Conference Calls with Jack Del Rio & Byron Leftwich
Head Caoch Jack Del Rio
Q. Where is your team at this point?
A. “Well, we’ve earned 7-3, and we’ll get an opportunity to go out and compete against Arizona this week and try to get the record a little bit better. We see it is as challenge. We think they have some talented players, and, of course, I played for Denny Green, and I know he does a good job preparing his team.”
Q. What did Denny mean to your career and how did you like playing for him?
A. “I enjoyed my time in Minnesota. I spent four years playing for him, and we were in the playoffs three of those four years and won the division two of those years. We were No. 1 in defense. He allowed me to become a full-time linebacker, something I hadn’t been able to do earlier in my career. I enjoyed playing for him.”
Q. Here, he seems to be a no-nonsense guy. Are you the same type of coach?
A. “Yea, I do. I always respected that. I think it’s important that the person in charge just be very clear in what he’s looking for. I think if you eliminate the gray area, then guys have a chance to give you what you’re looking for.”
Q. Although your team has a decent record you don’t seem to be getting national attention…
A. “I don’t pay any attention to that. I think as you win all of those things take care of themselves. For us right now, we’ve been able to win seven of our first 10. All the hype and all the circumstance that surrounds the game, that kind of makes it fun to follow, but that doesn’t determine how good a football team you’re putting together.”
Q. On paper, the matchup between your pass defense and the Cardinals passing game looks pretty good. What do your attribute your success to, guys up front or in the secondary?
A. “I think that football is the ultimate team game. Certainly, Reggie Hayward being added, Paul Spicer, Rob Meier returning from injury, I think they’ve helped our front be stronger. I think our coverage has been good. Rashean Mathis is emerging into a star at the left corner. And Kenny Wright has come in and played very solid for us at the right corner. Dave Campo joined our secondary (as coach). I think Mike Smith and Dave Campo and the coaching staff have done a good job of preparing. What we do each week is just to go in and prepare to play the best that we can. And this week we have a big challenge with Warner being hot and the receiving talent that they have. It’s a big challenge.”
Q. You’re in the middle of playing a few teams that have struggled, is this something you speak to the team about?
A. “I think we understand very well that the NFL is made up of teams that all have talent players and talented coaches who are all trying to do their very best to beat you every week. We’re going to respect what they are capable of, the players and coaches they have and prepare hard and then go in and compete. That’s really been our mindset all year. I think there is a media perception about teams and then there is the reality of what you have to do to win football games. We understand they have some talented people, and we’re trying to prepare our guys to go out there and play well.”
Q. How good are your defensive tackles?
A. “They’ve played well very well for us. Our defense starts up front with Big John and Marcus. They’ve been very dominant at times. It all starts with them. We’ve been able to do quite a bit defensively as a result of being able to build around those two guys.”
Q. How’d that work out for you, to get a guy like Byron, who should be around for years?
A. “Hopefully a long, long time. It was very beneficial for our organization to be able to find a quarterback. The transition period can sometimes take teams a long time to go between a guy the caliber of Mark Brunell and finding the next quarterback who is going to lead the team. We were able to make that transition, going from Brunell to Leftwich. And Bryon is developing. He was better last year than his rookie year. And he’s better this year. Even throughout the course of this season he was improving. To be able to get your franchise quarterback settled, I think that’s very important for an organization to be able to do. We were fortunate to get Byron and to have him develop the way we’d hoped.”
Q. What’s he doing better this year?
A. “I think everything. I think all young players come in and work on mechanics, the fundamentals of playing the position. I think the reads. We changed systems this off-season, and I feel it’s more suited to what he can do. We’ve surrounded him with some talent, some weapons he can get the ball to. I just think he’s doing a nice job at directing of the offense. He's given up some of the fewest turnovers in the league. He’s got a three to one touchdown to interception ratio. We like that. We’d like to build on that. He’s just making good, sound decisions, even when it gets very difficult. Last week at the start of the game, we had five three-and-outs to start and he did not get unnerved or unravel. He did not start to make errors. He just kept on playing and gave us an opportunity to win the game.”
