Q. What was the reaction (inaudible)?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, you know, that was certainly out of my control, out of my hands, and that's the business part of it. I understand that.
My job is to prepare to play as well as I can, help the team win games, and that's certainly what I'm focused on.
Q. Was it disappointing?
DANIEL JONES: You know, just kind of is what it is. You're focused on preparing to play as well as you can, and that's my goal. That's what my focus is on.
Q. Do you think about your future? Now that you know, this is going to be the last year, how do you sort of look at that moving into this year now?
DANIEL JONES: I think it's natural to think about a little bit, but I think you're better off focusing on what you're doing now and preparing as well as you can now. So taking advantage of every day to prepare. We're in an important part of the off-season right now, starting up our OTA practices.
They're valuable opportunities you can't afford to miss out on, so that's certainly what I'm focused on and working on.
Q. What does that mean to you? What do you have to do this year to prove you're a franchise QB and get the next contract?
DANIEL JONES: You know, I don't think that's really the mindset or the focus. I think it's more about winning games and knowing that if we win games and we have a good season, then that should take care of a lot of things for everyone.
That's the focus I think we have as a group, as a team throughout the locker room, coaching staff. I think it's to play well and win games. That's what it's about. Everything we do is about that goal, pushing to that, and that's certainly my focus.
Q. What's your confidence level that this will be (indiscernible) play well this year? What's your confidence level and why do you have the confidence that this will be the year that you put it all together and be consistent?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I'm certainly confident in myself. I'm confident in the team we have and the coaches and the system.
I think we're all learning it, and we're improving daily with it. There's a lot of reasons to be confident, I think, when you look at all those pieces. We've got to focus on what we're doing now. We can't focus on results and the season. That's a long way away.
We're focused on preparing now, practicing well, improving every day and making progress.
Q. Daniel, the head coach was hired to be the coach of the team, but he's a coach who's an offensive guy and he works with quarterbacks. What do you think Brian and this offense and Mike can do to help you as a quarterback that you have not maybe had before?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I mean, I think they bring -- they both bring a ton of ideas, new ideas from different systems, systems that have had a lot of success, had quarterbacks with a lot of success.
I think all those ideas here, new thoughts here, new concepts, new plays, I think all that stuff, but yeah, I think so just trying to pick up those little things here and there and listening to some of their philosophy on playing the position, playing offense, looking for opportunities to make plays at times when they aren't there and to protect the ball.
I think all those conversations, just learning from their experience and what they've been around, the success that they've had.
Q. It's new; anybody that came in would have been new. But it's new and improved. Does this seem new and improved from what you can tell as far as success for a quarterback?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I don't know. I think you get into trouble comparing different situations. I think it's different, and they're different ideas. Anything would be -- any new situation is different.
I don't think it's very productive to compare necessarily, but just trying to learn as much as I can from different ways of looking at it.
Q. He was saying that his message to you is throw practice interceptions, throw the ball in tight windows, be aggressive, that's what practice is for. What do you take from that message?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I mean, you never want to throw interceptions, but I think just the idea to be aggressive and take your shots and see if you can make something happen, kind of let the receivers know that we're going to do that, we're going to give you all opportunities to make plays and we're counting on you to make plays in situations.
I think that's kind of a mindset he has to attack a defense, attack downfield and as a quarterback a decision maker you're a big part of that.
That's something we've talked about a lot and something he wants to see in practice.
Q. 30,000-foot view on you would be that maybe -- did you get away from that a little bit after your first year where it seemed like you were really aggressive and everybody wrote about turnovers and fumbles and ball security and that became such a huge narrative around you? Did you become so cautious of that that you lost some aggressiveness?
DANIEL JONES: I mean, I don't think it was what was written or was not written. I think the facts were we were turning the ball over a lot and I was turning the ball over a lot.
I don't know, I think as a quarterback you've got to be able to do both. You've got to be able to be aggressive, take shots and also protect the ball.
It's finding the balance there and the best guys can do that. I'm always working to improve that piece of the decision making process, and yeah, being smart in those situations.
Q. How much does your mindset have to change then, knowing that he's telling you this now, like hey, sort of let it go, throw the ball, don't be afraid, fire?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I don't know if it's -- it's not like a hard change in mindset. I think a lot of it is just understanding plays, understanding situations, understanding the philosophy on when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive.
I think those are all specific to certain situations. I don't think it's like a big overarching just mindset you apply aimlessly every play. I think it's specific and to what the play is trying to do, what the coverage is doing, and understanding that piece of it.
Q. Were you curious during the draft if they were going to take a quarterback?
DANIEL JONES: You know, I was just watching like everyone else was to see how it worked out. I'm excited with the guys we've got, and they've looked good.
Q. How did you feel about them taking an offensive tackle?
DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I was excited. I think excited about Evan, excited about all our guys. Evan has looked great so far, and you can tell he really wants to learn it. He wants to pick it up. It's important to him. He's working hard.
Yeah, we'll keep working as a group to improve.
Q. When Daboll solicits your feedback on what you want to see from the offense, what do you tell him? What do you want more of in an offense to succeed?
DANIEL JONES: I don't know if there's like one thing or another. I think it's a lot of different concepts. In certain situations maybe tweaking a route, having them run it a certain way or maybe something you're used to, and those are conversations.
I think obviously I'm trying to learn his system, I'm trying to learn the way they've done it, and they've had a ton of success, so I'm -- there's a healthy balance between how I see it and how he sees it, and those are a lot of conversations and back and forths.
I've learned a ton from how they've done it, and I'm just trying to -- it's early on in that process, too. We've got to rep things over and over again, and that's why this time is so valuable here in the spring to get it.
It's specific kind of play to play.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports