TRANSCRIPT: Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo – November 1, 2017

TRANSCRIPT: Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo – Conference Call – November 1, 2017

Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo – Conference Call – November 1, 2017



(On his impressions of QB Jared Goff)

“Yeah, I think that a young quarterback there I think his 15th start. He seems to be gaining confidence. He’s definitely a young quarterback that has a lot of tools and has some good rhythm in his body. The system seems to fit his skillset. He’s very comfortable dealing with the ball, whether it’s under center or in the gun. He’s come a long way in a short time in this league under center. He spent a lot of time in the gun, but he’s got some nice weapons to distribute the ball to – that helps, some guys that he’s building chemistry with that obviously are some players that have some football smarts to them.”



(On how similar the Rams offense looks to the Redskins offenses from the past few seasons)

“I think there are a lot of similarities there. They do some outside zone, they do a lot of window dressing with the receivers as far as the old fly-sweep stuff, the reverses, the fake reverses. You’ll see a little bit of the Shanahan system in there as well with their shots down the field, how they like to tie the spacing concepts into their shots down the field as well as some of the Gruden type stuff.”



(On if he’s surprised that the Rams could be injury free going into a Week 9 matchup)

“Each year you go through and there are a couple teams, a handful of teams that have a chance to stay healthy. Usually injuries happen in bunches and it’s a credit to the Rams and the way that they train their players and a credit to the players in the way they take care of themselves. You can chalk a little bit of that up to luck as well.”



(On what the biggest change is for a quarterback from their first season to their second)

“The first year to the second, I think the confidence goes up. It’s a game of confidence at all positions, but especially that quarterback position. They know what to expect, they can adjust to the speed of the game, they understand what’s open and what’s not open – windows open and close quickly in this league and guys aren’t wide open. It’s tough to pop guys wide open in this league and have enough time to do it like you can in college. I think that they understand ball placement and timing and rhythm are very important and Goff seems to be making a lot of progress in those areas.”



(On what he thinks he learned about his team after the self-scouting done during the bye week)

“I think we have a team that – we look a little bit differently out there than we thought we would at this point, but that’s part of this league. That can change in a hurry on you. But, we have a team of fighters. We have guys that play hard, they set their jaw and they’re willing to fight and that gives us a chance each and every week. We also learned that we have got to be better at the end of ball games, we’ve got to close ball games better. It’s not one area, it’s not one phase, it’s as a team playing complementary football.”



(On how he thinks Giants QB Eli Manning is performing)

“Eli got off to a good start. I think he’s protecting the ball better throwing it than he has in the past. The fumbles – that’s something that we have to address and take care of. We’ve got to take care of the ball better in the pocket that way, but he’s managing the offense. It’s a little bit different than we’ve played in the past, the way we’re playing now, but that’s part of the game. He’s a guy that does a tremendous job preparing each and every week. He’s very consistent, very steady and the other players feed off of him that way. We look forward to Eli and the offense improving here over the last nine weeks.”



(On how he thinks Giants LB Devon Kennard has performed this season)

“First, I’ll say this, we had him break down the team after practice today. He’s an outstanding character, outstanding young man. A lot of positives with Kennard. You want your son to grow up like him, he’s that much of a hard worker and has leadership potential. He does a nice job for us playing SAM linebacker and he’s versatile in a lot of ways on the defensive side of the ball and can handle special teams for you. But very, very impressed with ‘DK’, being the head coach over the last couple of years. I’ve been around him a little bit when we first started on the offensive side of the ball, but the last couple years, he’s been an impressive young man. The harder things get, the better he gets.”



(On how different he thinks this Rams team is this year compared to the team from last year)

“On defense and special teams there’s a lot of similarities. The system may be different on defense, but you’re getting a very good front seven that plays hard, that had a ton of speed and creates messes in the back field. And special teams is a challenge to play obviously, with everything that they do from a formation, a schematic standpoint to challenge you. They try to force you to play on your heels. Offensively is where they’re a little bit different and not really necessarily some of the things you’ll see schematically, but the tempo and the pace that they play with. They try to change speeds on you that way in and out of the huddle with some no huddle and try to match up what they’re doing underneath and down the field, but they have a lot of new starters – three new guys on the offensive line, new skilled players. A quarterback that’s young and coming into his own and a running back that is as talented as anybody in the league.”



(On what he thinks has led to the development of Giants TE Evan Engram)

“He’s a young player, rookie player. We were trying to get him touches early in the season, just to bring him along, just keep things simple for him and just teach him pro football and let him develop as the season went on. We had some injuries there. You know, you blink your eyes and you’re down four receivers one week. So, all of a sudden we needed to feature him a little bit more than we have in the past. All of a sudden bringing a rookie along slow, you have to bring him along slowly just as fast as you can and that’s what we had to do with Evan. So, we had to give him more opportunities in a feature role and try to get the ball in his hands with him being really one of the more experienced guy we have at the perimeter spots. Being a rookie is hard as that is to say.”