Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 22

Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 22

Okay, fairway. What’s the plan for Trey Henderson? Yeah, we’ll just see. We’ll take it dayto day right now. We’ll see if anything be limited. Anybody else you expect not to go today? Um, some guys might just be limited. We’ll just see as we go. What makes the Jets defensive front has been for years, but what makes it so consistent? Well, they’ve they’ve invested there, you know, so they got some high draft picks. Um, Quinton Williams is I mean he’s he’s the first one that jumps out at you. Um, I’ve always liked Harrison Phillips. Their edge guys do a great job coming off the edge as well. So, just starting with that front four is a problem and they get a lot out of them. They’re very disruptive. Uh, their defense has played played really well. I mean, you just watch especially these last two weeks, they’ve really limited these offenses terms of points on the board and u made things difficult for you. So, um, they’ve got a lot of talent behind those guys as well. Uh, but I just I think they’ve done a nice job limiting teams starting with their front. Are they equally effective against the pass and run from what you Yeah, they’re they’re hard. Everything’s difficult. Everything’s difficult. Um, if you give a chance, they’ll be very disruptive in the pocket, affect your passing game. You got to be very mindful of how you attack them. Had you known before was on Dan Staff? Um, no. I’ve always known uh who he is. You know,&m guy, coach there, I coach there. I mean, um, but but no, I don’t know what’s the difference or what how much of a difference does it make if it’s Justin Fields versus Tyrron Taylor? They’re both talented players, capable leading their team, played them both a lot um with different teams and so again, they’re they’re both challenging and whoever’s out there is out there and we got to be ready for you guys prepare for both, I assume. Yeah. They’re not announcing the starter competitive advantages. Does it make a big difference if you guys know who the starter is on Wednesday? Does that make it? No, I think you got to be ready for both of them. Are you able to announce your starting guards for this week or um I won’t do that quite yet. In general though, do you see that being week to week going forward or would you like to really settle in? No, I’d like to settle in, but but again, I think we’ve got guys that are capable. So, I like where we’re at because I think we got young guys that are ascending. I think we’ve got veterans that absolutely can get in there and get the job done. So, I feel really comfortable with with where we’re at there. What have you seen from Jaylen Rivers in his move to guard? Obviously, he started off as a tackle in his move to guard. I mean, he’s he played both in college and so again, um, great film as a guard and so we we like him in there as a pass protector. Um, I think he’s improving in the run game as well. So, really smart guy, very mature for rookie. U, I don’t really look at him that way, I guess, just the way he conducts himself and um, seems very mature. seems like an experienced player and so again, he’s just continuing to get better in that. How tough is it to balance young guys and developing those two guards versus we need to win something? It hasn’t been Well, you’re just asking the question for this week, but it’s kind of taken care of itself in terms of the injuries so far. And again, you get scout team reps as well. So, it’s not our it’s not our reps necessarily that we’re calling for the Jets, but whoever’s not starting is still in there as a guard getting work, getting physical work. Whenever we got a scout team card, we’re trying our best to call it as we would in our terminology and so they can work the techniques. And so, um, you still get to assess a player and whether it’s a young guy taking the scout team work, he’s still getting reps and and you’re investing in getting better. And if it’s a veteran player, focus on staying sharp for when your number’s called. So there’s even though they’re not the starter and getting the starter reps, they’re still getting plenty of work on the scout team. Just following up on that, is it hard to fight the urge whether it be you you see the sample size of what you got from maybe your non-starter on opening day like last week compared to what you’ve seen over a course of five weeks. I think those are just always decisions we have to make. I mean, so you can talk about any position and how we’re going to handle it differently. Um, I think we’re in a good spot. So, again, it’s not something I’m I’m stressed about. I think we have really good options and it’ll take shape as the week goes. Do you view it long do you take the long-term view or is it as simple as whoever gives you the best chance? You’re just you guys trying to find the answer on who started. Um, we’re just again whatever gives us the best chance to win. Now that you’ve had Joe Flackle here for a couple of weeks or so, maybe a couple more meetings, couple more film sessions. What do you notice about just how he goes about that? his demeanor, how