THE MODERATOR: We have Jevon Holland available. Questions, please.
Q. When you walk in here on Day 1, what do you want your teammates to know about you, whether it's player, person, or just the total package? What do you want people to say about Jevon Holland?
JEVON HOLLAND: I just want them to get to know me, man. I just want them to say, Yeah, he's a cool guy. I'm here just like everybody else. All I want to do is to learn the playbook, dive deeper into the family, and become a unit, become a part of that Giants legacy. Yeah, nothing too crazy.
It's Day 1, so keeping it cool, man. Just saying, What's up, to everybody and putting a face to a name.
Q. It has to be a little different, right? This is the first new team that you're joining in the league, so you knew everybody that you were with in Miami. Once you established your impression, people knew who you were. They knew the type of player you were. Is it any different coming to a new team like this where you know people have watched you for years, so they already have opinions of who you are as a player and a person.
JEVON HOLLAND: It might be for them, but for me it's the same as meeting somebody for the first time. Whether their impression of me is something and I'm different than what they thought or their impression of me is exactly who I am, they're going to get too know me, and I'm going to meet them the same way I meet any other stranger, with a hand shake and saying, What's up?
Q. Just curious, what were some of your conversations now that you signed and obviously had to talk to some of the guys. What are some of the early conversations been to get to know some of the guys and then getting to know you? How have the conversations gone so far?
JEVON HOLLAND: They've gone great. Really it's just, like, regular introductions. It's not something special. Just getting to know the guys, who is in the room, you know, telling them who I am and my background and why I'm here. Yeah, telling them I'm here to be a great teammate, support them, try to help win games. That's the goal here is to win, and I'm here to help.
Q. Just being around some of the guys that are established here, what maybe I don't know if you were surprised or anything, but what is it like just seeing and being around them versus maybe just talking to them over the phone or video chat? What's it like being around them that first day? Is it clicking, or is it like, All right, let's get to work, let's go?
JEVON HOLLAND: It's clicking. Everybody is cool here, bro. Everybody is a good time. Everybody is chill. It's Day 1. It's not like we're doing anything crazy. It's work out, introductions, and everybody is just here. It's a new year, fresh start. Everybody is ready to get to work and excited to be a part of this.
Q. I'm curious. I know it's early, really, really, really early, right? I'm curious, what's your first impression coming into this of the defense schematically of what they run here and how you fit into that?
JEVON HOLLAND: It's the first day, bro. I literally have no idea.
Q. Even before forget the first day, but when you signed here, what do you envision? What did they tell you about, Hey, you're going to fit in here?
JEVON HOLLAND: They're going to fit in like my attributes of being a long, rangy safety that can come down and cover man-to-man. You know, the things that the general public knows, absolutely, but in terms of the specifics, we haven't even gotten to that point yet.
Today was just about shaking hands, saying, How are you doing, and meeting everybody. I'm sure that you guys will know before me when we have the specifics on what's going down. That's a question for coaches that's not a question for me right now.
Yeah, it was just introductions today.
Q. I was just curious like what you wanted when you entered free agency in regards to a role and what you can kind of thrive in? That's kind of what I was getting at there.
JEVON HOLLAND: Yeah. I think I've been in a lot of different systems in my career. It's not necessarily that I like one more than the other. It's just about the flow of the team, the personnel, who we have that kind of fits around how I'm going to be able to help and where we need help at.
I wouldn't say that I'm looking for one specific role or one specific position, but more so finding me place where I can help the most.
Q. We were just speaking with Russ, and he was talking about joking with you in the locker room about how you kind of punched out balls back in the day. I guess what your relationship with him is like and just getting to be here with him?
JEVON HOLLAND: It's really cool. My mom is a big Seahawks fan, so growing up in the Bay area. My dad played for the Niners. So the rivalry, Crabtree and Richard Sherman. Anyway, so over the years just watching Russ his whole career from where did he go to Wisconsin or Nebraska? From his career and going into the league and then him just playing and me being a fan of him and teams that he's on and then all the way up to the point where we're playing him last year.
Kind of in a similar story with Tom Brady. I run past him, and I was kind of like, Hey, what's up, Russell Wilson? I can't say -- I was just not saying his name just Russ. What's up, Russell Wilson, because that's how I had seen him.
From that point on until now we've developed an acquaintance relationship. I see him in the locker room. He knows my face, which is cool, and I know his face, obviously. I say, What's up and ready to get this thing started. But, yeah, it was cool playing against him last year and going against a quarterback in the league that's seen defenses and being able to give us some trouble. Yeah, just have a competitive time.
Q. Along those lines, I know that Russ and Jameis both got up. Coach Daboll asked them to tell their stories and journeys. Did you learn anything from listening to them about I didn't know that about them, something like that?
JEVON HOLLAND: I mean, it was pretty brief, but just the basics of the family and what not. Obviously I didn't know specifics because I haven't been in the room with them, but you can tell their personalities just in their demeanor and how they spoke to the team.
Especially Jameis. Jameis is obviously, as everybody has seen, is a character. Now being in the locker room with him and seeing him, he is just a great dude. A great player, but an even better person. So it was cool to just see their charisma and speaking in front of the team.
Q. Is it different as you're still a young player when you have these older quarterbacks get up? They just carry themselves different, these veteran guys?
JEVON HOLLAND: Yeah, I'm glad you said veteran guys. I don't think it's just quarterbacks. It's veterans in general that have a calm presence in the midst of new things and changes just because they've been around the block. They've known these things. They understand how to go about these things, and they have a process to do so.
As somebody who was creeping into that range of older player -- not to say I'm old at all, because I'm only 25, but I do like to say, Oh, man, you know, I'm getting old just a little bit. Year 5, it's not that long, but it's kind of long.
It's cool to see their process and mimicking some of the things that they have so that I'm also feeling comfortable and can acclimate to the environment as quickly as they do.
Q. At 25, you're not creeping into anything.
A. Running into people at full speed does age your body a little bit, but I'll be all right.
Q. It's draft week. If memory serves, there was a lot of talk that you were going to be a first round pick. How did not going on Day 1 kind of light a fire for you going into your career?
JEVON HOLLAND: I was supposed to be a first round pick?
Q. I remember hearing that, I think. Didn't Joe Schoen tell us last week that the Bills were going to pick you in the first round.
JEVON HOLLAND: That's news to me, man. I would love to have a motivating answer for you that just, like, Wow, this guy is lighting a fire under his ass and he can go, but unfortunately, I didn't know. I didn't think I was going first round.
I thought I was going second round, something like that. I kind of had a feeling. My agents were just like, Yo, think second day. If you go first day, that would be dope, but pretty much second day. I was like, Cool.
So I think I went around where I should have gone. Obviously there was some speculation just because of 2020 I didn't play, but we seen how that didn't even matter. Yeah, there wasn't no like I was supposed to go first round, none of that. It would have been cool, but no, second round.
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