Some pretty fascinating insight into practices from a
press conference. Left in a question about Rexy for SJH. Love the bit about all the times that Gaffney gets punched in practice
Q:
Michael Floyd mentioned that
Jacoby Brissett has been helpful in putting extra time with him in order to get up to speed on the offense. Is that something you'll ask a player to do from time to time?
BB: Well, I think in a lot of cases we would facilitate it. I think in this particular case it helps both players. I think when you have to explain what you're doing to somebody else it helps you understand it better in Jacoby [Brissett]'s case. The coaches are involved in a lot of - I mean we all have the things that we have to do on a regular weekly basis. Preparing our different position groups, and breaking down film, and getting ready for practice, and organizing meetings and so forth, so it's hard for a coach just to drop what he's doing for two or three hours and go meet with a player. I mean we do that and we balance it all, but there's also a place where if you have a player that's available that can do it that it's kind of the right situation like this one is, then that can be beneficial to the coaching staff, can be beneficial to the player, can be beneficial to the new player to have somebody to go through that with. Not as a coach, but in this case probably the guy who's more important than the coach, the guy that's throwing him the ball. That's an important relationship to have between the receiver and the quarterback. Sometimes it works out. Again, there's no set formula or way to do it. In this case we happen to be in a situation where that has I think, again, there's a lot of benefit all the way around. I think it's been good. It's helped [Michael] Floyd and it's definitely helped [Jacoby] Brissett and it's helped Chad [O'Shea] and Josh [McDaniels] too.
Q: With
Jacoby Brissett back in the fold as a third quarterback at practice how has that changed
Jimmy Garoppolo's reps?
BB: A little bit. I mean the past couple of weeks that's also been a function of Tom [Brady]'s availability. So there's been a few times here in the last two or three weeks where Jimmy [Garoppolo]'s probably gotten more reps than he's gotten all year since the Cleveland game. But there have been practices where he's taken literally every snap, like he did prior to Arizona or prior to Miami. As it's worked out he's gotten actually more work not because Jacoby [Brissett] but that's actually helped us with Jacoby, too, by having two quarterbacks instead of just one if he wouldn't have been available. But again, Jacoby can do some other things in practice, too. There are things he can do to help the defense and, again, there's times where he can take individual receivers and work with them. Again, we try to use everybody that's available, figure out a way to be productive.
Q: How important is it for the scout team quarterback to approach practice with a competitive mindset in terms of helping the defense get ready for your opponent?
BB: Yeah, I mean that's an important part of that person's job. That extends to all of the other people who are doing the same thing. So the player who's playing [Jarvis] Landry, the player who's playing [Kenny] Stills, the player who's playing [DeVante] Parker, the player who's playing [Dion] Sims, [Jay] Ajayi, right down the line, all of them, the guy that's playing [Branden] Albert, [Laremy] Tunsil, all of them. The same thing on defense - [Tony] Lippett, [Michael] Thomas, and [Xavien] Howard and so forth. We spend time talking to those players about how that individual plays or maybe how they play a particular play like ‘On this coverage here is what they're going to do. Here is how they're going to handle a vertical route, handle a cross route, handle a whatever it is,' and try to get the best look we can at those plays. That certainly helps our players prepare the best they can to see what they're going to see in the game during the week as opposed to seeing something else that's a facsimile but not really what it's going to be. It doesn't help the timing. So I think our players do a really good job of that. They understand how important it is for the people who are showing them what they need to see, and then they know it's incumbent on them to return that same look. And our practice squad players, that's probably their main role, which is a very important role that we recognize every week and they take that very seriously and professionally. That's their role, is to get somebody else ready. Someday that'll change, or might change like it does for a lot of our practice squad players where they're the one that's getting ready and somebody else is doing it for them.
Q: Are you going to miss the element of competition that came along with coaching against Rex Ryan in the AFC East?
BB: Yeah, right now we're just thinking about Miami. We're not thinking about anybody else.
Q: How valuable has
Tyler Gaffney been the past few weeks on the scout team in mimicking some of the really big backs you've faced and will face again this week?
BB: Yeah, he's done a good job for us. Again, he's another guy similar to Jacoby [Brissett]'s situation. Sometimes it's a ball-security thing we talk to him about like ‘This back kind of swings the ball around a little bit,' and even though he shouldn't do that he'll do it to kind of help our defense prepare for it or ‘This is the way he runs a certain type of route.' Again, there are a lot of little things and the players do a good job with him, too. The linebackers - they'll say ‘Hey, he'll cheat on this,' or ‘He'll cheat on that when he's got protection or a certain route. He lines up deeper on certain plays or closer to the line on certain plays,' just as we go through the week to sort of help each other there. But yeah, he does a great job. Tyler [Gaffney] - he's a smart guy, very team-orientated. If you ask him to do something he's going to give you a great look. There's nobody that takes more punches than he does. He must get punched in the stomach 10 times a day. The defense is trying to take the ball out. That's his role. That's his job. But they're slapping at the ball, they're pulling at it, they're trying to punch it, half the time they miss. He does a great job.