Zac Taylor Press Conference – November 19

Zac Taylor Press Conference – November 19

[Music] Zack, you open the 21 day window for both Dejon and Mike. Do you anticipate them being able to play Sunday? We’ll see. Um, you know, Dejon obviously hasn’t gotten practice since training camp, so I think that one, um, there’s a lot of work that’s got to go in there. He hasn’t played football in a long time. Gaseki being out four weeks, I feel like he’s a little ready to hit the ground running. So, we’ll see how he looks this week. How big would it be if you could get Mike back given the everything that you want? Yeah, it helps given that situation to um lose a guy like Jamar and add one like Mike certainly helps ease the pain a little bit and we’d be happy to have him. Your reaction to obviously the suspension and then his appeal being denied. Yeah, I mean we we we gave him everything we had. Um they upheld the suspension and so as a team we just got to move forward. You know, still support Jamar and I have supported Jamar but we got to focus on New England now and look forward to getting Jamar next back next Monday. Is the move for Dejon to be activated because he’s finally ready from injury standpoint or just that you guys are hopeful in the next couple of weeks to to see what he can do for you? Yeah, it’s time to get him back, you know, and so again, now he’s he’s healthy and so open up this 21day window so we can look at him going into December. Um it’s just it’s time to do that. Pitch said his message to the receivers was, you know, a bunch of guys he had an opportunity here with Jamar out. What do you hope to see kind of in practice this week to figure out who’s going to get those chances? Yeah, guys just taking advantage of the opportunity. Again, it’s that that’s exactly what it is. That’s how some guys have gotten their chances. That’s how Mitch Tinsley has has gotten himself on the roster is taking advantage of moments where he’s at, you know, and so again, I just think we’ll continue to evaluate those guys. Um, we got a good plan in place to utilize everybody we can and we’ll see how guys continue to step up as the week goes. What challenges does Drake May present and what do you think about him? I think he’s done a great job. Um, I mean, four to one touchdown interception is really impressive. considering he’s in his second year, new coaching staff, you know, all that stuff you you factor in. I think he’s done an excellent job. Um 72% completion, which is really impressive, too. So, he’s doing everything right. And leading the team to eight straight wins, I think just really impressive. And he’s he’s a tough challenge when a guy’s taking care of the football like that. Um completing balls at a high rate like he is, 20 touchdowns, five, he can make plays with his feet as well. So he he’s really impressive and a difficult challenge for our guys. What do you see from Josh McDaniels offense run by Drake May? What is it about Josh McDaniels that over the years has made him successful? He does a great job attacking defenses in a lot of different ways. Staying patient, picking his moments for for big opportunities, explosives. Um it’s hard to say how much offense they carry. I don’t I don’t know. I’ve never really been with him. But they just do a good job with their game planning week to week and attacking attacking what they think your weakness is. and um always having some nice wrinkles in place. He’s done it for a long time at a very high level. Won a lot of Super Bowls. Ton of respect for Josh and he’s certainly getting a lot of the offense right now. Mesh is a a term that comes up a lot when when his name comes up. What do you see or do you see any characteristics of a mesh offense with them uh run through the break offensive? um a mesh like the concept mesh should be a mesh concept like crossing receivers. Yeah, I think if he’s get Yeah, I mean that that’s threw me on that one. I didn’t expect that question. Um I’m sure that shows up. That’s not one I I necessarily think of right out the gate. Zack. Um, you know, a game against a good New England team with a good record, I think, is going to demand always going to demand the attention of whoever that New England team is playing. Um, I just wonder because of the unique circumstance of you guys having one of the coveted like prime time games the following Thursday on Thanksgiving night, is there like any usefulness in maybe telling the guys focus on this one? Don’t I know the idea of looking ahead beyond this New England team is insane, but like don’t look ahead just because we have this, you know, Thursday night game coming up. No, I am need to do that for one second. No, I think they’re pretty well focused on New England. How’s Joe Flacco feeling? Is he going to practice today? He won’t practice today. Same schedule as we’ve been on the last couple weeks. And that’s just me. It’s normal. Yeah, he’ll practice tomorrow. Yes. Will he definitely start on Sunday? We’ll keep working through it, you know, and see how we go through the week. Is there is there a scenario that that Joe Burrow Joe Burrow hasn’t practiced 11 on 11 yet? So, like I said the other day, until we get through some practices, there’s no reason for me to even speculate on that. But without Flaco, can like Wednesday kind of be Burrow’s day and then Thursday kind of be Flaco’s day? Yeah, I I think you can certainly get a lot of work in with Joe today, Joe Burrow today because Flaco’s not practicing because the plan has been to get into 11-11. So, it it works well to where you’re not trying to balance a guy who was