December 17, 2025 • 9 mins
Quarterback Jaxson Dart speaks to the media Wednesday from the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And how important is it for you personally and for
the team to snap this losing streak in the final
few games of the season.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Extremely important and excited for for good tests this week, hear.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
A lot about floors, a scheme. What when you turn
on the tape, what jumps out to you?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Just chaos, you know, chaos just you know, trying to
disguise different looks and bring a whole bunch of different pressures.
But you know they're organized in the back end too,
so they do it soundly.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
How do you how do you how do you keep
your spirit up? How do you and do you also
try to do that for your teammates just to keep
keep the energy of going into positivity.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, I just want to win bad. I mean, that's
just really what it comes down to. You know, we're
all eager, like we just want that feeling again. So
you know we're looking for we're trying to find answers,
and you know the biggest thing is, just like you said,
try to keep the spirits up and encourage everybody.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
In the locker room.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you know, we still got three weeks left, so
it'll be really big for us to you know, try
to stack on as a team, you only have so
many opportunities with you know, the guys in that locker
room see you definitely want to take advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Jackson, the HBO cameras and microphones caught the commanders talking
about you. You're probably aware of that, and you know
said a bunch of things which I'm sure teams always
talk about when they talk about But one of the
things they said was we can get the ball off him.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Uh, I mean no, they I mean they gotta they
gotta pick off me. No.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I haven't really been a turnover heavy player in my
whole entire career. So you know, I think that's just
one thing that coaches say, and in every single meeting.
It doesn't matter what team you're on, that that conversation
goes up in every single team meeting.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I mean, when you heard that, it's and you heard
you know, treat him like a running back. He's not
going to do this. Not you've heard all this already,
but just hear it out there. I mean, I obviously
I get it. Did people talk about the other team
and how they can attack them? Did some of that?
Did any of that would you heard, you know, make
you think twice or make you think, well, why are
they saying this?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No? Absolutely, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean Kirby Smart said the exact same thing every
time that he played against me. So did Nick Saban,
So did every coach that I played in college. So
this is nothing new. You know, just try to, you know,
go out there to play smart and be available for
your team.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
What did they say? Did they say stuff like you
know he's not gonna slide, we have to hit him?
And what kind of stuff did kirbys morning?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, I can't you know, put together exactly what
they said, but there was definitely a lot of interviews,
you know, you guys can you know, we can all
go back and look at and this isn't like a
new thing that's been brought up in my career.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Huh No, I'm not. I got a lot of other
things to worry about. Does that fire well at all anymore? Jackson?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
When when you hear the opposition saying this, like, does
it kind of get you going even a little bit more?
I mean it just gets me excited. I mean just
as a competitor, uh, you want to go out there
and compete, and you know, obviously like their acknowledging respect
you know in a way too, So you know, I
appreciate that you want to go out there and play
really good for your team. And you know, I think
(03:00):
anytime that there's teams that are game planning and they
definitely give respect to a player, you know, I think
it's for a reason. And we do the exact same
thing for for uh, you know, we go against defenses,
so you know that just competitive atmosphere is the best
one to playing for sure.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I've talked a little bit about again going back to
the idea of going against this defense, having answers play
to play against this team and knowing what you have
and kind of build that in.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Has that grown in what you've been able to see
on a game day to have more answers for defenses
as you guys have progressed.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Through the season.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know, obviously this week is a little bit different
just because of what you know, which Flores does on
the on their side of the ball, So you got
to have an answer every single play. But you know,
ever since I was, you know, put into this role,
that was the same thing. You know, you always have
to have answers to to certain pressures, to certain blitzes.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you know that doesn't really change anything.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's just more you know, it's just more frequent, you know,
with what their defense does.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Does it change the way you approach your preparation? Like
are you I know you put a lot of time
in any way, but you know what's the challenge in
this week? So do you watching more? Are you're watching
you go further back with Flores?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
How do you approach it?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You definitely got to go, you know, further back into
what he does because you know his bag is deep
and you got to be prepared for it. You know,
it's not like different teams where you can kind of
watch like more of the most recent games to see
how they've been calling it. Like him, he'll go all
the way back to you know, how he schemes something
up against this offense years ago and where he found success.
So you know, you definitely got to, you know, go
back in the archives a little bit. But at the
(04:33):
same time, you know you can't, you know, crowd your
mind too much. Eventually you got to go out there
and you just got to play ball.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Mike was saying that he believes you like hearing from
him before the hitdset gets cut off.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You know, what I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You know, I guess some guys maybe were like, okay,
you know, I mean, what do you like about that?