Q. Fred Taylor back this week?
A. “Yes.”
Q. Cardinals blitzed a lot last week, especially Wilson, how do you combat a guy like that?
A. “He’s a good football player. We have to know where he is, be able to pick up our assignments and get him blocked. He had some free runs into the backfield and was very effective at it. We certainly have to identify where he is and be able to account for him.”
Q. What challenges do you see from the Cardinals defense?
A. “It’s a defense that will get after you. They have some good team speed and they’re aggressive in what they’re trying to do. The challenge is to protect the football, protect the quarterback and try and generate more points than we allow. It will be a big challenge for us.”
Quarterback Byron Leftwich
Q. How are things going in Jacksonville?
A. ``They're going OK. We're heading in the right direction. I think we're getting better as a team. The big things are happening because we're doing what we have to do in taking care of the little things. You do that, normally the big things happen.''
Q. Does it bother you that the team is not getting the national publicity?
A. ``That's cool. We don't care about that. It's just less work for us to do, you know. Less interviews. We don't look at it that way. We know we have a good football team. You know, 7-3 is nothing. There's still a lot of football left. So we understand that, and we're not trying to get no more pub. We're just trying to go and take them one game at a time and see what happens at the end.''
Q. That was kind of hammered away last year if you didn’t know it already, right?
A. ``I know, yeah. We learned our lesson last year. I think this having more experience and having guys who've been in certain situations, you've got to respect everybody. You understand in this league the difference between a good team and a team that's not doing so good is only a couple of plays. We understand that and we respect everybody we play. We've got to make sure we prepare during the week to make sure we're ready to play on Sundays.''
Q. Did Cardinals talk to you before draft?
A. ``I don't even remember. I don't remember. I really don't have an idea. At that point, man, you talk to everybody. You end up talking to all 32 teams. I know there were six or seven teams I had a chance to going to, so I'm quite sure they were in there.''
Q. Were you thinking Cardinals might choose you at No. 6?
A. ``Yeah, actually I did. I think they traded with the Saints or somebody didn't they? They traded with somebody while I was in New York so I knew once they made that trade there was no was no way I was going to the Saints because they've got `A.B.' down there. But they do have my boy down there. Anquan, that's my boy. We trained together coming out. That's my boy. We still keep in touch all the time. I actually talked to him Sunday.''
Q. Did you see tape of his TD against the Rams?
A. ``I told him he was trying to run everybody over. Sunday I talked to him after the game and said man, what are you just trying to run the whole team over? That's just the type of player he is. You know he's capable of making plays like that every week, so it's going to be a challenge for us.''
Q. What do you see from the Cardinals' defense on film?
A.``They're a very fast football team. They're fast on defense. They've got some guys who are playing their butt off. They're real aggressive, they're real physical and they like to do a lot of different things. They do different things on who they're going to play so it's really tough to pick up things from them because they go out and change it. They've got enough players that are versatile that they can go out and change and do a whole lot of different things. It's going to be a tough week for us for preparation and we have to make sure we're ready for anything they try to do on Sunday.''
Q. Do you think you might see Adrian Wilson close to the line of scrimmage?
A. ``I don't know. I don't want to predict because they do so many different things and they do them good. They don't just do them just to do them, they're well coached when they're doing them, so we've got to make sure we're ready and prepared for that.''
Q. Have you seen a team doing a schemes like that when they have a guy down and rushing quarterback all the time?
A. ``You've seen it, but they normally don't do it as much as they did it. They did it a lot and that's something we've got to be prepared for and ready for. We've got to be prepared and ready for anything that they try to do to us because each week they put a new spin on what they like to do. We've got to make sure we're ready for what they've shown and make sure we're prepared for what they haven't shown because they will have something new.''
