Preseason game plans are always about fundamentals and playing football. You're not trying to out-scheme anybody, you're just trying to beat people and out-execute people. That's what's fun to me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I love preseason games. They are fun to me because you get to go out there with guys that are on the NFL field for the first time and playing against guys who are going to be on the field for the first time.
Preseason football is hard to evaluate. It's never going to be clean for the quarterbacks. You have to overcome the ugly plays and be productive. It's a component of leadership that is necessary. The guys that make it in the league survive that.
I don't care if it's a preseason game or not. You want to win.
I like having those preseason games and exhibitions to really get ready for the regular season and get yourself off to a good start.
Any game is important to me. At Boston College, when I went out for the spring games, I wanted to win. Maybe it is more important than other preseason games. It's just that everyone is expecting a lot from me in my first week of professional football. I want to confirm my expectations.
If you're out there stressing on your pro day, then you're not going to perform well, so I plan on having a little fun. Play a little music while we're out there throwing the football, have everybody tapping their toes and bobbing their head and just go out there and make the most of the experience.
Doing these parts is not fun. It's challenging, but no fun. It's creepy. I would rather play the guy that throws the touchdown pass and gets carried off the field.
The football playoffs feature one-off affairs, without bad feelings building from weekend to weekend. In addition, football uses platoons for offense and defense and kicking, so only the interior linemen have a chance to really get up close and personal with one another.
You've got to get good habits of working hard so that when that play comes up during the regular season that you're able to complete it and do it the right way.
In NFL preseason, the coaches don't use 10% of the playbook. They don't game plan. They do nothing. They don't give anything away for the regular season. They try to get everybody safely through it without anybody getting hurt.