Head Coach John Harbaugh
JOHN HARBAUGH: Good seeing everybody. Appreciate everybody being here. Big game tonight. Is there a game tonight in the city?
Q. That's what I heard.
JOHN HARBAUGH: I heard something about a big game. We'll be watching from afar on our TV. No ticket. It's going to be crazy down there. It's going to be exciting. Good luck to the Knicks. Can't wait to see it.
Q. What are you looking for -- how do you view the whole away training camp in West Virginia?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I look at it like a real opportunity. It's going to be a chance to get locked in. It's a simple place to be, you know. You don't have to deal with coming back and forth from a hotel. Obviously we'll get away from the World Cup stuff and the construction here, which is a plus too for us.
But that bonding opportunity: Guys aren't going home. They're going to be with each other into the evening, stuff like that, go to dinner together. I think it's a real plus for us. I'm excited about it.
Q. How is it to see a New York team having success and how it's showing your players what it's going to be like as you go forward?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. All the things those players are saying there are all the things our guys are saying, and they're experiencing success at the highest level, playing really at the highest level as a team.
The best team is the team that plays the best as a team. That's something we said from the beginning, and then you see it play out with the Knicks, that's just really good to see.
Q. John, when you were hired, you talked about the New York Giants looking like Giants, and you like big sized players. Do you like some of the decisions you made, and why is it important to have it?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, that's part of it. You've got to have -- I think Bill Parcells said that these guys are just rare people on the planet, right? Along those lines. To me that always stuck with me when I saw that way back when.
They have to have -- to be successful as a football player, you have to have certain traits. So being big is a trait, being long is a trait, being athletic is a trait. Being physical, having strong hands, those are traits. Being fast is a trait. Being able to change direction, being fluid, being extremely coordinated. Some people just have a knack, you can say. Add athleticism to that as well.
Quarterback traits, all the quarterback traits: off platform throws, touch throws, layered throws. Those are things that are -- or pass arm strength.
Players come in all different shapes and sizes, but they have to have traits. Toughness is a trait. Endurance is a trait. Resilience is a trait. So kind of looking for all those things, and hopefully it's wrapped up in the best player.
Who's the best player? The best player is the player who plays the best, and that's what you're looking for in the end.
Q. Health-wise, maybe aside from Malik, any of the guys we didn't see all spring going to be a concern to linger into camp?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I can't think off the top of my head.
Q. Fidone, Cam Jones and Sam Roberts we didn't really see out there.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Cam Jones had an incident moving his house up here. He should be fine in like a week. Fidone –
Q. Lucas Patrick, Beaux Collins --
JOHN HARBAUGH: Give me one at a time. I won't be able to remember them all.
Fidone, he's still coming back from the foot thing. He had a little deal with that thing in there. It got cleaned up yesterday or today. It's like a two-week cleanup. So he should be good for training camp. Fingers crossed on that one.
Who else?
Q. Sam Roberts.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Sam Roberts is on track. He should be there in training camp. Start of training camp to a degree and then ramp up from the start of training camp.
Q. Beaux Collins?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Beaux is dealing with a hamstring that he's working through. He should be fine.
Q. Lucas Patrick?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Lucas Patrick, he's got old guy stuff. Old guys have stuff, as you well know.
Q. You can call me old. That's fine.
JOHN HARBAUGH: What's the old thing, I resemble that remark?
Q. What about Malik? What's the plan for him now? What does he do for the next three months -- sorry. Six weeks to get himself ready? Three months for the season, but to get himself ready for the summer.
JOHN HARBAUGH: I think he does everything he can. He said his plan is to be here most of the time, almost all the time he'll be here, I believe. I don't think he will be here all the time. He's going to be here a lot working really hard. He's making really good progress right now. I'm very hopeful that he'll be back soon.
Also, understand when you come back from a knee, he'll be back, and he'll still be building his way back to his ultimate full strength self. But he's doing great. He's doing a great job. He's made some real good progress in the last few weeks.
Q. Are you any more optimistic about Malik as far as the beginning of the season?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I wasn't less optimistic before. Like I said, it's a slog, it's a grind. He's still in the middle of it. He's probably not in the middle of it now. He's probably maybe 70 percent through. I don't know, something like that. 80 percent through.
He's still grinding. It's going to be a grind when he starts playing again too to get back right.
Q. The news this spring, I don't think we ever asked you about Joe Schoen getting the extension. Curious what your reaction was to that.
JOHN HARBAUGH: I was happy. He's a good guy. Enjoy working with him and looking forward to what we all can do together. That's a good thing.
Q. What, if any, input did you have on that?
JOHN HARBAUGH: They asked me if I liked Joe and I thought he did a good job, and I said yeah. It's the decision of the people I respect -- I respect the ownership group. It's their call, and that's their call, and they made it, and I respect it. I think it's a good decision. I agree with it, but I think that's good. I'm excited.
Q. When you assembled this coaching staff, you talk about making it our system. So I'm curious, as you look at what Nagy, Callahan, and Taggart and these guys have done with this offense, how would you assess what they've done and how the team has responded so far getting adjusted to it?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I like the system we're building. I think the system is really good. It continues to be built. The next step is going to be honing in a little bit in training camp about our identity and what we're going to be really best at, especially the first three to five games, and really getting good at those things.
But great system, great coaches, great teachers. I feel really good about it.
Q. Did you learn anything about the leadership of this team?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I learned a lot over the course of four months, five months. These guys, I just told them, I said we have high level leadership, high level leadership. These guys are really, really excellent leaders. I've enjoyed every day with these guys. These guys know what they're talking about.
Q. You mentioned all along since you first got here how off-season you don't have as much time as you would think to do things. How will you spend the next six weeks? Is it similar to how you've done in the past, or will you do things differently?
JOHN HARBAUGH: It will be similar. I think it's important to get this time. It's kind of part of the rhythm of the National Football League. So I'll be spending a lot of time with my wife Ingrid, Alison, my daughter and other family. We're going to go out and see my mom and dad. We're going to go see Jim's family this weekend. Looking forward to that. Jim's kids are crazy, so they're a lot of fun to be around. All kind of stuff thanks for asking that.
Q. (No microphone)?
JOHN HARBAUGH: No. I'm going to watch it though. Can't wait to see it. If they win this one, they're back down there, right?
Q. Yeah, Saturday.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Saturday? For one game back down there and then back here if needed.
Q. Real quick, with Cam Jones, you say incident, do you mean hurt or he had a --
JOHN HARBAUGH: He was moving his boxes and took a step wrong.
Q. Yeah, he got hurt, like you were saying, moving.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, he rolled his ankle or something.
