Press Pass: Jordan Matthews

spectacular catches. He made one in the preseason, so I hope he can duplicate those same uh, that same playmaking ability when he comes out of place where his Monday night, we talked to you after the game in the locker room. You're pretty emotional talking about Nelson and I know you guys are close. Uh what are these last few days been, Like have you kind of tried to spend some extra time with him? How's he doing? And um, you know,

what do you expect from him this week? He's doing okay? UM, you know his uh, his his girlfriend's been in town. She's been spend time with him. He's been with uh some of the guys. We've actually went to carson S house Monday night, spent some time there and then um, on Tuesday night. We always have a couple of Bible study at Chase Daniel's house. So the last two days we've just been at the Quarterbacks House fellowship and then spending time. And you know, he's been great. Like I said,

Nelson's a positive guy. So I know that he's you know, maybe this might be a tough time, but at the same time, he is going to understand. He's gonna get better from him, and he's gonna learn how to grow from him forever. Maybe the pressure of being in the NFL, the mentalist end of the game, you gotta get a little too much. What was that moment and how did

you find yourself and getting over Um? Well, I think, yeah, the reason why I don't ever worry about Nelson too much is the same reason why it was kind of like the same thing to happened with me. I think, Um, you know when I was at Vanderbilt, he got to a point. Uh it was my freshman year. I mean, I was like, dude, I was I want playing. I'm like dad, if I can't play a bandage, but I can't play anywhere. You know, it's a joke to Joe.

I love you guys, but um. But at the same time, I just wasn't playing that much, and I got really discouraged and I was like, Dad, you know, I think I want to transfer somewhere else, want to go somewhere else, because I'm not even playing here and I really think I should be getting more reps and stuff. And my dad was like, look are you going out and are you working hard every sole day? And I'm like, yeah, I'm working hard. He say, you just keep doing that.

He said, if you have a standard of work, then that's what you hang your hat on. You know, a hard working man does the right thing. Whether the right thing comes about, you know, that's you can't control that, but you can't control doing the right thing. And so that's what I always hung my hat on. So even when I felt like last year, when I struggle a little bit, I said, am I doing the right thing? And when I looked at mirror, I could tell myself, yes,

I'm coming in, I'm working every day. I'm trying to focus on the details. So at some point it's going to get better, and I feel like it has. And then mentally, you are you don't put yourself in a situation where okay, you're trying to live up to a certain label, Like you don't have to live up to your name, you have to live up to an earthly label. And that's why I think Nelson's realized something I realized. You know, people start saying, oh, your second round pick,

your number one receiver or your first round pick. Well, that's what the earth and that's what people tell you. But you're Nelson Aglore. You gonna be the best Nelson Aglore you can be. And that's what's going to help us side the team, and that's what's going to keep you at peace. And that's something that I think he's going to realize. That's something I've been telling him. But at the same time, um, I think he's gonna definitely grow from this, and I think he's gonna be a

much better player afterwards. You think that the media market that he plays in as a factor. Yeah, it's like you said, the media market. That's like you you know what I'm saying. So, um, I like I told you guys, um I I don't sugarcoade anything this this it's a hard place to play receiver, you know. Um, I think any receiver who's ever played for the Eagles would definitely come and tell you that. You know, Um, like I said,

we make mistakes. We don't make mistakes like in the trenches where it takes you guys like six games to figure it out. Now it's like wide open and there's nobody else but us the ball in Jesus, So you know, everybody's gonna know, like, Okay, you made that mistake. And like I said, you guys got to do your jobs. So this's just it's just a bigger media market, so there's more people doing the same job, so it's not just one guy writing in one article is seven So

then therefore it seems worse than it is. And then it's in a heavily populated city that loves their football, so then that makes it seem worse than it is. But what are the where the co effects is are you playing well or are you not? And so I think that's something where if you're not playing well and you guys are on top of somebody, then it's like Okay, now they're telling the truth and I'm internalizing it because I haven't been playing well. But like I said, for

Nelson's case, I think he's played extremely hard. I know that he hasn't played as well as he wants to. But you know, just from talking to him, I don't think that the media or the outside stuff has been what's like, literally made him as up says he is. I think he just feels like he's worked his butt off and he hasn't seen the fruits of his labor yet. But yeah, definitely answer your question. Yeah, it can be harder on some guys to play in a place like this,

but you just can't worry about it. Playing more outside for almost so I would love it. I mean, like I said, I've I've talked about before, whenever you don't have to be like one dimensional and teams can't gain plan for you in one area, it's so much better because I think too many people make too much of a you know, a thing about being an outside receiver solely or inside receiver. If you switch it up, which most teams do, then it's more of an element surprise

that you can attack teams with. So I'm all for it. Active pizza specifically a slot too pluck and you've done both that would just apartmentbe a little more outside. Yeah, like I said, we're gonna see that we got we still got to see how goes. I know Coach Peterson said earlier that we still got to evaluate some stuff through the week. Um, and I know we're going to do that. I thought we did some of that today, So we're gonna see. I like PT a lot inside.

