FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 31st, 2018
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL AND FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA TEAMS PREVIEW 2018 NFL SEASON
“He actually looks like he’s moving faster, and his pocket presence is a lot better than when I first came to the Patriots back in ’03.” – Rodney Harrison on Tom Brady
“Houston I think has a tremendous team. I would look for them to make a lot of noise.” – Tony Dungy
“If you can explain to me why Julio Jones hasn’t scored more touchdowns, I wish you would.” – Cris Collinsworth
STAMFORD, Conn. – August 31, 2018 – Ahead of NFL Kickoff 2018, NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football team of Al Michaels (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), Michele Tafoya (sideline reporter), Terry McAulay (rules analyst) as well as executive producer Fred Gaudelli, and the Football Night in America team of Mike Tirico (studio host), Tony Dungy (analyst), Rodney Harrison (analyst) and executive producer Sam Flood previewed the upcoming NFL regular-season on media conference calls.
Click here for a full transcript of the Sunday Night Football call.
Click here for a full transcript of the Football Night in America call.
Following are highlights from this week’s media conference calls:
ON TOM BRADY
Harrison: “He actually looks like he’s moving faster, and his pocket presence is a lot better than when I first came to the Patriots back in ’03 … I don’t think when you see Tom Brady start to decline, I don’t think it’s going to be something sudden like he’s going to jump off of a building or something like that. I think it’s going to be very slow.”
ON THE ARIZONA CARDINALS
Michaels: “I really like Josh Rosen. I think what he said after he was the fourth quarterback drafted, that everybody else, in effect, I’m paraphrasing, made a mistake, you might regret it, I think he’s special — I live in LA so I got to watch him a little more than normal. Tremendous arm, and we had him in a meeting the other day, and he’s a special guy. He’s very smart. He really gets it.”
ON ATLANTA’S INABILITY TO SCORE IN THE REDZONE
Collinsworth: “If you can explain to me why Julio Jones hasn’t scored more touchdowns, I wish you would. I can’t answer that question. I mean, you would think that guy would be the greatest red zone receiver in the history of mankind. Now, I know he gets a lot of attention, it creates a lot of opportunity for Sanu and other guys, but it’s never made any sense. It’s just never made any sense to me, either. I just can’t explain that one. I have no idea.”
ON THE NEW HELMET RULE
McAulay: “I think that when they added the words incidental and inadvertent for actions that were not to be called, that told the officials to focus on making sure you get the ones that are forcible, punishing, that are obvious to everybody that need to be out of the game. So it may have been a combination of other things, players playing better, coaches coaching their players better, but I think if this is where we’re headed, we’re going to be okay with it very early.”
ON MITCH TRUBISKY AND THE NFC NORTH
Collinsworth: “For Trubisky, just how soon can he figure it out? This is a new offense. It’s a group that I think has a lot of weapons and a lot of potential. But it’s a lot to put together when you’re playing the biggest obstacle, which is playing against Aaron Rodgers and playing against the Minnesota Vikings’ defense and the Detroit Lions and Matthew Stafford. This is a very legitimate — I think you can argue maybe the NFC South may be the toughest [division] out there. But this is a very, very difficult division to try to get out of.”
ON MATTHEW STAFFORD
Collinsworth: “He knows what he’s doing out there. He’s a dynamic leader. He’s unafraid. He plays hurt. He does all the things that you want as a quarterback. I think as an organization, they just need one big step.”
ON NFL KICKOFF WEEKEND
Tafoya: I always look forward to the first week. That Thursday night is electric.
ON THE AFC SOUTH RACE
Dungy: “Houston I think has a tremendous team. I would look for them to make a lot of noise. If those three that you mentioned are healthy, they can be as explosive on offense and as dominating on defense as anyone, if (Whitney) Mercilus and (J.J.) Watt are back playing 100 percent, so they have a chance. Andrew Luck being healthy makes all the difference in the world, and he’s going to make Indianapolis a team that you don’t want to play, and Tennessee won a playoff game last year. So I think you’ve got a well-balanced division. I would look for Houston if those guys are healthy to make some noise.”
Harrison added: “Yeah, and I agree with Coach. I like Houston in this division. I have to disagree with him with the Indianapolis Colts and Andrew Luck. I think this is a team that may win five games. They’re very young. They have some young talent, but they just don’t have the experience and I don’t think they have a lot of playmakers.”
Tirico added: “The AFC South is going to give us, if the key players are healthy, some of the most entertaining football games on Sundays this year. I’m really looking forward to watching those.”
ON THE MIAMI DOLPHINS
Dungy: “Well, I would have to say I get a lot of flak because I am a big fan of Ryan Tannehill’s, and I know he’s been up and down and he’s struggled with injuries, but I do believe he’s a talented quarterback that really once he feels comfortable — I don’t look at the Dolphins as being a playoff contender, I look at them being more of an 8-8 or 7-9 team. But if he can get on the road, if he can get hot, and if he can build his confidence, I think this is a team that can definitely play that spoiler type role, but I don’t look at the Dolphins as being that playoff type team yet.”
Harrison: “I don’t look at them as being the worst in the league, either. It’s just too early to tell. You have to see how teams are going to come together. They’ve got a talent base that they can win games. So I think they’re going to be a middle of the pack team, but we’ll see.”
NBC Sports will present a combined 21 regular-season and postseason games as part of the network’s comprehensive coverage of the NFL season. Coverage begins with NFL Kickoff 2018 on Thursday, Sept. 6, as the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles begin their title defense against the Atlanta Falcons from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by a new earlier kickoff time at 8:20 p.m. ET.
-NBC SPORTS –
