Head Coach Brian Singletary
Q: Anyone not going to be out there today?
Daboll: Yeah, we got a couple of guys with personal stuff and then we’ll keep a couple guys inside and work with them.
Q: What’s up with (defensive lineman Elijah Chatman) Chat?
Daboll: Chat had something personal. He’ll be here today.
Q: And (defensive lineman Jordon) Riley?
Daboll: Riley’s in doing some rehab stuff.
Q: What about (running back Cam) Skattebo?
Q: Why isn’t he practicing?
Daboll: We thought that was best for him, just managing him. He’ll be okay.
Q: Is it the same thing he was dealing with in the spring?
Daboll: No, he’ll be okay.
Daboll: Yeah, we’re managing (it).
Q: What did you make of yesterday’s practice? There were a lot of penalties that at some point it seems like it got to you.
Daboll: No, it always gets to me when we have pre-snap penalties. Towards the end of practice, we had a few too many and some longer drives. It was going – I thought practice was good. There was a lot of give and take, some good execution, but towards the end they had some more false start penalties. We’ve got to eliminate those and defensive offsides on critical downs so we have to do better there.
Q: Is that why you made them run?
Daboll: No, it was part of the plan for yesterday.
Q: Is that going to be a regular part of practice week to week or is that just a one and done part of the plan?
Daboll: No, I always sit down with (executive director of player performance Aaron) Wellman to see where we’re at, what we need and whatever that is, that’s what we choose to do.
Q: You talk about the defensive offsides, that happens a lot when (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) is out there. There was a lot in the spring about his cadence and are you giving him credit for some of that with hard counts or is it just a matter of lack of discipline from the defensive guys?
Daboll: No, I know the clap in college, again I’ve been part of that, but he’s done a pretty good job with his cadence. Not pretty good, he’s done a good job. I don’t think it’s like really hard to learn but his voice inflections have been good and he’s been mixing things up. We need to continue to do that with all the quarterbacks. When you do that, you try to use variety in your cadence, you got to make sure that you’re staying on sides as well because (if) we’re playing a good defensive line or someone that can get off on the pass rush, that’s a weapon offensively that you have to be able to utilize.
Q: Dart said that he liked getting a lit bit more freedom once the pads came on in terms of how he was operating and making some checks. What did you allow him to do more of as you got deeper into camp?
Daboll: There’s no restrictions on what we allow the quarterbacks to do. They’re out there playing, you have a call, you put it out there and the defense is going to give you a variety of looks. There’s not a check on every play but if he sees something that he thinks is a better option, whether that’s run to run, run to pass, pass to pass, different protection – that’s what we want all the quarterbacks to do. They’re the ones out there seeing it in real time and then go out there… He’s made a number of them. All the guys have, they’ve made a number of them, based on what the defense shows, presents itself, and that’s something you just keep on building into practice for those guys. Some you set up, some they do on their own but they’ve done a nice job of that.
Q: It seems like Dart’s been more decisive the last handful of practices. Is that something you’ve seen and what would you attribute that to?
Daboll: Reps, even just from the play call, out of the huddle, taking what the defense is giving you. All the quarterbacks, we want them to do that. There was a play action pass we had yesterday and he’s dumping it off to the check down pretty quick when he sees the contour of what the defense is doing and making positive plays – I mean, that’s one of the jobs of a quarterback is to keep the ball moving forward. Anytime you get a negative play, and you all know this, it’s hard to overcome in this league, whether that’s a sack, whether that’s a delay of game, whether that’s a poor decision on his part, a negative run. So we’re constantly moving the ball forward and making good decisions. If we have a shot called and they cover it, let’s not just force it in there. Let’s do a good job of making the right decision so that we can keep moving the ball towards the opposing team’s goal line.
Q: There’s been a lot of quarterback runs. Is the idea there to keep the defense honest on the checks or why so many of those?
Daboll: I think we have athletic quarterbacks. Some of it, again, we play athletic quarterbacks as well so you’re trying to do what’s best for the team, trying to get yourself ready. We’re not focused on any opponents right now, but we’ve done a lot of offseason projects and work, so we got to make sure that both sides are ready for those.
Q: When the quarterbacks are running here, they aren’t getting hit. With Jaxson, how do you coach him that game situations don’t have that false sense of security that he could maybe develop because of not getting hit here as opposed to in a game?
Daboll: I think that’s an instinctual thing. He’s an aggressive player. I’m not going to take that away from him. We’ll see as real games start happening.
Q: Running was a bigger part of (quarterback) Russell (Wilson)’s game early in his career but do you think he still can be an asset as a running quarterback?
Daboll: Yeah, I think that’ll all work itself out once we get into game planning and deciding what we can do but he’s plenty athletic, plenty fast enough. You’ve seen him on a couple scrambles, not necessarily designed runs but he’s out of the pocket and makes a guy miss. He’s been good on-the-run throwing. He’s been good on-the-run running, that’s part of his game.
Q: Some of Russ’s best plays early in his career were when plays went down and he improvised. Receivers in Seattle had to kind of learn how to work with him on that. Are there any drills you can do to try to bring some of that here where (wide receivers) Malik (Nabers) and (Darius) Slayton can get used to it?
Daboll: Yeah, we do pre-practice – not every day, but part of OTAs and this is a scramble drill that we do and we coach off of it. A lot of times, for quarterbacks that can move, which is most of them in this day and age, that’s a big part of all quarterbacks game. There’s not a lot of times you just take five steps or seven steps at times and the pocket is just completely clean. I mean, there’s some, but the really good quarterbacks in this league are able to improvise and able to make plays, whether it’s with their feet or their arm and move in the pocket and create stuff down the field. We see these quarterbacks nowadays, most of them that are playing at the end of the year are guys that can do that.
Q: Is (tackle) Andrew (Thomas) going to get back on the field soon with the team?
Daboll: Yeah, he’s working. He’s making progress and when he’s ready, we’ll get him back out there.
Q: (Running backs Tyrone) Tracy Jr. and (Devin) Singletary had a great one-two combo last year, and now you have Skattebo next to them. Do you like the makeup of all three of those guys being really versatile that they can do multiple things on the field? Like being all-down backs basically?
Daboll: Yeah, I think with any of those backs that we have, we don’t necessarily… Back in the day, there’s times we had a first and second-down back and then we had a third-down back and I think all three of those guys are capable to run, to pass block, to run routes. Sometimes when you – it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing – we’ve won a lot of games at other places where we’ve had a bigger back and some smaller backs but sometimes that gives indicators too, of, ‘All right, this guy’s in the game. It’s either going to be this or this or we can eliminate some options.’ So the more all-purpose backs you can have that can do a variety of things, I think that helps.