Head Coach John Harbaugh
Q: When you went back and looked at it, did any of the young guys stand out to you for the way they played in that game?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, they did. I thought a lot of guys stood out. Single out one or two guys, you probably have to single out 10 or 15 guys. There were a lot of guys flying around. (Outside linebacker) Trace Ford had a great game. Numerous guys had really good games.
Q: From the offensive line perspective, what went into the decision, you didn't play a couple of the guys, right? At least your tackles. Sisi (offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa) didn't play either, but JMS (offensive lineman John Michael Schmitz Jr.) and (offensive lineman Jon) Runyan (Jr.) did. What went into that decision there?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, JMS didn't play in the first game. He was out that week of practice, so it was work that we really wanted him to get. If Sisi had been able to go with his stinger, he would have played. So, those three guys could have played in there together from a communication standpoint, but he wasn't able to, but Jon was able to. So, that was the best we could do as far as getting them together from a communication standpoint. So, I thought it was really valuable. I mean, he worked together well with everybody, but them getting those reps together in a game was positive.
Q: And what are the chances Sisi gets back into practice this week?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, he'll be back in practice this week, yes.
Q: Going back to, (running back Tyrone) Tracy had the mixed game, obviously the fumble didn't help, but just kind of when you look back at it, just kind of how would you assess how he played, but also this running back pecking order you have now?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Right. Well, I don't think you say, hey, a bad play or even two bad plays nullifies a whole career body of work, so to speak. And even in the game, he played well. He had numerous good runs, catches, pass protection pickups were good, but he had the one play that's the one thing you don't want to have as a running back. And in the last two games, he's had two things you don't want to have. So, nobody feels worse about it than he does. I mean, he's very conscientious, very determined guy. It matters a lot to him, so he's beating himself up. But the rest of the plays were all good. They were all pluses. So, you don't hold it against him. At the same time, you understand how valuable and important those things are to your football team, and he knows as well. So, it's just a balancing act that way. It's an ongoing pecking order, was your phrasing on it. It's ongoing right now. It's still to be determined over the course of the next week to see exactly where it shakes out, and we'll keep working at it.
Q: You mentioned you don't really look at one play to make a judgement. I'm curious as you evaluate these next week or so, how do you process that? Obviously, when guys make good plays, bad plays, you evaluate as a whole. But how do you, like you said, don't let one bad or good play kind of overshadow the full body work. How do you process that?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's really incumbent not to allow that to be the case as a decision maker. First of all, you can't let your emotions get involved, and you've got to try to take everything in perspective. Perspective of the player, the perspective of the big picture of the room, what you need in the room, and what's best for the team. There's just a lot of variables that go into that, so as best you can, try to calculate what the best pecking order, as you said, good word for it, but the best pecking order is for your team, and that's at every position.
Q: I wanted to ask specifically if you had an update on (offensive lineman) Josh Ezeudu, and also if there's any other injuries of note that came from the game.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, Josh will be okay. He got kicked in the back of the leg there. You probably saw it, body kind of flying in there on the back of his legs, but not going to be any kind of a long-term injury. It doesn't look like right now, what I've been told. So, a couple days, day-to-day type of deal. Hopefully, he'll be playing Friday night. Other injuries off the top of my head, you just have to help me out with who you're interested in. I don't really have the list.
Q: Yeah, I don't know anything else left to answer, so nothing to report, nothing to report.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, nothing major. We got out of it without anything major, which is a great, great accomplishment. You go down there in two really intense days, two intense practices in three days, and you want to come through it healthy. We've done that, and we've had a great camp. Knock on wood, we've had a great camp so far with injuries. We've had very few soft tissue injuries. I mean, almost really none, nothing of consequence, nothing serious that wasn't just a couple of days. Nothing major so far. People are probably saying, don't say anything, don't say anything. I'm not superstitious, but as Michael said on The Office, 'I am a little stitious,' so we'll just have to leave it at that. But I do appreciate the guys doing a great job of taking care of their bodies and working hard at the same time. Now, let's see if we can get another week of improvement and at the same time really do a good job of taking care of each other. Our guys stay off the ground. They do a really good job of that. They prepare for practice, pre-practice. They prepare for practice, recover from practice, post-practice. We work on all the aspects of the loading and the soft tissue stuff, and we practice well. So, all that is a factor. I think over time, when you put the volume and the work in over time, it builds up your ability, your capacity for football, and it seems like we're doing that this time.
