Offensive Lineman Jon Runyan Jr.

Q: I figured I would start by asking, obviously, you look at the NFC East right now, you guys are sitting on top of the division, and you look around and see kind of how these other teams have struggled. The Cowboys struggled, the Commanders, obviously, and the Eagles. What does it say about you guys that despite losing (quarterback Jaxson) Dart, (outside linebacker Brian) Burns, (wide receiver Braxton) Berrios, and some of these guys that you guys have been able to weather the storm and find ways to get wins or a tie in this case?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, I think it says a lot about not only our coaching staff, what they've kind of tried to build throughout the whole offseason program and into training camp. It says a lot about them, the foundation that they've built, and a lot of us as players, we're sitting 3-1-1 right now. A couple plays here and there, I feel like we could also be 1-4. I still feel like we have a long way to go on this team. Luckily, we are 3-1-1 at the moment. And like I said, we still have a long way to go. This whole division stacks up how it does, as long as we take care of what we got, like we got the Saints coming in this week. (Head) Coach (John) Harbaugh has been saying go 1-0 every week, and that's kind of been our mindset, and it's been working so far this year.

Q: How much do you think that's helped just with how you guys have finished these games so well? Because it seems like you guys are just found a way, whether it's the defense making plays or, let's say that the fourth quarter, you guys rallied behind (quarterback) Jameis (Winston). Just what is that mentality you think done on the field with you guys being able to execute down the stretch, you think?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, you can definitely see it. Obviously, a lot different, I think from what fans are used to last couple years. I'm not saying last couple years that people were quitting out there, but you just see that constant belief in the team, in these coaches. When it comes down to it, this past game we were down 14 points with about ten minutes to go in the game. And really kind of felt like nobody flinched and ended up scoring, what was it, three touchdowns in the quarter right there, to pull us back and give us a chance to win. So, I feel like with these coaches, with these players, I really never feel like we're out of it. And guys just continue to put their head down and keep working.

Q: Could you give us an idea what you see (offensive lineman) Andrew Thomas going through every day to be out there? He's so hard on himself, that he says he's not playing well. And then you look at the numbers, he's allowed one sack in his last 18 games or something like that. And I know (John) Harbaugh said he might think he's laboring, but his performance is still better than most at left tackle. So, what do you see him going through? What kind of respect does that earn from you guys?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, definitely. I know he's, I don't really see him throughout the whole day, because he's either in the training room or weight room, besides being in our O-line meetings. But he's doing everything he possibly can to keep his body healthy. And he's been doing enough to keep himself out on the field. And like you said, Coach Harbaugh said that his whatever percent he's at physically out on the field is better than a lot of other tackles ceiling of their percent of performance when they're out in the field. So, just having him and going to my third year, playing next to him makes my job a lot easier. Really appreciate him for that. And yeah, like you said, he's just a warrior out there. I do see him looking like he's laboring here and there, but he won't show it on his face. He's just going to keep working, keep his mouth shut, and keep playing. And that's just the kind of person and player he is. And it's really awesome to watch. He's definitely the lead by example guy of our entire, I could say entire offense, but definitely the offensive line. And he's definitely the glue that holds us all together, having such a good, dominant player that he is for a very long time.

Q: And then changing gears for a second, Harbaugh said yesterday, might have to do a little bit more, maybe not in a back against the wall situation, but a little bit more of the offensive style you guys played once you fell behind in that second half. A little bit more, whatever you would call that, a little bit more pass happy, a little bit more, however you would describe what you guys did there when you fell behind. How big a change will that be from an offensive line standpoint? Obviously, you're a run first team, but it certainly seemed like you found something in the second half you'd want to stick with.

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, definitely, the one thing, I don't think as an offensive lineman or as an offense, really, that you would want to go into every game saying that you want to throw it 54 times a game.

Q: I think tempo is the word I'm looking for.

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, yeah, but that's just kind of the position we put ourselves in. On offense, we were struggling to sustain drives the entire first half. And then when it got down to it, backs up against the wall, it's like, alright, we pretty much have to be in two-minute mode the whole rest of this game, starting late, or what was it, early fourth quarter. And we did a good job of executing. I felt like we were able to put our best skill players out in the field, instead of taking them off the field. And I feel like it opened up a lot for us in the past game down the field, which, I mean, obviously, everybody saw. And hit a couple more, hit a couple bigger runs later in the game as well, when we needed them. And I think we definitely did find something there. I think we ran the ball pretty well against the Cowboys, and we kind of tried to carry those schemes over. And I feel like teams knew that right away, and they started to game plan for that. And I think going forward, everybody, coaches and players, understand what they saw in the second half and overtime of the game against the Commanders, and probably something that we'll be mixing in going forward.

