Head Coach Brian Daboll
Q: What did you learn about (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) today, and how much does that hurt that you're not going to have him for the rest of the year?
DABOLL: He's one of our better players. I think one of the better players at his position in the league, so he has an ACL, so he'll be out. We'll have a tremendous amount of support for him and his family. That's obviously a tough loss for our football team, but we'll regroup, and we'll get the guys ready to play that are here and be as good as we can be. On the perimeter, I know those guys will do everything they can do to be as good as we can be. But certainly, when you lose one of your better players, that's a big loss.
Q: What's the concern level that there's any additional damage in the knee, aside from just the ACL?
DABOLL: I know it's an ACL, so again, we're here for Malik. He'll go through whenever the surgery is, the rehab, but it's the day after the injury.
Q: How's (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) feeling today? You mentioned yesterday, even, that he was probably going to be pretty sore. He took a lot of hits there. How's he doing?
DABOLL: Yeah, he's doing good. Yep, he's doing good.
Q: You anticipate him being able to practice Wednesday?
DABOLL: I do.
Q: It looked like the offense looked considerably different yesterday from what you ran the first three games. How much was it different? And how much of an effort is there with you and (assistant head coach/offensive coordinator) Mike (Kafka) and the whole offensive staff to make it different to cater to a new quarterback?
DABOLL: I think you always try to cater to your quarterbacks. Again, we did what we thought we needed to do for this week against the Chargers and their defensive scheme and how they played. I thought we controlled the game well. That helped. Over 40 rushes in a game always helps a young quarterback. But again, we just did what we thought we needed to do for this week.
Q: You've talked about how much you like Jaxson. Even though he's a rookie, confidence and everything about him. When in your mind, and it's only one start, is it a situation where you say, okay, we gave him this, we gave him this, we gave him this, we gave him this, we can give him more? I'm thinking about the interception after (defensive lineman) Dex (Lawrence) ran it back to the three. There were three runs there, which didn't really get much. You know what I mean? And then later in the game, he threw on third down and hit (tight end) Theo (Johnso). Is there going to be more of that? How do you balance that? Because you always say it's a rookie quarterback, we have to be careful with him, but you have great confidence in him as well.
DABOLL: Yeah, well, the decision to run the ball didn't matter if he was a rookie quarterback or a 15-year quarterback. They were the best team in the league in red zone defense. We thought we had a chance to control the line of scrimmage. We missed out on a few things down there in the red zone. We had (running back Cam) Skatt one-on-one with a corner. Guy made a good play. We had a kind of a scramble play to (wide receiver) Wan'Dale (Robinson). I have a lot of confidence in Jaxson and the guys around him. So, in that situation with the third and five at the end of the game or the red zone, that really was part of the plan going in of what we wanted to try to do down there. We still have a lot of work to do, obviously. But we do need to make some of those plays when we get down there to get the ball into the end zone.
Q: You obviously added a lot of talent up front or you have a lot of talent up front on defense. How much, it's four weeks in, has it been just trying to figure out how the pieces fit together and where you're going to play guys? Because obviously they're versatile, but they have weaknesses.
DABOLL: Yeah, I think we have a number of personnel groupings with different people in different spots. (Outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) played a little bit more inside this week, maybe not necessarily in the early couple of weeks. I think we have some versatility there. And again, I think it depends on what you're getting from the offenses you're seeing. There was a lot of different personnel groups that we were getting ready for with LA. So again, I think week to week, it just depends on what we're seeing. Matchup wise, if we can get them into certain situations. Obviously, they were throwing the football a lot, which helped our front guys be able to tee off and, you know, try to disrupt the quarterback. Again, it's really week to week.
Q: Obviously with Malik going down, everybody bumps up the depth chart. How confident are you here in who you've got behind (wide receiver Darius) Slayton and Wan'Dale? Obviously this presents a big opportunity for (wide receiver) Beaux (Collins) or (wide receiver Jalin) Hyatt. Are those guys ready for the snap count that comes with being the number three receiver in this offense?
DABOLL: Yeah, they wouldn't be here if they weren't. So, we had obviously a lot of confidence in the three guys that we have. Malik goes down and we have confidence in the guys that are behind them. Whether it's Bowe, whether it's Hyatt, (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski) knows multiple roles. We have some guys on the practice squad that we like. So, we'll get ready to play with the guys that we have and I'm confident in all those guys.
Q: Does looking outside enter the equation? Free agency, trade, et cetera. Whoever might be available outside or not at this point? You have to go through it first.
DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say we're less than 25, 24 hours or right around there from the game. So again, I'm confident in the guys that we have on our football team.
Q: Then from an offensive line standpoint, I guess two things. One, what did you see from the group? And then two, (tackle) Andrew Thomas went from 25 snaps to 76 snaps, which I don't know if that's what you were planning or if there was more of a stepping stone. How did you think he came out of it and what'd you think of the group as a whole?
DABOLL: I think he came out of it fine. He's sore, just like everybody else. It was a physical game against a physical team. You watch him play the previous three weeks, their front and how they played against, you know, Denver's offensive line. It's a physical unit and he was ready to play. So, we knew he would play the whole game unless he needed to come out. That was the plan going in. He kind of hit checkpoints along the way through his rehab process. It was good to have him out here.
Q: With the pass rush, I'm curious, there were times we saw (outside linebacker) Abdul (Carter), (outside linebacker) Brian (Burns), Dex, and KT together on the front together. I know we had talked a couple weeks ago about just trying to find ways to get them all on the field together. How pleased were you that, not just with their success, but that you guys were able to just get them on the field together just to kind of see more of what they can do, seems like this game than previous ones?
