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Jason Garrett: Orlando Scandrick is a player you want on your team, he 'makes everyone better'
G.J. McCarthy / DMN
By SportsDayDFW.com
Published 25 August 2011 04:29 PM
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett me with media members Thursday. Here is some of the transcript from that session.
On whether he has a plan for how much the starters will play in the game this weekend:
“Not specifically yet, but we anticipate the starters playing a lot more than they have the first two weeks. Our progression the first week it was eight, 10, 12 plays, whatever. Last week it was around 20 and we’ll up it a little bit more depending on the game situations. We’d like the starters to play the bulk of the first half if not into the third quarter depending on how the game goes.”
On whether the players who came back this week will play Saturday:
“(We) haven’t made that determination yet. We’ll see how they did today in practice. They’re all kind of day-to-day. They’re all very close to playing so we just have to see how they responded to the work today and see if it’s worthwhile to play them this week and if not we’ll get them some work next week.”
On whether he is pleased with what the team got accomplished at Cowboys Stadium:
“Absolutely. I think this has been a great facility for us to have the home part of our training camp practices, so to speak. Obviously, the weather outside is difficult to practice on a daily basis and get exactly what you want out of it, so to have this facility has been outstanding. Our players have responded really well. We talked before that you get out of training camp right before that first preseason game but you have to keep a little bit of the training camp mentality and I think our guys have done that. I think it’s a tribute to the leaders on our team - we have eight, 10, 12 guys who are some of the best players at their position in the league and those guys have really taken a grip of the football team in terms of setting the pace of practice every day and keeping everybody kind of playing at an up-tempo pace. That’s a really important thing for a football team to have, for any organization to have, and the younger guys have followed that. We have a long way to go, you know that. Mistakes in all areas over and over and over again, but hopefully were minimizing those and still doing the big things the right way.”
On if he thinks he accomplished what he wanted in camp despite the lockout:
“It’s the situation all 32 teams are in in the National Football League. Sometimes when you’re one of those teams you have a feeling like you’re the only team that got locked out and that’s not the case. Everybody is in the same situation and I think it was important for us as coaches to make the necessary adjustments understanding that we’re down 20 or so practices. I think we were able to do that, still get our systems of offense, defense, and our kicking game in, but do it in a way that the players could digest it a little bit. I’ve been impressed with the younger players who haven’t seen it before, how quickly they responded to the new information and put it into practice. They’re a long way to go, they have many fewer reps on the things that were doing, but they’ve kind of hung in there mentally and that’s a good sign for us.”
On whether there are any guys he changed his opinion about from the beginning of camp:
“I don’t know that I think about a change in my opinion. One of the things that we try to do as a staff is create competition. And then we try to look at what’s happening on the field really with a naked eye, with an unbiased eye, regardless of how many years they’ve been with us, where they came from, what round they were drafted in. We really try to look at it and say, ‘ok who’s playing better?’ Let’s take the numbers off of the guys; who’s playing better? We try to do that and we try not to have too strong, too firm of opinions going in. Obviously you’ve been around some of these players for a long time and they have a certain amount of credibility because they have some history with us. Having said that, you want to try to evaluate them as cleanly as possible as we go. We try not have a pre-camp opinion and now a different opinion; we’re just evaluating the whole thing as we go.”
On who's playing better:
“As a group our guys are playing better; I think they are. This was not a concern. We were excited to see how our team was going to be coming into camp without practice because of the lockout. In general I think our group has gotten better and better and better. You can talk about more veteran players in that vein and you can talk about some of the younger players who just got here without getting into any specific names.”
On traditionally starters not playing after third preseason game and whether they will alter the plan this year:
“That’s a good question. I think teams around the league will approach that differently. The general approach is we want to have a plan for playing these guys over the course of four weeks and sometimes you have to alter that plan. Like I said, these guys are going to play more in this third preseason game. I don’t have a specific play number for anybody, but play more. Play the bulk of the first half if not into the third quarter. The game will dictate that. If they go three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, they’re going to play more than those series because we need to get more plays, we need to drive the ball a little bit. I think the impact of the last preseason game this year is more individual than it is for our team. If this guy didn’t get enough snaps because he’s been out, he wasn’t able to play as many in the third preseason game as we want, let’s play him in a series next week. I’m speaking hypothetically there; we haven’t had any specific conversations. Over the course of it you’re trying to evaluate how your team is and how individuals are in terms of their preparations going into the opener. We’ll have to do it collectively and then we’ll have to do it individually and make the necessary calls on those guys.”