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Head Caoch Jack Del Rio
Q. Where is your team at this point?
A. “Well, we’ve earned 7-3, and we’ll get an opportunity to go out and compete against Arizona this week and try to get the record a little bit better. We see it is as challenge. We think they have some talented players, and, of course, I played for Denny Green, and I know he does a good job preparing his team.”
Q. What did Denny mean to your career and how did you like playing for him?
A. “I enjoyed my time in Minnesota. I spent four years playing for him, and we were in the playoffs three of those four years and won the division two of those years. We were No. 1 in defense. He allowed me to become a full-time linebacker, something I hadn’t been able to do earlier in my career. I enjoyed playing for him.”
Q. Here, he seems to be a no-nonsense guy. Are you the same type of coach?
A. “Yea, I do. I always respected that. I think it’s important that the person in charge just be very clear in what he’s looking for. I think if you eliminate the gray area, then guys have a chance to give you what you’re looking for.”
Q. Although your team has a decent record you don’t seem to be getting national attention…
A. “I don’t pay any attention to that. I think as you win all of those things take care of themselves. For us right now, we’ve been able to win seven of our first 10. All the hype and all the circumstance that surrounds the game, that kind of makes it fun to follow, but that doesn’t determine how good a football team you’re putting together.”
Q. On paper, the matchup between your pass defense and the Cardinals passing game looks pretty good. What do your attribute your success to, guys up front or in the secondary?
A. “I think that football is the ultimate team game. Certainly, Reggie Hayward being added, Paul Spicer, Rob Meier returning from injury, I think they’ve helped our front be stronger. I think our coverage has been good. Rashean Mathis is emerging into a star at the left corner. And Kenny Wright has come in and played very solid for us at the right corner. Dave Campo joined our secondary (as coach). I think Mike Smith and Dave Campo and the coaching staff have done a good job of preparing. What we do each week is just to go in and prepare to play the best that we can. And this week we have a big challenge with Warner being hot and the receiving talent that they have. It’s a big challenge.”
Q. You’re in the middle of playing a few teams that have struggled, is this something you speak to the team about?
A. “I think we understand very well that the NFL is made up of teams that all have talent players and talented coaches who are all trying to do their very best to beat you every week. We’re going to respect what they are capable of, the players and coaches they have and prepare hard and then go in and compete. That’s really been our mindset all year. I think there is a media perception about teams and then there is the reality of what you have to do to win football games. We understand they have some talented people, and we’re trying to prepare our guys to go out there and play well.”
Q. How good are your defensive tackles?
A. “They’ve played well very well for us. Our defense starts up front with Big John and Marcus. They’ve been very dominant at times. It all starts with them. We’ve been able to do quite a bit defensively as a result of being able to build around those two guys.”
Q. How’d that work out for you, to get a guy like Byron, who should be around for years?
A. “Hopefully a long, long time. It was very beneficial for our organization to be able to find a quarterback. The transition period can sometimes take teams a long time to go between a guy the caliber of Mark Brunell and finding the next quarterback who is going to lead the team. We were able to make that transition, going from Brunell to Leftwich. And Bryon is developing. He was better last year than his rookie year. And he’s better this year. Even throughout the course of this season he was improving. To be able to get your franchise quarterback settled, I think that’s very important for an organization to be able to do. We were fortunate to get Byron and to have him develop the way we’d hoped.”
Q. What’s he doing better this year?
A. “I think everything. I think all young players come in and work on mechanics, the fundamentals of playing the position. I think the reads. We changed systems this off-season, and I feel it’s more suited to what he can do. We’ve surrounded him with some talent, some weapons he can get the ball to. I just think he’s doing a nice job at directing of the offense. He's given up some of the fewest turnovers in the league. He’s got a three to one touchdown to interception ratio. We like that. We’d like to build on that. He’s just making good, sound decisions, even when it gets very difficult. Last week at the start of the game, we had five three-and-outs to start and he did not get unnerved or unravel. He did not start to make errors. He just kept on playing and gave us an opportunity to win the game.”