Q: Hey, I'm interested in accountability. I'm sure every player wants it, wants to feel that they're accountable when they make mistakes, when they let the team down, penalties, bad blocks, whatever. Do you feel that players are taking more of that this year? Does this coaching staff demand more of it? What is the accountability factor this season?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, of course, penalties happen pretty much in every game. We go over all those mistakes or learning moments that coach likes to talk about, whether that's situationally or penalty wise, but when we're in offensive meetings, we have a pretty open line of communication. And Coach Nagy (Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy) says that if there's something that you want to say, say in front of the whole team, and everything kind of gets nipped in the bud right there, whether that's a missed assignment, a missed block, penalty. There's, like I said, a pretty open line of communication there that guys in the group setting get to see that accountability in real time. And then coaches holding the players, and the players holding the coaches accountable to mistakes that they both feel that could be fixed, that would help the team going down the road. So, there's been a, I feel like in my opinion, really good communication back and forth between players and coaches that is only going to help us when we get further down the road in the season. And especially going to be helpful when we face a little bit more adversity, knowing that we have that solid foundation with everybody around us.

Q: When you say Coach Nagy says, okay, anything you want to say, say it. Is that more directed at my bad, or at sort of like your bad? You have to do a better job of that. Is it more internal, or is it more designed to not point fingers, but to say, look, you have to do your job too.

JON RUNYAN: No, it's more directed at, I mean, going into the game, everybody already watched the tape, and everybody really knows what's coming up. But just explaining, not explaining yourself, but just letting people know that you were potentially an issue on this play. And you'll get it fixed, and that your teammates can trust you. So, it's just kind of that open communication and acknowledgement that we've been really leaning on. And I think it works well for the cohesiveness on offense.

Q: I think there's a perception around the league of what it's like to play with (quarterback) Jameis Winston. Can you talk about, I know it's not a new thing this week for you, but you've now been his teammate for two years. What is it like to be in a Jameis huddle, to be with Jameis in meetings when he's running the show? And how does that maybe differ from what the public perception is of who Jameis is?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, obviously everybody has their own, or not own opinion, but just thoughts of what they think, who they think Jameis is. This kind of outgoing personality, you see it all over social media. Especially how well he was documented throughout the summertime with the FIFA World Cup. That is one part of the kind of person he is, but he's not like that all the time. In meetings, out in the field, he is serious, all about business. I don't really ever see him cracking any jokes. I don't see him cracking a smile. He is locked in, focused. He understands that he has the keys to this offense. And I think he knows how good of a team we can be, and I think he understands that. And he's going to do his best to steer the ship in the right direction. Outside of that, in the huddle is funny sometimes, just we kind of joke in the (offensive) line room. His accent, being from Alabama, is so thick sometimes that in the heat of the moment, I mean, whether it's in practice or in the game, confused on a couple of the words he says, but he always explains the play calls to you like he's telling you the most interesting secret in the entire world that nobody knows. And keeps everything light and fun, and it's a lot more fun when we are winning, and that's what Jameis has done. Besides this tie that we just had, it's a lot more fun when you're winning, and Jameis is just a great person, great teammate, and glad he's with us on the Giants.

Q: What have you seen from (offensive lineman) Bryan (Hudson), just now that you've gotten to play with him for these two games, and just how he's stepped up in that role?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah, he got a lot of reps with the first team while we were in training camp. And him sliding in there, kind of felt pretty comfortable. He's a pretty quiet guy, just in nature. So, hearing him talk, it's kind of like it catches you off guard a little bit. He's got a nice, deep voice, southern accent, but he's been awesome out there, not really demonstrative in how he's directing us as offensive line. And you know he's always going to do his job. He's a smart guy, and he's setting the front and getting us going the right way. And he's been solid in the run and pass, and excited to see what he can keep doing for us.

Cornerback Dru Phillips

Q: I'm curious defensively, you guys have been able to make some big stands lately and obviously the tie, Commanders had the ball last with the tie, but just what's the mindset these last three games where you've seen the team just really be able to make these stands and just kind of be able to have that poise to make the stands you need to have?

DRU PHILLIPS: Yeah, I definitely feel like especially in the preseason we went through these situations so many times in practice where we get into the game and we all trust each other or it's not like you got to be Superman and make a play. It's more just do your job and I believe everybody can like we can get off the field if everyone just does their job.

