Austin Jackson – April 13, 2022
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Wednesday, April 13, 2022
G/T Austin Jackson
(What has this offseason been like for you? Obviously a lot of changes have happened with the team and with your unit.) – “It’s been great so far. In terms of myself, just getting in a great routine, being very structured and taking a pretty great approach with my training. As far as the team with the new coaching staff, I’ve talked to (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) and (Offensive Coordinator) Frank (Smith) a bunch and I’m really excited for what we have in place. I’m even more excited for the work we’re about to start. First things first, it starts now. That’s why we’re meeting and training together and getting the details down really of our concepts of what we’re going to do.”
(How different is this scheme compared to anything you’ve run in college and in your first two years here?) – “What I like about this scheme is it’s very detailed. It’s very detailed. We have a very detailed emphasis. At the end of the day, we’re going to have to rely on the concepts that we know, study and train for – which is fun. It’s actually a lot of fun to do that because when you get in the actual game, there are a lot of different situations to be ready for. I think we’ll definitely have our great playbook and concepts that we’re installing right now to fall back on.”
(I know you haven’t had a practice yet, but the zone rushing philosophy seems to align with many of your strengths. How do you think it aligns with your strengths?) – “It aligns with a lot of my strengths, one of them being my athletic ability, of course. Personally, I feel like I can play in any system. It definitely aligns to the strength of overall as a team. I’m really excited. I don’t know how to fully explain my excitement, but just know we’ll definitely be utilizing speed all around. We have a team full of people that are fast – skill wise and offensive line wise. Very competitive and very aggressive. Those are three fundamentals, as players, that we pretty much operate on.”
(What is T Terron Armstead bringing to this offensive line? Not just from a playing standpoint, but from an mentality standpoint.) – “He’s a 10-year guy coming in. All Pro experience and all of that stuff. If we’re being quite frank, that’s somewhere every offensive lineman in the NFL wants to be. He’s definitely coming with the work ethic and his experience. We all look into that stuff. We all want to be there. You’ve got to tip your hat to the OGs and do your job at the end of the day.”
(I think we heard DE Emmanuel Ogbah say the other day that T Terron Armstead brings that dawg mindset to the line. Have you felt that so far? Or do you have to wait until you put the pads on in order for that to really resonate?) – “He’s a dawg to the dawgs, definitely for sure. He’s definitely a dog. He’s helped. There are little things in my training that I’ve taken a different mindset to. Like we said earlier. It’s a room full of dawgs already. Now we’ve got more bite.”
(Did you have any prior knowledge of your new offensive line coach Matt Applebaum? What are your impressions of him as a teacher?) – “I’ve actually watched quite a lot of college tape. I’ve watched a lot of tape, I actually love playing offensive line. It’s more of an art form to me, so I love to study it. I’ve definitely seen what Boston College linemen have been doing in the past couple of years. They’ve been super fundamentally sound technique-wise and all of that – these last couple of weeks we’ve been working together have been great. I’m looking forward to more in the future for sure.”
(What do you view as your ideal position with this group on the line and ultimately going forward in your career? And are those two things the same or different?) – “As you know, I played guard last year, as well as tackle. Personally, I’m a tackle. I feel like I’m a tackle. I’m comfortable there. I’m also very comfortable playing guard. I really just want to be in whatever position I can be in to help my team at the end of the day.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said that T Terron Armstead will be the left tackle. They signed OL Connor Williams who is projected to be left guard, but that is still up in the air. The outside thought is that you’ll be competing for a job at right tackle with G/T Jesse Davis gone. What do you think about that and what changes do you think you would have to make from moving from the left side to potentially the right side at tackle?) – “I’ve actually played right tackle. This isn’t the first time playing a new role for me. I played it in high school, I played it in college – actually collegiately, like starting at it. It’s not completely new for me, but at the end of the day, I have to make sure I’m 100 percent right in my techniques and my fundamentals because what our offense does is if you get the technique down and use that same technique, it’s supposed to be the same at every position. It’s allowing for people to be interchangeable. First things first, that’s what we’re locking in on in April.”
(When it comes to your weight that you want to be at and your specific preseason training, spring and summer, is it helpful to go in with the heads up that they are going to try you out at tackle first? Is there a difference in weight and training for tackle versus guard?) – “Not for me. Last year, I was at my tackle weight I guess you would say, and I ended up getting moved to guard. It depends on the player. Some players are heavier at guard, some players are lighter and smaller at guard. It really depends on what you do with your feet at the end of the day. I will say that one thing that we put an emphasis on in this new offense is elite stamina. You definitely want to be at the tip top of your game in terms of how hard you can push yourself, especially when you’re training. Being in South Florida, playing against all of these other teams, that’s another huge advantage you definitely want to take advantage of. To answer your question, I would say it helps out all around to be in great shape just overall.”
(You talked about your experience last year playing both guard and tackle and you’ve obviously a very studious player. I’m just curious if having that different lens, a different perspective, kind of changed the way you viewed offensive line play going from tackle to guard?) – “I definitely would say it enhanced me as a player, 100 percent. It’s easy to be at one position and not fully take in what’s done at other positions. Why would a quarterback have to think about everything a slot receiver needs to do technique-wise? I’ve never played quarterback. I don’t know if that valid or not. (laughter) But you get the point. I think it allowed me to get a deeper appreciation of what core techniques and fundamentals allow you to be consistent and dominant.”
(Last week the re-occurring theme was that there was a good energy in this building, whether it was from Head Coach Mike McDaniel or just from the guys coming back. Can you echo those sentiments?) – “Definitely. It’s a great feeling in the building. At the end of the day, the front office or whoever brought us all in together did a great job of bringing in a bunch of like-minded guys who are willing to work hard, want to work hard and are willing, hopefully God-willing, reap the benefits of that. And we do it with a smile on our face. It’s not easy to do every single day and still be happy about it. I think when you have turmoil, it brings in a lot of other stuff. But we’re just taking it smiling and enjoying it.”
(We’re all just getting to know Head Coach Mike McDaniel. We’re kind of happy he’s here and he seems like he is good to deal with and we appreciate that. What’s your impression of his personality and his approach?) – “I really like his personality and his approach. He’s confident in what he’s doing. The confidence just kind of reeks out of him. It’s pretty gross. It’s like a lot of confidence. (laughter) It just kind of pours into how we as players operate. He’s got a great plan. I think he’s doing a great job of getting everybody to buy in. Right now we’re being deliberate in our approach and how we train. He’s emphasized that. We need to be deliberate and present in what we do every day and that starts in April. It starts today. It started actually a couple of weeks ago, but we’re talking about it today.”