Q. Fred Taylor back this week?
A. “Yes.”
Q. Cardinals blitzed a lot last week, especially Wilson, how do you combat a guy like that?
A. “He’s a good football player. We have to know where he is, be able to pick up our assignments and get him blocked. He had some free runs into the backfield and was very effective at it. We certainly have to identify where he is and be able to account for him.”
Q. What challenges do you see from the Cardinals defense?
A. “It’s a defense that will get after you. They have some good team speed and they’re aggressive in what they’re trying to do. The challenge is to protect the football, protect the quarterback and try and generate more points than we allow. It will be a big challenge for us.”
Quarterback Byron Leftwich
Q. How are things going in Jacksonville?
A. ``They're going OK. We're heading in the right direction. I think we're getting better as a team. The big things are happening because we're doing what we have to do in taking care of the little things. You do that, normally the big things happen.''
Q. Does it bother you that the team is not getting the national publicity?
A. ``That's cool. We don't care about that. It's just less work for us to do, you know. Less interviews. We don't look at it that way. We know we have a good football team. You know, 7-3 is nothing. There's still a lot of football left. So we understand that, and we're not trying to get no more pub. We're just trying to go and take them one game at a time and see what happens at the end.''
Q. That was kind of hammered away last year if you didn’t know it already, right?
A. ``I know, yeah. We learned our lesson last year. I think this having more experience and having guys who've been in certain situations, you've got to respect everybody. You understand in this league the difference between a good team and a team that's not doing so good is only a couple of plays. We understand that and we respect everybody we play. We've got to make sure we prepare during the week to make sure we're ready to play on Sundays.''
Q. Did Cardinals talk to you before draft?
A. ``I don't even remember. I don't remember. I really don't have an idea. At that point, man, you talk to everybody. You end up talking to all 32 teams. I know there were six or seven teams I had a chance to going to, so I'm quite sure they were in there.''
Q. Were you thinking Cardinals might choose you at No. 6?
A. ``Yeah, actually I did. I think they traded with the Saints or somebody didn't they? They traded with somebody while I was in New York so I knew once they made that trade there was no was no way I was going to the Saints because they've got `A.B.' down there. But they do have my boy down there. Anquan, that's my boy. We trained together coming out. That's my boy. We still keep in touch all the time. I actually talked to him Sunday.''
Q. Did you see tape of his TD against the Rams?
A. ``I told him he was trying to run everybody over. Sunday I talked to him after the game and said man, what are you just trying to run the whole team over? That's just the type of player he is. You know he's capable of making plays like that every week, so it's going to be a challenge for us.''
Q. What do you see from the Cardinals' defense on film?
A.``They're a very fast football team. They're fast on defense. They've got some guys who are playing their butt off. They're real aggressive, they're real physical and they like to do a lot of different things. They do different things on who they're going to play so it's really tough to pick up things from them because they go out and change it. They've got enough players that are versatile that they can go out and change and do a whole lot of different things. It's going to be a tough week for us for preparation and we have to make sure we're ready for anything they try to do on Sunday.''
Q. Do you think you might see Adrian Wilson close to the line of scrimmage?
A. ``I don't know. I don't want to predict because they do so many different things and they do them good. They don't just do them just to do them, they're well coached when they're doing them, so we've got to make sure we're ready and prepared for that.''
Q. Have you seen a team doing a schemes like that when they have a guy down and rushing quarterback all the time?
A. ``You've seen it, but they normally don't do it as much as they did it. They did it a lot and that's something we've got to be prepared for and ready for. We've got to be prepared and ready for anything that they try to do to us because each week they put a new spin on what they like to do. We've got to make sure we're ready for what they've shown and make sure we're prepared for what they haven't shown because they will have something new.''