Is that true that you like getting as much input
as possible before you're kind of out there on your own.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I mean I like communication same way that I had it,
you know, in college, and you know, you just want
to you know, out there and just be as as
prepared as you can. You know, majority of all the
quarterbacks that I know of are the exact same way.
And you like to get the information and uh, you know,
be able to go out there and just process it
and make adjustments that need to be made.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Are you looking Jackson for for for more information or
confirmation of what you're seeing?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Like if you're if Mike is telling you something that
you're seeing as well, Is that kind of what you
prefer the confirmation or new information different information?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, that's that's that's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I mean, you know that the it cuts off in
our ears, so a lot of times, you know, by
the time we get set, you know, he's not able
to see it too. It's more of just like you know,
we all get reminders of if we get this certain look,
let's alerted to this it's killed to this, so it's
really just you know, reminders for for each play and
that just kind of comes in through the play call.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Jackson, you talked about how much you hate losing, and
obviously a lot of the guys on the team they've
been through through it with this team, but just your
first time seeing this group, how have you seen the
veterans handle this this season with those How has that
kind of like inspired you just to keep competing on
that they're trying to compete.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
As well too.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, you know, I think that I definitely have an
optimistic perspective on you know, where this place is going
to be eventually, and I think that you know, every
road is not the same, so you know you're going
to face some struggle, but I know that, you know,
when we get to a certain point, like I'm going
to appreciate a lot of the adversity that was faced
(06:24):
because you're going to enjoy, you know, and understand like
how hard it is to win in this league.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So I'm definitely optimistic.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And you know, fortunately for me, you know, I'm really young,
so you know, there's time to make adjustments and obviously
we want it now and a lot of things haven't
really gone our way this year, but you know, I
know that eventually we're going to reach the place that
we want to be.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
For the Vets, I know that's it's really hard for
them because a lot of the guys, you know, they've
experienced this for consecutive years. And you know, I think
the biggest thing is, you know, for for a lot
of us young guys, you know, we're telling them, like,
you know, eventually, like this is going to turn around
and it's going to all be worth it.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
So, you know, I think that we just have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
A really mature team and it's definitely hard, but we're
trying our best to overcome it, and you know, take
the right mindset for steps forward.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
When when you watch film, what do you like about
what what you what you're doing out there, and where
do you think you still need to improve?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I think there's a ton of places to improve. You know,
I'm still getting the hang of this game. It's just
a complete step up from from the college level, and
there's a lot of adjustments that need to be made.
So I feel like I have a ton of growing
to continue to do, which is exciting. But at the
same time, you want to be perfect and you want
to execute things the right way and you know, to
win every opportunity that you have. So I understand that
(07:41):
you know, more reps and and more experience, I'm going
to continue to get better. But you know, from a
film study purpose, you know you've got to be like
even killed. You can't be too high, too hot, or
too low with your emotions and you got to you know,
be process driven. Like I've said before, just constantly trying
to get better. That's a last question. You've expressed that
sentiment a few times.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
What gives you the optimism that this will improve? I
guess what do you see within the building, within the team?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
What do you like?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
For well, I think that we have we have, like
you know, some really good players on our team.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
You know, that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And you know, we haven't had a game where it's like,
you know, we can't compete with anybody. You know, we've
been able to compete and you know, bring it to
a war against some of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
We just have been able to finish.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And you know, at the same time, you know, another
reason why I'm optimistic is a lot of us are
really young, and you know, We're gonna have a ton
of time to to continue to get better with each other.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And we got some.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Some guys who I think are dogs, and you know,
I think it's just you know, obviously we've had some injuries,
We've had some things here and there, and you got
to control what you can control.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
But at the same time, you know, I kind of
the view of of of what it can be. You know,
we have pieces who are elite pieces.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And you know, we just need to fine tune things
here and there and we're gonna get there.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
What do you what do you attribute to how this
office has been able to thrive so well? Obviously not
having the leak for you, but just you have still
been able to put up points Onndlle's having a great year,
Tracy Scatt and Sligh obviously, what do you attribute that to?
Why this offense has been able to kind of you know,
not I mean still click in some ways without Malik.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, well, you definitely can't replicate Malik.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
You know, he's he's the best receiver in the NFL
and in my opinion, so you know, but I think
that guys have done a good job of stepping up.
You know, we don't have a ton of like ms uh,
you know usually for us, like we're on the same page.
