Bill O'Brien Press Conference: On Jadeveon Clowney, Brian Cushing, Cohesion, And More

Bill O’Brien took to the podium today for his weekly Monday press conference. BOB touched on everything from Cushing’s day-to-day health status, to the offensive line’s cohesion, to Ryan Fitzpatrick needing to telegraph throws less often to cut down on tipped passes. Here are a few highlights from the presser, which you can watch in two parts by clicking on the links below.

Part 1

Part 2

On the backup inside linebackers filling in for Brian Cushing…

"I thought those guys stepped up and played well. I really do. I thought Akeem Dent played a good football game. Mike Mohamed played a good football game. Tug played a good football game. Dent and Mohamed did some good things on special teams. Mohamed was the one that tracked down that long punt return and then Dent made a few plays on the kick off so I thought those guys really did a good job of stepping up and playing well."

On Arian Foster’s resurgence this season…

"I think it shows a lot about what he did in the offseason to get ready to come in here and ready to play and the thing that’s kind of interesting about that is that he’s missed a game, and in the other game against Buffalo, I think he rushed for less than 20 yards, so think about that. He’s done this really in six games, what he’s been able to rush for. Like I said yesterday, he’s got really good vision, he’s a smart player, he knows how to set his blocks up. He’s been real good on third down in the receiving category. He’s done a good job for us in that deal. He’s a good pass protector. So nothing about him surprises me. I knew the talent that he had just from knowledge of him before I even came here but he’s been fun to coach."

On Jadeveon Clowney’s expected workload against the Eagles...

"I think he’ll be in there a little bit more. We’ll see how he feels throughout the week. I think it’s still a process of not being out there for seven weeks and now coming back I don’t think he’s ready to play 80 plays in a game, but I think we can keep working him in there more."

On his assessment of Clowney’s performance on limited snaps…

"I thought he played with good effort. Even at the end of the game there when he had played a good amount of plays, he was chasing things down from behind. He made a tackle on a pass play down the field. I thought he got off on the ball well, he had good explosion off the ball. He was good on his assignments. I think it’s going to be a work in progress as far as him getting back in to shape. There’s a difference between running around the track out on field one out there and having to play in a football game, so he’ll continue to work on that after practice, in the mornings, trying to get his conditioning level back to where it needs to be. But I thought overall, considering the situation he was in coming back from a long time off, he played pretty decent."

On Xavier Su’a-Filo’s struggles…

"I think he’s getting better. I think it’s very difficult for a rookie to play on the inside. I think that you see some rookies being able to do that. Other guys, it’s kind of some good, some not so good. I think Xavier falls into that category. He is a great kid, he’s a hard worker, he’s got a really good future in this league. He just needs to learn a little bit more about the tricks of the trade. We’ll continue to play him, give him a shot in there, but hopefully he learns from some of his mistakes and he will. He’s a very hard working kid, we love having him on our team, and he just needs to do a few things better."