
- 1:03Speaker 3: It's always work in progress.
- 1:04Speaker 1: I mean it's you know, you always want to get
- 1:06Speaker 1: you know, one play better, one game better.
- 1:09Speaker 3: You know.
- 1:09Speaker 1: So we're working on the things that that we see
- 1:12Speaker 1: that we've got to fix, tweak a little bit, you know,
- 1:15Speaker 1: maybe not necessarily fix, but tweak, and continue to push.
- 1:18Speaker 1: The guys fundamentals, the knowledge of the scheme feel like
- 1:21Speaker 1: they're doing a great job. The players are coaching staff.
- 1:25Speaker 1: You know that that combination of those guys working in
- 1:27Speaker 1: the meetings, things like that, picking things up walkthrough was
- 1:30Speaker 1: awesome today. You know, those guys are on top of it,
- 1:32Speaker 1: really locked in, fired up about the direction that it's
- 1:36Speaker 1: going in terms of the whole combination of everything.
- 1:39Speaker 3: But yeah, we're gonna keep pushing every day.
- 1:42Speaker 5: When do you start peeking at the Dolphins.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Well, maybe we have maybe we have it so but yeah,
- 1:54Speaker 1: you know, look we'll take care of them when that
- 1:57Speaker 1: that time is going. We are focused on Atlanta and
- 2:00Speaker 1: and winning this games. Has talked about wanting to be
- 2:04Speaker 1: the best defensive player in wanting to be a Super
- 2:07Speaker 1: Bowl at VP.
- 2:09Speaker 4: When a guy talks like that, what does he have
- 2:11Speaker 4: to do that kind.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Of stuff up?
- 2:13Speaker 4: And do you see that from John?
- 2:15Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta work like that, right, you gotta work
- 2:17Speaker 1: like that and practice your teammates.
- 2:18Speaker 3: You know, you gotta be a good teammate. And it's all.
- 2:20Speaker 1: About, you know, the practice, work, preparation, how he is
- 2:23Speaker 1: in the meetings, and then.
- 2:25Speaker 3: You know, look, go out there and win every block.
- 2:28Speaker 3: You know that that's really what it's about.
- 2:30Speaker 1: You know, do do your job on every block, necessarily,
- 2:33Speaker 1: not necessarily make every play, but just win every block.
- 2:37Speaker 1: And he's fully capable of doing that. But that takes focus,
- 2:40Speaker 1: takes determination, a little bit of toughness that rolled in there,
- 2:43Speaker 1: and he's he has it.
- 2:45Speaker 3: You know, we just got to continue to do it,
- 2:47Speaker 3: and one day at a time, you.
- 2:49Speaker 4: Sear your depth of the defensive line was a pretty
- 2:52Speaker 4: significant concern in the last six games of last year,
- 2:56Speaker 4: but now when you when you look at it, it
- 2:58Speaker 4: looks like it might be one of us stronger aspects
- 3:00Speaker 4: of the team. You just talk about the difficulty of
- 3:03Speaker 4: decisions you're gonna have to make in that regard. It
- 3:06Speaker 4: looks like you may have to cut some pretty decent players.
- 3:09Speaker 3: I'm glad we have.
- 3:09Speaker 1: Another game, so that's that's gonna be a really big
- 3:13Speaker 1: part of the evaluation this week. Today's practice and then
- 3:18Speaker 1: you know what happens in this game today tomorrow, how
- 3:19Speaker 1: the guys you know, work improve because you want to
- 3:23Speaker 1: see you know, three games.
- 3:25Speaker 3: For the majority of them, they're gonna play three games.
- 3:27Speaker 1: And so when you put not just one game, but
- 3:30Speaker 1: the body of work and in camp that that means
- 3:33Speaker 1: a lot. So we're not it's not all just going
- 3:35Speaker 1: to be on one game, but the whole body of work.
- 3:36Speaker 3: But yeah, guys have done a really good job.
- 3:40Speaker 1: Jeremy Garrett, he's done an excellent job with those guys fundamentals,
- 3:44Speaker 1: technique wise, getting them to play really hard.
- 3:48Speaker 3: Uh you know. So, yeah, it's gonna be a tough,
- 3:50Speaker 3: tough decision.
- 3:52Speaker 1: Excited about all the guys at that position really and
- 3:55Speaker 1: and we've rolled three four guys at the nose and
- 3:59Speaker 1: tackle position in all these games, so it's been it's
- 4:01Speaker 1: been pretty good. So we'll see, we'll see what when
- 4:04Speaker 1: it comes down to the that time and have really
- 4:07Speaker 1: right now, have no idea.
- 4:09Speaker 3: You have had a lot of.
- 4:10Speaker 1: Time on the grass with Eric Armstead, but what you
- 4:12Speaker 1: thought about against the lit time he had had with him,
- 4:15Speaker 1: he's a pro, like he's a he's a true professional,
- 4:19Speaker 1: very detailed, excellent in the meeting with the with the players,
- 4:22Speaker 1: the younger guys.
- 4:23Speaker 3: I mean, he's he's on top of it. And then yesterday,
- 4:26Speaker 3: you know.
- 4:26Speaker 1: He's out there a little bit of individual and you
- 4:28Speaker 1: can see the suddenness and the length and the power
- 4:31Speaker 1: that that he has, and so you get excited about,
- 4:33Speaker 1: you know when eventually he's putting his hand down and playing.
- 4:38Speaker 1: But yeah, he's been awesome, just true professional, Uh, same
- 4:42Speaker 1: guy every single day in the building. So it's it's
- 4:46Speaker 1: been really cool to be around him.
- 4:47Speaker 5: Donald Savage and shed the shed the red jersey. Just
- 4:51Speaker 5: what have you seen from him up to now? And
- 4:52Speaker 5: then what do you need to see from him potentially
- 4:55Speaker 5: in the game. You know now that you can tackle
- 4:57Speaker 5: and do all things like that.
- 4:58Speaker 3: Yeah, really good cover player.
- 5:01Speaker 1: I mean he just like he can make up ground,
- 5:05Speaker 1: the distance if he gets a step behind. I mean
- 5:09Speaker 1: really he feels the game, the route, how it's bending.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Just his feel of the game has been really good,
- 5:17Speaker 1: you know. And then yesterday he's out there, you know,
- 5:19Speaker 1: no red jersey. You see him use his hands already,
- 5:22Speaker 1: which is pretty cool, you know, taking on the block,
- 5:23Speaker 1: things like that. But the experience that he has excited
- 5:27Speaker 1: playing him at a couple of different positions, and we'll
- 5:29Speaker 1: see where that that pans out once we get, you know,
- 5:33Speaker 1: past this game and going forward.
- 5:35Speaker 5: George Jefson getting some game ramps last week. The subject
- 5:38Speaker 5: was that for your evaluation of fans to seem in
- 5:40Speaker 5: a game.
- 5:40Speaker 1: That it's really good, right, I mean see the first
- 5:43Speaker 1: time in the National Football League game. You know, that's
- 5:45Speaker 1: that's really important for a for a rookie. So he did,
- 5:48Speaker 1: and he did some good things. He's a really strong player,
- 5:52Speaker 1: really good with his hands. We've got to still work
- 5:54Speaker 1: on some you know, it's game one. You know, same
- 5:56Speaker 1: thing with Mason, same Jarian, you know all those guys.
- 5:59Speaker 1: It's the same, exactly the same your first game. And
- 6:02Speaker 1: then look for the big jump from the first game
- 6:05Speaker 1: to the to the second game. It's like they always say, hey,
- 6:08Speaker 1: the first game to the second game and the team,
- 6:10Speaker 1: you know, you make a huge jump from week one
- 6:11Speaker 1: to week two. It's the same thing for a for
- 6:13Speaker 1: a rookie in his first game to.
- 6:15Speaker 3: The second game.
- 6:15Speaker 1: So look for those things and expect nothing but him
- 6:18Speaker 1: go out there and continue to get better in Atlanta
- 6:22Speaker 1: previously before.
- 6:23Speaker 3: Coming here, are you right, like, are you gonna.
- 6:27Speaker 2: Build anything going back there, gonna see.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Some of the guys that you go Yeah, of course, right,
- 6:33Speaker 1: the relationships with the players, the coaches was around some
- 6:37Speaker 1: of those guys for a long time, you know, not
- 6:39Speaker 1: just Atlanta, but years past, and uh, you know, care
- 6:43Speaker 1: about a lot of those people up there, But our
- 6:45Speaker 1: focus is here, our guys here, and and so it'll
- 6:48Speaker 1: be good.
- 6:49Speaker 3: To see him.
- 6:50Speaker 1: But look, we're going up there to win the game,
- 6:52Speaker 1: and that's that's the most important thing.
- 6:54Speaker 5: How do you feel, like Chadluma and you see a
- 6:57Speaker 5: kind of adjusted that Sam blackback positions as it's different
- 7:01Speaker 5: from what each of them has got done in the past.
- 7:02Speaker 1: Yeah, they've done a good job, you know, first understanding
- 7:04Speaker 1: of what we're doing, like where they're supposed to be.
- 7:08Speaker 1: I'll tell you when you when you look at a
- 7:10Speaker 1: combination of Matt House and those two guys together, and
- 7:14Speaker 1: when you watch them on the field and the coaching
- 7:16Speaker 1: and how they're taking to that and then taking that
- 7:20Speaker 1: coaching and going out and playing like even last game,
- 7:24Speaker 1: you know Chad, you know he's playing off the ball.
