Head Coach Jay Gruden
On the team's first practice with the New England Patriots:
"It was a good day. It is a learning experience. Anytime you get a chance to go against a different defense you learn a lot – their different coverages, different fronts – from an offensive perspective. Defensively, you're seeing different route combinations and a different run scheme, so it was excellent for both sides of the ball. Nobody got hurt. There were no fights. I think it was a good learning experience for both sides."
On where safety Bacarri Rambo is in his development:
"He is where he is. He's playing, he's trying to get better, but he's another guy that it's going to be very important to see how he does in the preseason games, and if he has improved in his tackling. That's very, very important. He's got great ball skills. He's got a good feel for the position. He's playing with a little more confidence, which helps, so hopefully he can bring the tackling along with the strides he's made, both mentally and physically, in the back end."
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On improvements the offense made during the session:
"I think our running game was pretty good, pretty solid. Every play there was something different that we can get better at, and maybe it's a release off the jam. We've got to do a much better job of getting off the bump and run. They did a nice job defensively of really stoning our receivers from time to time, so we've got to work on our releases, giving our quarterbacks some better plays maybe. But overall, I just think it's about going out there, running our base offense and seeing how they react to the different looks and the one thing that I think we have to improve mostly on is A) getting off the jam, B) our decision-making at quarterback and then, obviously, we always have to work on our protection, but I felt good about where our running game is."
On if the offense and defense are where he expected them to be:
"It's early in camp. I didn't expect perfection by any stretch, but I felt good about the knowledge of the system, very few busts. We had a few busts at receiver, a bust at fullback, one or two here and there, a bust at left guard, a couple of them here or there that we have to correct, but overall, I think as much as we've thrown at them at an early stage in camp, I thought we did pretty good both sides of the ball. This is what coaching's all about, man. We're going to come out here and grind on these guys in the walkthrough, correct the mistakes that we made and then hopefully come out tomorrow and have less mentals and improve on what we did today."
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On the physicality of the Patriots' cornerbacks and how cornerbacks will adjust to new rules:
"They didn't have a problem today. There were no referees out there, but they did a nice job and our corners did a nice job too in bump and run in some stages too. They have two very physical corners. Some of their backups did a nice job also of playing good, physical bump and run. It's a great test for our guys. It's something that we're going to have to work on – our releases all the time and how we're going to get off. Inside releases and outside releases, still maintaining our depth, integrity of our route, and I think we got knocked off quite a bit today. It was an excellent learning experience, and I like the fact that they're physical because teams are going to try to be physical with our guys. It's going to happen until we get off consistently and make them pay."
On wide receiver Aldrick Robinson and cornerback Bashaud Breeland making an impression with big plays today and if the impression can be long-lasting:
"It is. It's an impression. You love big plays, you love stopping big plays. It was good to see Breeland recover on the deep ball. He was beat initially but he stayed with it and made a nice pass break-up. And of course Aldrick had a great play the deep corner route. Kirk [Cousins] threw a great ball. Unfortunately, he probably would've been sacked on the play. It was great to see Kirk let it fly and great to see Aldrick take a great angle and make a big play. And Aldrick has had a great camp, he really has. He's made big play after big play and that doesn't go unnoticed. It was good to see Breeland stick with the long one and knock it down."
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On how he viewed Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick prior to meeting him:
"You view him with the respect that he deserves. He's won a lot of games, a lot of football games and a lot of Super Bowls, so he deserves his respect. This is the first time I've really had a chance to talk to him. I met him at the coach's convention, or whatever it was – the head coach's thing in Orlando. He's a good football coach and obviously his record speaks for itself."
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On linebacker Keenan Robinson calling defenses against another team:
"He did good. They did really good. Keenan did a nice job and I think the communication was excellent. There's some things we got to tighten down a little bit but overall I felt good about our communication as far as defensively is concerned. They did some good things. They obviously hit a couple screens on us. We've got to do a better job of tackling and getting in the right spot, but overall, offense and defense I thought the communication was excellent. The lack of mental mistakes was pretty good, but there are obviously things that we have to improve on for sure. "
On the defense adjusting to the Patriots' up-tempo offense:
"That's a learning experience. One, you see how we are in shape and I noticed that on the fourth and fifth play of a couple of those drives, some of our guys were coming off real high and they weren't coming off the ball, and it's something we have to address, as far as making sure our guys are in shape. And we have to get in extra running in after practice, we'll have to do that. I think that was probably the most disappointing thing in it, some of the guys, defensive line-wise, getting off and continuing to rush, and you know they get tired. Overall the communication I thought was good. I think our secondary was where they needed to be at all times. We didn't give up any big plays, but I think just from a stamina standpoint, we have to get better and better, and we have five or six weeks to do that before Houston."
