Head Coach Robert Saleh, 8.6

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Zack Rosenblatt, The Athletic: I saw Quincy (Williams) and Laken (Tomlinson) get hurt at practice. How are they doing? 

All indications look good. We’re just going to get more evaluation on them.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: (Carl) Lawson, how is he?

Carl, his back’s a little tight, so we just held him off for today.

 

Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Jermaine (Johnson) was out too?

Yeah, Jermaine could have come back in, but that was my decision to keep him out.

 

Antwan Staley, New York Daily News: You made some changes in terms of linebacker. What led up to that?

Oh, the transactions? Unfortunately, in the game, Maalik (Hall) suffered an injury that’s going to take a few weeks, same with Hamsah (Hamsah Nasirildeen). Both were doing really well, then Chaz (Surratt) being out also, along with (Claudin Cherelus) CC, we’re down a lot of humans at linebackers, so we’re trying to restock that group to be able to handle the reps to practice and that’s about the gist of it.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: Hamsah would’ve been out for a while. That’s a stinger, right?

I’m not going to get in the full detail yet until I get it all, but it would have been a couple of weeks, at the earliest.

 

Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: (Chris) Streveler looks like he’s got an injury?

Yeah, he’s just dealing with his thumb right now. At the end of the game, I think his hand hit the helmet of a defensive player and caused a little pain. Nothing broken, I don’t think.

 

Antwan Staley, New York Daily News: (Mecole) Hardman Jr., just talk about what you see from him and how he’s coming along?

He’s coming along well. For him, just slowly progressing back and regaining all that speed that we know that he has. He wasn’t very active during OTAs, just working on his body and all that stuff, so he’s still playing catch up, but at the same time, you see flashes. You see the type of player he is. Made a couple of plays today, but he’s trending in the right direction. Not even close to where we know he’s going to be and excited about the progress he’s making.

 

Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: He and Aaron (Rodgers) seem to have a chemistry that came on quick. They did it again today. Is that a sight adjustment that they both make?

They’re working through a lot of things. I’ll be honest, there’s a lot of things that Aaron and the receivers are doing constantly. There was one play that there was a miscommunication on, but then there’s plays where there are, so, they’re working through it all. It feels like every day the skill guys are getting on the same page with Aaron and it’s looking pretty good.

 

Zack Rosenblatt, The Athletic:  It seems like those quick passes have been pretty lethal for Aaron throughout camp. On the flip side of that, how good is that for practice for the defense? There’s not many quarterbacks that probably do it as well.

Yeah, no, for sure. You have to be on your toes ready to roll. The ball’s coming out now and every once in a while he holds it, so you don’t want to get too flat footed because they’ll run by you, but his whole career, he’s been a master. It just seems like all the great ones are willing to take those little ones until he feels you creeping up and then he’ll throw them behind you. He’s special in that regard.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: Going back to the game, one guy who played a lot and it was kind of surprising was (Bryce) Huff. He was getting in in the fourth quarter. What led to that?

You know, try not to. I want to say this as well as I can. When you look at our d-line and knock on wood, you’re like, “Ok, who’s going to play? Who do we want to sit?” You could argue that all of them should sit. That’s in my opinion. They’re all pretty damn good football players. I think they’re all deserving to be on a 53-man roster somewhere, if not here. So, somebody had to play and Huff got some plays in the first half, but we needed him and Will (McDonald IV) to be emergency guys in the fourth quarter, because we were only playing four guys. Nobody plays four guys and especially in a group that rotates like we do, we only had four guys available in the second half. We just needed two guys to be there, so not a knock on him. Really more of a tip of the cap to him for going out there and doing what he’s done, but we think the world of Huff, and he’s going to be a big part of this football team moving forward.

 

Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Before he went out today, Jermaine’s (Johnson) has been getting a lot of good reps with the starters, quite frankly, in Carl’s (Lawson) spot. Is there a competition going on there? And do you see Jermaine?