- 7:26Speaker 1: He's playing on the ball. You see he's on the ball,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and then he's in the rush package and things like that.
- 7:31Speaker 1: And there's a lot of different jobs that those guys do,
- 7:34Speaker 1: and and you know it's in this league. You know,
- 7:36Speaker 1: the more jobs you can do, the better chance you
- 7:38Speaker 1: have to make it right. And and so those guys
- 7:39Speaker 1: have done a really good job and understanding what to
- 7:42Speaker 1: do and then really buying in on how to do it.
- 7:45Speaker 3: They've done a good job.
- 7:46Speaker 2: You know, who were planning this first time, planning a
- 7:49Speaker 2: little bit for English, Like how deep does that go?
- 7:53Speaker 2: I mean when you're planning against Atlanta Cards and such.
- 7:57Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Look, you don't want to lose focus that
- 8:00Speaker 1: it's about us, it's about Jacksonville.
- 8:02Speaker 3: You know.
- 8:04Speaker 1: What you do want to focus on is kind of
- 8:06Speaker 1: what it looks like. This is what a reach block
- 8:08Speaker 1: looks like. This is what you know, a fade route looks.
- 8:12Speaker 2: Like, or a.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Particular route of particular run play. You know.
- 8:17Speaker 1: But when you look at the league, it's it's a
- 8:18Speaker 1: lot of offenses are very similar rights. And so what
- 8:22Speaker 1: we want to do is we want to show them
- 8:24Speaker 1: show with our players. You know, here's here's what you're
- 8:26Speaker 1: gonna what it's going to look like. But hey, let's
- 8:29Speaker 1: really focus on our alignments, our assignments and our fundamentals
- 8:32Speaker 1: and how we have success versus these plays. So yeah,
- 8:35Speaker 1: so we're we're game planning a little bit in terms of,
- 8:39Speaker 1: you know, kind of what who they are, what they do,
- 8:41Speaker 1: but we'll always and this will go through then it's
- 8:44Speaker 1: always a focus about us and what.
- 8:46Speaker 3: We do, how we think, how we act, how we play.
- 8:49Speaker 5: You talk a lot about Mason Smiches in terms of
- 8:51Speaker 5: its physical attributes, but you know, mentally, how has he
- 8:54Speaker 5: been how does.
- 8:55Speaker 3: He take to be in the class or he talked about.
- 8:57Speaker 5: Yesterday spending forty five extra minutes a day watching film.
- 9:00Speaker 5: How has that sort of translated?
- 9:02Speaker 3: You know a little bit of that is how to
- 9:04Speaker 3: be a pro? Right being a rookie.
- 9:06Speaker 1: And then now he's been here for you know, going
- 9:09Speaker 1: on this particular period of time from when we drafted him,
- 9:12Speaker 1: you know, going all the way through ot AS and
- 9:13Speaker 1: then you know a couple of three weeks in camp,
- 9:15Speaker 1: four weeks in camp, and sometimes you just have to
- 9:18Speaker 1: kind of feel your schedule out and where I can
- 9:21Speaker 1: get some things done like that how to be a pro,
- 9:23Speaker 1: you know, and that's he's he's learning that. It's not
- 9:26Speaker 1: a finished product by any means, but he's trending in
- 9:28Speaker 1: that that direction, which is really cool to see. You know,
- 9:31Speaker 1: he's asking the right questions. He sees the tape, Hey, coach,
- 9:35Speaker 1: did you see this play? And you know this? And
- 9:37Speaker 1: and so's he's really engaged. Guy wants it. He really
- 9:41Speaker 1: wants to be good, you know. And and so like
- 9:44Speaker 1: you're learning how to be continuing to be the pro
- 9:47Speaker 1: and getting your schedule throughout you know, the season all
- 9:50Speaker 1: the way you know, to the end and continuing to
- 9:52Speaker 1: do that. That's the challenge. It's got to be every
- 9:55Speaker 1: the routine has got to be the same. So it's
- 9:57Speaker 1: done a good job. You've seen it this week and
- 10:00Speaker 1: last week saw to step up in his play and
- 10:03Speaker 1: I think a lot of that is the time he's
- 10:05Speaker 1: putting in to his craft.
- 10:08Speaker 2: Coach.
- 10:08Speaker 1: I know a lot of people were wondering why Roy
- 10:12Speaker 1: Robinson Harris was out there on Saturday night.
- 10:14Speaker 5: I know you didn't get a lot of time.
- 10:15Speaker 3: With him in the off season because of the foot injury.
- 10:17Speaker 5: But what are you seeing out of him?
- 10:19Speaker 3: Big?
