May 26, 2015
Redskins Park
Robert Griffin III Photo by Moe Murphy |
On what improvements he noticed today:
“I think the word of the day from Coach Jay was, ‘Get better.’ Every day, you’ve got to come out and get better. As football players, you get tired of throwing on air, but as some people have told me, you never want to get tired of doing things the right way. So you continue to do it and continue to do it, and then we get out here and we get to get in a competitive environment. No pads and no tackling or anything like that, but at least you’re going against other players and you can see how guys react when someone is actually covering them.”
On having consistency this offseason:
“To have that consistency with your staff and the offense and all those things only helps. It’s been a couple crazy years, and we look forward to making sure that we don’t have that constant change any more.”
On being named the starting quarterback:
“For me, you have got to focus on what you can control. Apparently Jay felt like I was the best option that he had at quarterback, and I’m happy about that. We look forward to working together to help this team and lead this team in the right direction and create this culture change that we know we need to have. It involves being in this room, too, so we want to make sure we improve everything from playing on the field to our relationship with you guys.”
On the birth of his daughter, Reese, and what advice his teammates have offered him:
“It’s been fun. Alfred [Morris] had a son, and we talked and you know they tell you, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get any rest. It’s going to be extremely tiring.’ It’s true, but you have to look at it in a positive way, and for myself and Alfred, we love it. I love the fact that I haven’t had much sleep over the past couple of days and still have to come up here and talk to you guys and practice, so it’s just a special feeling when you can look at a kid and you’re basically looking in the mirror, you’re looking at yourself. That can bring a grown man to tears, so it did.”
On what he emphasized this offseason:
“Work on everything. Like I said, it’s good to have the same offense and the same coaches and work through building that relationship with those guys, so it’s really about that and doing what they ask you to do, working on little things that you know you can do to get better, and being yourself. The one thing you can’t do as a player is lose who you are, and I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
On Offensive Line Coach Bill Callahan:
“The guys love him. He’s a very detailed coach. We loved [Chris] Foerster – We miss you, Coach – but Coach Callahan has been awesome and I know those guys will take every bit that they’ve learned from Coach Foerster and every bit that they’re learned from Coach Callahan and apply it to their game. It sucks there’s turnover in the league, but he’s been awesome and we look forward to winning with him.”
On Quarterbacks Coach Matt Cavanaugh:
“He just helps sharpen our focus. It gives us an opportunity to have a guy that has eyes on us all the time, so that’s only a benefit and the more we work with him, I’m sure the better we’ll get.”
On the differences between his rookie season and the past two seasons:
“I could stand up here for 30 minutes and give you that answer, but I’m not going to. Those years have passed, and we look forward to doing more like what we did in ‘12 as far as from a winning standpoint. Now what the offense is and what it’s not going to be, that’s not my decision. We’re all working hard to make sure that we can have the best offense suited for this team. We just want to win, and that’s the main focus.”
On the main focus of the offense:
“Different coaches have different philosophies. In the past it’s been zone read — a zone offense read, not zone-read offense, I didn’t say that [laughter]—and Coach Callahan is more of a power run game. But coaches, as long as you believe in something, you can make it work, and that’s what they believe in, and that’s what we’re going to do and that’s what we’re going to be great at. That’s all you can focus on.”
On if anyone impressed him today:
“Everybody. The one thing that Jay preached to us and what this shirt says is that we’re stronger together, and we’re all out there working hard to make sure that we all stand out because when you win, everything else falls into place. Everybody is doing a great job, and being Day 1, it’s great to see guys out there healthy and moving around and see the new faces. I can’t single out one individual guy because not one guy makes the whole thing work.”
On the importance of watching film:
“I’ve always been dedicated to the film study, I just hadn’t been asked about it. My man Jeff over there did a great job with his article. But no, I hadn’t really been asked about that. It wasn’t very different from before. You know you have to dedicate yourself in those ways and it’s not about really standing up and talking about it and saying what you do, but he asked me a specific question and I gave him a specific answer in that setting and that’s what it was. But we’ve always focused – at least I have, I can only speak for myself – but I’ve always been focused in that way to hit the film and make sure you’re getting better.”
On Strength & Conditioning Coach Mike Clark:
“Coach Clark has been awesome. He makes everything specific to each position. I’m not doing what the linemen are doing because they have to push 300-pound guys and I have to run away from them, or slide away from them, but it’s been awesome. Like I said, you have turnover in the league and it’s not to say that any guys last year weren’t as fit or anything like that, it’s just Coach Clark comes in and he has a different philosophy. He’s done a great job in implementing what he wants to do.”
On the importance of OTAs:
“It’s just football. It’s like spring ball in college. In college you’re around all the time and it’s also ‘voluntary,’ but it’s mandatory – ask any college kid out there, it’s mandatory. So it’s fun to be around your guys and be around your teammates because every organization, at the beginning of the year, when they come in in April, is a group of 90 guys, it’s not a team. You have to form into a team. That what we’ve been doing here and having the new guys has been awesome and I enjoy being around them, so for me it’s awesome. I love coming out and playing football. That’s what I’m paid to do and that’s what I love to do.”
On if he pays attention to talk about his transition into being a dropback passer:
“I don’t really listen to that stuff. That does not matter to me. You have got to be true to who you are, and right now I’m a 25-year-old young man who can do a lot of different things, so I’m not going to limit myself to just being a dropback passer. But if Coach Gruden and Sean McVay asked me to be a dropback passer in any given situation, my job is to make sure that I can be. If they ask me to make a spectacular play – which they never will – but if it presents itself, then I have to be able to do that as well. When you get into casting yourself into a certain role, you can limit yourself as a player, so for me, I don’t really even worry about it anymore. I just focus on what I know I can do. As long as I’m able to be the athlete that I can, it’s my job, my duty to make sure that I do it.”
On what he meant when he mentioned a culture change:
“When I got to Baylor in 2008-09, it was a very similar situation. The team had been losing a little bit, and everyone was thirsty for success. Sometimes it’s not about what kind of guys you have on your team as far as the talent level, it’s about the mindset you have. So, that culture change first happens upstairs and I was blessed enough to experience that and go through that with my teammates at Baylor and I want to go through that with my teammates here with the Redskins also. So it all starts upstairs. It’s a mindset change with not accepting mediocrity. I think we’re getting there and I think the guys all have the right attitude, and I’m not just saying that. I’m a very optimistic person, everyone knows this, but I can truly feel that in that locker room.”
On the team’s main focus heading into the season:
“Let’s play, man. Let’s play and have fun. I know you guys enjoy reporting on us more when we win. That’s our focus, it shouldn’t be about who likes who and who doesn’t like who and who said what, all that stuff doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, what you do on the field that matters, and we haven’t been up to par the past couple years. I haven’t been up to par in the last couple of years to my own standards, doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. So let’s get back to that, let’s get back to having fun playing football and winning football games. The whole city will enjoy it.”
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