Austin Jackson – January 1, 2021
Download PDF version
Friday, January 1, 2021
T Austin Jackson
(We’re not sure when we’ll get a chance to talk to you again after today. It could be many months, so I was going to ask if you could please just reflect on your rookie season – what you think you’ve done well and where you think you need to improve moving forward?) – “What I think I’ve done well, I think I’ve done a good job just showing up every day and getting better. There’s a lot of new things, new adjustments from college to the pros, but one little thing I try to live by is I try not to make the same mistake twice. So whenever I come into a situation, make sure I do what I’ve got to do to get past it and get better, and make sure I’m getting better every single day. And things to improve on, there’s a lot of things you can get better on, especially when your goal is to be the best; so I’m always going to be working to get better and better at everything.”
(Many players make jumps between their freshman and sophomore seasons in college and their first and second years in the NFL. How strongly do you feel that you will be a much better player next season?) – “How strongly do I feel? I feel pretty strong about it. I feel pretty strong about it. Like you said, the game slows down the longer you play. I think the first year, you learn a lot. The second year, you kind of a handle more, so I would say I would expect to get a lot better next year, and then the year after that and then the year after that.”
(I wanted to ask you about RB Myles Gaskin. Statistically, he is the ninth-most productive player in the NFL per game with 99.4 scrimmage yards a game. What have you done this season, particularly in the run game, that has led to that kind of success?) – “Being a dog, I guess. He does it all. Throw him the ball, he’ll get yards, make people miss. Running the ball, he’s going to hit the gap, he’s going to find an opening, get through, break arm tackles. That’s just kind of his mentality. Every play he lines up like it’s a new play and comes with aggression. I think that’s how he does it. Kudos to him.”
(I don’t know if we spoke about this with you much during the season, but did you have any experience playing right tackle ever in high school or college before joining the team?) – “Yeah, you’ve asked me that a couple times. (laughter) I did play right tackle my freshman year of college. Yeah, I can play anywhere on the o-line, really.”
(I wanted to ask you about Jerry Hughes and the rest of that Bills pass rush. What are you doing to get ready for them and what are some of the challenges they present to your offensive line in pass pro?) – “What are the challenges they present to our offensive line in pass pro? They’re good rushers. They have two 10-year guys on the end … I think the only thing we have to do is just be decisive and execute. That’s it. They’re a great team, so we’re going to have to bring our A-game, especially to them. Like I said earlier, they’ve played a long time. They’ve got a lot of tools in their belt, so just making sure we show up to the party ready.”
(Looking back on your rookie year once again, what’s one thing that comes to mind as far as something about your NFL experience that surprised you?) – “COVID, for sure; but I’ll never forget pregame warmups against the Patriots – first game of the year. I’m just walking off the field like, ‘Wow, this is really the Patriots stadium,’ and I see Cam Newton running right past me. It’s my first time ever seeing Cam Newton. That was probably the most kind of surreal moment in the NFL. I love getting down and playing football every day, but when stuff like that – that’s when it really hits you where you are, seeing guys you’ve been watching on TV since middle school.”
(On that same line, I wanted to ask you about your relationship about Head Coach Brian Flores during the year?) – “My relationship with Coach Flores, it’s good. It’s good. When he’s not talking to you, it’s good, because that means you’re not messing up. (laughter) He doesn’t talk to me too much, so that’s a good thing. (laughter)”
(It was just about if there was anything different this week knowing what you’re playing for or a sense of urgency? Something different that you sense during the week.) – “It’s definitely a big game. You can’t hide it. You don’t want to do anything out of the ordinary because when you start trying to do too much, I think that’s where you get away from your identity. So we know it’s a big game, but we know what we’ve got to do to execute and a little piece of advice is you don’t want to get too high, you don’t want to get too low. You want to execute and do your job because getting too down and too up, it brings too many other issues.”
(You mentioned QB Cam Newton. Were there any other defensive ends or defensive players that you went up against that you have some familiarity with coming in, but when you saw them in person you were taken back at first?) – “No, not really. Of course, there are a lot of defensive ends and guys on defense that – there are a lot of different people. It feels like every week there is somebody new that I used to watch on tv or drafted in my little Madden fantasy. It’s like that every week, but now I’m more used to it. For Cam Newton to be the first one I see, that was like ‘whoa.’ That was different. But I see different people every day that I’m like ‘wow, I remember you,’ and stuff like that.”
(What specifically have you and G Solomon Kindley and T Robert Hunt had a competition about? The number of pancake blocks, the fewest sacks allowed? What have you been competing playfully amongst the three of you and what’s the prize for the winner?) – “We compete in everything we do. I don’t think it’s a set prize. We don’t have a set prize. It’s more like, you see someone off their A-game and you go correct them. You let them know. That’s what we do. Luckily for us, we’re usually on the same page for the most part, about how we want to dominate, so that’s a good thing for us.”