Q: I wanted to ask you, one guy stood out for me yesterday and then you look at the stat book and you see he played every snap was (offensive lineman) J.C. Davis, and I'm curious from your perspective – from my perspective in my career, it's not often that you see a sixth-round rookie offensive lineman take to a game and then also play the entire game in that heat and humidity down there, and really nothing that jumped off from what I saw that said he didn't do a good job. Your thoughts on J.C., what he's been able to do and how difficult that is for maybe a young lineman to take that kind of assignment yesterday.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Right, I agree with what you said. It's a challenging thing, it doesn't happen too often. Guys aren't asked to do that very often and he did it and it was a goal – going into the week, we decided to see – to put him into that situation to see how he handled it and also to help him grow into the ability to do it. Can you play a whole game at left tackle in the National Football League? Preseason game, albeit, but still a game. And he did it, he did it well. He had a lot of plus plays, he graded out very well and that's a big step in his development for sure. Also in us gaining confidence in his ability to go in there and do good things in a game.
Q: When you're talking young offensive linemen in general, I mean, we've seen it, (tackle) Andrew Thomas took his lumps as a rookie and it took him a while to kind of get going and regain that momentum. How hard is it to maintain patience and how easy is it for young linemen to kind of, once they go one way and the pendulum swings, to kind of get it back technique-wise? Playing in that situation, it just seems like that's certainly a position that really brings a lot of different challenges to young players especially.
JOHN HARBAUGH: No, I think you're right, I mean it's a tough position to play in, and a guy like AT (tackle Andrew Thomas) would have had first-round expectations and all that, and that's another layer to the whole thing you're talking about, right? J.C. doesn't have that, he doesn't have that layer to it that AT had, but he's going to be expected to play a role on the team and it's going to be a very important role and he could be in there at any time really, so he's got to be ready for that. And hopefully – you're right, you'd like to get off to a good start, but man, the bullets start flying in an NFL game with the type of players you're playing against, the speed that things hit you with, and they certainly test you as a rookie. They find out how fast you can think and adjust and make changes on the move, and so that's the things that I think you have to deal with. Obviously, once you've seen those things you're better at it, so – and things happen so fast for the offensive line, probably more so than any other position, so probably all those things go into exactly what you're saying and what you're observing.
Q: I don't think you've been asked, what went into moving (offensive lineman Joshua) Ezeudu from tackle to guard? Because that's something that's been – obviously you weren't here – but that's something that's been a long-standing debate on what his best position is. What went into moving him back to guard?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Right, well he's – the position flex is the idea, and you may have noticed he went back out to tackle in the fourth quarter, so the ability for him to play both guard and tackle, particularly on the right side, would be helpful for us. And that's our thought. He's kind of getting to the point now where we feel like he could swing right tackle, right guard. Right now we're kind of keeping him off the left side and just keeping him to the right side, and that helps a little bit with some of the techniques. It's like a hitter, he's not a switch hitter right now on both sides, but he is playing both the inside position and the outside position. So, we think he's ready for it, that he can handle it, and that gives us some position flexibility as a backup.
Q: And then flipping sides of the ball, what are you seeing right now from your – put (cornerback Colton) Hood aside – from your top three outside corners, because there's position battles where no one steps up and there's position battles where it seems like multiple guys have stepped up, and I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but if you look at (cornerback Deonte) Banks' play, (cornerback Paulson) Adebo's play maybe the last week after a slow start, and (cornerback Greg) Newsome's (II) steadiness, it almost seems like they've all stepped up.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I agree with that. I think they're all making it a really good problem for the Giants. And I would put Colton in the same category, he'll be back this week practicing. So, that's a good situation to have, and even – we've got (cornerback) Korie Black back there, (cornerback) Art Green has played well, those guys have done a good job. Our nickels have played really well. (Cornerback) Dru (Phillips), he gave up the one wheel route there, tight coverage, but they made a nice play and came back and caused a turnover, knocked two balls out during the game. And then (cornerback) Nic (Jones) continues to play well when he goes in. So, I just feel like all those guys are doing a good job. It seems like we're deep at corner. Certainly planning on that panning out throughout the course of the season, and I'm sure all those guys are going to play a lot of football for us and play very well.