- 10:20Speaker 1: Strong, physical, because he's a really good pass rusher, a
- 10:24Speaker 1: guy that big is he's extremely athletic. And there's a
- 10:28Speaker 1: play in practice the other day on a toss and
- 10:30Speaker 1: I mean he was.
- 10:30Speaker 3: Running like like that. That's pretty good. Now, like it
- 10:34Speaker 3: was awesome.
- 10:36Speaker 1: But you see that combination the size of the speed
- 10:39Speaker 1: and look, our goal is to get everybody in games.
- 10:43Speaker 1: And don't read into he played and this guy didn't.
- 10:46Speaker 1: That's not really our Hey, whatever snaps he got fifteen
- 10:50Speaker 1: snaps or twelve steps, it's just getting him ready to
- 10:52Speaker 1: play in this game.
- 10:54Speaker 3: Here was a.
- 10:55Speaker 1: Little bit of last week, and so that's just all
- 10:57Speaker 1: we're doing, knocking the rust off, getting some game type.
- 11:01Speaker 3: Someplace. But yeah, he's done a good jobs.
- 11:03Speaker 1: He's really improved in the last two weeks and continue
- 11:06Speaker 1: to look for that this week.
- 11:07Speaker 3: Is there an emphasis to you at Eric Armstead.
- 11:09Speaker 5: Of the game this Friday?
- 11:14Speaker 3: The room really silent.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Look, we're gonna take Eric, you know, the injury stuff.
- 11:21Speaker 1: I could say no comment, you know, but I don't
- 11:26Speaker 1: think so.
- 11:27Speaker 3: But I'm not sure totally right now.
- 11:30Speaker 1: I mean, it just came back yesterday, so I don't
- 11:33Speaker 1: want to close the door on anything, but you know,
- 11:36Speaker 1: so we'll see, you know, just taking it one day
- 11:38Speaker 1: at the time.
- 11:38Speaker 2: With Derek Weles, Cole's gotten plenty of play during the
- 11:42Speaker 2: preseason so far.
- 11:42Speaker 3: I know, he's a guy all liked in the draft.
- 11:44Speaker 2: What have you seen from him growth wise through these
- 11:46Speaker 2: two games and practices?
- 11:47Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of same thing with the other d limbment
- 11:50Speaker 1: is the routine of learning how to be a pro.
- 11:54Speaker 3: You know, he's he's done a really good.
- 11:56Speaker 1: Job of getting in the weight room with our guys
- 12:00Speaker 1: here with said and the strength coaches and really developing
- 12:03Speaker 1: his body. Seeing a guy's getting stronger, getting more confident,
- 12:06Speaker 1: playing on the edge using his hands and then pass rush.
- 12:09Speaker 1: You know, he's a rushing the past were pretty good
- 12:11Speaker 1: when you watch him just come off the edge and
- 12:12Speaker 1: you just watch his snaps.
- 12:14Speaker 3: He's big, he's long.
- 12:15Speaker 1: You know, he can dip and he can lean and
- 12:18Speaker 1: so that combination is he's doing.
- 12:20Speaker 3: A good job with that.
- 12:21Speaker 1: There's still you look, we've still got to work on
- 12:23Speaker 1: some other things and a little bit ways to go,
- 12:25Speaker 1: but he's trending in the right direction.
- 12:27Speaker 2: Talking about you guys, another guy's going through camp.
- 12:31Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, another guy in the weight room that's done
- 12:34Speaker 1: a really good job.
- 12:35Speaker 3: I mean really when you look at when.
- 12:36Speaker 1: He first got on campus year to where he is now,
- 12:39Speaker 1: Like the strength is his body weight, you know, has
- 12:41Speaker 1: increased that's helped him in terms of contested catches and
- 12:44Speaker 1: putting a body on the receiver really fast. The thing
- 12:49Speaker 1: you like about Tree again, another guy just he's the
- 12:51Speaker 1: same every day he comes into the building. He works hard.
- 12:54Speaker 1: You know exactly what you're get to get out of him.
- 12:56Speaker 1: He's elite speed really, I.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Mean, the guy can roll now. He is a fast,
- 13:00Speaker 3: fast player. And you look, it's the same.
- 13:03Speaker 1: It's the same thing every day, which is awesome, and
- 13:06Speaker 1: that has helped him get a little bit better every day.
- 13:09Speaker 1: Again Chris and Corey, I mean when you watch their
- 13:11Speaker 1: individual and you watch the things that they're doing, you
- 13:13Speaker 1: see the same thing on the game tape, you know,
- 13:15Speaker 1: and the guys really bought into that. So uh it's
- 13:18Speaker 1: good and continue to look to see to him get
- 13:21Speaker 1: better to awesome. Everybody get thank you very much to
- 13:24Speaker 1: take