We play and sync together, and we got to capitalize
on some more opportunities that we have consist consistently. But
I think that we've done a good job of you know,
(09:37):
kind of the next man up mentality, and guys have
been able to to play really hard. And I think
that that's one thing that you know when you watch
the tape, you know, I think that you know our
guys like we play hard together and we really compete
at high level
And how important is it for you personally and for
the team to snap this losing streak in the final
few games of the season.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Extremely important and excited for for good tests this week, hear.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
A lot about floors, a scheme. What when you turn
on the tape, what jumps out to you?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Just chaos, you know, chaos just you know, trying to
disguise different looks and bring a whole bunch of different pressures.
But you know they're organized in the back end too,
so they do it soundly.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
How do you how do you how do you keep
your spirit up? How do you and do you also
try to do that for your teammates just to keep
keep the energy of going into positivity.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, I just want to win bad. I mean, that's
just really what it comes down to. You know, we're
all eager, like we just want that feeling again. So
you know we're looking for we're trying to find answers,
and you know the biggest thing is, just like you said,
try to keep the spirits up and encourage everybody.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
In the locker room.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you know, we still got three weeks left, so
it'll be really big for us to you know, try
to stack on as a team, you only have so
many opportunities with you know, the guys in that locker
room see you definitely want to take advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Jackson, the HBO cameras and microphones caught the commanders talking
about you. You're probably aware of that, and you know
said a bunch of things which I'm sure teams always
talk about when they talk about But one of the
things they said was we can get the ball off him.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Uh, I mean no, they I mean they gotta they
gotta pick off me. No.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I haven't really been a turnover heavy player in my
whole entire career. So you know, I think that's just
one thing that coaches say, and in every single meeting.
It doesn't matter what team you're on, that that conversation
goes up in every single team meeting.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I mean, when you heard that, it's and you heard
you know, treat him like a running back. He's not
going to do this. Not you've heard all this already,
but just hear it out there. I mean, I obviously
I get it. Did people talk about the other team
and how they can attack them? Did some of that?
Did any of that would you heard, you know, make
you think twice or make you think, well, why are
they saying this?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No? Absolutely, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean Kirby Smart said the exact same thing every
time that he played against me. So did Nick Saban,
So did every coach that I played in college. So
this is nothing new. You know, just try to, you know,
go out there to play smart and be available for
your team.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
What did they say? Did they say stuff like you
know he's not gonna slide, we have to hit him?
And what kind of stuff did kirbys morning?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, I can't you know, put together exactly what
they said, but there was definitely a lot of interviews,
you know, you guys can you know, we can all
go back and look at and this isn't like a
new thing that's been brought up in my career.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Huh No, I'm not. I got a lot of other
things to worry about. Does that fire well at all anymore? Jackson?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
When when you hear the opposition saying this, like, does
it kind of get you going even a little bit more?
I mean it just gets me excited. I mean just
as a competitor, uh, you want to go out there
and compete, and you know, obviously like their acknowledging respect
you know in a way too, So you know, I
appreciate that you want to go out there and play
really good for your team. And you know, I think
(03:00):
anytime that there's teams that are game planning and they
definitely give respect to a player, you know, I think
it's for a reason. And we do the exact same
thing for for uh, you know, we go against defenses,
so you know that just competitive atmosphere is the best
one to playing for sure.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I've talked a little bit about again going back to
the idea of going against this defense, having answers play
to play against this team and knowing what you have
and kind of build that in.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Has that grown in what you've been able to see
on a game day to have more answers for defenses
as you guys have progressed.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Through the season.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know, obviously this week is a little bit different
just because of what you know, which Flores does on
the on their side of the ball, So you got
to have an answer every single play. But you know,
ever since I was, you know, put into this role,
that was the same thing. You know, you always have
to have answers to to certain pressures, to certain blitzes.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you know that doesn't really change anything.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's just more you know, it's just more frequent, you know,
with what their defense does.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Does it change the way you approach your preparation? Like
are you I know you put a lot of time
in any way, but you know what's the challenge in
this week? So do you watching more? Are you're watching
you go further back with Flores?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
How do you approach it?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You definitely got to go, you know, further back into
what he does because you know his bag is deep
and you got to be prepared for it. You know,
it's not like different teams where you can kind of
watch like more of the most recent games to see
how they've been calling it. Like him, he'll go all
the way back to you know, how he schemes something
up against this offense years ago and where he found success.
So you know, you definitely got to, you know, go
back in the archives a little bit. But at the
(04:33):
same time, you know you can't, you know, crowd your
mind too much. Eventually you got to go out there
and you just got to play ball.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Mike was saying that he believes you like hearing from
him before the hitdset gets cut off.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You know, what I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You know, I guess some guys maybe were like, okay,
you know, I mean, what do you like about that?
