Coach John Harbaugh on latest with QB J.J. McCarthy, RB Cam Skattebo

Evan Barnes (0:00)

I just wanted to ask, how's JJ doing this morning?

Dan Duggan (0:02)

And is he looking like he's going to play Thursday?

John Harbaugh (0:05)

He's doing well. We'll find out more through the course of the day in a couple of days, but it does look like he's going to play. Feel fairly good about that, but I don't want to get out over my skis with it, but it seems good so far. Thank you.

Steve Wynow.

Steve Wynow (0:22)

Hey John, I know you're asked a lot about our field recently yesterday, but the entire defense, what have you made of sort of Denard Wilson's adjustments this season, blitzing more and just kind of how he's done as coordinator?

John Harbaugh (0:32)

Yeah, absolutely, Steve. I think he's done a great job with that. I mean, to me, that's one of the important things in coaching. A mark of a great coach is the ability to adapt to your personnel, your circumstances, the opponent, all those things, and have a system built that's able to do that. And Denard and the whole coaching staff have done a great job of that. You know, we've had, yeah, you're up and down, people find ways to move the ball on you, it's hard to be perfect, but I think they've done a great job of adapting and the players have done a great job of adapting and applying, you know, whether it's, you know, like you say, maybe we're covering, maybe we're blitzing, maybe we're simulating blitzes, we're in two deep, we're in three deep, we're in man, we're in zone, we're disguising, we're not disguising.

Those things have been very intentional and I really think they've done a great job. Thank you.

Patty Trena.

Patty Trena (1:24)

Good morning John, how are you?

John Harbaugh (1:26)

Hi Patty, good. How are you?

Patty Trena (1:28)

I'm good, thank you. I have a question about two young players, if I could, one on each side of the ball. I want to start off with Gregg, and I'm going to butcher his last name, so I'm just going to call him Gregg D, the running back, and what you thought of his performance yesterday?

John Harbaugh (1:42)

Gregg D'Ouzier.

Patty Trena (1:43)

D'Ouzier, thank you.

John Harbaugh (1:45)

Is that it? That's it.

How he played.

Patty Trena (1:50)

Yeah. What did you think of him yesterday?

John Harbaugh (1:52)

I thought he played well. You know, it's his first time in an NFL game. It was his debut performance. And same thing with Phil Moffa, who did it on special teams. But Gregg got those carries. And you know, really, you never know until a player gets out there. And we knew he was a fast athletic guy, but it's hard to see in practice. But I thought he made some guys miss. He got some extra yards. He protected the football. He ran hard, a really big sweep run toward the end there. That got us first down, I believe, if I remember right.

Yeah, just I thought he played really good football for us. And that was a plus, big plus and helps us. We're a better team, you know, for having brought him in here a couple of weeks ago.

Patty Trena (2:34)

And then the other guy I wanted to ask you about, who's kind of come on Bobby Jameson, Travis, it looks like he's getting a bigger role on that defense. What did you see from him?

John Harbaugh (2:43)

Agree, totally.

He's really been picking it up. He's kind of been growing every single game. The run defense has been improving, you know, partly because he's done so well in there. He's playing kind of how we envisioned him to be playing. So he's got a long way to go, but I think he's come a long way too. So yeah, I agree with exactly what you're saying.

Patty Trena (3:02)

Thank you so much. Art Stapleton.

Art Stapleton (3:07)

Hey John, good morning.

John Harbaugh (3:08)

Hey Art.

Art Stapleton (3:11)

What did I ask you about DJ Reader?

And in this respect, is that a guy 32 years old isn't supposed to be playing the best ball of his career and he feels like he is. What about him has kind of defied some of the odds that go against guys in his position in this league nowadays?

John Harbaugh (3:33)

Such a great question. Fountain of Youth maybe.

He's a guy that always, just in his whole career, we played against him so many times and he was just such a pain in the rear to play against because you don't want him to be as good as he is and you put the tape on him. Man, this guy can really play. And I see the same thing. It's like there's no drop off and maybe he is playing the best of his career. It's really interesting that he says that because he's playing at such a high level. Got a game ball last night. He's been dominant. He's been dominant. Also, run and pass. He's been doing both and people want to categorize him maybe sometimes as a run stopper at this stage. And yet he's getting pressure to to your point, Art. I just feel like that's spot on. I mean, he's he's he's been an anchor for us and he's been a really important signing for us. A lot of football left, but he seems like he's getting stronger, you know, every single game.