OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR MEDIA AVAILABILITY (12-15-2022)
By: Jacksonville Jaguars PR Team
(On if he wants QB Trevor Lawrence to practice this week ) “We think that goes a long way. Especially for us, first year in the system, building chemistry with the quarterback and receiver goes a long way. I think it says a lot to his preparation, the way he was able to be prepared and play the way he did without having two full days of practice there. Also, it says a lot about C.J. Beathard [QB C.J. Beathard] in my opinion. The offense just kept rolling. We were able to put in an entire game plan, plan for C.J. to play and knew we could adjust if Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] needed to play. I really think that Wednesday and Thursday practice last week, we didn’t miss a beat as far as the way C.J. ran everything from the huddle to at the line of scrimmage, it was great.”
(On different receivers have big games each week) “I think so, yeah. It’s just a credit to the roster we have offensively. We feel like there are a number of guys if a defense were to do something to try to take away one guy, we have another couple guys that could step up at any moment and have a game if the flow of the game dictates that. The next guy steps up, it’s not like it’s a concerted effort to go in and say, ‘This guy is going to go in and get all the targets.’ It’s kind of like the ball finds the guy it’s supposed to find at certain times, and when Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] is playing that way and operating that way, somebody has a big game, it’s kind of just a byproduct of it. It’s not necessarily going out with the intention of Evan [TE Evan Engram] having this huge game. The ball just found him; Trevor did a good job of getting it to him. He did a good job getting open, and he took advantage of his opportunities.”
(On what Head Coach Doug Pederson has that makes him an effective NFL coach) “Consistency. That’s easy, consistency. He’s the same guy every single day that he walks into the building. We lose five in a row or whatever it may be, or we win a big game, he comes in the next day with the same approach to the staff, the same idea of just trusting the process. You know what you’re getting with him. You come in and you’re not wondering, ‘Oh, where is he? Is he in a bad mood? Is he in a good mood? Is he this, is he that?’ You know exactly who he is going to be with the coaching staff, with the players, his expectations, where you stand, so it’s easy to do your job that way.”
(On if QB Trevor Lawrence was a factor in his decision to come to Jacksonville) “No, that was a big part of it. I was very happy with the situation I was in with Indianapolis, loved working for the guys I was working with. I think the world of Frank Reich [former Colts Head Coach Frank Reich] was very excited about what could potentially be there, obviously, I feel terrible for what happened up there with the situation with Frank and all that. I was really excited to run it back there and loved the staff I was working with. When Doug [Head Coach Doug Pederson] called, it wasn’t just a foregone, this is going to happen. I’m going where Doug goes or anything like that. I’m going to go interview with him and see if it works. Obviously, there was a lot of appeal of getting to be involved and building the offense as we went. I’d be lying if I said Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] wasn’t a huge draw to Jacksonville itself, just because you knew the talent that was there. He had his struggles rookie year for a number of reasons, but you knew the skillset, you knew the talent. You knew just watching him and researching him, talking
to people that have worked with him, it’s been everything and more getting the opportunity to work with him.”
(On when Trevor Lawerence did not hand the ball off to Travis Etienne last week and scored a touchdown) “Very surprised. It’s a lot of, ‘No, no, no, no! Oh, okay good, he scored.’ And then it’s like, ‘Hey Mike [Quarterbacks Coach Mike McCoy], let’s talk to him about not pulling the ball when he’s not supposed to.’ That whole deal. It’s one of those things and he understands. We’re not going to make a living going off script like that, but if you do, you better score, and they understand that. I kind of say that he got lucky, but good by him. He got in the endzone, let’s not do it again.”
(On what stands out in Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs) “Ball skills. Ball skills are the first thing that jumps off the tape with him. If there’s a ball that somebody throws and just misses slightly, and he’s in the vicinity, he catches it. He’s got some great catches, stuff that you’d be proud of as a receiver. It feels like he’s a receiver that’s playing DB in terms of the way he tracks the ball and goes after the ball. He just does a great job from that standpoint. We are very aware that we need to be great at contesting catches around him, we need to be aware of where he is, how he’s playing, if his vision is on the quarterback, if his vision is on the player, however that may be. It definitely jumps off of how he’s able to track the ball and catch the ball.”
(On challenge of QB Trevor Lawrence versus Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs) “There’s always a give-and-take with things like that of understanding that and it really just comes by situations within the game. He’s certainly one of their impact players that we’ve identified, at least on our side of the ball, so we’re aware of where he is, and we’ll go about trying to attack them in the best way we think possible.”
(On working against Cowboys LB Micah Parsons on offense) “Yeah, you certainly have to be aware. We think it’s kind of foolish to just come in and let the best player beat you because you’re stubborn enough to think we can just do what we need to do. We’re aware of and always identify the guys that we think need the extra help or extra attention in some way, shape, or form. How we approach him in handling a player like that, and you can’t forget that Demarcus Lawrence [Cowboys DE Demarcus Lawrence] is sitting on the other side. He’s having a great year as well; he’s been a great player for a long time. Just the way you affect those guys, whether it’s extra presence or whether it’s running away from them. Sometimes, you run to guys like that providing help in some way, shape, or form. Whether it’s somebody slicing them from the opposite side, somebody slicing the outside in, an extra presence there from the back, from a tight end, from a receiver, whatever that may be. On Monday, the first thing you say is, ‘How are we going to stop Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence from wrecking the game?’ Then, everything you do when you’re building your first and second down plan, when you’re building your third down, your redzone, the two-minute situations, it starts with how we keep these guys from ruining the game.”