I think he's very dangerous in there, and like I said, if I do do more outside, I'm going to embrace it and go ahead and do it the best I can. And the media, because you're seeding the numbers, yeah, you gotta, like I've something I've said all the time is one not just playing better, but two we have to take more attention to detail when it comes to practice. And it's something that Jake and I spoke with each other about.

And so now that Coach Peterson's helping us out with reps as far as you know, less reps in practice now Jenk and Rodney and meals knowing some of those guys are actually gonna start helping us as far as going on scout team and giving us a couple of looks there. So say, it's got to be competitive all week.

You know, it's got to be competitive all week. We can't have guys just reading the card and saying oh, jump on this double move, and now we have this illusion that we're just going to be getting open on Sunday, and now we have to go against a real corner. So it's like, Okay, we gotta go into six game win streak. Then let's make the same game day every single day. And Jak and those guys committed to it.

We did a little bit of it today, and then that's also us going over to scout team offense and helping them out a little bit and just keeping the competit in this high. That way, you're not just going through the motions during the week and then expecting something to happen on game day that you haven't worked on. And so now for all those guys DGB, Bryce, PT Nelson, you're not going to just be going against a third team guy and then have to go and perform against

Josh Norman on Sunday. No, you're gonna be going against you, No Nolan, Jalen, Rodney, Jink. And now you're a little bit better, We're more prepared, I should say, to go out there on Sunday and do your job. So I think it's definitely gonna be something that helps us out well. It's more so the defense like handles it like Jen's gonna handle like it's not something that you know, Coach Peterson went out there in the seconds. He wants to

save our legs, you know, as much as possible. He's not about to make anybody do anything that's on jink. Like he came over, he did the first two plays against me, and then he was out. So guys are still going to save their legs, you know. Coach Peters is not going to go out there and kill us.

He's big on us taking care of our bodies, but he's also big on us taking hold of the team and figuring out how we're going to go get this thing fixed, how we're going to win games, and the only way we know how to do this through work, work, and then creating a competitive environment. That's what we plan

to do last year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there was a couple of games there where you're kind of going through a difficult time and like some people's suggested, maybe you know, ease up on hinting the jug machine, you kind of lighten your level a little bit of stuff. Do you think that's kind of like a similar situation what Nelson's going through, and do you think maybe that might help them as far as

you know, not work. I mean, you know, obviously it works hard, but maybe I think it only is a problem once you internalize it. Like when if we're talking about just catching the ball, you know, as far as like drop balls are concerned, whenever a ball is pull on the ground, then you also like you don't want to make excuses. But at the same time, you can go back and watch the film and say, okay, yep,

right here, I was worried about this linebacker. Right here, I coach, I thought about turning up field before I caught the ball. Okay, right here, I turned my hands wrong. I gotta just catch it. I gotta stand So you can know that. But at the same time, it's still external things and you just got to go make sure you or detail the next time it happens. But once you internalize it and you're like, I don't think I

can catch anymore, that's when there's a problem. That's when you got to step back from the jug machine and step back from everything and say, okay, hold on, when I got to work this out mentally, nothing physical I'm gonna do is going to get me prepared to have that confidence to go back into a game and do what I need to do. Does that Does that make sense?

So if it's if it's external things, then no, like stay on the jug machines, keep your standard, because if you don't keep your standard of work, then you don't have anything. Then you throw that out the window, and then what's next? Then how you know what? I really don't got to practice because all that matters is the game, and now you're really out of luck and now you have no type of preparation. But if you've internalized the fact that you just aren't a good player, I'm saying