going to practice on a Wednesday. Joe Joe Flacco hasn’t done that. Um, we got to think of another way to communicate this because the two Joe’s that really is just this is getting harder and harder every week that passes. But, um, so we’ll get through today and it’s just a good start to get Joe out there in 11 on 111. See how it goes. Will Joe Burrow do 111 today? He might he will he’ll do it today. New England’s gotten a lot of praise for the job that they’ve done in the rebuild of the entire team, but specifically on defense obviously that’s Vable’s, you know, bread and butter, but when you look at you played them last year, what’s the biggest change you’ve seen in their defense this year? Yeah, impossible to compare. That was that was a weak one. It’s such a unique thing uh because they had a new staff last year, so you aren’t sure. So that that one doesn’t to me even count. Um I think that he’s just done a great job. It’s it’s it’s similar enough to what they did in Tennessee, but there’s some differences, you know, and so again, I think um spending time away for a year, however you look at it, it’s uh they’ve done a good job. There’s some things that stay the same. They’re really hard-nosed playing defense. They do the they do the simple things really well. Um there’s a physicality to them for sure that shows up. you know, there’s there’s a couple guys that have been with Varel in the past that he brings along and um some other guys that they added from around the league and then the guys that have been there that they continue to grow within the organization. So, um it’s a challenging defense. They they do a really good job. Um it’s not even a team that that overall has they’ve won eight in a row, so you normally look at the turnover battle and think, okay, they’re dominating the turn. They’re not. They’re zero. You know, it’s even for them. And so that that’s an impressive way to win eight in a row when there’s been games where it’s where it’s plus or minus but overall at zero. And so I think that that’s just pretty impressive that they’ve been able to do what they do with the record they have. That tells you that they’re playing really sound football in all three phases. Guy I think we forgot to ask about on Monday. Is he getting closer? He’d be doubtful this week. You asked a lot about the defense on Monday and things you want to fix going into this week. Are there any like positive examples that you’ve the staff has pointed to and said like here’s what we wanted to look like from some things you Yeah, I think there’s a lot of great examples on first and second down where we won and got them to where we wanted and and didn’t necessarily finish all the time. There’s times we did. Uh there was a there’s a physicality there that I thought, like I said, I thought the linebackers did a good job from an operational standpoint. Um so yeah, there there was a lot of things to build on that I think had been better than weeks before. That’s not our our standards. not let’s just be a little bit better. It’s it’s we want to completely raise the standard for a whole team. Um but there were some things that we got to continue to build on. Sai got a little dinged up at the beginning of the game obviously finished the game. Will he be out there today? Is he Yeah, there there’s guys of course that always get deed up in the games and we’ll manage him through the week, but um he’s in good shape. know, no one makes it to the NFL by shying away from challenges, but a team that’s won eight in a row, is it something that you you actually enjoy that something that you want to go after and try to snap at? Yeah, it doesn’t. I mean, you kind of know what our mentality has been over the last couple years and these opportunities are fun ones. You know, it’s it’s all these games are meaningful. Um, they’ve obviously they’re in a really good rhythm. um and they’ve earned that and so it’s it’s a great opportunity for us to to find our rhythm, you know, to go out there and challenge them and put our best foot forward and and see how it all falls and get some momentum after this game. What was your biggest message to you tomorrow? Well, your your communication’s limited. I mean, I talked to him immediately after the game. Um but then since then, you can’t have communication with him, which is tricky. Um but again, he and I are on the same page with everything. On Monday, what you were able before? I’ll just keep that with me and Jamal. When does that end? Can you talk in postgame Sunday or not? I think it’s uh I’m not sure if it’s 400 pm Monday, sometime on Monday. What do you What would your expectations for him be during this no contact period? I can’t talk to him, so I’m not going to speculate. Okay. What have you seen from from Charlie Jones? And do you think that he could potentially give you a boost on offense? Yeah, I think Charlie’s got a lot of confidence in our offense. Um so again, he’s waiting for his opportunity. we we’ve been really healthy at the spot, you know, so there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to take advantage of. So, I think this is one of those moments where where guys have an opportunity to make a name for themselves. And um we’ll keep working through that for practice and see where it ends up on Sunday. I know I asked you Monday and you said you evaluate it every day. Do you anticipate any starting lineup changes on defense? We’ll keep working through it this week. Thank you.

Zac Taylor speaks to the media ahead of Week 12 against the New England Patriots.

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