Jason McCourty – September 23, 2021
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Thursday, September 23, 2021
DB Jason McCourty
(When you a receiver with the speed of Raiders WR Henry Ruggs. Obviously you face a couple of them in practice. How much of an alert is that for you as a free safety?) – “I would say every play you kind of want to know where your speed threats are – just guys that can attack the deep part of the field so that goes for (Henry) Ruggs, that goes for (Darren) Waller. Those guys can get on you in a hurry and I think it’s just kind of knowing who you’re going against. You know where (Hunter) Renfrow is at. He’s a guy – space – but he’s a guy that they can hit double moves and he’s a guy that Derek Carr trusts. And then you saw (Bryan) Edwards in the Baltimore late in overtime come up with big plays down the field – one on kind of a wheel route scramble play and one kind of on a deep in cut. So I think a guy like Ruggs, Waller, all of these guys; it’s just a matter of knowing, “All right, where are these guys at? Where are my matchups in front of me? Where do I think I need to help?” And so forth. So I think it’s just overall knowledge of the offense and just trying to read Derek Carr but also have an awareness of where the deep threats are.”
(What’s impressed you most about the way Raiders QB Derek Carr has played this year?) – “He’s just been so efficient. When you watch, he’s getting the ball out, but when there’s opportunities to take shots, he’s taking advantage of those and that’s on every single down and every single personnel and that’s what makes him tough. You turn the film on and they’re shifting, they’re motioning, they’re lining up in a bunch and then they shift and those same three guys all rotate to different positions in a bunch and they’re able to run routes whether it’s 13-personnel, 22-personnel and there’s multiple tight ends or the fullback in. They’re still going empty, they’re still getting four guys down the field so that’s the tough thing with them and you can just tell Derek Carr has a great grasp on the offense. He knows exactly what’s going on in every play. He’s able to read the defense. He’s checking them in and out of plays. So he’s been extremely impressive. I believe he’s the passing leader right now so he’s making tons of plays on every down for them.”
(Is that just continuity or is it just QB Derek Carr and the offense have reached that status?) – “I don’t know. Hopefully they slow down a little bit by the time Sunday comes, but I would assume the more you work with the same guys, the better it’s going to be. That goes for anybody playing this game. The more you can work with the same coaching staff, the more you can work with the same weapons that you have. You can see it’s showing up for them on Sunday. We played against them last year when I was on another team and you saw his talent and now you can just see them taking the next step forward and that’s what you want to do as a team and as an organization, so we know the challenge that they pose come Sunday.”
(This obviously is the most safety work you’ve gotten in a while or perhaps in your career I would venture to say. How has the transition gone? Are you happy with where you’re at personally?) – “It’s been fun. I think whenever you walk into a new challenge, you kind of put it upon yourself to learn as much as you can and as fast as you can. And I think the fun part about it has been as a veteran next to me – Eric Rowe, there’s a rookie beside me in Jevon Holland, another young guy in Brandon Jones and that’s been a lot of fun just in our group. I’m an old guy, but I’m also new kind of to learning the ins and outs of the position so us kind of all being able to collaborate, talk about what we see, talk about the upcoming matchup has been a lot of fun just to continue to grow as a group and we’re a group where some guys have strengths in one thing, weaknesses in others and it’s just been fun to see how we’re deployed and the plays we can make and how we can all work together.”
(Speaking of S Jevon Holland what was he like when he came over with the football on that fumble recovery last week? He lit up on Zoom when he was talking about it.) – “Yeah, he’s a guy who’s just fired up to be here and you love to be around young guys that just want to learn and just want to get better and Jevon is the type of guy when one of his favorite players kind of growing up – if they follow him on Instagram or if he meets him and they know his name, he’s fired up about it. So those are the kind of things we talk about outside of football and that’s fun to see as an older guy for me, just to see his excitement and I remember the first preseason game – because obviously he didn’t play football opting out last year at Oregon – and the first preseason game he’s just looking at his name on the back of the jersey and you can see how special it meant. For me as an old guy doing preseason after preseason, that’s fun and exciting to see a guy just fired up like ‘man, I’m in the National Football League.’ And as kids, you dreamed about being here and we get an opportunity together in this organization on this team to go out there and live our dreams out every Sunday. So it’s been fun to watch him amongst a lot of guys on this team.”
(So 13 years later into your career, what was your S Jevon Holland moment like “oh my God, this is it?”) – “I remember as a rookie walking into the locker room – I guess I was showing my age a little bit, but Jevon Kearse was in the locker room, Vince Young was in the locker room. For me, I used to play NCAA with Texas so I used to run the option with ‘V.Y.’ So that was cool and Vince (Young) was a guy that talked to everybody so as a sixth-round draft pick, ‘V.Y.’ is talking to me, I’m like ‘all right, maybe I am somebody.’ And then for me, Keith Bulluck is from the same hometown as me so as a rookie being able to be in the locker room with him and just knowing that growing up he was kind of the guy that kind of let us know like ‘hey, maybe we have a chance because Keith made it.’ So for me as a rookie just being in the locker room with some of those guys was kind of a moment. Like ‘dang, I’m actually here.’ So it’s fun to still be able to be here a whole decade-plus later.”
(Did you watch the game last year that the Dolphins played in Las Vegas and that final play with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick? Do you remember?) – “I remember. Yeah, I watched it – I remember watching it last year because I got a chance to play with ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) in Tennessee so it was just kind of in ‘Fitz’ fashion – helmet being ripped to the other side, chucked the ball up and make a play. So I know that was probably fun times for those guys and the focus for us is obviously we’re going back down there again and stay focused and try to come out of Vegas with a win.”
(You’ve had a week to watch WR Will Fuller. What kind of impressions do you have that he can make for this offense?) – “Well, I got a chance to play against Will Fuller back when I was in their division and a guy with his level of speed is tough. The same way we opened up and you asked about Henry Ruggs and being able to know where he is on every given play, Fuller brings that type of dynamic to an offense with his speed and his down-the-field playmaking ability. So I’m just excited for him to be on the team. Obviously it’ll be a process for him and the entire offense to continue to work together, continue to make plays. But he’s a guy who’s been here throughout the spring, throughout training camp so obviously we all go through things and the whole nine, so it’s fun to just see him out here practicing with the guys and smiling and just being able to get acclimated.”
(Tell us why it’s important for you to get involved in Project Nigeria.) – “Sickle cell is something that’s been in my family. My aunt had the disease. She passed away in 2019. I have an uncle that has the disease and my father had the trait, so growing up, I lost my father at a young age and my aunt was really the connection for Devin and myself to that side of our family. I just grew up really close and watched her struggle and watched her continue to fight against the disease. Probably for the past decade, we’ve done work here in the States and whatever city I’ve played in, ‘Dev’ (Devin McCourty) and then back home in the New Jersey area, and we’ve always hoped to be able to expand and this Project Nigeria gives us an opportunity to expand and just bring something as simple as vitamins to young kids in Nigeria that will help them tremendously – those with the sickle cell disease. It’s amazing to know that kids under five have a mortality rate of 50 percent and you think about in our country, a lot of times kids are tested. I remember being a kid going and being tested for sickle cell and there’s a lot of different things that kids are able to survive and continue to live long lives. My aunt lived to 69 years old ,so to think that in Nigeria a kid at five years old has a 50 percent chance of living if he has sickle cell disease is a scary statistic. So Devin and myself will be matching up to $25,000 in donations to be able to help kids there so excited to see that project coming to fruition.”