On how the wide receivers can improve at getting off the line of scrimmage:
"They can get a little bit better technique. They need to be a little more patient with their releases and it's not that they didn't get off a lot of the times, sometimes they just cheated their depths a little bit. But we did have some instances where we did get off and run some excellent routes. So it wasn't like every play they were getting shut down. There were just a few instances throughout the day that we got jammed off of our route and our depth got messed up because they got bumped around so much. There were some great releases, Ryan Grant had a couple, DeSean [Jackson] had a couple, Pierre [Garçon] had a couple good ones, Aldrick [Robinson] obviously had two or three. We did a good job. I don't want to say all our guys got jammed at the line because that didn't happen, but it is a learning experience in how physical it will be at the line of scrimmage on Sundays. It was a great, great test for us today and a great learning experience."
On his ability to gauge his team against a team with as much recent success as the Patriots:
"I don't know, I think both of us are just trying to look at our guys. We're not trying to compare rosters or we're not trying to gauge our team off of what they do, we're trying to worry about what we do. We're trying to implement our scheme and teach the way we want to play. Obviously going against New England is a great opportunity for us to see how we match up. But, really, we feel good about where we are, what we've installed so far, where we're going. We're obviously not satisfied where we are today and what happened today, but we are on the right track, I believe. Having New England come in here a proven winner is obviously excellent, a great chance for us to prove our football team and see where we're at, but I like where we're headed."
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On if running back Lache Seastrunk suffered an injury and the return of wide receiver DeSean Jackson and linebacker Rob Jackson:
"I didn't get an update. I think he [Seastrunk] is going to be fine – I would have been told different. But I think they're all a go for tomorrow."
On the release of the unofficial depth chart:
"Nothing is set in stone right now. We just had to do it for the media. So we just put the depth chart out there and we have a pretty good idea who our ones are and our twos are, but there's still plenty of competition at a lot of spots. But this is our starting point right now. Sometimes if it's close, we put the veteran in front and then we'll just go from there. Let the preseason games play it out. That could be changeable. We could change it after our first preseason game. We'll see how it goes. "
On if there is an update on defensive end Jason Hatcher:
"No, no. It's just up to [Head Athletic Trainer] Larry [Hess] and Hatcher. But he's doing a great job. I watch him out there doing individual drills and working. He's very, very close. I can tell you that."
On if there is anything he hopes Robert Griffin III will pick up from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady this week:
"It's hard. I think just the way he conducts his business and the pro that he is, and anytime you have a chance to watch him firsthand, it's fun to watch. He's definitely got total control over the offense and that's one thing we want to get Robert to where he has absolutely total control over what's happening on every play, where he doesn't mess up on a progression, where he knows exactly if he's covered he's going here to run or he's going right to left on your radio dial, whatever it is. Just total command of the game and Robert's only in his third year and this is his first year in this system, so there will be some growing pains, but ideally, I want him to have just total understanding of every possible play and every coverage scenario and where to go with the football. And it'll come for him. It'll take some time for him, but it'll come. "
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On Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton's new contract extension:
"I'm very happy for him. Much deserved. He's won a lot of games in Cincinnati and the future is very bright for him and the Bengals. I'm very proud of the fact that I was part of bringing him into Cincinnati and I'm glad he got a good deal. He's got a great family, works hard and is a heck of a person."
On his plans for the physicality of tomorrow's practice:
"It will be similar to today. We might do a session live. We'll do more situational work, more red zone stuff."
On Wednesday's session:
"We might do some ones versus ones because of the lack of time the ones will play. We might do some ones on ones, maybe a two-minute or something like that, get a little extra work there."
On if he knows yet how much the first unit will play on Thursday:
"No, I don't know. It depends on how we do."
