Q. You said might want to avoid player comparisons but is it hard watching the film of Cam Jurgens and not sort of thinking, does not look like Kelce?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, shoot, he played a good game. Obviously I don't want to compare him to Jason Kelce at this particular time. Jason Kelce has been playing at a high level for so long.
But there definitely comparisons, and we saw that, any time you evaluate a guy on college tape you try to paint a comparison to paint a picture of what you see, and so that was the comparison we saw at Nebraska. And of course, yes, the way he kind of moves around, pulls, gets to the second level, you know, a lot of similarities.
Q. There was a lot of focus on the starters and the first team offense and defense. What did you think of the depth guys, particularly, the guys that you had there in the second half?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, I thought the starters did a great job out there. You know, going and performing. The twos I thought did a nice job as well to end out the first half, and they did some -- they played a little bit into the third quarter. The threes, again, there was corrections we have to make from all over the tape, right. But some of the stuff with the threes that you look at and you're like, well, I saw that in practice a little bit.
It's a great example of you play how you practice and so there was some things that we wanted to clean -- that we have been trying to clean up in practice that leaked over to the game. There was some good individual performances but it needs to be better as an entire group and more with those threes and more sound and more fundamentally sound football IQ, all those different things.
So there's some things to clean up but the great thing about when you clean something up, you're not just talking to the threes when you clean something up. You're talking to the entire group and you anticipate, oh, you make a mistake here, the entire group gets it and we all fix that problem.
Q. How did you think Jalen did, deciding when to leave the pocket versus staying in the pocket?
NICK SIRIANNI: I thought he was great. He made plays in the pocket when he needed to make plays in the pocket and when he needed to escape, escaped. I think it's interesting, I think it's also to be known like leaving the pocket isn't just something that you see when the protection breaks down, right. I think that people think this like, oh, we left the pocket early, and the protection was good. Well, sometimes nobody is open. And sometimes the defense calls a good play and it's not a good look in the coverage.
So like it's not as easy to say like, well, no one -- the protection broke down so he left. I mean, because that's obvious. I think the thing that is not as obvious is, again, what I said, like somebody slipped in or out or somebody -- or the defense played a good coverage and there wasn't anybody open and he's trying to create with a scramble.
So you know, I thought he did a great job of that. He thought he played a good football game. You know, first drive and just look to build on that.
Q. Is that what happened on that play?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, and that was -- talking about the one where he escaped?
Yeah, and he escaped on the first one, and that one was a little easier to see because we got beat -- we got beat inside on that and he had to escape, right and he made a great play.
The one he got hit, yeah, there was nobody open on that play.
Q. Cheap shot but could he have done more to protect himself?
NICK SIRIANNI: I don't think so. I saw AJ give a comment he should have slid there. When you're next -- AJ plays wide out, though. You know, but I thought that on the sideline right there, like the sideline is a friend, too. The slide is your friend to protect and you the sideline is. I thought he was out-of-bounds. Again, I thought Jalen said it perfectly. He said it perfectly, how did he say it? He said, "I got hit late, they threw the flag. I moved on. I ain't tripping." Perfectly said. Perfectly said.
And that is -- like that is who he is. That's Jalen. Like it doesn't matter if he threw an interception or I'm screaming in his face; the people in Washington fall out of the stands and almost break his leg, he's pretty unfazed and that's a great quality to have as a quarterback because he's going to be unfazed in the first quarter, second quarter, third, fourth -- that's a pretty cool t-shirt, I like that.
That is a great quality to have in a quarterback.
Q. Looking at the schedule this summer, how did you weigh the benefit of the joint practices versus the team being away for a week and a half?
NICK SIRIANNI: I actually thought obviously the joint practices are giving you in-game experiences, controlled game experience for two days in a row at practice to work on things you want to work on and the other team wants to work on and you know, you don't get your quarterback hit, stuff like that. It's not live to the ground. So it's a controlled experience.
As far as going away, I think that's good, right, and I think that I felt last year that there was some good bonding and some good connecting going on in the hotel when we were against the Jets, right.
So that was something that when -- we wanted to do a home and away, and it just didn't work out that way, one home, one away. It just didn't work out that way. But I'm looking forward to this opportunity to get closer as a football team while we're away in the -- it's not dorms, I know, we'll be in nice hotels but I think it's a good opportunity for us to connect and be together.
Q. How long will the starters play in Cleveland?
NICK SIRIANNI: I don't have to make that decision quite yet. Still discussing. We are going to be in those joint practices and those will be two hard days of work, so IF I feel like they have gotten enough in those joint practices and I feel like the work that we needed to get done, we'll play everything by year if you I feel like that, I wouldn't play them in those games but again I haven't made any of those decisions yet.
Q. As far as Carson's play the other day --
NICK SIRIANNI: No particular reason. I wanted -- Jalen got the first drive. I wanted to see Gardner go into the second -- into halftime and I wanted to see Reid for a half. We've got to more games and some joint practices for him to get some more reps but that's just the way the reps shook out that game.
Q. How do you think Reid looked?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, Reid's looked really good in practice. He's really had some good reps in practice. I think he was nervous at first, I do. I believe that he was. But you know, I thought as the game went on, he steadied himself and recovered and had a nice finish to the game and 18-play drive where you're having to go the long haul which the Jets made us do to take the lead, I thought that was an outstanding drive led by him.
Q. Did you treat Friday like a normal season game? And I ask specifically regarding the fourth down for earlier in the game.
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I wanted it to be as most game like as possible. To give that answer would give a little bit of insight to what we think for our future opponents. I try to make the whole experience as game like as possible. It was, it's a game, that's how we treat it. You try to work the kinks out and everything and get a little bit better at your operation. Not only was the game treated like I wanted it to be treated; withholding things and being deceptive.
You know, you try to make it as game like as possible while still holding things. We are not showing them everything. We don't want -- that's an advantage we have, things that they haven't seen on tape. But like the meetings before, the meetings beforehand, you treated that like a Saturday meeting day and then the meetings beforehand in my office with Shane and Kevin and Brian, you know, we did everything we would do in a game.
Q. Who is advising you as far as workouts?
NICK SIRIANNI: Group effort.
Q. What's the status, Covey and his hand?
NICK SIRIANNI: He gave you guys the update, right? What is it today? Limited today. He can do a lot of things, like he's a good punt returner, he can play in the slot or sometimes he can play outside. He told me he can be a priest but he is not a doctor. I'll tell him to keep his doctor opinions -- sprain, yeah.
He said torn ligaments and that's not what it is. That's why he should focus on what he's doing.
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