(On preparation of rookie C Luke Fortner for Sunday’s game) “He’s done a phenomenal job. If you look at these rookies and guys like this, obviously Luke has a ton of experience, especially playing in the SEC and playing some really good defenses. It doesn’t ever feel like he’s come across that rookie wall, at least mentally. He continues to learn a lot, he’s extremely sharp, very impressive. You look at their classmates and teammates from last year, their season’s over. They’ve got a month to prepare for a bowl game, they’ve been done since Thanksgiving basically. We’re in this playoff push where every game is do-or-die essentially. It’s certainly a challenge, that’s where that rookie wall comes from in those guys, but it’s not something we’ve noticed with Luke so far. He’s been able to lock in every single
day, he’s done a great job identifying things. Just to see him and Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] and their communication and growth through the season has been impressive.”
(On adding pressure of having a do-or-die games to make playoffs) “No, I don’t think so. We approach every game with a ‘we have to win this game’ mentality. We’re going into every situation now. We’re not looking ahead, we’re locked in right now with the Cowboys and what the troubles that they present to you. That’s our main focus, we’re not worried about anything beyond that. We’re worried about putting the best product out there for three hours on Sunday. At the end of that three hours, we’ll pick our head up and see where we’re at.”
(On getting the running game back on track with RB Travis Etienne Jr.) “Yeah, that’s certainly something we want to continue to do now. Every game is a game within itsel,; the way you play. We’ve faced some really, really good run-stopping defenses here recently with Kansas City, Baltimore, Tennessee, particularly those three. I think they’re all top six in the league in run defense. We knew what we were getting into with the challenges they could present. Now, we felt like it was best to win the game through the air against Tennessee. We had our runs here and there, but we made a commitment to throw the ball and the guys produced. They made a bunch of plays. You can’t turn on the tape and say we’ve schemed a ton of guys open all the time. Our guys just stepped up, made plays, Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] delivered, Evan [TE Evan Engram] obviously had a great game for us. The surrounding pieces, like Agnew [WR Jamal Agnew] had a huge third down catch for us on a scramble drill, which was when there wasn’t anybody open and those two just made a play. The line and the backs did a great job of holding up with protection. Our run game getting going is an important part of our emphasis, but you kind of just will do whatever it takes each week when we feel like throwing it is what we need to do, then that’s what we need to be able to do.”
(On if there’s a way to get RB Travis Etienne Jr. involved in the passing game) “Yeah, certainly. Whether it’s a screen game, quick game, whatever it is, getting him out in routes. Again, it’s a game-by-game basis of what gives us the best opportunity to feature our best players and the best matchups and then how we approach the defense.”
(On if RB Travis Etienne Jr. has shown confidence in practice to be involved in the passing game) “Well, he’s done a good job, it’s just within the game and the schemes we get to, we’ll always carry plays that he’s involved in the pass game. Whether he’s a primary target or a secondary target, the ball just hasn’t really found him in these situations so far.”
(On finding balance between running game and passing game) “Absolutely. We do not care if we are 50/50 at the end of the day in terms of we ran the ball 30 times or we threw the ball 30 times. It’s are we are good enough to do whatever it takes to win that game. We felt like with Tennessee, it was going to be throwing the football. We threw it 42 times, and he completed 30 balls. That was what we felt like it took to win the game. There are other games we went into and we felt like running gave us the best possible ability to win the game. There are other games you go in and you think we’re going to run the ball to win the game and it gets shut down, or the pass game gets going and you pivot through the game. We’ll do whatever it takes to win the game. We don’t go into this saying that we need to run it this many times and throw it this many times to win the game.”
(On getting crucial first downs on important drives) “Exactly. The line and Travis [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] stepped up, it was third-and-three, everybody in the building knew we were going to run the ball. They
were able to execute it and get it done. The cool thing was just the emotion that everybody showed afterwards. Everybody celebrating the first down knowing they just iced the game right there.”
(On improvement of QB Trevor Lawrence’s ability to read plays) “Yeah, I think that’s just one of the things with him. Just watching him, if you didn’t watch anybody else, in the way he throws the ball, the conviction he’s throwing the ball with. He’s certainly a guy that just watching him, you know that he’s prepared, he’s confident, he knows exactly what he’s seeing. There’s going to be a number of times in a game when the defense fools you. It’s really that those are what makes the difference in quarterback play. Is it your bad play turned into you getting confused, you held the ball, you took a sack, you fumbled, you threw a pick, whatever? Is it you threw the ball out of bounds? That’s the next step; the progression of it, versus now, you turned it into a positive play for us. I think you’ve seen some of that show up, but with him, just because he did it last week has nothing to do with this week. You got to do it every single week. As a young team, learning that this is a week-by-week business. You can get humbled very quickly, we know that firsthand.”
(On if having more experience will allow QB Trevor Lawrence to perform effectively) “I think so. I think it’s a credit to Mike McCoy [Quarterbacks Coach Mike McCoy], Jim Bob Cooter [Passing Game Coordinator Jim Bob Cooter], the guys that have prepared him along the way. The way he, C.J. [Quarterback C.J. Beathard], and E.J. [Quarterback E.J. Perry] prepares each week. They’re here all hours of the day, asking a million questions, making sure they have ownership of the game plan, the guys around them understanding what the game plan is and what the expectation is. You can just see that chemistry grows for everybody across. Again, anything that happened in the past has nothing to do with this week. You hope it provides confidence and belief in what we are capable of doing, but you have to go prove it every single play.”