Q: And then, kind of looking around this division, I know you guys are focused on yourselves, but it seems like there's, the Cowboys had the loss that they did, the Eagles had the weird loss and then obviously the Commanders, you guys have been able to show so much poise and focus, even though you guys have lost (quarterback Jaxson) Dart and (outside linebacker Brian) Burns. I'm curious, how much of that is Harbaugh's (Head Coach John Harbaugh) influence on you guys just keeping the ship steady and making sure you guys are poised discipline and getting through these five games basically after losing key players?

DRU PHILLIPS: Yeah, definitely those two guys going down. It's hard for the guys, the morale, but the guys that we had behind them with (quarterback) Jameis (Winston) and (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) and everybody in the whole rotation. It sucks not having those guys out there, but it's always been a next man up mentality and Harbaugh preached that and we all believe in these guys where it's like you don't need to pull extra, because these guys that are coming in can pull the same load as the guys that came out.

Q: Is blitzing your new favorite thing to do on the field?

DRU PHILLIPS: It's definitely a fun thing to do, yeah. But it was cool to get out there and blitz a little bit.

Q: Building on that, what have you seen from the idea that the first couple games you blitz, I'm just going to throw a bunch of numbers at you. The first couple games you blitzed 22 percent of the snaps. You being the defense as a whole. Then 56 percent against the Cardinals and 62 percent against the commander. So, a major uptick. What does that tell you about the way you guys have kind of adapted to the personnel that you guys have on the field without (Brian) Burns and maybe okay, it's we need to get more pressure here's a way we're going to do it.

DRU PHILLIPS: (Defensive Coordinator) Dennard (Wilson) has a way of cooking things up, but it's definitely not I would say a consistent thing. It's a week-by-week thing off of, I guess what we're seeing and how we feel. So, you just go out there and if they send me I'm going to try my best to go get there and everything but the percentage is just it goes off the flow of the game.

Q: And then I think Dennard told us last week that part of it came from the corners saying, okay, we feel good like they're not getting separation. We can cover these guys man-to-man and so he just wanted to listen like, okay, my guys feel good covering them. We can blitz more. I don't know, maybe that's every coach. Maybe that's not. How do you feel about a coach listening to the players feedback and kind of maybe adjusting what he really wants to do to what he sees his players wants to do because every coach says they're going to do that, but I don't feel like every coach actually does that.

DRU PHILLIPS: Yeah, you can definitely tell Dennard and he's told us, he definitely trusts us in the back end when it gets to those points in the game, we're trying to figure it out and we're like these guys can't separate on us. You tell him that, he trusts us. So, I think it's a good connection where he trusts us and believes that we can't guard every receiver that we go against. So, he kind of frees up and we can let's say blitz more and be able to cover our guys.

Q: I want to know a little bit about what you feel the accountability factor is on this team. When you make a mistake, when somebody else makes a mistake, your teammate, yourself, maybe if a coach makes a mistake. I mean, is there more of a sense of it this year than you felt in the past with this coaching staff?

DRU PHILLIPS: Yeah. I mean, I would say like the accountability part, it should be on everybody. It's not something that just pops up or this year, in the past, but good teams, everybody can hold themselves accountable. So, this year everyone has their moments and you emphasize on that but it's about taking it to the chin and moving on.

Q: Do you notice that in teammates? You know what goes on out there and you say, okay, my bad on this one and then you kind of see yeah, he didn't really do his assignment and then he admits it. Or maybe some guys don't want to admit it as much. Is that something in the locker room? You just kind of tell who's real and who's maybe not as comfortable taking accountability like that.

DRU PHILLIPS: I almost can't tell. I feel like everybody on this team takes accountability of what their job is to do. So, I can't tell differently because everybody does it.

Q: I know you got asked about blitzing and pressures and stuff like that. But is there a responsibility when you guys know the calls coming out of the huddle that if you know, especially if you're coming from the slot that teams will be looking at who replaces you. I mean, is there even more of a responsibility to get home if they're calling your number just because of what's at stake behind you? DRU PHILLIPS: I feel like anybody that blitzes, you have to look out for the people behind you. As being a DB as well, when you cover it, you depend on guys to get home. So, when I am blitzing, it's like, yeah, I got to rush my tail off so I can help these guys in the back. That's just, you got to be aware of that. Not trying to ease your way in there just because you got guys fighting for their life behind you.

Q: I just mean, especially if you're lined up against somebody. I mean, you guys are going to have a coverage plan behind you, but it is a little different when you're vacating a spot to know that the timer is on you. I mean, it's one thing to go out to coverage to know your assignment. It's another thing to know you're relying on someone to cover up for you when you're coming in.

DRU PHILLIPS: Yeah, for sure. But you know, you got guys depending on you when you're blitzing.