New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Post Practice Media Availability
Monday, October 1, 2021
Daniel Jones might be the most mobile of the quarterback you've seen so far. How much of a problem does he present with his running?
"I think quite a bit. When you go back and look at just his career, I've seen him with a walk off touchdown against Tampa Bay, you get into some of your man coverages where the eyes are on the receivers and your rush patterns aren't perfect. He can climb the pocket and instead of an eight yard gain he can, so he's real athletic. They'll use him on some designed QB runs, but that adds a dimension, relative to your defense. Especially when you're in some of your man to man coverages."
The news broke the last couple of days about Mrs. Benson's possible succession plan just your thoughts on I don't even know if he kept up with it.
"I haven't. I asked Mickey (Loomis) about something, but I have no idea. I think she's going to outlive all of us so I kind of paid more attention to things that affect me (in the present moment), but I just saw what you guys initially saw, but I haven't paid attention to it."
You guys have used two running backs to great effect really ever since you've been here that have two different skill sets. What is the value in that and keeping defenses off balance especially I guess when you have them on the field at the same time?
"Well, look, if they're on the field at the same time there's a reason for it and it's usually treated by the defense kind of that second back. Call it Alvin (Kamara) or Reggie (Bush) or (Darren) Sproles as a third receiver, but also there's a wear and tear to that position and I think it's hard. (With) 16, 17 now regular season games, it is hard for (players at) that position to stay healthy and so I think all along I have been taught to have depth at that position. That there can be attrition there and fortunately we're healthy, but I just think that's worked for us. Now I just gave you three examples of some pretty unique like Joker, guys that could catch the ball or do other things. If you don't have that then you're in a different mindset, but I still think you need depth."
What have been your takeaways from Tony Jones Jr. 's first three weeks, young guy in that role?
"He has been good. He had a good training camp I thought. He has a real good training camp and I think he has some good film right now. I probably have to get him a few more touches. It was hard obviously when you play a game like we did in Carolina. No one's receiving the snaps or the touches because we're not on the field long. But yeah, he's doing well, he's smart and he has a lot of versatility."
When you have like a week to get somebody like James Hurst kind of more up to speed with playing with that first unit alongside those guys, does that help you? Can do more things now with him in there that maybe you couldn't before?
"I don't think things change relative to what we want. He's an experienced starter really in our league and so I don't think. Let's just take last week when Terron (Armstead) got hurt which was fairly early, right? I do not think right away we are doing less because of his absence. We're running the offense and if you said number one, he has to block the end. If you start just very simply in pass protection, a lot of times in the run game, sometimes not and then there are nuances relative to the other things. Look he's played for us at guard. He's a very versatile player and I'm glad we have him."
Has there been any benefit of just getting back here getting in the routine?
"I think time. First off, I mean, time for the players. We're finished today, we'll meet, but you go through the week and Wednesday staff meeting is at 5:30. When we were on the road because it was more like 7:00, 7:30 and so then you start game planning after that at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning versus midnight. So time because of your proximity. And all the other things, obviously, the biggest thing, relative to the game itself though is crowd noise. That impacts a game. And so, man, it has been, I can't think of the last. I'm guessing the last time we had crowd noise was the playoff game, right? Two years ago, Minnesota, I'm guessing right? So that'll be nice."
Can you get a sense of what it might be like Sunday at the Caesars Superdome?
"Yeah, listen, I think they will be excited. We are excited. Yeah, we have been practicing (with crowd noise) it because there are some things that take place defensively that are challenging. When you have crowd noise, your communication on defense is stressed like your offensive stressed when you're on the road. So there's a benefit defensively, because it's harder, you can get off on the snap count. But there's still a communication challenge on defense with the crowd noise, so it's getting used to that."
What is your confidence in Aldrick Rosas after last week?
"He is a veteran player. He has tremendous leg talent and I look back really and that is a tough kick to start when you have the winds there 14 miles an hour, and really blowing across the field. It's a tough place to kick and, again, I went through the type of game I thought it was going to be, two weeks, three weeks before that we went for it. We decided to kick it there, but he's doing well."
Does Will Clapp being designated to return change anything for this week?
"It is just a designation, that means if we want to bring him up, if we need to bring him up, we can. But we have a handful of these guys, hopefully in the next, call it three to four weeks, we're going to have some guys gradually coming back. That is encouraging."
Does the Saturday meeting with the quarterbacks change after three or four meetings into the season?
"Well, look, each week is a little different. Because there's different plays. Yeah, you get a routine, we typically have it (at) 10 o'clock, 9:30pm, Saturday night, and we'll go through every play on the list. We'll cross a few off, we don't like them and then we'll put up a sharpie dot next to the ones we like, to try to get those called. But it also helps, because you're really discussing the game, you know, through the quarterback's eyes and through the playcaller's eyes. And so I think it's a good final review."
Does it help you after the first few times knowing what Jameis Winston likes?
"Just going back to Drew (Brees) or Teddy (Bridgewater) or Luke McCown, or whoever's starting I think, yeah, Taysom (Hill). I want to hear what they like, but I also want to hear what they don't like or feel comfortable with. I think that's important to know and then hopefully, every once in a while, there's something I really like maybe and if I have done a good enough job, I have given them the looks, that it is one that they like, as well. And sometimes we get to that meeting, and maybe it's for next week, but I think it's a good process."
Is there a stat of the week for this week?
"Yeah you ready? So we were talking about turnovers, there's takeaways, which is a defensive stat, there's giveaways, which is an offensive stat and then there's differential and I was just curious to find out what's the number one best turnover differential in the history of our league. So that means turnovers offset by takeaways. So it's obviously in the high plus something, any guesses? Washington in 1983. They were plus 43. They were 14-2. So that's adding up their takeaways and their giveaways. I don't have specifics as to how many takeaways, but 43 is the next best numbers 33,30, 29, 28, 28, 28, 26 so it's 10 higher than (the next) that's pretty considerable.
When was the Saints best turnover differential season?
"I think it was 2009."