Q: Big picture question if I could, for a lot of these guys this is going to be your last week with them and I'm just wondering what's your message to them as they get ready for this final preseason – week of preseason before roster cut down dates, especially those guys who maybe are borderline bubble guys?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, one thing – that's a great question, and such a human aspect to this whole thing and the relationships. We tell them your best dream is not too big, matter of fact it might not even be big enough. And you have the right to go ahead and feel free to hope for all the things that inside you might not even want to tell anybody because for fear that someone might – but if they're not laughing at your dream then it's not big enough either, so say it, speak it and go for it. And these guys have really done that. I feel like they've really put that out there and they've talked to each other, they've committed to helping one another achieve each other's dreams, those kinds of things we talk about in our meetings and I know they talk about amongst themselves as a group of guys. And so, you're pulling for everybody and everybody's pulling for everybody. Everybody wants – you see it on the sideline, you see it between guys who are competing for the same position. They're rooting for each other and helping each other along. I mean, you see so many of the best things about human nature come out on a football team, believe it or not. And maybe people that aren't a part of the sport would have a tough time believing that, but I think those of us who've been around the sport understand that this is how it works and it's a cool thing. So, this week, to your point, is a very challenging week because there will be guys that won't be here after this week. Now, maybe they'll come back. We brought (defensive lineman) Ben (Barten) back, the defensive lineman who just got released by the Jets and came back to us again here this week. And so, I told him, I said, "Hey, we had this conversation man, I told you you'd be back here." And I don't know why I thought he would, but he is. So, maybe you go back to what (Former Giants Owner) Wellington Mara famously said, 'Once a Giant, always a Giant.' I think that holds true as well. So, you become part of the team, part of the organization, part of the fabric of what it means to be a Giant, and I do think that those guys, they treasure it. I know I'm getting a little long-winded, but how many of us that played football wouldn't have loved to have had an opportunity to be in a football camp in the National Football League? To be invited, to get a try out even? All the not-so-good players like me would have loved that, and I tell these guys, 'You are the very best. Every single player here in this room is a great football player.' There is not one football player in an NFL camp who's not a great football player. You talk about the top .0001 percent of football players, even athletes, in the world that that are going to be in a football camp. But then there's levels to that too, just like there's levels to anything else, so within that striving to be the best you can be. But I would say everybody, every one of our guys, whether they're here the next week or they're not, will look back and say they did their very best, they put their best foot forward, and it's something that they can look back on really for the rest of their life proudly.
Q: Hey Coach, as you look forward to the beginning of the season, you're kind of turning your attention to that at this point. That's a long time from Week 1 to the beginning of the season for guys to go without competition. Do you factor that into how you approach this week and the rest of your preparation for the season opener?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Most definitely. Most definitely. You have to factor that in and consider that. Playing together in a game, communicating together in a game, those things are valuable things that it's better to have some experience with before you get into the game that counts, so to speak. So, yeah, that's part of it, even the way we practice, what we work on, how we set up our practices. We set up our practices for the week this afternoon and what we needed to work on. That's definitely a big part of that mindset in terms of how we organize the plays and what we work on. So, big yes to what you asked.
Q: The only other thing I had for you is just some thoughts on where (defensive lineman) Darius Alexander is at this point in terms of his readiness.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, yeah, he's mentally prepared and ready to go. He's working very hard and he's working on his game, just like all the guys are. There are things he does exceptionally well and there are things that aren't his strength, so to speak, but he's still a very highly talented guy, a high draft pick guy. And we'll see how much progress he continues to make, but I think he's come a long way in training camp. He knows what he's working on across the board. He knows where he wants to make the most improvement. I see improvement and I see a lot of really good things that he's already good at, too.
Q: Hey, John. Real quick, I assume you go back to the alternating days of pads this week, and does (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) shed the red jersey, possibly?
JOHN HARBAUGH: We'll have to see. That's a possibility. Yes, we'll just have to see where that's at. I don't think it's a necessity this week. We're still three weeks out from the game, the first game and then after that. We'll see where he's at this week. We'll see how he feels tomorrow.
Q: And you are doing alternating days with pads this week? Is that the plan again? Something like that?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Something like that, yeah.
You have an obsession with alternating days with pads and the pads plan, don't you?
Q: Well, we're just trying to figure out, for coverage purposes, where we stand on what we should expect from the practices. If you're running a walkthrough practice, it kind of maybe changes the way we approach that day.
JOHN HARBAUGH: I'll tell you this, we'll have a walkthrough practice on Thursday. On Thursday, it'll be more of a walkthrough practice. The other practices will be good tempo, but they won't all be padded at all.