Rotation. You guys know how we operate. You might take the first play. It doesn’t mean you’re a starter. It just means you’re part of a group. I think we got 10 starters, at least, on this football team, but he’s earned the right to be in there and get more reps, what he’s competing for is more time. It doesn’t mean that he’s supplementing

or taking someone’s job because the way these guys work together is so unique, but he definitely wants to be on the field more and he’s done a lot to change his body. He’s done a lot to work his way in, so he’s earning everything that he’s getting.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: (Jeremy) Ruckert not dressing for the game. Is that an indication of kind of how he’s come along this Spring and how he didn’t have a big role last year?

Yeah, he’s come along really well. He is going to get some preseason time. It’s the first game. We were trying our best. I think we sat like 32 guys, so we’re trying our best to make sure we pace this the right way and also use it as an opportunity to get a look at a lot of really young guys, which was beneficial, but he had a great OTA, he’s having a really nice camp, so I am really looking forward to him getting on the field and seeing him in game action.

 

Nick Fara, AM New York: For (Joe) Tippmann, first full game of action, played a lot. What did you see from him? It looked like he was bumped up to the second team a little bit.

Yeah, Tip had a really strong game against Cleveland. I thought he did a really nice job. It was a pleasant surprise. Obviously, out on the practice field and with all the different things that are going on, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs especially for a rookie, so we were looking forward to seeing him on the field and so it was a pleasant surprise. He held his own. Won a lot of his one-on-ones, did a really nice job communicating. Assignment wise was really good, so he did a really nice job, so hopefully he can continue to stack it, bring it to practice, keep stacking great days, and see where it takes him.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: Your team speed jumped last year. Do you feel like it’s going to take another jump this year?

Yeah, I think it comes naturally with comfort. Obviously, offense is learning something new, you could feel the defense – I feel the defense is moving very fast, but it comes with time and continuity and being in the same system over and over and over again and doing the same things over and over again, but I do feel like our team, it feels fast for sure and hopefully, it just gets faster. We’re still missing Breece (Hall), who is a blazer. And we’re still missing, Garrett (Wilson) who hasn’t been out there for a little bit, but I think you can sometimes confuse speed with precision, and I think what you’re seeing is precision and that can sometimes look like a lot of speed too, so it’s been good so far. Just a long way to go. At the same point, we still have a long way to go.

Brian Costello, New York Post: What are you hoping to get out of these days in Carolina coming up?

Continue to build on things. For all three phases, you’re going against a different human. It’s obviously more controlled. I’m a big fan of the inner squad scrimmages because you get to work against new schemes. You get to work against new verbiage. You get to work against different humans, obviously in a respectful way, but you go in there, you compete under a controlled environment, so you’re not trying to make things up, we’re not trying to scheme against them. We’re still installing our stuff. You’re just getting to do it against a different person and a different way of doing things, a different scheme. We’re just trying to continue to get better, to be honest with you.

 

Ethan Greenberg, New York Jets: When you think about the end of practice, with the offense going down twice and then with Sauce (Gardner) closing practice?

You know what? I’ll fill you guys, so those were two two-minute periods, offense had to kick a field goal to win and it was a really cool teachable moment. Offense, obviously, they go down the field and score. Second unit gets into field goal range, but on the move call, I don’t know if you saw it, it was very subtle, but we had an offside, so the 10-second runoff, the competition was tied 1-1. Take it to the red zone to settle it, and then you get the pick, so just a really cool teachable moment that it’s never over till it’s over. But again, those guys just compete where everything matters and from a coach’s standpoint, I thought it was freaking awesome because you’d rather it happen now than later, so you can talk about it, but all those sequences, especially at the end of practice when they’re competing, to not getting a ground, give 20 is, it’s pretty cool.

 

Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Was that even Sauce’s guy? It looked like he might have peeled off and made a play. 

Yeah, I’ve got to look at it. I think he peeled off coverage. I’ve got to go back and look at that tape, but he definitely peeled off coverage over there.

 

Brian Costello, New York Post: Bryce Hall, is he hurt?

Yeah, yesterday, he’s dealing with a minor hammy (hamstring). Hoping to get him back soon. I don’t have a timeframe on him, but it’s not significant.