Coach John Harbaugh: ‘We’ve got to keep taking big steps every week’

Steve (0:00)

Hey, John.

Greg (0:01)

You said yesterday that it was unrealistic for JJ to be the backup for the whole game. I'm just wondering, is the plan for him to know the offense well enough to potentially be the backup next week? And if not, what is the timetable with him?

John Harbaugh (0:16)

I think that's a possibility, Greg. We'll see how it goes during the week, but that's definitely on the table.

Greg (0:22)

And just a quick follow up. I mean, what's your approach with a player like him where he's not just trying to, you know, grow like any young player, but he's trying to, you know, regain some confidence and not let the negative, what happened in Minnesota, affect him too much?

John Harbaugh (0:37)

Not really thinking about that. We're just focused on, you know, preparing for the next game, getting him ready for, you know, the commander's game. That's really what we'll be looking to try to get accomplished.

Greg (0:48)

Howdy, Trina.

Trina (0:51)

Hey, coach, how are you doing?

John Harbaugh (0:52)

Great. Thanks.

Trina (0:54)

Big picture type of question here regarding Deontay Banks, but basically this can apply to any player, I suppose. Banks, you know, coming off the rough last two years or so, when you have a guy whose confidence is down, how do you kind of like measure encouragement and how you approach him versus correcting and saying, hey, you know, this mistake is unacceptable?

John Harbaugh (1:18)

I don't know. It's, you know, it's worth thinking about. It's not something that we really probably took as much stock in because we haven't been here as a staff, you know, just in all honesty. We didn't live through the last couple of years, and it probably heard about it more like, you know, we've read about it, we've heard about it, we get asked about it a lot.

But with Dianate, we just started practicing, you know, we started meeting, started practicing. He was in good spirits from day one. Came out of the gates great, and you know, just he really wasn't part of the conversation, you know, any of that was never really, never really in the equation for us, I would say.

Trina (1:58)

Yeah, but you still have to get a feel for the guy. Obviously, you sat with him, you got to know him, and not, you know, as a teacher, not everybody is teachable the same way, if you know what I'm saying.

John Harbaugh (2:09)

Yeah, yeah, well, I think it's, you know, we just taught the defense really, you know, and talked to him about playing the technique the right way, and he was just really amenable to it. It wasn't, we didn't really have any kind of an in-depth conversation about the past. You know, that really wasn't part of it. We just said, hey, man, let's, you know, we know what you're capable of. Let's go play some good football, you know? And he just, maybe that was just all it took, you know? Maybe that's all that was really needed.

I do think he felt the confidence, you know? I think he felt happy about the opportunity, you know? Maybe, maybe he was freed up a little bit from the past, you know, whatever happened. I mean, he had a great year, his first year, so maybe he leaned into that a little bit more. I'm not really sure, but it just wasn't something we thought too much about. We just made it about the football, probably, more than anything.

Trina (2:59)

Okay, thank you.

Bruce (3:00)

Bruce back. Hey, John.

Greg (3:04)

Hey, Bruce.

Bruce (3:05)

I said to Cam Scadaboo yesterday after the game, does first place three and one have a nice ring to it? And he said, 13 games to go has a nice ring to it. We haven't accomplished anything yet.

What's your reaction when you hear one of your key players talking like that?

Greg (3:24)

Right.

John Harbaugh (3:25)

Wisdom. My reaction is that's a very wise statement. He's exactly right. And we have a game this week, a very pivotal game, a very big game in terms of the opportunity that it presents our football team now, where we're at. We have an opportunity to make headway on the season. And we got to do it one play at a time in one game that we have to play this week. So we're excited about it.

I know about the rivalry. I know how big this rivalry is, how big this game is. Been around the commanders enough, close enough to them the last many years to kind of understand where they've been and what they do and how they think a little bit. So just looking forward to it.