Jarvis Landry – September 5, 2017
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Tuesday, September 5, 2017
WR Jarvis Landry
(What do you think about the storm coming? Worried for the community? Worried about your own property? Worried for your friends and family?) – “Of course. I think at any time, especially like this, the concern of safety for everybody that could potentially be affected by this is of high concern. I think for us, it’s just finding safety, finding shelter, evacuation routes if need be and kind of go from there.”
(I know you’ve been through this before, but is it tough to worry about football, your own safety and you were getting so hyped up for the first week of the season. Is it kind of tough to balance all that?) – “In a way, but I think for us, one of (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase’s biggest things is when we step in this building – we step in between the lines – we’ve got to be where our feet are. For us, when we’re here, we’re just trying to focus as much as possible as if the game was tomorrow, Sunday – whenever it is. That has been our main focus, main concern and outside of that, our families and taking the necessary precautions to evacuate if need be.”
(Can you talk a little bit about QB Jay Cutler and your impressions of him over the last month and what kind of season do you think he’s capable of having?) – “He’s a stud. He’s a stud. He threw a couple post balls today that got the team fired up a lot. Just the way he has handled himself around the building, just the way he has come in here and communicated with us so well, from the o-line to the receivers to the running backs, it’s really trickling down through the team. It’s allowing us to develop chemistry that is going to allow us to do special things this season.”
(When you have a quarterback like QB Jay Cutler with that level of aggression, in terms of the passes that he throws, how excited does it make a receiving corps?) – “Very. When you have somebody like Jay (Cutler) back there, it’s honestly … There’s not a matchup on the field that he’s not willing to take, especially with DeVante Parker, Kenny Stills, Julius Thomas – even when the backs come out of the backfield – to have an opportunity to really pick where he wants to throw the ball and trusting everybody to make plays and he is going to put it in the right spot for us to have an opportunity to do that. Having a guy like Jay even to extend plays, it’s going to be big for us.”
(What’s QB Jay Cutler’s personality like? What does he joke about? What do you guys joke about with him?) – “Jay is laid back. You would think he would be a bit of a talker, but he’s laid back. He’s here to win. I think that’s his biggest thing. You can see that in the way he handles himself in the building. Again, the way that he communicates with his teammates and with the coaching staff to make sure that we’re one accord.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said during camp that he and QB Jay Cutler kind of have similar personalities. Do you see that in the huddle? Does it feel like maybe Adam Gase is in the huddle there with you guys?) – “At times. He and Jay definitely have a unique relationship. You can tell that they spend a lot of time together there in Chicago, and it has carried over. You can tell that their relationship continued when Gase came here. The way that those two guys handle themselves, it’s all for the betterment of the team, and that’s the biggest part about the whole thing.”
(QB Jay Cutler has done well in no-huddle throughout his career. Do you expect to do more of that this year than you guys did last year and do you like that approach going fast, no-huddle?) – “We’re hoping to. Whatever puts us in the best situation to run more plays, run more effective plays, not allow the defense to substitute as much. Jay definitely loves to go on the ball, so that’s something that we’ve been trying to emphasize a little bit. It has helped us with our conditioning. Not only being the heat but it has helped us run a little bit more and get our wind up. So, it’s definitely something that we want to take to our advantage.”
(Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. and you are going into the season tied with career catches. Have you had conversations this week as the regular season is about to start?) – “No, they haven’t. Our relationship has always just been like a friendly competition, brotherly competition, kind of understood, not said. I wish him all the best this year. I wish his whole team the best. I wish we get an opportunity to play him in the Super Bowl. That’d be epic right there.”
(Do you anticipate seeing much of Buccaneers CB Brent Grimes in this game?) – “Yes, I hope so. Honestly, we’re looking forward to the matchup, period. This is the first game of the season. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. A lot of anticipation, a lot of hype built up from last year. We want to come out and take it one game at a time this season and Tampa Bay is the first team that we get a chance to do that with.”
(Would moving this game to the bye week would it drastically impact you or the season?) – “Like 16 weeks straight?”
(Yes.) – “Yes, man. Listen, it’s a long season. Let’s be honest about it. It’s a long season, and I think the stretch after our bye week is probably one of the toughest – if you want to be real about it – probably the toughest in the NFL. That bye week will give us an opportunity to kind of get some guys healthy. In this NFL, in the league, you’re going to get banged up week in, week out. For us, that bye week, it comes at an appropriate time. For us, to keep it there would be huge; but I know there are unfortunate situations and it’s out of our hands and it’s up to the NFL and the teams to decide what happens; but we could use that bye at that time.”
(So you would rather – not to put words in your mouth – but you would rather the game be relocated than pushed to the bye?) – “I would play today if we could. Obviously, again, that’s up to the team, the NFL, both organizations. If it is moved and we’ve got to play 16 weeks in a row, it’s something that we’ve got to do. We’re going to embrace the process, embrace the challenge and we’re going to make it happen.”
