Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Press Pass | Ryan Nielsen on Rookie Growth and Roster Evaluation

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Press Pass | Ryan Nielsen on Rookie Growth and Roster Evaluation · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

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