Jevon Holland – November 6, 2023
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Monday, November 6, 2023
S Jevon Holland
(You guys have a lot of guys coming back here in the second half of the season. T Terron Armstead is back, CB Jalen Ramsey is back, CB Nik Needham is back, OL Rob Hunt will be back, RB De’Von Achane will be back. How do you view that in the grand scheme of things? Do you look at this as a big infusion of talent and here you go? Does it make a big difference who is coming back? How do you view that?) – “Yeah, I mean we need those guys to win. Those guys are important to our team, as is everyone who is playing. When we have our guys back, obviously it’s going to help us because they are great players, and we’re looking forward to that. Yeah, that’s the way I see it. The more the merrier for lack of better terms. I’m definitely excited to have those guys back.”
(What was your travel like back? What time did you get home? Did you get any sleep last night?) – “We had to drive to a different airport I think. I’m pretty sure. And then we got back at like three in the morning or something like that. It was similar to a night game we had away – like the Eagles game. We got back early in the morning against the Eagles because we played at nighttime. Kind of similar to that. I slept on the plane the last four or five hours. I was watching Man on Fire at first, and then I slept this morning. I’m not too tired or anything like that. As the day goes on and as the week goes on, I’ll probably re-align with this time zone.”
(Are you pleased you have a bye this week?) – “I think it’s definitely smart. To go into another week after a long week like last week would be pretty difficult, but you take the crookeds with the straights, and I’m glad we have a bye week, for sure. I’m definitely going to catch up on my sleep.”
(Were the Hard Knocks cameras rolling in the meeting today, and what’s that going to be like to adjust to?) – “No, they weren’t, and I have no idea. I’ve never done it.”
(Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio has been very complimentary of you. What have you learned from being around him? What have your eyes opened to from being around a coach with that level of expertise and experience?) – “I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Just more understanding of the game as a whole. He’s been in the league for along time – longer than I’ve been alive. Football is second nature to him, and the more I listen to him speak about his reasoning why, and why we play a certain type of coverage or defense in a certain position on the field, it just makes more sense. So my decision making becomes faster. I’m enjoying being a pupil in his dojo. The more time I spend with him, the more I learn.”
(That was your first game playing with CB Jalen Ramsey. How would you describe the impact that he has on the defense?) – “It was big time. You look out to the right and you see ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), you look out to the left now you see Jalen, and it’s kind of like, ‘who do you want to throw to?’ Him being out there, you can just tell there are certain things that we do – you feel his presence in the run game. If we’re in man-to-man, you don’t have to really worry about him, you don’t have to worry about ‘X’. As a safety, it feels good to have two All-Pro, Pro Bowl, gold jacket guys on each side. Knowing that if they throw it out there, it’s liable to be a turnover.”
(Now that you have pretty much the defense intact, it’s taken a long time to get everybody out there; but now that you have at least four quarters of seeing what it looks like, how would you assess where the defense is entering the second half of the season?) – “Definitely on the rise. I thought last game was a battle, and I thought we fought valiantly. But we’re definitely on the way up. Yeah, everybody is still getting their feet wet. We’re going into the second half of the season, which is going to be exciting, and I’m excited for it myself. As you saw putting the pieces together, everybody is starting to feel a lot more comfortable, and kind of right where I thought we would be. Yeah, it’s exciting to see everybody thriving within the defense. It’s just nice.”
(The second half of the season, the stakes become clearer. Certainly yesterday wasn’t the result that you wanted, but there is still so much of the season left to play. Over the last month, you might know home-field advantage and all of these things are up for grab. How does your mindset have to change as a team knowing that those will be crucial games down the stretch to get to where you want to get to?) – “I think that thinking about those games is going to add more stress than need be. You’re only going to play one team at a time, so focus on that one team and you’ll be able to handle whatever comes next. Those are obviously things that you want to look for, but if you win, those just kind of settle themselves. How do you win? You focus on the team that you’re going to play. How do you do that? You’ve got a day-by-day process. Just take it a day at a time and let the chips fall where they may.”
(At what point do you start to look at the standings and start to figure out that we could get a first-round bye and all of that kind of stuff? Do you personally do that?) – “Nope. Why? Like I just said, why even do that? That would just stress me out. I just focus on what’s right in front of me. Right in front of me is a bye week. I got to rest my bones. I’m not really tripping about it.”
(Is that the real goal of the bye week is to rest up? Do you just rest up, or do you self-scout individually? Do you come in as a team with some self-scouting?) – “Yeah. You can get a jump on the next team of course. But, also self-scout. What do you want to work on? It’s time for individual stuff, how could you improve yourself going into this next half of the season.”