interactive he is during those sessions. Consistent, very consistent. Um, never overwhelmed. You know, it’s a lot of information being thrown at you. All things that he’s been exposed to over the course of his career. Maybe just called differently, maybe just operated differently. So, he’s just getting used to how we do it. But again, you never you never uh you can never tell if it’s something he’s heard or hasn’t heard. His his demeanor is always the same, which I appreciate u because there’s no p wait, what is that? There’s no panic or anything. He’s he’s solving the problem. He gets in the huddle. He calls the play with confidence when he’s in the huddle, which is critical for the other 10 guys to hear to have that confidence level in your quarterback and again is just um impressed with with how quickly he’s picked it all up and and uh again it always looks effortless. I know it’s not. I know he’s putting in a lot of work, but that’s the feel that it comes off to everybody and that’s that’s a positive thing for us. He a point yet where he’s saying here’s what I’m seeing. Here’s what I think. Let’s try this. or is it more just kind of taking the information and trying to work as well with sometimes that that happens more as the week goes. You know, early on you’re giving them the plan and then as the week goes and you’ve repped it and you’ve watched more tape, that’s where more of the interactions come from. You’re watching post-practice tape after practice and those guys will have ideas coming out of the quarterback room. And so th those are those are things that evolve over the course of the week. After the game, you spoke about the need to enunciate better and joked about your Oklahoma accent might be giving him trouble. Did you change anything? Did you speak more slowly or anything? No, I just now now as the game ended, I know now what was causing issues, what words sounded similar during the game. It’s hard to articulate what what is what is it because you’re not he’s on the field, I’m on the sideline. So, now that we know that, um we don’t have to change how we operate. we can just focus in on all right here’s the eight plays we have out of that formation and so when you hear another part of it it’ll ring a bell that or I can cheat if I’m saying a Z- word I can hey this one starts with a Z I’ve done that in my F and X you know those are two receivers that’s happened over the course of my entire life you call an F stick or X stick quarterback anybody in this room maybe couldn’t hear what I just said which one and so you’ve always had to say hey X like triple X or F as in Frank you know you you’d be shocked at how how sometimes you have to do that just to make sure everybody clearly hears what you’re saying and the receivers in the huddle hear that as well and and uh this is no different than that. What gives you the biggest confidence that y’all will be able to continue the offensive success you’ve had over the last say six quarters or so? Well, I think you know with the receivers we have when we when we do a great job in protection which our guys have had and allows us to attack, you know, down the field and get our guys the ball in space. That’s critical. And then just continue to build on the run game. You know, that’s we can see the pressure that takes off of everything when you’re able to establish a ground game. And so, um, I don’t think that’s rocket science for anybody that that those are great things to have, but, um, when you can consistently do it and build momentum on that, then then you’ve got a chance to be really successful. You had mentioned you wanted to show the film of Jamar blocking downfield to your guys. I forget when that was maybe last Friday. Yeah. Um, how did they respond to that? What was the reaction like in the room? It’s not a it’s not a a answer question and answer a session, you know, it’s just me showing and and there’s not always a lot of uh verbal feedback that we get. So, I I know I just I just want to show our great players doing the little things for everybody else to see. Um I think we’ve got a lot of young talented players that um over time we’ll figure better understand. Hey, here’s here’s the little things that are getting someone like Jamar to that level and T that level. And um I just so I think the more we can show that the better. How critical is this stretch going into the buy this little chunk of games that you have sorry from that Pittsburgh game going into for what you want to do this year? Just this game is really all that I care about. You know, we we’ll focus on whatever is after that after that. But right now, um being able to handle just a little bit of success. We haven’t had a lot of success, just a little bit. Um I’ve seen how we’ve handled the adversity when things go bad. His guys have responded the right way. found a way to get a big win. Okay, now you put that one behind and you keep keep trying to improve. It’s we we have not come close to reaching our potential as a team yet and so that’s all important is guys continuing to improve and so we play our best game against the Jets and then whatever comes at us after that we can focus on that. Whenever we ask