Nelson has. I don't think he has, but that's the problem somebody's dealing with, then yeah, that's definitely you know a situation where I would say, hey, it's time to step back a little bit. We gotta just regain your confidence. Maybe have you talked to somebody, have guys be positive with you, and then hey, now let's go back and attack it. Get back to the work and then find

the way to go out there and make plays. It's also one year at the time, of course, and you need the team understands, you know, just the margin of error right now is it's not great at five and five. And this is something you guys talk about. It is something you guys all understand. This is something we all definitely understand. Um. I mean, it's cut and dry. We gotta win them all and we gotta win every single one the next six and that's something we all know

and that's something that we plan to do. Um. We've played a lot of these opponents already and we've been competitive against all of them, so we know how to handle those games. But we've we've got three other opponents who they're going to come out and they're fighting for their lives too. You know, we could play Green Bay and I know people are saying, oh, well, green Bay's kind of down. Green Bays fight for their lives and Aaron Rodgers gonna let his team just bat out. The

Ravens are a team that have played competitively. They're not going to let their team bout. Cincinnati Bengals, they've been a playoff team for years. They're not gonna let their team just check out. And then we know what the division games are going to be like, so we know it's going to be a competitive stretch for these last sixty games. But at the same time, we're like, do we feel like we're the best of a bunch? Of course, have we played all the teams? Especially once we played

all right competively? Of course, So now we're like, Okay, what are we doing those games wrong? Fix it? But we definitely know we gotta win the next six. That's we can't sugarcoat it, can't beat around the bush. We gotta win the next six. We want to make a run of this thing. No Nosen comments after the game seemed to indicate that maybe he did and he has internalized this thing and it's kind of lost a little bit of confidence or lost some kind of an edge.

I mean, I don't know what you heard from that, but how do you help them to that part of it? And what do you need to take your step back in that case? Yeah, well, if that's the case, then it's honestly just letting them understand that. Hey, bro, I think whenever, like you said, you do internalize it and your confidence is going away. You got to realize that your confidence can be in labeled something I mentioned already.

You know, I think the pressure comes in when you think you have to live up to first round picks. That's where the problem is. If you're living up to being Nelson Agalore and you're just going and you're working your butt off and you're doing the best you can, then who's the only person who knows if you're doing that is Nelson. So if you're doing that, you can have peace with it. If you guys go to work every single day, you don't have a million people watching you.

But at the end of the day, if you're not working hard, you're not going to be a piece with it. But if you guys do your job, you guys in the home and say, Okay, you know what I did my best, I'm good, that's the same thing Nelson has to feel. He's got it. He can't worry about all the other things, whether it's the media, whether it's fans, whether it's this first round pick label. No, because once you start trying to do that, then you're trying to live up to something that was never a burden meant

for you to bury anyway. And so he just got to kind of share that away, take a little bit of time, you know, mentally, and then come back and getting the game. Because the kid works hard. I mean he works extremely hard. If we're talking about a dude who doesn't have a good attitude and doesn't give good effort, I have nothing to say on the subject, because attitude and effort, that's two things. Where it's like, you don't bring that, then I don't even want you. Like you

deserve everything you get. Nelson's a classic case right now of a kid who's not getting exactly what he deserves. He puts in the time, but he hasn't seen the fruits of his labor yet. So what does that say about it? Hey, maybe it's just not his time yet, but that doesn't mean that he's gonna stop working. And that doesn't mean that I think he's not a good

football player. I think he's a great football player. I know he's gonna help this team out, and we want him to help this team out, and we want to stick by side. Um. I've definitely seen, you know, teams have gone vertical. Um, I've got to watch a little bit more film, but I know the Redskins, you know, for example, they weren't vertical. And if I would have told you somebody called a deep post, I mean you

would have always DJ. But it was actually gar Song and then I go and then I watched the the Coach game Cowboys game. You know, Bryce Butler's catching d balls Dante Moncrie. So you know, I think right now teams have you know, made an emphasis to go vertical, you know on them. They do have some young corners out there that are getting better as I've watched games,

they are improving. Um At the same time, we have to go out there and you know, confidently and say, okay, when we have these chances to take shots, we gotta you know, roll the dice. But we gotta go make them. This can't. This can't. This has to be the last game where we go out there and it's a fifty fifty ball that we're not coming down with. We gotta go out there and make plays, build confidence, make Carson feel confident, make coach Coach Peterson feel confident, and then

just get the ball rolling. But they've got some guys. I think anytime you gotta got like twenty one back there though, you know in Haha, he's going to always help out, like he's he's going that's where the buck stops. Like if there's you know, I'm just going through a little bit of film. There's been some plays that could have been made for Haaha's breaking it up and then

obviously thirty three high. He's played a lot um so they've got some bettering guys back there, but we definitely need to take advantage of you, all right, Oh guys,