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ASHBURN, VA -- August 7, 2020, Washington Football Team right tackle Morgan Moses speaks to the media.
On working with Offensive Line Coach John Matsko:
“It’s been great. He’s been in the league for a long time. Every offensive line coach talks, so he’s been friends with our past offensive line coach Bill Callahan. A lot of the things we’ve done in the past just carries over, so it’s been good working with him and getting in the building and just understanding this new offense.”
On staying in shape during quarantine:
“Well, like [G] Brandon [Scherff] said, I just built the house and moved in in December, so I was able to maximize the weight room that I built. I’ve been working out with Eugene Monroe, who’s a retired veteran offensive tackle that played at UVA so we’ve had some ties together and have been able to just grind through it. For me, really quarantine hadn’t hit on the workout side because I was prepared with all the stuff I had put into the house.”
On moments that stuck out in quarantine:
“I had some family things happen. My father passed away in April, so that was a big hit to me. It kind of sat me down for a little bit. Obviously, I’ve thought about some of the things he would want me to do so I just put my head down and grinded it out. I went into it, got as healthy as possible and I’m 100 percent right now. I just feel good going into year seven.”
On if his father’s passing was COVID-related:
“No. Just a long battle with diabetes.”
On changes in procedure with the medical staff:
“Just talking to Ryan [Vermillion] our athletic trainer and talking to Chad [Englehart] our strength coach and some of the things they were changing in the offseason while us players were gone, it was already a jump ahead just getting your body ready for the season and communicating with Ryan and talking to him about some of the things they’re bringing to the table and some of the mandatory things they’re going to do where everything goes through him. He’s the head boss man. There’s nobody else that can answer your questions but him. He’s very hands on about the situation and that’s what we need. Obviously, what happened with [former Washington offensive tackle] Trent [Williams] happened and I’m glad to see him back into football and doing the things that he loves to do. The things that are changing here, the culture and overall the people we’ve brought into the building, I think this year is going to be a good one.
On T Trent William’s trade to the San Francisco 49ers:
“Obviously, it’s surprising because I’m the oldest person on the line right now, it’s kind of night and day. But you know it’s football. This job is very difficult. You see people walk out that front door every day. Obviously, you don’t want to lose players like him, but it goes on. I know for him, he’s excited about being with the 49ers and ready to get back to playing football, something that he loves to do. For us, it’s just figuring out who’s the next guy up and getting that person in and feeling comfortable so when we hit day one against the Eagles, they’re ready to go. So, you know it’s a business approach. Our relationship would never change outside of football, so you know we’re moving on.”
On what he and Matsko are working on to improve from last season:
“The one thing that he said was, ‘Some of you guys that had been here with Coach Callahan have been coached well. There are some things that I’m not expecting you guys to change because you’ve been coached well by a great offensive line coach.’ As a veteran guy, you want to hear that because you don’t want to have to be told to change everything, especially when you’re going into year seven. Also, that’s just the respect the coach has for you and the respect you have for the coach as well. That’s always a good thing to here. Also, just for me, it’s just reevaluating the season. Obviously, it didn’t end how we wanted it to. I think when we started off in the offseason, I was about 330, 335 [pounds] and I’m 317 now. I’m in pretty good shape.”
On being the oldest player on the offensive line:
“The first thing once we got the guys drafted and I was able to reach out and text some of the guys and say, ‘Hey, come here if you guys want to get in. Come to the house and to the gym and we can get it in’ and stuff like that. Obviously, this is our first week for the veteran guys to get in here, so we’re playing a little bit of catch up. The rookies have been here for a week already. But just getting those older guys in like Brandon and I, [C] Chase [Roullier] who’s been here, and just teaching them how to work. You come from college and you’ve got college ball, which is serious and you’ve got play time, so now it’s like it’s business. So being able to leave here from work and studying and studying on your own, it’s a big learning curve. You spend a lot of time in college in those offensive meeting rooms, where here especially with the virus and those things going on, we’re not allowed that much time in the building. So, allowing those guys to understand you need to study outside the building so when we come here the next day, we don’t have mental errors on the offensive and defensive side as well.”
On being home with his family in quarantine:
“It was definitely a crazy schedule. In the morning time we had school. I taught my youngest son. That was good just being able to be around them. Our job is year-round, and people don’t realize that after the season you have a couple weeks where you take off but then you’ve got to get back to grinding and getting in shape for OTAs and things like that. So just being able to enjoy my kids and enjoy my house, it’s been a great deal for me.”
