Shane Steichen

Q. The Jaguars have given up 10 points over the last two weeks. What is working for them? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: This is a salty group on defense. If you look at them up front, they’re very powerful, they’re very strong, they’re really good against the run. Their two edge rushers [Jaguars OLB Travon] Walker and [Jaguars OLB Josh] Allen are very powerful. Inside they have the rookie linebacker from Utah, who is playing really good football.

Then defensively on the back end for them, they have [Jaguars CB Tyson] Campbell, they have [Jaguars CB Shaquill] Griffin, they have [Jaguars S Andre] Cisco, and they have [Jaguars S Rayshawn] Jenkins. I spent some time with Rayshawn in L.A. Good player. Flies around. They’re playing really good football. Have a lot of respect for what they’re doing defensively right now.

It will be a really tough challenge for us, but one we’re looking forward to.

Q. There are a lot of players on this offense that Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Doug Pederson is familiar with, is there any tactical advantage to that when you are familiar with some of their tendencies? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think personnel-wise obviously he knows those players really well. We’re aware of that. I think offensively as coaches, schematically, each and every week we have to do a hell of a job putting our guys in position to make plays and dressing up the looks.

As you get going in the season, you do have some tendencies, you need to be able to break them. Going into week four, still early in the season, but we need to do a good job as coaches of dressing things up.

Q. You always talk about the double positives, turnovers, explosive plays. When you’re getting a lot of explosive plays, you’re taking some chances. How rare is it that you see a quarterback taking care of the football like QB Jalen Hurts but still getting all those explosive plays? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think that’s a great question. Like you said, the double positive is huge for us. When you create explosive plays, you have a chance to score points. With the guys we have on the outside, with [WR] DeVonta [Smith], [WR] A.J. [Brown], [WR] Quez [Watkins] and [TE] Dallas [Goedert] and [WR] Zach [Pascal], giving those guys opportunities to go get it.

You saw it against Washington, those balls he threw, he gave those guys a chance. A couple of those he put on the money. That big one on the third series down the sidelines to DeVonta was huge, great throw, unbelievable catch. Then he hit A.J. on a go ball again. Right before halftime, the two minute, the post he threw to DeVonta was huge.

That’s a lot of trust with those guys. That’s the repetition and that’s the process we go through. Just getting that work in practice, having the trust in those guys are going to make plays, they’re doing it right now.

Q. What stood out most about QB Jalen Hurts’ maturation this year? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: You know what, I think just his mental makeup, his DNA and how he goes about his business, it’s so impressive. It’s second to none, it really is. If he continues on this trend, it’s going to be special.

He’s doing a hell of a job right now and we have to keep it going.

Q. Why has going empty set benefitted you guys through three games? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I would love to tell you that. We can do that off the record, but it’s been good.

Q. It was the first game that you guys have won without running the ball really well. You went in throwing the ball and not having the run game to lean on. How big a step is that for the offense, for QB Jalen Hurts? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: It’s huge. Any time you can run the football like we can and then throw it like we’ve been throwing it, it’s a great dilemma to have. I’ve said this before, but each week it can look different, every week. We could run it a whole bunch, we could throw it a whole bunch. I think the flow of the game dictates how that’s going to go. [QB] Jalen [Hurts] was hot and we kept throwing it, he did a nice job.

Q. We saw WR DeVonta Smith and WR A.J. Brown line up in the slot a few times. Why have they been so effective maneuvering in that tight area? (Chris Franklin)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think with anything, like I said earlier, you try to put your guys in position to make plays. Certain things you see on tape, you try to take advantage of as best you can. Some of those things work out well for us. Do they work out every time? No, but it’s been good.

Q. QB Jalen Hurts at the end of the first half, when you called two plays, was that the original fourth-down play or did Jalen have to check to that? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: No, it was a great play by [QB] Jalen [Hurts]. We lost yardage there on the third down. One of the plays we have in our playbook, he got to it. We lose yardage so we get pushed back. He got to a play we’ve been running. That’s just the preparation part of it. That’s just the repetitions of talking through it in the meetings, practicing it every single day.