On whether the individual evaluation of the young players will be graded on a curve because of the pressed time frame:
“I don’t know what the reality of grading on a curve is, but I think the sentiment is there. You look at some guys who maybe develop more slowly because they didn’t have that offseason time and then you say, ‘Boy, he wasn’t what we thought he was.’ Well, he didn’t even know what the offense was 12 hours ago and now we’re putting all of these plays in and then more plays are coming in tomorrow by the way. Sometimes you have to kind of take a step back and understand and have a little perspective on that. I think our guys have kind of in general caught up to that. I think the sentiment is there, but in reality we’re all in the same situation. We have to make a decision about who are the best 53 and then who are the best eight. Not only for right now but as we go forward. That’s ultimately what we have to get to, but your sentiment about keeping some perspective on it I think is an important one.”
On how as coaches they assess the defense right now:
“I think our defense, like our football team, is a work in progress. The more difficult thing for our defense is the defensive system was not in place last year like our offense and kicking game systems have been in. They’ve had to learn more quickly; they’ve had to understand how to make adjustments and be resourceful more quickly than the other units have. On offense and in the kicking game we’ve have to kind of be reminded of things and we’ve had to kind of learn on the run some of the new things that we’re trying to do. When you put a whole system in it’s more difficult. I think they’ve responded very well and I think it’s a tribute to our coaches. One of the things we talk all of the time about is being able to coach very clearly and very simply to get some information across so the players can understand it not only in the meeting room but take it to the practice field and take it to the game field. I think our coaches do a very good job in that, but I think our players have been very into it. I think they understand the urgency of the situation to learn more quickly. I think the leaders of the group over there have done a very good job conveying that to the rest of the group. We’re a long way off in all areas but I think we’ve made some progress there and hopefully it will show up on Saturday night and through the rest of the preseason.”
On whether he thinks Phil Costa has a chance to start at center:
“Again, we’re not that far ahead in the conversations. We like him a lot; he’d done a very good job, a very good job for us since he’s been here. He made a very strong impression on us right at the outset last year as a free agent. We call him a little bit of a bull dog. He’ll fight every down from the snap to the whistle and sometimes afterwards and when you have guys on your football team like that, that’s a real good thing. He’s developed in the offseason he came back in great shape and he’s really had a good start to training camp. We want to create competitive situations throughout our football team. That’s really why we don’t talk a lot about starters. It’s more about working with the ones. He’s worked with the ones just like Andre (Gurode) worked with the ones. I think it was beneficial for Costa to get some work when Andre was out early on in camp because that established him a little bit more and he was getting rep after rep after rep. if you approach it like he does you’re going to get better. We’ve been pleased with his progress; we like to have him in the mix, certainly.”
On whether he still will have to keep the heat in mind during the first week of practice back at Valley Ranch:
“Typically, as you guys remember from last year, we practice in the morning. We get out there at 10:30 for a walkthrough and 11 o’clock for the start of practice, so we practice earlier than most. I’ve been looking at the weather channel and charts of weather in Dallas for the last 50 years and typically it gets hotter and hotter as the day goes on. Found out that you don’t want to practice at six o’clock at night. One of the things that we have to do though is we have to get information to the players in the morning before practice so even if we practice early typically well meet prior to that practice; it might be a shorter meeting, it might be a full scale meeting like we do in the regular season. We’re a morning practice team anyway so hopefully that will help once we get into the regular season routine.”
On what the advantage was to practice in home stadium and if it’s something they may do as get in to regular season:
“I think it’s a really good thing to practice here and get comfortable where you play. It’s probably similar to a basketball player in an environment where he’s going to play a game. If you shoot around in that environment before the game it’s helpful. What we want from our players to understand this is a special place, that it’s our place. Get comfortable with the locker room, get comfortable with the field; know the field better than anybody else. When you’re in an indoor environment a lot of times there aren’t as many factors. It’s not like knowing the wind in Candlestick Park, so to speak. Still, to know your environment, be more comfortable in your environment than anybody else, I think that’s certainly a positive.”
