QB DeShone Kizer:
On Head Coach Hue Jackson saying last week was his best game this season:
"I made some improvements in some areas I wanted, most importantly, trying to take care of the ball and keep it out of harm's way as much as I possibly can. Obviously, that one interception still eats up at us, and it obviously changes the momentum of the game. For the most part, I do feel as if I am still making progress towards where I want to be."
On how hard it is to not force throws while wanting to produce chunk plays as a playmaker:
"That is the name of this league. That is the name of the game here. It is not about taking every play and making it a touchdown. As a playmaker and as a guy who has always had the ball in his hand, I do want to make those big plays, but it is more about understanding how to string together a bunch of small plays that do eventually become a big momentum changer for us. At the same time, you have to also understand that you do have to take shots. Those chunk plays are needed so you have to be able to be patient when you need to and understand the opportunities based upon the defensive look on when it is time to take shots."
On how much attention he pays to stats and dealing with them when he is near the bottom of the league in some categories:
"When you are 0-4 and statistically one of the worst quarterbacks out there right now, you have to figure out where you are headed. What is the path right now? What is the message? For me, it is about doing whatever I can to grow in whatever Coach decides needs to be the right room for growth for that week. In the last couple weeks, we were talking about trying not to hold onto the ball and make sure that we are throwing the ball away and not taking sacks. We made progress in that. This week, it is about putting the ball in playmakers hands and trying to go score points so we can go win a game. Now, it is up to me to do whatever I can this week to grow in that. Obviously, this is going to be a process. Rome wasn't built in a day, and I am looking forward to attacking this consistently and taking on those small projects until it becomes something that we really want it to be."
On not having a veteran QB on the team to look to for guidance:
"It would be valuable to have a guy who has been through this and understands it all, but when you have a quarterbacks coach in Coach Jackson, essentially I already have that. The conversations that we have are more on a personal level where we can share thoughts and create dialogue. It is not just coach talking down to a player. That relationship in itself is something that I have used as a mentor tool, but also, I will go elsewhere. I have some good relationships with guys who have played in this league outside of this locker room, and I try to use them as much as I possibly can."
On challenges of focusing on personal growth as the leader of a team that has not won a game yet:
"That has to be done in the quiet hours. The personal growth has to be done on my own outside of this. Evaluating myself day to day and looking at the whole situation from an outsider's point of view, that is where you make your own personal growth. In here, it is about doing whatever we can to win games, and that is about the stuff that happens out on the field and the development that I need to continue to have in order to be a good enough quarterback to win games in this league. Yes, this goes back to having a young guy who would like to have time to grow, but when they decided to bring me in and decided to name me the starting quarterback, that whole timeline shrunk and it is what it is. We have to just go with it and do whatever we can to continue to head on the same path that we have been heading on."
On if he has time for anything outside of football:
"Sometimes I watch a half of an episode of Netflix or something, but typically there is not much time. A lot of our time is spent here. That comes with the job. This is my dream job and I am fully committed and I am falling in love with it so I spend a lot of my time here. When it is time to move myself away from football, typically it is something outside of exactly pulling the football or maybe the scheme but still within the same realm of football that is going to take my mind elsewhere."
On what current or past NFL veterans he relies on for advice:
"I like to keep my support team pretty close to me."
On if he sees vulnerability in the Jets' secondary and what he has seen from the two rookie safeties:
"They are talented. They are as good as they come. They are young and they are still learning like I am, but when you have two guys who are talented in both tackling and covering, you have to treat them as if they are guys you have been playing against for the past four weeks. At the same time, when they want to play their safeties low and be the run-filling team that they have always been, you do have to pick and choose times to attack those through different schemes and route combinations and also through time and situation in the game when you know that they are going to be flying up and it is time to throw one over the top."
On if identifying where the safeties are playing is the first thing he does when leaving the huddle:
"Absolutely, the first step you take is identifying the safeties pre-snap and you go through the rest of your things. As soon as that ball is snapped, you find them again and figure out where they went."
On Jets S Jamal Adams:
"He hits like a linebacker. He is as fast as a corner. He has all of the it factors to be a good safety in this league, and he has been able to show it in the first four games. His transition from college to the NFL obviously was seamless. It is on us to make sure now that we find out where he is each play and make sure that we keep the ball out of his way."
On how difficult it is to establish chemistry with the WR corps when there are personnel changes:
"It is definitely a new concept for me. I have always been taught – up until the NFL – the team that you step into the locker room with in day one is typically the team you leave with, but now to be in the NFL and have the rotation of guys, it just brings a new complexity to the game. That is that we have to go out and we have to work that much harder during the week to make sure that we are developing and creating chemistry. Typically, you get to Week 4, 5 and 6 and you know exactly how every guy runs every route. Here, we have to make sure that every week that we step out on that practice field that we are focusing in on the details so that we can by Sunday have the chemistry needed to have success when we are throwing the ball."
On if he has always been a guy who knows all of his stats:
"No, you can evaluate the game in so many different ways and I think (OL) Joe (Thomas) came up here and said something about stats in itself, too. Some of those times, the stats tell a different story than what is actually happening. For the situation I am in right now in terms of my growth and my development, I know that there is specific things that I look for each week, and I want to attack those. Sometimes the stats might lean you away from the things that we are actually growing in."
On being able to rely on RB Duke Johnson Jr.:
"He is a playmaker. In this league, it is all about trying to find matchups. It is mano y mano here. When you have 11 defenders on the other side of the ball who are all very talented, it is up to us to make sure that we create the best mismatch as we possibly can and Duke is simply that. He is a running back, he can run the ball downhill and he can give you all the force you needed, but he also can catch the ball out of the backfield and do whatever you ask him to do from there. It is on us to make sure and myself to make sure that when there is an opportunity for him to be matched up with a safety or a linebacker and sometimes a corner, whenever he can get into a position where he can make something happen, the ball has to be in his hands, so he can go make a play with it."
On visiting the Cleveland Indians and how he likes their chances in the postseason:
"They are awesome. Obviously, a completely different sport, but the camaraderie that they have within that locker room, which is a little different from what we have here, is amazing. They find a way of resetting themselves each week. Each game to step back out there and have success, I am looking forward to being in Cleveland as they go on another great run."
On if he will watch any of the MLB playoffs:
"Typically, my understanding of the game comes from whatever Twitter tells me (laughter). There is not much time to sit down and watch a 17-hour baseball game. We can sum it up in a quick Twitter stream."
