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Skins Quotes 9/28/16: Jay Gruden

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September 28, 2016

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On the injury report:
“Did not participate- [Bashaud] Breeland, ankle; [Shawn] Lauvao, ankle; [Josh] Doctson, Achilles; [Dashaun] Phillips, hamstring; DeSean Jackson, knee and ankle. Limited were [Chris] Baker, elbow and toe; [Trent] Murphy, elbow [and] shoulder; [Kendall] Reyes, groin. Full was [Deshazor] Everett, knee; and [Ty] Nsekhe, foot.”

On the addition of C John Sullivan:
“We’re going to get him ready to play. We like that he’s played center for a long time and has been very successful, that’s number one [for] a true center. If need be, when he comes in there if something happens to Spencer [Long], he’ll be ready to go. He’s a very bright guy and I think he will help this football team in the long run.”

On G Arie Kouandjio starting at LG this week:
“We’re looking at Kouandjio at left guard. Obviously Trent [Williams] finished the game at left guard – that’s an option. We have a lot of different options. That’s the good thing about our line, they’re pretty flexible. I’d like to get Arie a taste of it, see how he does this week.”

On Sullivan catching up on the playbook:
“I think he’s a pro. He’s been in the league for a long time. He knows what football is all about, knows the detail that has to be accomplished at the center position. He’ll go through the process with Bill [Callahan] and get up to date, no problem. He’s meeting extra and he’ll be ready.”

On weighing options for offensive line positions:
“Yeah we’re looking at a lot of it. We have to prepare for all of it because you never know. You know, how we’re going to start the game yet is to be determined but it’s very tempting to move Trent [Williams] back inside and Ty [Nsekhe] at left tackle. It is a tempting deal. But Arie [Kouandjio]’s played a lot of snaps at guard. That’s what he’s played the whole training camp and OTAs and he’s ready to play guard, if need be, too. So, those are the options right there. And then [John] Sullivan’s a center and Spencer [Long]. You know, if Sullivan picks it up quick we move Spencer to guard if need be. A couple good options there. We’ll make that determination later.”

On the challenges to keep offensive line momentum with new additions:
“Well that’s the responsibility of each individual player. You know, we tell them all the time you got to be ready, you got to be ready to go when your number’s called and you never know when. Injuries [are] a part of the game and we just have to deal with it and we feel like Arie’s mentally ready to play, physically ready to play if his number’s called. Ty Nsekhe’s proven that he’s ready to play whenever his number’s called and we just got to get Sullivan up to speed.”

On G Spencer Long’s knowledge of protection calls:
“I think he’s in a good spot, I really do. I think not playing the first couple of games has helped him sit back and learn and take it all in. You know, he’s shown out here today and yesterday and really the last couple of weeks that he’s ready to go from a mental standpoint. Just playing center full-time for the first time in a game we were a little concerned, but he finished the game and did extremely well for us at the Giants. So we don’t have any concern there as far as him picking it up or making the calls.”

On where red zone efficiency is on his list of concerns:
“Oh it’s very high, very high. There’s a positive that we’re getting down there. We have some great drives. I think we’re tops in the league in drives without three-and-outs. You know, we’re doing very good on first down, second down, we’re doing good moving the ball down the field. Third down efficiency in the regular field is very good. When we get down in the red zone, our third down efficiency is terrible and that’s something we have to really look at. You know, first, second down is one thing; but we have to make sure that we keep the drives going or get the ball in the end zone on third down. It’s a concern, we have to address it.”

On what he looks at to improve the red zone efficiency:
“Oh yeah, a little bit of everything. Different play calling, you know, if it’s work with a quarterback, maybe implementing more runs down there, whatever it is. But, I think each week poses a different game plan type of way you want to attack the defense. We haven’t been very good the first three weeks, but we feel good about moving forward that we’ll do better against the teams coming up on our schedule, hopefully. We have to.”

On the personnel options in the secondary:
“Yeah, we got options. [Greg] Toler has done a good job and [Quinton] Dunbar filled in and made an interception, did a nice job. [Kendall] Fuller is ready to go. So, we have a lot of good options out there. Not overly concerned about the defensive backfield and Will Blackmon proved that he can play nickel still. He has played safety, he can play safety, so those guys are gonna step up and play.”

On the status of WR Josh Doctson after his last minute inactive this past Sunday:
“We don’t know. It was actually last minute. It was 11:30 a.m. and he just got it in so Tony Wyllie did an outstanding job with his eraser, put [Rashad] Ross on the thing and took Doctson off. He just didn’t feel comfortable, couldn’t push off the way he wanted to so we had to make that last minute switch. We don’t know. We are trying different treatments for him to try and get him back in action as soon as possible but take it easy this week, next couple days, see if he can do anything Friday and see where he is at. But, it is kind of a wait and see type thing.”