On what makes him comfortable with the kind of financial commitment the team made with Orlando Scandrick:
“We like Orlando a lot. We’ve liked him pretty much from the start. He was a guy who was drafted relatively low and then came in and made a great first impression on everybody. He’s a guy that’s very talented. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s instinctive, he’s got long arms and he makes plays. He plays the right way. He loves football; he’s always got a smile on his face. He’s got great intensity, he competes. He’s a guy that shows up; he shows up in practice; he shows up in the game. He’s shown some versatility. With Terence Newman and Mike Jenkins being out he’s played more as an outside corner for the last couple of weeks in training camp and he’s demonstrated that he can play out there. He certainly has been a very good inside player, a nickel player, for us the last couple of years. Those are the kind of guys you want on your team. He loves to play. He has a contagious personality, he’s instinctive, he’s a playmaker. I think he makes everyone better.”
On how he has seen Gerald Sensabaugh’s approach change this camp:
“He’s a very athletic guy. He too is very instinctive. He can make plays on the ball. Trust me they know the idea of how turnovers and turnover differential impacts winning in this league; they hear that from me on a daily basis. We really do a drill to start practice every day that we call the ball period; we try to secure the ball on offense, we try to get the ball on defense. Those guys in the secondary, if they’re instinctive guys who are athletic they can be ball hawking guys in any defense and particularly in this defense. I think he understands the importance of it and he’s working on it and hopefully it’ll show up in ball games.”
On whether Mike Jenkins is in the same category as Tashard Choice, DeMarco Murray and Keith Brooking in terms of playing on Saturday:
“We just have to be careful with him. He has a stinger. He’s done a nice job the last couple of days in practice just working and getting his practice reps in without hitting that thing where he would take a backwards step. We have to see how he responds to the work the last couple of days and then make that decision about Saturday and then certainly again next week.”
G.J. McCarthy / DMN
By SportsDayDFW.com
Published 25 August 2011 04:29 PM
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett me with media members Thursday. Here is some of the transcript from that session.
On whether he has a plan for how much the starters will play in the game this weekend:
“Not specifically yet, but we anticipate the starters playing a lot more than they have the first two weeks. Our progression the first week it was eight, 10, 12 plays, whatever. Last week it was around 20 and we’ll up it a little bit more depending on the game situations. We’d like the starters to play the bulk of the first half if not into the third quarter depending on how the game goes.”
On whether the players who came back this week will play Saturday:
“(We) haven’t made that determination yet. We’ll see how they did today in practice. They’re all kind of day-to-day. They’re all very close to playing so we just have to see how they responded to the work today and see if it’s worthwhile to play them this week and if not we’ll get them some work next week.”
On whether he is pleased with what the team got accomplished at Cowboys Stadium:
“Absolutely. I think this has been a great facility for us to have the home part of our training camp practices, so to speak. Obviously, the weather outside is difficult to practice on a daily basis and get exactly what you want out of it, so to have this facility has been outstanding. Our players have responded really well. We talked before that you get out of training camp right before that first preseason game but you have to keep a little bit of the training camp mentality and I think our guys have done that. I think it’s a tribute to the leaders on our team - we have eight, 10, 12 guys who are some of the best players at their position in the league and those guys have really taken a grip of the football team in terms of setting the pace of practice every day and keeping everybody kind of playing at an up-tempo pace. That’s a really important thing for a football team to have, for any organization to have, and the younger guys have followed that. We have a long way to go, you know that. Mistakes in all areas over and over and over again, but hopefully were minimizing those and still doing the big things the right way.”
