Skins Quotes 12/15/17: Jay Gruden

December 15, 2017

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On injuries:
“Out will be Zach Brown, toe/ankle/Achilles/hip. [Montae] Nicholson will be out, concussion. Questionable – [Morgan] Moses, [Trent] Williams, [Ryan] Anderson, [Ryan] Grant, [Maurice] Harris, [Terrell] McClain and [Chase] Roullier.”

On if T Trent Williams joined the team at practice today:
“He did join us, by golly. It was nice of him to grace us with his presence. He showed up.”

On if Williams did any work at practice:
“He did. He spotted the ball a couple times, gave me some water. Had a good day. Very productive for Trent.”

On what a win would do for this team:
“Well, it would get us out of the doldrums a little bit. I think everybody's moved on from the last couple of games. We lost three in a row, two bad ones, and now I think people are excited to get back to the field and try to change course a little bit. A win does a lot for your mental state of mind – everybody – coming to work and practicing and all that good stuff. Guys are hungry right now and hopefully they'll go out and show it.”

On the plans at linebacker:
“We'll have a couple in there. Obviously [Martrell] Spaight and [Zach] Vigil will be playing. We've got Josh Harvey [-Clemons] ready to roll and Otha [Peters] is up and ready to go.”

On how LB Josh Harvey-Clemons is doing:
“He's doing good. He's doing good – coming along nice for a young guy.”

On what position C Chase Roullier would play:
“Center.”

On if Roullier at center would leave G Arie Kouandjio at guard:
“Yes.”

On why they have not run many trick plays this year:
“There's a couple reasons for it, situationally. We have some up every game plan usually, we just haven't got to them for whatever reason. Situations, field position, time of the game – all that plays into it – the defense you're playing against. We've got them up, I just haven't called them. I'm not very creative, I guess.”

On how much he has had to scale back on third downs because of the injuries at running back:
“Well, that was an issue last week for sure just because third-down back is a very unique position. It's very important – pass protection, routes, all that stuff – and when we lost [Byron] Marshall, it kind of hurt us because Samaje [Perine] is not that guy really and obviously LeShun [Daniels] has never done it. But, now we have Kapri [Bibbs] working at it and Samaje's getting more and more experience at it where he can sit in there for the protections at least and run the routes. But you have to scale it back a little bit, without a doubt, especially some of the formations and all that stuff.”

On if the game plan adjusts because of the number of sacks Cardinals QB Blaine Gabbert has taken in recent weeks:
“Well, we try to get sacks every week. I think they've had some issues with the offensive line also, so it's our intent to make sure we have to A) stop the run, because I know Coach [Bruce] Arians likes to run the ball. They have a staple running game that they like to run and if they're successful with it, he'll keep pounding it and then that's where the play-actions with the max-protection play-actions come into play where you can't get sacks. It's important for us to stop the run and get them in third down to let our rushers rush against an offensive line that hasn't been playing together for very long. We know the struggles that you can have when you're in third-and-eight and third-and-nine all the time, so that's the game plan. It's not that hard.”

On if he has commiserated with Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Arians about offensive line injuries:
“No, I have not. No. [Laughter]”

On how CB Josh Norman looked at practice today:
“Today's his birthday. He looks good – a couple interceptions at practice today.”




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On if T Trent Williams joined the team at practice today:
“ It was nice of him to grace us with his presence.”

On if Williams did any work at practice:
“He did. He spotted the ball a couple times, gave me some water. Had a good day. Very productive for Trent.”

Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder if there's a "back-story" with Trent that I missed, and prompted this major sarcasm toward him.
Or if it's simply just a way to add therapeutic humor, to an otherwise frustrating avalanche of injuries.

I know Jay is notorious for humor, but when he singles someone out like that in a way that might bother the player - unless there's more to the story than is being told - it seems kind of odd.

Have you listened to the presser - pretty sure he was ribbing him? He's a huge fan of Trent's, no way that was a serious comment imho.

I have not seen the video just making that assumption.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk