Week 16 interview with coach Brian Daboll

Q: The Falcons were very conservative Monday night against the Raiders; Kirk Cousins ​​only threw 17 passes. Did you think they could change the quarterback?

Daboll: “You never know. You never know what can happen with teams. It’s up to them. You have to make sure you try to prepare as best you can. But they won. They had three blocked kicks, forced three turnovers and won, 15-9.”

Q: It was like watching 1970s football. They ran the ball 37 times, including on 23 of 24 first downs. You don’t know what the opposing team is going to do, but you have a lot of experience. With a more mobile quarterback, does your gut tell you to be prepared for something different?

Daboll: “They’ve been running their offense all year. I think you can’t change too much right now, based on what you did all year. Obviously, he (Penix) is younger, he’s more mobile , he’s got a good arm, he’s accurate and he can throw the ball deep. They’ve got two really good running backs and they’re going to use the play action.”

Question: Before the draft, it was often mentioned that Penix throws very accurate deep passes.

Daboll: “He’s got a good arm and he’s productive down the field. He obviously had a good college football team (at the University of Washington), three really good receivers, and he used those guys. Atlanta has three really good receivers (Drake ) London, Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud), two good tight ends (Kyle Pitts and Charlie Woermer) and two good running backs (Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier). They have a lot of good skills around him.”

Q: London and Mooney are the only teammates with more than 50 catches, 850 yards and five touchdowns each. Mooney is second in the league with 19 catches of 20+ yards.

Daboll: “He’s a good receiver. He’s skilled. He runs excellent routes. He sets up defenders well man-to-man. He has a good sense of zone. He gets open, catches the ball and does it at a high level.”

Daboll: “London is a high pick who has size and catch radius and has really good hands. They’re very, very good at the skill positions on offense. Whether it’s London, whether it’s Mooney, Ray-Ray (McCloud), Pitts , Woerner, Bijan, Allgeier They have many good weapons.

Q: Robinson has 100 scrimmage yards in 10 games.

Daboll: “Bijan is a good player. He was a good player coming out (of Texas in 2023). He’s a good player in the league.”

Q: Their run defense ranks in the top half of the league, but they are last in sacks (23). (Linebacker) Kaden Elliss is having a really good season, (defensive lineman) Grady Jarrett has been the heart and soul of their defense for a long time, and (safety Jessie) Bates (III) has played very well. What do you see of their defense?

Daboll: “I think they’re a good defense. I think they really dominated last week against the Raiders. They do things up front that make it challenging to run the ball whether they’re moving or stunting. Good players and they do a good job.”

Q: They got their hands on two punts and an extra point attempt the other night. You prepare for it every week, but when your next opponent blocks three, it has to get your attention.

Daboll: “It’s a game-changer. It’s something we work on every week. Blocked kicks really change games.”

Q: In a normal week, how often do you meet with the quarterbacks?

Daboll: “I go down and watch them every day. Shea (Tierney, quarterbacks coach) and (assistant quarterbacks coach) Christian (Jones), they’ll do the meetings. I stop in their meetings and just go over some things. Plays that they feel comfortable with, plays they don’t like Give them general thoughts on how I see the game.

Q: Malik (Nabers) has 90 catches. He needs two catches to set the Giants’ rookie record and 16 to set the NFL record. Considering he missed two games and has played with four quarterbacks, what can you say about his season?

Daboll: “That’s why we took him where we took him (sixth overall). He’s been very productive. Glad we took him. That’s why he was high on our draft board and he’s done a heck of a job.”

Q: The Giants are the only team to have 1,500 snaps by rookies on both offense and defense, second in the league (in rookie snaps to the Rams with 3,631). This late in the season, do you still consider them rookies?

Daboll: “No. They’ve played a lot of football. They’ve done a good job, these young guys. You hate to see guys like (tight end) Theo (Johnson) missing because he did a really good job for us We definitely miss him and Tracy and Nabers and (inside linebacker) Darius (Muasau) playing some more (defensive tackle) Elijah Chapman (Cornerback) Dru Phillips. (Safety Tyler) Nubin (who is on injured reserve).”

Q: When you start a season, you don’t know what you’re going to get from the rookies…

Daboll: “It’s a growing process for those guys and they continue to learn and there’s no substitute for experience. So the experience plus some of the production we’ve gotten from those guys should serve us well. They’ve a job well done and we need them to continue to be productive, they are great young players to continue to develop, work with and will be a big part of our team.

“You go through the process. You evaluate a guy like Malik. When you take him where we took him, you hope to get production from players that you take so highly, and you know he was definitely a guy that we thought highly of. He’s come in and done a good job for us before he got hurt, so Nubin with how much he played and Phillips and some of the free agents just keep developing them.”