On if he thinks he accomplished what he wanted in camp despite the lockout:
“It’s the situation all 32 teams are in in the National Football League. Sometimes when you’re one of those teams you have a feeling like you’re the only team that got locked out and that’s not the case. Everybody is in the same situation and I think it was important for us as coaches to make the necessary adjustments understanding that we’re down 20 or so practices. I think we were able to do that, still get our systems of offense, defense, and our kicking game in, but do it in a way that the players could digest it a little bit. I’ve been impressed with the younger players who haven’t seen it before, how quickly they responded to the new information and put it into practice. They’re a long way to go, they have many fewer reps on the things that were doing, but they’ve kind of hung in there mentally and that’s a good sign for us.”
On whether there are any guys he changed his opinion about from the beginning of camp:
“I don’t know that I think about a change in my opinion. One of the things that we try to do as a staff is create competition. And then we try to look at what’s happening on the field really with a naked eye, with an unbiased eye, regardless of how many years they’ve been with us, where they came from, what round they were drafted in. We really try to look at it and say, ‘ok who’s playing better?’ Let’s take the numbers off of the guys; who’s playing better? We try to do that and we try not to have too strong, too firm of opinions going in. Obviously you’ve been around some of these players for a long time and they have a certain amount of credibility because they have some history with us. Having said that, you want to try to evaluate them as cleanly as possible as we go. We try not have a pre-camp opinion and now a different opinion; we’re just evaluating the whole thing as we go.”
On who's playing better:
“As a group our guys are playing better; I think they are. This was not a concern. We were excited to see how our team was going to be coming into camp without practice because of the lockout. In general I think our group has gotten better and better and better. You can talk about more veteran players in that vein and you can talk about some of the younger players who just got here without getting into any specific names.”
On traditionally starters not playing after third preseason game and whether they will alter the plan this year:
“That’s a good question. I think teams around the league will approach that differently. The general approach is we want to have a plan for playing these guys over the course of four weeks and sometimes you have to alter that plan. Like I said, these guys are going to play more in this third preseason game. I don’t have a specific play number for anybody, but play more. Play the bulk of the first half if not into the third quarter. The game will dictate that. If they go three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, they’re going to play more than those series because we need to get more plays, we need to drive the ball a little bit. I think the impact of the last preseason game this year is more individual than it is for our team. If this guy didn’t get enough snaps because he’s been out, he wasn’t able to play as many in the third preseason game as we want, let’s play him in a series next week. I’m speaking hypothetically there; we haven’t had any specific conversations. Over the course of it you’re trying to evaluate how your team is and how individuals are in terms of their preparations going into the opener. We’ll have to do it collectively and then we’ll have to do it individually and make the necessary calls on those guys.”
On whether the individual evaluation of the young players will be graded on a curve because of the pressed time frame:
“I don’t know what the reality of grading on a curve is, but I think the sentiment is there. You look at some guys who maybe develop more slowly because they didn’t have that offseason time and then you say, ‘Boy, he wasn’t what we thought he was.’ Well, he didn’t even know what the offense was 12 hours ago and now we’re putting all of these plays in and then more plays are coming in tomorrow by the way. Sometimes you have to kind of take a step back and understand and have a little perspective on that. I think our guys have kind of in general caught up to that. I think the sentiment is there, but in reality we’re all in the same situation. We have to make a decision about who are the best 53 and then who are the best eight. Not only for right now but as we go forward. That’s ultimately what we have to get to, but your sentiment about keeping some perspective on it I think is an important one.”
On how as coaches they assess the defense right now:
“I think our defense, like our football team, is a work in progress. The more difficult thing for our defense is the defensive system was not in place last year like our offense and kicking game systems have been in. They’ve had to learn more quickly; they’ve had to understand how to make adjustments and be resourceful more quickly than the other units have. On offense and in the kicking game we’ve have to kind of be reminded of things and we’ve had to kind of learn on the run some of the new things that we’re trying to do. When you put a whole system in it’s more difficult. I think they’ve responded very well and I think it’s a tribute to our coaches. One of the things we talk all of the time about is being able to coach very clearly and very simply to get some information across so the players can understand it not only in the meeting room but take it to the practice field and take it to the game field. I think our coaches do a very good job in that, but I think our players have been very into it. I think they understand the urgency of the situation to learn more quickly. I think the leaders of the group over there have done a very good job conveying that to the rest of the group. We’re a long way off in all areas but I think we’ve made some progress there and hopefully it will show up on Saturday night and through the rest of the preseason.”