On the offensive group this fall:
“Obviously not having OTAs and not being able to be in the building is going to affect a lot of things. I think just being here for the first week and seeing how the guys have gravitated toward the offense and picking up things instead of breaking the huddle and saying I don’t know what’s going on, instead saying, ‘Hey coach can you break that down for me real quick before you work this play,’ and spending extra time with the guys, QB Dwayne [Haskins] getting all the receivers together in the offseason has been a big change. Seeing his change knowing that he’s going to be the number one QB, seeing his change and development over the years has probably been the most impressive thing that I’ve seen from a rookie guy that pretty much everybody had written off. Being able to see his development in the offseason has been great for a veteran guy to see the work that he’s putting in. So, I’m excited to see what this next chapter will bring for us as a team and just take it on.”
On QB Dwayne Haskins Jr.:
“I definitely think he put the work in. But obviously, all the workout stuff is just workouts. When you get that defense in front of you and you get bullets flying, that’s where you want to make your decision. You’ve seen that he’s changed his body, he’s changed the way he’s eating, the way he approaches things he’s changed. Obviously, until we get into team periods and face the defense you really can’t tell if he’s going to be that guy or not. He still has a lot to prove like all of us. I’m a veteran guy and I have a lot to prove for the new coaching staff as well. It takes everybody to be on the same page and to get out here and just put it together.”
On wearing new Washington gear:
“It’s a little different, but change is always good. For us, we’re excited to play this season. If we do get fans, we’re excited to have them. Obviously, it’s still up in the air with the virus. Just excited to play and excited to play football, to suit up one more time and go out there and give it my all.”
On the workout room in his home:
“Pretty much I have about 20 yards of turf in the house. I have a sauna, steam room, hot tub, cold tub. Pretty much everything.”
On giving advice to younger players:
“First of all, it’s a blessing to be able to play this long in the NFL going into year seven and just be here. It feels good. Obviously, it’s a new role. For years we’d been looking up to Trent who had been our leader on the offensive line. We still have Brandon there who’s an awesome, awesome football player. The good thing about it is me and Brandon pretty much became rookies together. His first year as a starter and my second year was my first year starting, so we kind of grew up together on this offensive line. We have a chance to make this offensive line what we want to make it. I think we have a lot of talented guys. I think we have a lot of things we have to get done before we see who’s in the starting lineup and things like that. But I think the guys we have, have the capability of showing up on Week 1.”
On looking out for Haskins as a rookie:
“I know how it is to be a rookie. I didn’t play much my rookie year, and you get thrown into the fire. I’ve been through that phase and I know how stressful and how hard it can be. You always need somebody like that. For me, my rookie year I had Trent and I also had [former Washington defensive lineman] Jason Hatcher who was here who we had just signed from the Cowboys and his locker was right beside me. A lot of things like taking care of your body and just be available and accountable for your team to have you out there on Sundays is a lot of things I’ve learned from those guys. It’s my job to make sure the next guy up is ready to play. I told Haskins, I said, ‘Look man, you don’t know how this thing’s going to fold. The year before we played four quarterbacks. You might get in there, they may say this is a redshirt year for you but you might get in there Week 8 or Week 9 and you go in there and it’s all said and done.’ Just preparing him for that, and I think he’s done a great job of just taking in that information and processing. I think what you saw in the offseason, especially during that virus stuff, to bring guys in and throw with them and bring the coaches in and have his body look the way he looks, I think he’s done a great job of just turning himself around this offseason.”
On Haskins growing as a leader in the locker room:
“I think just his body presence, you talk about a QB you want him to stand tall, his shoulders tall, you want him to stand confident and I feel that with Dwayne. When we break the huddle, even when he comes to play calling, he’s not mumbling. You can hear every word he says in the huddle and when we get up to the huddle and break the ball and we’re just in Week 1. I think those are the things he might have struggled with year one and that he’s cleaned up and being confident. We understood, it’s a rookie coming into a huddle of grown men. You don’t understand it, but I told him, ‘Look man, when you get in that huddle, you go in there and whisper to us, it’s a respect thing. When you get in there and say hey man this is the play on two, when you go in there with confidence, those guys are going to be locked in.’ I think he’s developed that mindset in his game.”
