The last time Coach Brian Daboll met with the media on Friday morning before his team left to play the Washington Commanders in Week 11 was late in the morning.
What you should know before Sunday is as follows:
Evan Neal, the right tackle, will miss his second straight game due to an ankle injury, and cornerback Adoree’ Jackson has been ruled out due to a concussion.
To ascertain their game status, rookie wide receiver Jalin Hyatt and outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux will meet with an independent neurological consultant following practice. On Thursday, Daboll announced that both players had advanced in the concussion protocol.
Outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who was limited due to an ankle issue on Thursday’s injury report, is expected to be “good.” He saw it more as a maintenance day. “See how he is after a game, recovery process, make decisions based off that.”
Daboll was asked about his message to the players about the team’s record: “Can’t do much about that right now. Play as well as we can on Sunday by doing what we need to each week.”
Matt Barkley, the backup quarterback, is “making good progress” in his onboarding process after just recently joining the team.
Tommy DeVito, the starter, gets the reps for the main team, and Barkley manages the show team.
Regarding Matt Barkley: “He’s ready. He stays here late, so we should meet with him whenever necessary. Shea Tierney, the quarterbacks coach, and Mike Kafka, the offensive coordinator, I believe, do a great job with those guys. Take plenty of time to spend with them both. There needs to be a lot of work done there because Matt is new and DeVito is clearly a young player.”
Regarding expanding the playbook further for DeVito: “I believe we strive to execute the necessary actions every week, taking into account the quarterback’s comfort level and the team we are playing.
“We don’t limit what we add; rather, we go with what he feels comfortable with. Since he was Tyrod Taylor’s backup and not the starting quarterback, you had to give Tyrod as much playing time as possible. Similarly, when it was DeVito’s turn to start, you had to work as much as you could and practice individual routes with Barkley and other things. However, the guys who hadn’t gotten as much playing time—backup quarterbacks and players in general—you wanted to give as much playing time as you could to them when they were the starter.”