On whether he thinks Phil Costa has a chance to start at center:
“Again, we’re not that far ahead in the conversations. We like him a lot; he’d done a very good job, a very good job for us since he’s been here. He made a very strong impression on us right at the outset last year as a free agent. We call him a little bit of a bull dog. He’ll fight every down from the snap to the whistle and sometimes afterwards and when you have guys on your football team like that, that’s a real good thing. He’s developed in the offseason he came back in great shape and he’s really had a good start to training camp. We want to create competitive situations throughout our football team. That’s really why we don’t talk a lot about starters. It’s more about working with the ones. He’s worked with the ones just like Andre (Gurode) worked with the ones. I think it was beneficial for Costa to get some work when Andre was out early on in camp because that established him a little bit more and he was getting rep after rep after rep. if you approach it like he does you’re going to get better. We’ve been pleased with his progress; we like to have him in the mix, certainly.”
On whether he still will have to keep the heat in mind during the first week of practice back at Valley Ranch:
“Typically, as you guys remember from last year, we practice in the morning. We get out there at 10:30 for a walkthrough and 11 o’clock for the start of practice, so we practice earlier than most. I’ve been looking at the weather channel and charts of weather in Dallas for the last 50 years and typically it gets hotter and hotter as the day goes on. Found out that you don’t want to practice at six o’clock at night. One of the things that we have to do though is we have to get information to the players in the morning before practice so even if we practice early typically well meet prior to that practice; it might be a shorter meeting, it might be a full scale meeting like we do in the regular season. We’re a morning practice team anyway so hopefully that will help once we get into the regular season routine.”
On what the advantage was to practice in home stadium and if it’s something they may do as get in to regular season:
“I think it’s a really good thing to practice here and get comfortable where you play. It’s probably similar to a basketball player in an environment where he’s going to play a game. If you shoot around in that environment before the game it’s helpful. What we want from our players to understand this is a special place, that it’s our place. Get comfortable with the locker room, get comfortable with the field; know the field better than anybody else. When you’re in an indoor environment a lot of times there aren’t as many factors. It’s not like knowing the wind in Candlestick Park, so to speak. Still, to know your environment, be more comfortable in your environment than anybody else, I think that’s certainly a positive.”
On what makes him comfortable with the kind of financial commitment the team made with Orlando Scandrick:
“We like Orlando a lot. We’ve liked him pretty much from the start. He was a guy who was drafted relatively low and then came in and made a great first impression on everybody. He’s a guy that’s very talented. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s instinctive, he’s got long arms and he makes plays. He plays the right way. He loves football; he’s always got a smile on his face. He’s got great intensity, he competes. He’s a guy that shows up; he shows up in practice; he shows up in the game. He’s shown some versatility. With Terence Newman and Mike Jenkins being out he’s played more as an outside corner for the last couple of weeks in training camp and he’s demonstrated that he can play out there. He certainly has been a very good inside player, a nickel player, for us the last couple of years. Those are the kind of guys you want on your team. He loves to play. He has a contagious personality, he’s instinctive, he’s a playmaker. I think he makes everyone better.”
On how he has seen Gerald Sensabaugh’s approach change this camp:
“He’s a very athletic guy. He too is very instinctive. He can make plays on the ball. Trust me they know the idea of how turnovers and turnover differential impacts winning in this league; they hear that from me on a daily basis. We really do a drill to start practice every day that we call the ball period; we try to secure the ball on offense, we try to get the ball on defense. Those guys in the secondary, if they’re instinctive guys who are athletic they can be ball hawking guys in any defense and particularly in this defense. I think he understands the importance of it and he’s working on it and hopefully it’ll show up in ball games.”
On whether Mike Jenkins is in the same category as Tashard Choice, DeMarco Murray and Keith Brooking in terms of playing on Saturday:
“We just have to be careful with him. He has a stinger. He’s done a nice job the last couple of days in practice just working and getting his practice reps in without hitting that thing where he would take a backwards step. We have to see how he responds to the work the last couple of days and then make that decision about Saturday and then certainly again next week.”