DABOLL: Yeah, again, each week you go through and decide how you want to play the game in terms of what packages you want to use. There's some flexibility there, but again those guys like to rush the passer and run off the edge, but you can't just rush them all the time. You have to drop, you have to know your drops, your technique on that stuff when you are dropping. It's not just throw them all in there and they can just do this. I would give them a lot of credit for their flexibility in terms of their mental part of the game. Again, you saw that last week when we were down on inside linebackers and we asked the young rookie to go and just play a different position. Like everybody thinks you can just go do it. You missed out on a lot of practice time, a lot of reads, a lot of things like that. And I think that's a credit to the players being able to handle that stuff mentally.
Q: I know Burns said this, but he gave a lot of credit to Dex being able to open things up for everybody else. With the way Dex played, do you think that that just kind of, made it a lot, creates a lot more opportunities for those guys just to be able to rush, obviously with guys double teaming him?
DABOLL: Well, I don't know. Dex pretty much gets double teamed since I've been here. So, when he gets double teamed, then the other guys have got to win one-on-one when they have an opportunity to. There's a couple of times that Dex was one-on-one and he was in the backfield, but having a guy like Dexter certainly helps everybody.
Q: Last thing, you mentioned Abdul taking multiple roles. I'm just curious, how have you seen him kind of adjust to being thrown into those multiple positions? You mentioned, obviously, he's got to learn different things quickly. How have you seen him kind of adjust to where he's being lined up in multiple positions?
DABOLL: Yeah, he doesn't blink. He's a football player. So happy we have him.
Q: Last night, Jaxson talked a lot about his video study during the week and studying the opponent and breaking things down. You had mentioned the play to Theo and how he changed it up with Theo a little bit, went through it by you. I'm just curious, how much of that do you build in with your quarterbacks really from the moment you get them in your room? Because for a rookie, to me at 22 years old, to have the freedom to be able to go to the head coach and say, 'Hey, we saw this, why don't we change this?' To call teammates and say, 'Hey, this is what I'm seeing.' Is that the norm or is that atypical? And does that fit to what you've seen from Jaxson and how he kind of takes command of the role?
DABOLL: I think we have a very good relationship outside the building, inside the building, when we're talking about football. I think he's a unique guy in terms of being able to build relationships amongst his teammates and other people in the building. A lot of people have a lot of trust in him. You meet with these guys quite frequently and I think it's important, probably the most important thing that the quarterback can freely express things that he likes and doesn't like. You try to stay away from the things that they don't like and give them the things that they like so they feel comfortable. Those guys see the game when they're studying it. They work really hard at doing it. I'd say all the quarterbacks, you learn from one another. So, when they bring up something the way they've seen it, you try to always see it through the eyes of the quarterback. Doesn't really matter to me that he's a rookie or if there's a 14-year veteran, that doesn't matter to me. The person that's behind center and getting ready to start and play that game, I want him to feel as comfortable as he can feel going into the game so he can operate and play as fast and efficient as he can. Our relationship, we talk often throughout the whole entire day, seven days a week, about things. I really respect him, the way he sees the game and how he competes.
Q: Obviously he (Jaxson) persevered, showed toughness. That's what you love about him. Just wondering from your standpoint, how can you try to make sure he doesn't take as many hits? Like, is it about talking to him about getting down when he runs? Do you feel like schematically or offensive line-wise, you guys can keep some bodies off him? Or is that something you're not concerned about because you drafted him because you know he can handle it?
DABOLL: You never want your quarterback taking a lot of hits, but certain quarterbacks are going to play a certain way. And there's a lot of good ones in this league that play a certain way. We're going to try to do everything we can to protect Jaxson. Again, I don't question when he's got the ball in his hands, him making the right decision. You can see maybe a play and say, 'Hey, think about sliding here, bud.' And he can give you a perspective of what he saw. I didn't think this. You have to do a good job in the pocket. He can do a good job too with throwing the ball away sometimes and avoiding some of those hits. But yeah, you don't want your quarterback taking a bunch of them. But again, he made some really, really good plays on some scramble plays and loose plays and kept the offense in really good favorable situations for most of the night. As good as we've had all year relative to just playing on time, first down, second and short. But again, there was a lot of things we need to clean up with him and that's what we're doing right now. I'm sure he'll be the first to say that. But I was very pleased with the command that he had, the decisions that he made. We got a lot of work to do. I know there's going to be some downs along with some of these ups, but I think he's got the right makeup and we'll put this game to bed and get ready for next week, starting in about an hour.
Q: When he tucks it and runs, are you coaching him on, if your first read is not open and it's breaking down, just get out, let's try to stay on schedule or is that his instinct kicking in on those plays?
DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say more it's an instinctive thing. Look, there's a time clock in every quarterback's head and I think that it's only in their head. Everybody else can watch it and in coaching, you can see it, but it's how he senses the pocket, it's what he feels, it's what he sees in that split second of a time and he has to make the proper decision, whether that's find an outlet and give it to the back or a tight end or a receiver that's short and has the ability to run with the football or make some yards with his feet and hopefully get down when he can get down. I've said this before, he's got good instincts. It's something that's hard to coach. The good ones usually have it and I think that, whether it's preseason games or this game, he's demonstrated some of that, but certainly a lot of things to clean up that we're going to have to improve on for this next game.
