Shawn Jefferson – August 4, 2016
Download PDF version
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Wide Receivers Coach Shawn Jefferson
(On WR DeVante Parker not practicing) – “We’re just moving along. Right now, we’re just trying to make sure that he’s 100 percent healthy and give him another day. I would love him out here, but my main thing is to get him to where when we start up the season, he’s healthy and ready to go and all his issues are behind him.”
(On getting to know WR DeVante Parker) – “I know a lot. I knew about him (coming out of college). I studied him a lot. Part of my job during the draft process (is) to really get know these guys (and) watch a bunch of film on them. He’s a special talent. Trust me, he’s a special talent. All I want to do is really get him healthy and (do) everything I can to get him back on the field. He’s blessed athletically. He can do it all. I want to make sure when he’s out here, he’s absolutely, 100 percent healthy.”
(On his intense coaching style) – “These guys are going to go as I go. I’m a go-getter, so that’s how I want my group. I want my group to be go-getters. They have to be the first ones to storm the beach. When the ship is listing, they have to right the ship. I put a lot of pressure on those guys, so when (we) get to the game, there’s no pressure. What we want to do as a receiving group (is) we want to apply pressure. We never want to fill it. We want to apply it.”
(On his relationship with WR Jarvis Landry) – “I enjoy talking to him. This kid is a special kid. He’s unbelievable. (He has an) off the charts competitiveness about him and everything. What I want Jarvis to do now – which he’s doing an awesome job of – is stepping his leadership role up. I talk to my guys all the time (that), ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ My job is not only to help Jarvis become a better player, but to become a better man first. I focus on the man first. Once the man is right, then the player inside the man is free to come out and do what God has blessed him to do.”
(On WR Jarvis Landry) – “He’s an awesome kid. And that’s what we want to do – we want guys that attack, attack, attack. And that’s what this kid does. It’s going to be fun for me to watch this kid play. He’s ultra-competitive, and I love everything about that kid. And he’s really stepping his leadership role up. But the main thing is he’s stepping it up in his manhood, and his man leadership with these guys. He understands (that) as he goes, the group goes.”
(On the wide receiver group as a whole at this point) – “We’re under construction, but they’re pretty sharp. I think that we’re ahead of where we should be right now. That’s the thing, (and) I love it. But the way that we teach is, ‘Hey, we have to storm the beach first,’ so I love it. Again, give it to us, because we can handle it. We want to be the group that the onus falls on. That’s where we go. That’s what receivers (are) supposed to do. There’s two ways that we can affect the game: by catching passes downfield and blocking our (butts) off in that run game. I’m more of a stickler on that than anything, because blocking is just want-to.”
(On who the game-breaker is within the wide receiving group) – “The whole group. The whole group (are) game-breakers. If somebody goes down, the next guy has to step up. We’re all game breakers. That’s just how I coach. We’re all great until you prove that you’re not great. That’s it.”
(On WR Kenny Stills) – “He has been off the chart. Ever since Day 1, he has been over here … (He is the) first one in the building, (and the) last one to leave. (His) leadership – taking the young guys up under his wings and everything – he has just been totally awesome. I think that the work he has put in during the offseason is really paying dividends out here.”
(On whether he is putting pressure on WR Jakeem Grant during individual drills) – “Yes, absolutely. That’s my job: to kill him, so when we get to the game, he does not feel that pressure. I can’t tell him to go out there and play hard if we don’t go hard in our individuals. I love all these guys. I want these guys to live their dream. If all of them are saying they want to make this team and be good – make (it in) the NFL – good, let’s work like it every day we come out here. When you step across these white lines, there has got to be a professionalism about how you attack stuff and how you detail stuff. My job is to get them so detailed that when they’re doing stuff, they don’t even know they’re doing it it’s so ingrained in them.”
(On whether he has taken WR Jakeem Grant under his wing) – “I got all of them up underneath my wing. Can’t you see? (laughter) I got all of them up underneath there. What we do in this group (is), ‘Each one, teach one.’ I got them up under my wings, Kenny (Stills) got them up under (his) wings, Jarvis (Landry). Each one, teach one. He’s getting it from me. He’s getting it from every guy in the group. What I want to do is create a group of accountability. Everybody holds each other accountable. I told them, ‘The only way we’re going to win in this group and be great is we got to care about that guy next to us more than we care about ourselves, and we’ll be good to go.’”