Great calmness by him in that situation to get that play lined up, get it snapped with one second or two seconds, whatever it was, to make that throw to [WR] DeVonta [Smith]. It was special.

Q. Did you guys communicate that or was that all him? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: That happened really fast. It was really fast. You lose yardage and it’s like, get back on it. Boom, he gets it wired up and gets it going.

That’s just great growth. I said it last week, it just continues to grow and grow. We just got to continue to stay consistent week in, week out.

Q. Is there any resistance or feedback on your end when the team wants to utilize WR DeVonta Smith from a returner perspective? (Josh Tolentino)

SHANE STEICHEN: No, that’s not my area.

Q. The answer that you gave about QB Jalen Hurts makeup, what does that look like behind the scenes? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: He doesn’t leave the building. Like this guy is here all day every day. All he cares about is football. When all you care about is football, you’re going to be successful. That’s what he does. It’s all he thinks about. He never takes days off. I mean, he’s always working.

Shoot, on Friday we met after practice this past week. I’m walking through the weight room, 4 o’clock, kind of everyone is gone, he’s in there working.

Shoot, last week, I don’t even remember what time it was, maybe 8 o’clock at night. He came up and he said, ‘What’s up?’ I said, ‘Going to go home, get some rest?’

[He said] ‘I am going in the weight room and getting on the bike.’ He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop.

He’s relentless in everything he does. And it’s showing up. When you work like that, good things are going to happen.

Q. We talk a lot about QB Jalen Hurts’ mental growth. Physically, what do you see from his release and his delivery that’s grown from last year? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Just the quick decisions he’s making. You see it day in, day out. The processing, how he’s going through his reads. It’s very impressive. We have to continue that. The consistency is big. We talk about it all the time offensively. We have to be consistent in everything we do. He’s doing that right now.

Q. Has QB Jalen Hurts done anything physically to kind of quicken his motion, it seems like he is a little smoother in the operation? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think with anything, just the work and the process that he goes through in the off-season. We talked about it. He did a heck of a job of getting his body right and going through those things.

Yeah, it’s coming out quick.

Q. Talk about the decision making. Is that the pre-snap vs. post-snap, is that just experience? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it comes with experience. It comes with experience. That’s all it is. The more you play, the more you’re going to see. I think with anything, you keep getting reps at certain things that he’s good at, you give him multiple looks in practice of, hey, what if this happens? What if this happens? You go through that process. You give him all the different looks. When it comes up on game day, he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw this, this week.’ It’s good.

Q. What is a play from Washington that exemplifies that where QB Jalen Hurts was able to problem solve in real-time? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: That fourth down before half. We just talked about it. That was huge. That’s big-time football right there. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

To get the guys lined up that quickly, get them in a play that we’ve ran down there, get to it, throw that ball. It’s the best.

Q. Was that touchdown throw to WR A.J. Brown a check from QB Jalen Hurts at the line? (EJ Smith)

SHANE STEICHEN: It was called, but he saw a look to where he adjusted one guy’s route. He adjusted one guy’s route because he saw the coverage. That, again, was huge. I mean, that’s the preparation part. That’s watching film like he does day in, day out to get that done.

Great play by [WR] A.J. [Brown], great play by him. That was huge. That was third and eight at the nine, we were able to score there. It was a big-time play.

Q. When QB Jalen Hurts makes those adjustments and you’re watching from the sideline, do you know what’s coming? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, and you get fired up when you see it. When you know what he is checking to, and it’s the preparation part of it and it’s within the scheme of what he’s doing, it’s fun to see.

When I saw him give the check, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, perfect.’ Everyone knew it. It was like, this is perfect, it’s going to score. It was a hell of a job by him.

Q. All those adjustments that QB Jalen Hurts has made, does he remind you of a quarterback you might have had in the past? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I don’t want to compare him to anybody that I’ve had. He’s his own person. But he’s been great. Everything he’s been doing right now.

Again, it’s still early in the season. We have to be consistent with everything we do on all phases, right. Everything we do, offensive line, receivers, tight ends, quarterbacks. All of us, we have to do it together.