you about Cam Taylor Brid, you use the word consistency is the most important with him. What does consistency look like for him? Yeah, well just from snap to snap, you know, consistency um in all areas. I won’t get specific with it, but he’s a guy I pull for. I want him to do well. I want him to have the opportunity. I want him to take advantage of the opportunity. We’ve seen what it looks like um when it’s really good, and I think he’s focused on on regaining that. You still believe he can help this team? I do. Absolutely. How happy or how would you characterize his attitude? His attitude has been good, you know, and again, he understands what we’re looking for exactly. Um, and we’ll just we’ll look to see that consistency show up and I trust that it can. Seems like year to year, early in the season, the run game doesn’t have a lot of carryover from the previous year. It seems like you’re always having to kind of reinvent that a little bit each year in different ways. Why is that? Do you think that maybe it’s not that seems like it changes year to year where you have to is it just different personnel or different guys? I wouldn’t I I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that to be truthful with you. I think uh the bulk of what we’ve done is carryover. Um maybe it’s window dressed a little bit differently which is more game plan weektoe stuff. There’s always things as you evolve with your line, your backs and just kind of what you’re doing formationally that okay now we need to focus on this element of the run game that can help us. So you add that and you focus on that. But overall, I think if you looked at the call sheet one year ago today and the call sheet today, you’re going to see very very similar stuff. What are the biggest challenges this year through this as you guys have tried to dig out of this the running game thing to get it going? What have been the biggest differences and challenges that you felt like over the last month that you’ve been chipping away at? Well, I think again it it’s you guys are probably tired of me saying this, but playing with a lead helps the run game so much. Helps you stick with it, be consistent with it. um this was the first game in a long time where we have had the opportunity to do that as a team. And so again, having a lead and feeling like every possession is not life or death to stay in this game and be able to just stick with some runs, call a run on second and 10 and and not not feel like all right, if we’re in a third and eight, you know, we got an issue here. So I think just being able to as a team hang in that game and have a lead allowed us to keep sticking with that stuff and give us confidence in that game. And that’s just the difference in that game as opposed to the previous four where where we didn’t have enough of that. It even felt like early in the season like Chase Brown would turn like a a zero yard run into a two- yard run and then last week a five yarder into like a 30 yarder. What do you thought of just his ability to break tackles this season? I he’s always had that ability um to play through contact, to gain yards after contact, um in space, to to spin off of people and and so I’ve always seen that element to him and um I think we got to see a lot more of it because we got him in more space last week. What have your conversations been like with Al about tackling better this point? Well, there’s not much I need to say about that. I think that’s that’s they take that to heart and Al’s done a great job focusing on that, emphasizing it. It’s not something we’ve just let fall by the wayside. It’s it’s always been a focus for us and it’s unfortunate what shows up in the games because it’s not where we preach. It’s not where we rep. Um so he he does a great job of taking the bull by the watch there. Are you a little bit surprised though given how much focus there was on it and even Al talked about this and some of the players so much focus in training camp in the offseason and you’re at the point now where you’re still looking I I I expect us to tackle well. So I guess to your point, are you surprised when it doesn’t happen? Um, anything can happen and we just got to be better for it. Still feel good about the gu the linebacker combination with Bear and Y Ted was miked up for sound last week and the video compilation on the website’s pretty amusing. Can you describe his game persona? Um, his game persona. Um, it’s good. Start right there. Good. um always high energy conversations. I think I think if three words describe him, high energy conversations um time anytime I go to him with something, it’s a high energy conversation in response, which is great. I like high energy. I don’t want dull don’t want to be out here. I want high energy. Let’s get this fixed. Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s stick with this. Um Ted Carris high energy conversation really in all in all phases of life. great quality to have. I love high energy. Bring some juice, you know, and Ted brings some juice and so I appreciate that. Has that been one of the more underrated signings over the years in the culture that y’all wanted to build? Is that how Yeah. No, I think that’s a good point. Um, how many extensions has he gotten here? One or two? Two. Yeah, two. Um, he’s done a great job. I mean, it’s it’s to have a a center that cares so much about the nuances of the position and helping lead the group in conjunction with the quarterback, I think, is critical. Ted Ted, um, you know, his dad’s a coach, he’s a son of a coach. He’s he’s invested. Um, so he understands, you know, bringing people along with him, getting the most out of people, doing a great job with communication, solving problems, staying one step ahead of the defense. Um, and I think he’s got a great rapport with with Joe Burrow and everybody else who’s played quarterback with us. They they’ve got trust that he knows what he’s talking about. He’s done he’s he’s done the work leading up to a Wednesday insole meeting. He’s already watched the tape. He knows. So, I think that that’s um I can’t rate on a scale of signings who’s best and who’s not, but certainly glad that we have. You guys have had such a different schedule from Sunday to Monday to Thursday to 4:30 starts. How how nice is it just to have some one o’clocks moving forward knowing, hey, that’s our schedule. Yeah. Uh I guess you’re right. I Yeah, that’s that’s how it goes. And you know, you look at I’m doing the schedule for the last half of the season and we’re going to deal with more of that, you know, Thursday games and Sunday night games and possible Saturday games. So, um you just deal with as it comes. Our guys are pretty used to whatever routine we throw at them. whether it’s a short week on a Thursday game, whether it’s an extra bonus day on a Monday after Thursday or by or um sometimes we’ll get those six day weeks post Monday night. So, the guys generally respond really well and coaches understand the workflow we’ve got, what we got to get done and trust that the work’s going to get done, our guys will have a chance to be prepared. Are you getting closer and closer to that complete game? Um, you know, whether offense, defense, things everybody is making. I I think the beauty of it is we still have a ways to go, right? I I think, you know, there’s we won and I’m thankful for that, but that doesn’t mean that um it was clean in all three phases and there’s not a lot of things that we can improve on and and that’s a good thing that we found a way to win a tight game. All three of our wins have been find a way to win games. they haven’t been. We race out and we we’re holding a 14-point lead, which I’d love to do at some point, but but there’s also an element to it’s good that we’ve we’ve had to find ways to win and we just got to continue to build off of that. That’s a good quality to have that you’ve seen yourself do that at the end of the game. Now, we got to focus on, you know, building a lead early in the game, playing really solid and and putting teams to bed and um winning by a wider margin. Coach, you um been here for all the Ring of Honor games. talk about just what you appreciate about a franchise recognizing players and what they’ve given to the organization. I think it’s um important for our current players to see the history, you know, so as they look up there and I look up there today and I see the name, so I don’t know when the names got added, but today was the first time I noticed it. Um I don’t know if I say that or not. I don’t know. Maybe his secret. I don’t know. But um I think it’s just cool to see. I I love when I go into other stadiums, I’m always that’s what I do. I just sit there in pregame warm-ups and I’m looking around and trying to remember any memories I have of those players. And so I think it’s special. This is such a a strong history um dating back to the 60s here and and all the great players that have come here. And I’ve always enjoyed hearing Mike Brown tell one-off stories on on different guys, some in the Ring of Honor, some not. I love that kind of stuff. And so I I think it’s really cool to recognize our players, to see those names up there forever. those those men to um those that are around to get a chance for their their kids and grandkids to see him up there. I think that’s spectacular. Um Mr. Lapam over here, you know, it’ll be really neat, you know, for his whole family. Sarah, everybody to get up here and and see see it up there and never goes away. You know, it’s it’s like when you win a a conference championship in college. I always tell those guys that number stays up there forever. Whatever year you wanted, that stays up there forever. And every time you go back, you get to see it. And here in the Ring of Honor, it’s the same for these guys that get a chance to see their names up there. and never goes away. And um pretty pretty special, pretty rare. You know, you think of all the players that play in this league um and have impacted every different city to have your name up there is is the best of the best. That’s the it’s not the.1%, it’s the 0.001%. You know, all the guys that have come through this building. So, pretty neat. Congrats to Dave. Thank you. Great. Exactly.

Zac Taylor speaks to the media ahead of Week 8 against the New York Jets.

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