Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: After watching the tape, what are your impressions of what (quarterback) Russell (Wilson) and (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) did with the first team offense last night?

DABOLL: Not much different from what I talked about last night. I thought they executed well. Keep on improving them and (they) made good decisions, threw the ball well. I think I talked about yesterday with the interception with Russ – that didn't change from last night to today so we can do a better job of coaching that one. Pretty good game for both the guys.

Q: Assuming the starters don't play Thursday against New England, you have basically three weeks from now until the season opener. With all of the good work you've done over the last few weeks, what's the challenge of getting or keeping guys sharp with that kind of break?

DABOLL: We're just going to focus on this week here, our walk-through, our practice on Tuesday. We'll take it day by day here and continue to try to improve.

Q: What have you seen from (running back) Dante Miller over these first couple of games?

DABOLL: He's getting plenty of opportunity on offense, plenty of opportunity in the kick game. Probably a lot like all the other guys – some good plays and then some things we can get better at. I like Dante's mindset and he's a competitor and we'll just keep working with him.

Q: After watching the film last night, can you talk a little bit about (offensive lineman) Evan Neal and his transition to guard?

DABOLL: He got some movement in the run game, did his assignments. (It was his) first game in there, played over 30 plays so we'll get him some more work this upcoming week.

Q: How much of a priority was it to sure up the run defense coming into this season? What have you seen so far? I know (defensive lineman) Dexter (Lawrence) isn't in there but how would you assess how it was last night?

DABOLL: Some good stuff and some things we can improve. I'd say tackling is always usually one of the main issues in run defense. Had a couple of missed tackles in there but there were a lot of good plays. Keep on plugging away with it, that's why we played a bunch of guys. The number one thing is to keep the points down so we'll keep on working at it. It'll be good to get Dex back in here. It's something that'll be important for us but run defense is a team stat so we get up on points and limit the runs, if they want to keep running it when they're down by 20 that's fine. That's a team stat.

Q: A lot of your pass rushers have said 'We can't worry about the pass rush until we make the teams pass it by stopping the run.' Do you believe they really feel that? Pass rushers sometimes prioritize rushing the passer.

DABOLL: We just got to play good team defense so everybody's got to do their 1/11^th regardless if it's a screen, a pass, a run – it's really early-down defense more than just… The days of handing it off on first and second down, some teams do that but we got to play good team defense on early downs so that we can get them to longer situations. We got to play good team football by scoring points and eliminating some of those, so everybody's involved in it.

Q: What have you seen from (defensive lineman) Elijah Chatman? He started yesterday and he got some looks at fullback. What have you seen from his development going into his second year here?

DABOLL: Chat's a true pro. He's got speed, quickness, explosion. I know he's a smaller player but he's got some good speed and quickness in there and we thought we'd utilize him some as a fullback because he did some of that at SMU. There's evidence of it, and the plays he was in there, it was good to get him in there. I think every time he's been in at fullback for us, whether it's practice or in a game, he's broken his face mask. He's a tough guy. We'll keep working with him, keep trying to improve him and give him some different roles to create as much value for the team as he can.

Q: You mentioned watching him play fullback at SMU. Is that something you have a conversation with him about exploring or do you discuss it with the staff? How do you come up with the idea to utilize him there?

DABOLL: Credit the offensive staff. We watch, obviously, a lot of tape. They put together a good tape of him doing it in college. We thought we could add value to our football team giving him multiple roles, see if he could learn it, and giving him some reps here in OTAs and preseason camps. How much we use him, how much we don't use him, it was good to get him out there and get some live reps doing it.

Q: After watching the tape, what stood out to you about Jaxson?

DABOLL: A lot of what I talked about yesterday. He's got good command of the operation, he sees things well. He plays fast in the pocket, ability to throw the ball with different arm angles, his anticipation, doesn't hold on to the ball, has an opportunity to make some plays with his legs. The one he just got tripped on would've been a huge one. (He's) athletic, leadership, toughness, all the things I've talked about a number of times with him. Keep growing him but he's played well.

Q: What does it say about him that he said that running play he got tripped up on was the one he was thinking about the most when he was at the podium last night that that one bothered him?

DABOLL: That's what you want out of your quarterback. It's never going to be good enough. Be hard on yourself, demand it from yourself. That's the mindset that I appreciate about him.

Q: This is a really weird week with the turnaround time before the preseason game on Thursday and you just had the joint practices before the second. How do you plan on handling this week and moving forward?

DABOLL: We'll have a walk through. At this point, we'll have a competitive practice. After I meet with the doctors and strength staff, we'll see where we're at here but plan on having a good competitive padded practice one of the days this week and as always, we'll make our decisions with what we're going to do as the week goes on and do whatever we think is best for the team.

Q: What have you seen from (inside linebacker) Bobby Okereke this summer? It's his second year in the system, he's coming back from that back injury. How has he been playing?

DABOLL: Bobby's a good leader for us. We have a number of guys inside – (inside linebacker) Micah (McFadden), (inside linebacker) Darius (Muasau), that have played well with Bobby. Three guys we feel pretty comfortable with but Bobby's been a good leader for our football team since he's been here, understands what we want to try to get accomplished, how we want to play, so he's been good for us just like he has been the last few years.

Q: Any chance (tackle) Andrew Thomas gets on the field this week?

DABOLL: Getting better, so we'll take it day by day and see where we're at. Each day he gets a little bit better, so we'll make that decision when we think it's best for us and him.

Q: As we get closer to losing out on live reps, is that something that's weighing on you with him?

DABOLL: No, he's on his rehab schedule and he's working hard to get back as quickly as he can.

Q: When we're thinking about roster projection, you mentioned last week how important some of these spots are as far as who can play special teams. Were you calculated last night in making sure certain guys were in certain roles to be able to help in that process or have you not gotten to that point yet?

DABOLL: We talk about that all the time. Again, guys that aren't starters have to provide value to the football team in a variety of roles if you're not going to be a starter. There's been plenty of guys that get opportunities to do those things, so again we'll have a good week here and whatever we need to get answered or have a debate about relative to the roster, that'll get sured up this week. We've played a good amount of reps with these guys in the preseason and the starters are somewhere around 30-37 plays, which is the number we wanted to try to hit. Some have a lot, like Mbow (offensive lineman Marcus Mbow). He's got over 100 snaps in the preseason, which is good for a rookie, so we'll just do what we think is best this week for our guys and where they're at. See where we're at after Tuesday's practice.

Q: I was talking to (wide receiver) Jalin Hyatt after the game last night and he mentioned how Russ texts him daily trying to boost his confidence and keep him up. Is that the presence behind the scenes that you've seen him bring to this team that we haven't seen and how guys talk about Russ having an impact that goes beyond what he's doing on the field?

DABOLL: I think Russ is very intentional with all those things, not just his responsibilities on the field but responsibilities off the field when you're a quarterback and I think he's developed genuine relationships and he talks to a lot of different guys about a lot of different things. He's a veteran player that's done a lot of things in this league and I think he's got a good way about himself, how he interacts with his teammates and I'd say coaches.