On the level of concern with WR Josh Doctson’s injury:
“Very, very. I am concerned. We’ve had all of the tests and there is really nothing there that we should be concerned about from a long term problem, it’s just he is dealing with some pain. We don’t know why it is but we have to try and figure out what it is and get it fixed.”

On defenses paying more attention to TE Jordan Reed in the red zone this year:
“Yeah, we are seeing a little bit more zone probably and when they play zone, sometimes they bang him when he gets off the line of scrimmage or they send an extra guy to him which is good. It should open up some other people but we just haven’t found the open guy consistently like we wanted to or guys didn’t get open or they played good coverage against the plays that we called. There is a combination of things that make it go astray but he has to be a big part of the red zone moving forward but, if he does get doubled someone else has to win.”

On lining up TE Jordan Reed differently:
“Yeah, both. We can move him around a little bit more and have other guys contribute, especially in the running game. It’s just a matter of how to skin a cat, a lot of ways to skin a cat. We gotta pick the right ones, we just haven’t done that yet.”

On CB Kendall Fuller being an option in the secondary:
“That was a big thing. I think once we got him at rookie minicamp he was very limited coming back from the injury. He came back probably a little bit quicker than we anticipated. We hadn’t anticipated him until training camp, but from OTAs he did a little bit and then training camp he continued to progress along. In the last couple preseason games he played extremely well we thought. We feel good about his growth. We didn’t want to rush him back but I think he’s ready. I think he was ready in week one, actually, to play. We just thought [Dashaun] Phillips had earned the right to play to start the season. If he’s banged-up we don’t have any doubt that Fuller can fill in. [Greg] Toler can play nickel, [Will] Blackmon can play nickel, so we have a lot of good options to deal with and we’ll see who’s ready to go come Sunday.”

On CB Quinton Dunbar’s growth:
“I think he would have played a lot more, the addition of Josh Norman probably set him back a little bit and [Bashaud] Breeland was playing extremely well in training camp and preseason. He just happened to be the odd man out. He’s not really a nickel, he’s more of a corner. He just had to wait his turn. He’s very patient and he got his opportunity Sunday and made a couple big plays for us so, he has made significant growth. He’s just a long, raw corner that can run. He’s very disruptive at the line of scrimmage, plays excellent in bump-and-run, off-coverage is where he’s getting a lot better. That’s where you see the growth. He’ll get more and more reps as the season goes on and he’ll continue to get better.”

On the decision to practice outside in the rain:
“I did think about [the rain], I got quite wet. But I was already wet, I didn’t want to go standing there all wet in the bubble. Once we were out there, the heck with it. I got a bad weather report from Paul Kelly [laughter]. I’m not pointing fingers, but Paul did it [laughter].”

On the run game:
“That’s something that we’ve addressed here for sure. We don’t want to rely that much on our passing game. We feel like we can, if need be. I think the Pittsburgh game was different because we got down there late in the third quarter – the whole fourth quarter was all passes so it really skewed our numbers a little bit. We were definitely pass first, that was our game plan against Pittsburgh. Then against Dallas, we thought we had some really good looks in the passing game also. Each opponent is going to be different, but we do want to have some kind of balance. We want to get Matt [Jones] going. You saw what he can do once he gets going in the fourth quarter, he can wear people down and he can move the chains, and we eat up some clock and keep our defense fresh. That’s a very important part of the game for us. It’s something that we have to address and continue to work on. But there will be games where we feel like we can move the ball through the air, we just have to find a good balance and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

On the importance of getting WR Josh Doctson involved:
“That’s a good question. The thought was that he keeps showing a little bit of progress, we keep thinking he’s getting better and he keeps teasing us running out there making a great catch and looking good and then the next day he gets sore. We’ve done all of the tests we just haven’t really found out the issue, what it is, why it’s sore and that’s something we’re continuing to work on there. It could be a possibility or a time that we put him down for a couple more weeks or a couple more days like we’re taking him off today, probably set him down tomorrow, see if that helps him a little bit. But, this is new to everybody I think and the key is to get him healthy like you say. We are not trying to rush him, we are just trying to see how he feels on each given day and if he can go, he goes and if not, he doesn’t. So we just don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

On CB Josh Norman following around Browns WR Terrelle Pryor Sr.:
“It’ll be hard to follow him when he’s playing quarterback. So, I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see. We’re still working on our game plan now and he’s all over the place. He’s been a dynamic player in the NFL, one of...probably the biggest surprise in the league so far how productive he has been at both receiver and at quarterback, obviously last week. He’s a great athlete, got a chance to meet him once, he’s big, he’s got great ball skills, so we will have a plan for him but, when you move him around from quarterback to receiver to slot whatever it is, we’ll just have to know. We have to – team defense is gonna have to take him away, somebody different every time possibly."


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