Steve Marshall – September 15, 2020
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Offensive Line Coach Steve Marshall
(Nice first game it appeared for T Austin Jackson and G Solomon Kindley. Can you please take them one at a time, rather than lumping them together, and talk about each did well, starting with Austin and also areas of improvement?) – “Well, it’s the first game. There’s a lot of things he’s going to improve on. The thing that I was really impressed with Austin was his competitive spirit. The guy fought hard. He’s a tough guy and really did some good things. Obviously we went back yesterday and looked at the tape and talked about what needs to get done here moving forward. Actually it’s the same with Solomon. Solomon is a big, strong young man as Austin is, and I really like where they are at this point. They know right now they have a lot of work in front of them and they’ve got a lot more challenges in front of them. We’re going to go back out on the practice field tomorrow and keep working on it.”
(I know that you don’t listen to a lot of the outside noise, but I guess going into the draft, there were questions with Austin about whether he was strong enough or ready enough to be a contributor in Year 1 As we saw in Game 1, he seemed ready for the moment. What did you guys do to maybe get him from where he was in April to being able to have a good game?) – “Well, in April he was in Zoom meetings. I didn’t know exactly what we had. We liked Austin coming out. Like all young guys coming out of college, there are a lot of things that everybody picks at; but again, the guy’s competitive spirit and the guy’s toughness – the college game, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the college game, is completely different from the NFL game. What you have to do as an evaluator and what I did, and I’m sure (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores did, you see what you’re looking for. You look for what you think makes a good NFL offensive lineman. He still has the chance to be a very, very good player. He’s just getting started. A long way to go as far as what he needs to do to be a player that can play 10, 12 or however many years he can play, God willing and stay healthy. That goes true for Rob Hunt and Solomon, and a lot of the guys that are in their second or third year. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week against Buffalo, and those guys will too. It’s going to be just getting started.”
(Earlier today, Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey mentioned that the Patriots ran some games upfront that gave you guys a little bit of confusion in the communication. I’m curious going from a team like that that does run so many stunts and twists and games and then going into Week 2 against a team like Buffalo that has so many good one-on-one rushers in DT Ed Oliver and DE Trent Murphy and DE Jerry Hughes. How does that change you approach on how you coach these guys in Week 2?) – “It doesn’t. It doesn’t change it one bit. You’ve got to prepare for all of it. Like I said, each week is a specific challenge but our fundamentals are the same. I’m not worried about what New England or Buffalo can do with these guys. I’m worried about getting them better and everything. It doesn’t change us one bit as far as what we’re trying to accomplish. Moving forward, it’s one day at a time, one practice at a time, one drill at a time. They both have their challenges. Jacksonville will present more different challenges too. But that’s the life in this league. As my approach, or any different approach, there is no different approach. We’re full speed ahead ready to keep rolling on them.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t get touched much. He had one sack and there were a few quarterback hurries for the Patriots who are a handful; but overall, did you expect your offensive line to play as it did on Sunday?) – “We’re going out there to compete every week. These guys have – I expect a lot out of them. I think we’re a young, talented group. I expect a lot of them. I expect more as we get better and better and keep getting better. No. Like I said, we’re preparing to play well every week. That’s the goal of the NFL. There is no, ‘oh, we play a weak team.’ Every team is the same. I was talking right (before) there, every game is the same whether it’s New England, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Seattle Seahawks, it doesn’t matter. They’ve got good players. They pay those guys too. Every week we’ve got to continue to take the challenges that we are going to do upfront and keep getting better.”
(You are always looking for improvement. You guys obviously did pretty well in pass pro; but maybe run blocking didn’t go as well as you might have wanted. What stood out to you in that department?) – “I think again, you’ve got to take each individual situation. There was a lot of good things in the run game. We’re going to accentuate the positive. There are also things we have to continue to work on. We did some really good things in the run game. Up front, Ted (Karras) and Ereck (Flowers) and Solomon (Kindley) and Jesse (Davis) and Austin (Jackson) – we’re going to continue to improve on the positive. We know what we have to work on to get better. We’ve got to keep improving. Like I said, this is a – this is the first game that they’ve played. We’ve got to take it that way and you always keep improving. You always keep improving and try to get better. I’m very pleased – I will say that – with exactly where these guys are and the fight they have. For the first time together, this group, I thought they handled the situation well and I expect it to continue to get better and better as we go.”
