Austin Jackson – November 11, 2020
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Wednesday, November 11, 2020
T Austin Jackson
(Welcome back, Austin. What has the journey back been like for you and how surprised were you that you got back in the action first game back?) – “Thank you for that, first and foremost. I want to say the journey was, it was definitely a learning experience being hurt. The NFL is a lot different than college. Just the whole IR process and all that stuff is new; but I made the most out of it and I just took every day as an opportunity to get better in as many ways as I could, since I couldn’t step on the field. I’m glad I got the opportunity to better myself and the opportunity to play in the first game back, like you said.”
(I wanted to ask you about your college days obviously with being in that same conference with Chargers QB Justin Herbert. What do you know about him and obviously you guys don’t line up against him, but were you able to watch him from the sidelines when you were back in school and just what are your thoughts on him?) – “Yeah. I’ve probably seen him play since high school and this is my first time playing (against him in the NFL), but he’s a great player. Great quarterback. Real smart guy. Can make plays with the ball in the air and on the field. I know he’s a very talented guy. I’m looking forward to seeing him this weekend.”
(We don’t know if Chargers DE Joey Bosa is going to play. He is returning from a concussion and he was limited in practice today, but Bosa and DE Melvin Ingram III are both really good. Based on what you’ve studied so far, what do you think each guy does best?) – “What each guy does best – (Melvin) Ingram is a real shifty guy. Great at reading leverage. I know that’s one thing he’s really good at. Then Bosa on the other side, the same thing. Both are very technique-sound defensive ends, so that means they’re going to read shoulder leverage and all that stuff. I think that’s what they do best, or one of the things they do best.”
(I’m curious, can you walk us through your rehab a little bit? What happened? How’d you get hurt? Were they surprised when they IR’d you and at what point did you have a sense that your return was imminent?) – “My recovery – good question, loaded question. My recovery process was good. It was like a small sprain in my foot, so you’ve just got to kind of heal those things up with time unfortunately. So that was the approach we took. And in the meantime, we worked on just making sure I didn’t lose my upper body strength and my lower body strength, even though I couldn’t be on my feet. So that itself incorporates a lot of different available exercises to do and stuff like that. I forgot about the other two parts of your question. (laughter)”
(Just when did you have a sense that you were close to a return and also how do you feel like you played in your first game back?) – “I just trusted my trainers and my coaches. I talked to ‘Coach Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) and they all had a plan for me and I just stuck to it and attacked it as best as I could. And sure enough towards the end of when I came off of IR, I was feeling pretty good – good enough to practice and go. So it worked out and I was pretty excited to play in my first game back. Watching them play for so long, it was nice to be part of the fun.”
(I wanted to know how you felt you played on Sunday and how long did it take to get back totally into the groove?) – “Sunday, I think I played well. There’s definitely always things you can work on. For example, I got tripped up on my sack. I think it was the only sack I gave up. I got tripped up, but that’s just stuff, learning the spatial – having that spatial awareness that you kind of gain a sense of where you’re moving and the pocket and stuff like that, for an offensive lineman, is big. So getting my first game back and getting back used to that was a challenge; but for the most part, I felt like I prepared myself to go in there and not leave a drop off for the team, so I think I did pretty well.”
(Two-part thing I wanted to touch on with you real quick. One, did you ever think that this injury was going to be any kind of long-term thing or longer than it turned out to be? Was that ever a fear in your mind and secondly, at the very beginning, you talked about how you took advantage to get better while you were out. Is there anything maybe different that you did to help improve yourself while you were out? Anything that is out of the ordinary.) – “When the injury first happened, you don’t really know anything until you look at some x-rays and some MRIs, so of course you’re hoping it’s not as bad as it may be. But luckily the x-rays came back and it was nothing major, nothing long-term, so that was good. And then I would say when I was out, not being able to practice with the team, I got more chance to look at some film to really study and memorize and learn a bunch of new things. Just studying NFL defenses really, learning defensive movements, defensive assignments; stuff like that helped me a lot. I studied that a lot and extra hours in the weight room and the training room, too. Those helped as well while I was out.”
(Obviously when you got hurt, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was the starter. When you came back, QB Tua Tagovailoa was the guy. I’m curious how that changed things for you in your first game back when you’re playing.) – “It wasn’t too different. The only difference was probably the voice of ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) versus Tua. It’s a different cadence. It sounds a little different. I think on like my very first snap, I almost didn’t fully hear him just because it was so different, but we’ve had all week to practice. We’ve had all camp to play and we’re both in the playbook, so it wasn’t too much of a difference. We all know our assignment, so it wasn’t that much of a difference, I would say, other than the cadence.”