On the difficulty of monitoring themselves due to COVID:
“You definitely have to police yourself. You’ve obviously got a lot of younger guys and those are the guys you’re going to worry about the most. But you’ve got a lot of veteran guys. We brought [LB] Thomas Davis in here, you got some veteran guys on the offensive line like me and Brandon, [DT] Jonathan Allen, [DT] Matt Ioannidis, those guys are guys that play by the rules. You’ve got a veteran guy in [S] Landon [Collins] as well. So, when you’ve got guys that have been around the league and knows how important it is, like [Head Coach Ron Rivera] told us, ‘The team that takes care of itself the best is going to be the team that has a chance to win.’ So, with that saying, we believe in everything we’re doing here safety-wise. We believe in us players when we leave here to do the right thing as well.”
On adjusting to new offensive schemes on the line:
“Well for me, I’ve played through a number of offensive coordinators here, so I’ve played through a number of schemes, so it’s not been that hard. John Matsko our offensive line coach has been a great coach to us so far, explaining what we need to get done. Our assistant offensive line coach, Coach Travelle [Wharton], he kind of tells us about the year with the lockout when he played. He tells us when they had their lockout that was the time they got their whole new coaching staff at the Panthers, so it was kind of similar to how everything is happening now. The thing is, we’re all on one accord. So, nobody is learning more than this person. We’re learning at the same pace. It’s just about executing. Even if you don’t get the whole playbook in, it’s just going into Week 1 knowing you’re doing well, you’re doing great and executing those plays on Sunday.”
On what sticks out from the new coaching staff:
“Just paying attention to detail, taking care of the guys, listening to them, seeing what they’ve got going on, communicating with them then taking care of it instead of just going out there and pushing through it and further damaging it. Just the staff, being able to talk to them and Ryan who is our head athlete trainer and Ryan talking to Chad and saying, ‘Hey, he can’t do this because he has this going on.’ Just the communication base and that’s all it is. Communicating to one another and being honest with what’s going on and going forward.”
On T Geron Christian Sr.:
“I think the thing about him, he’s been here with Trent so he’s learned from Trent and he’s trained down in Houston with Trent. His work ethic, you can see how he’s put in some work in the offseason and now the time for him to play has presented itself. We always say for him he’s the next man up. So it’s time for him to take this position and run with it. You have the younger guys coming in too, [T] Saahdiq Charles is a great athletic specimen. The kid’s calf muscles are like, humungous. Brandon was talking about them the other day. It’s just time. It’s time for him to shine, and hopefully once we get going against the defense, he’s able to show what he has.”
On playing at a lighter body weight:
“Just durability and not knowing what the offense was really going to look like, so being prepared for every aspect that this offense will bring. I just know from watching the Panthers in previous years they’ve been in the shotgun a lot of times, so being prepared for that and just, as you get older you’ve got to change some things and you learn. Just being able to get in tip-top shape, especially not having an offseason and not knowing what this training camp and all those things are going to look like. Just being prepared.”
On not having OTAs and his relationship with Scherff:
“I think definitely having the extra time to prepare and not beating your body up obviously helped. It’s helped a lot of players get 100 percent healthy instead of coming into OTAs and being 80 percent and showcasing what you have. Having that time to get fully 100 percent has been a wonderful thing. But also, me and Brandon, it just continues to be great on that side. Brandon’s continuing to prove himself year after year. He’s a great person, a great father off the field and a great friend. Just continuing that relationship on and off the field and hopefully it has a trickling effect in the room, so the left side is going to be a new side, so that relationship over there is as strong as one unit and just play together. That’s the key. I know when Brandon’s hurt, he’s going to come back in the game and say, ‘I can’t leave Morgan alone out here by himself.’ When I go down, Brandon knows I’m coming back. I’m not going to leave you hanging. Just that relationship that we built over the years, basically starting in this league together has been a great thing. Just continuing it, I think it’s year six and year seven for us so just continuing to move forward.”
On the disappointment of not having training camp in Richmond:
“It’s been great because I always tell people training camp doesn’t really affect me. I’ve got my mom over there so I can go home and wash my clothes, get a home cooked meal and things like that. But obviously, you’ve got to figure this out. This virus is no joke. Us going and staying in hotels is probably not the safest thing. Just having it here has been fine. It’s been great. I’ve been able to go home and spend time with my kids and stuff like that. Hopefully, we can get back to Richmond. I love coming home, it’s a part of my training camp ritual coming home to Richmond. Hopefully, we can get back to that moving forward.”