Is that true that you like getting as much input
as possible before you're kind of out there on your own.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I mean I like communication same way that I had it,
you know, in college, and you know, you just want
to you know, out there and just be as as
prepared as you can. You know, majority of all the
quarterbacks that I know of are the exact same way.
And you like to get the information and uh, you know,
be able to go out there and just process it
and make adjustments that need to be made.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Are you looking Jackson for for for more information or
confirmation of what you're seeing?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Like if you're if Mike is telling you something that
you're seeing as well, Is that kind of what you
prefer the confirmation or new information different information?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, that's that's that's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I mean, you know that the it cuts off in
our ears, so a lot of times, you know, by
the time we get set, you know, he's not able
to see it too. It's more of just like you know,
we all get reminders of if we get this certain look,
let's alerted to this it's killed to this, so it's
really just you know, reminders for for each play and
that just kind of comes in through the play call.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Jackson, you talked about how much you hate losing, and
obviously a lot of the guys on the team they've
been through through it with this team, but just your
first time seeing this group, how have you seen the
veterans handle this this season with those How has that
kind of like inspired you just to keep competing on
that they're trying to compete.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
As well too.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, you know, I think that I definitely have an
optimistic perspective on you know, where this place is going
to be eventually, and I think that you know, every
road is not the same, so you know you're going
to face some struggle, but I know that, you know,
when we get to a certain point, like I'm going
to appreciate a lot of the adversity that was faced
(06:24):
because you're going to enjoy, you know, and understand like
how hard it is to win in this league.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So I'm definitely optimistic.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And you know, fortunately for me, you know, I'm really young,
so you know, there's time to make adjustments and obviously
we want it now and a lot of things haven't
really gone our way this year, but you know, I
know that eventually we're going to reach the place that
we want to be.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
For the Vets, I know that's it's really hard for
them because a lot of the guys, you know, they've
experienced this for consecutive years. And you know, I think
the biggest thing is, you know, for for a lot
of us young guys, you know, we're telling them, like,
you know, eventually, like this is going to turn around
and it's going to all be worth it.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
So, you know, I think that we just have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
A really mature team and it's definitely hard, but we're
trying our best to overcome it, and you know, take
the right mindset for steps forward.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
When when you watch film, what do you like about
what what you what you're doing out there, and where
do you think you still need to improve?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I think there's a ton of places to improve. You know,
I'm still getting the hang of this game. It's just
a complete step up from from the college level, and
there's a lot of adjustments that need to be made.
So I feel like I have a ton of growing
to continue to do, which is exciting. But at the
same time, you want to be perfect and you want
to execute things the right way and you know, to
win every opportunity that you have. So I understand that
(07:41):
you know, more reps and and more experience, I'm going
to continue to get better. But you know, from a
film study purpose, you know you've got to be like
even killed. You can't be too high, too hot, or
too low with your emotions and you got to you know,
be process driven. Like I've said before, just constantly trying
to get better. That's a last question. You've expressed that
sentiment a few times.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
What gives you the optimism that this will improve? I
guess what do you see within the building, within the team?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
What do you like?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
For well, I think that we have we have, like
you know, some really good players on our team.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
You know, that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And you know, we haven't had a game where it's like,
you know, we can't compete with anybody. You know, we've
been able to compete and you know, bring it to
a war against some of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
We just have been able to finish.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And you know, at the same time, you know, another
reason why I'm optimistic is a lot of us are
really young, and you know, We're gonna have a ton
of time to to continue to get better with each other.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And we got some.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Some guys who I think are dogs, and you know,
I think it's just you know, obviously we've had some injuries,
We've had some things here and there, and you got
to control what you can control.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
But at the same time, you know, I kind of
the view of of of what it can be. You know,
we have pieces who are elite pieces.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And you know, we just need to fine tune things
here and there and we're gonna get there.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
What do you what do you attribute to how this
office has been able to thrive so well? Obviously not
having the leak for you, but just you have still
been able to put up points Onndlle's having a great year,
Tracy Scatt and Sligh obviously, what do you attribute that to?
Why this offense has been able to kind of you know,
not I mean still click in some ways without Malik.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, well, you definitely can't replicate Malik.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
You know, he's he's the best receiver in the NFL
and in my opinion, so you know, but I think
that guys have done a good job of stepping up.
You know, we don't have a ton of like ms uh,
you know usually for us, like we're on the same page.
We play and sync together, and we got to capitalize
on some more opportunities that we have consist consistently. But
I think that we've done a good job of you know,
(09:37):
kind of the next man up mentality, and guys have
been able to to play really hard. And I think
that that's one thing that you know when you watch
the tape, you know, I think that you know our
guys like we play hard together and we really compete
at high level
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