Jalen Coker - , panthers Event: Locker Room Sound | Date: 2026-09-14 | Full transcript (primary source).
Jalen Coker addressed the media in the Panthers' locker room following a practice session on September 14, 2026. The press conference focused on his recent ankle injury and its implications for his participation in upcoming games.
Transcript
Coker: What happened with the buzz? Just roll my ankle a little bit.
Reporter: Does this feel like more precautionary than anything, or is it too early to tell?
Coker: Yeah, I think more precautionary for sure, yeah.
Reporter: Remember, it caused you to miss any snaps late in the game.
Coker: No.
Reporter: When did you do it?
Coker: First quarter.
Reporter: You were able to play as well as you did with it. Can you kind of describe that, and just your day in general?
Coker: Yeah, I mean, just catching the ball well. Brace finding me. Yeah, I'm just trying to finish the game.
Reporter: Did you kind of feel it this morning? Or did you feel it last night, too?
Coker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's forward ankle, and I'd be feeling it.
Reporter: Would you expect this point to have practiced one, sir?
Coker: Oh, yeah. You wouldn't expect to miss any time.
Reporter: What clicked so well with you and Brace yesterday?
Coker: I mean, he's just throwing me great passes, and I'm just doing my best to get open, play physical. Yeah, and then it just clicked.
Reporter: Would you see the backs? I mean, numbers-wise, maybe you didn't run it, particularly what they'd want to. But involved in the passing game, who would you see from them?
Coker: Yeah, I mean, I think we try to get everyone involved. So our backs can catch, so it's another asset for us. And they run hard, too. So I mean, they make it easy to call stuff and trust that they're going to do what they have to do.
Reporter: When you watch the film, what do you think you guys could have done better, especially on the edges?
Coker: I feel like we could just be better as a whole, you know what I'm saying? I think we made, like, I feel like it was just a really undisciplined game, you know what I'm saying? I feel like we could have been more disciplined as a whole unit and just as a whole team in general.
Reporter: How would you assess your play yesterday?
Coker: I think I had a solid game. There's probably maybe one or two plays I wish I could get back. But you know, I think I had a pretty good game, personally. I talked to my coaches. They told me that they think I played well. You know, Caleb Williams was just a very good and very mobile quarterback. So it's hard when you're playing a guy like that.
Reporter: For instance, you had like a 23.8% pass rush percentage. Is that good?
Coker: Some would say. But with that said, how much do you kind of have to weigh the attack versus understanding you need to keep the edge and things of that sort?
Coker: Man, like I said, I think I rushed pretty well. You know, any other, I wouldn't say any other, but a lot of other quarterbacks in the NFL, a lot of some of those plays I had, I pushed the pocket pretty well. I would say I pushed it great, you know what I'm saying? But a quarterback like Caleb Williams, you know what I'm saying? It's just it's hard. He's very athletic. He's very gifted. A lot of other quarterbacks in the NFL wouldn't have made those type of plays.
Reporter: Princely, Dave said one of the conversations he and EJ had to have was, did they put too much or too little on the defense's plate yesterday? Did you have an opinion? Do you think it was too much or too little?
Coker: You're talking about who?
Reporter: Scheme wise, in the defensive game plan for the Bears, did you all do too much?
Coker: No, I think the game plan was fine. I think it just comes down to execution and discipline. You know what I'm saying? We gave them way too much free stuff. We had a lot of mistakes, a lot of turnovers, a lot of 15-yard penalties, things like that. I think if you take away those mistakes that have nothing to do with playing in between the lines, that game comes out to a completely different result.
Reporter: Any specific examples of one of those mistakes that you were like, man, that one really killed us?
Coker: I mean, just all the, we had two 15-yard penalties and just the turnover, just all of those things that happened. Yeah, just the 15-yard penalties and the turnover for, I'm like, we just can't have that. We've got to be more disciplined.
Reporter: Guys were pretty upset afterwards, especially Derek Brown. What was the sentiment amongst the defensive players today after watching film?
Coker: I mean, we went in there as a, we went in there in the unit room, our DC talked to us, and then we split up in position. We haven't really gotten a chance to sit down just as players. But the guys that I've talked to so far, I think it's just, we all have the same thought processes that we can't make the mistakes that we made, and we have to be more disciplined.
Reporter: Princely, for somebody on the outside who doesn't maybe understand EJ's scheme, how difficult is it to play outside linebacker in this specific system that asks you to do so much?
Coker: I mean, I wouldn't say it's difficult because I played outside linebacker in a, I wouldn't say, I would say similar in a sense of, like in college, my last year at Florida and then at Ole Miss that I was a rusher and a dropper. I was dropping a lot and I was rushing a lot. So in my opinion, it's not difficult. You know, it's just, we just have to, just toning on the details, like it was nothing, like there's nothing that he asked of us that's just like, oh man, how the hell am I gonna do this? You know what I'm saying? I've been playing a three, four outside linebacker since I was in college. So I don't see it as like a very difficult scheme or he's asking us to do anything crazy.
Reporter: You did test on this part as well, like not feeling like it was an effort thing, like clearly guys played hard. In terms of addressing, staying disciplined, where does that start? How do you work to address that part of it?
Coker: That's a good question. I think just really toning in on the small things and not letting emotions, you know what I'm saying, derail your game, you know, as far as the penalties, you know, and just being very detailed at practice throughout the week. So when the game comes, you know, we don't make those kind of mistakes.
Reporter: Princely, are there mistakes, things that, when you watch them, you think can be fixed quickly or are there some things that take a while, like just kind of give us your perspective on that?
Coker: Yeah, I think it's things that could be fixed quickly, you know what I'm saying, just about focus, you know, like the turnovers and like the 15-hour penalties, those are things that are like, I would say, kind of like impulsive decisions, it's just, we don't have to do that, you know what I'm saying, if a guy gets in my face, I don't have to hit him back, you know what I'm saying, if the quarterback is in a vulnerable position, you don't have to hit him, you know what I'm saying, so it's just things that that could be, it's not like, oh, we have to really try to focus on, it could be change overnight.
Reporter: Princely, you talked about the challenges of facing Caleb and some plays you, that against a lesser quarterback, you're probably making. What's it gonna be like going from facing him now to a Falcons team that had to like play their third string quarterback yesterday?
Coker: Yeah, I think, I'm glad we had a challenge like that the week one because, you know, going down the line as we play other quarterbacks who aren't as mobile, as we play quarterbacks who are as mobile or even more mobile, like we have Lamar Jackson coming up, I think having this challenge week one is really gonna help us going into, you know, how we play these next quarterbacks, these upcoming games.
Reporter: Princely, Dave said that talent is not the issue when it comes to the defense, he in fact said that if that was the issue, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Is that the sentiment up across the defense as well, that talent is certainly not the issue?
Coker: Yeah, for sure, the defense and the entire team, like we're no shy of, you know, talented players at all, you know what I'm saying, it's just, like I've been saying, it's just, we just have to be detailed and be consistent and not, you know, give away things to the other team.
Reporter: When you see how the offense played, is there kind of a sense of if, you know, we can fix some things on defense, what kind of team we can be?
Coker: Man, I was ecstatic watching the offense play this week, you know, they put a lot of points on the board, I think we had a lot of explosive plays, I think we were a plus one in explosives, so yeah, watching that, watching the offense play was, it gave me, you know, a great sense of confidence going, you know, with these upcoming games that we have, but it was, like, you know, they weren't perfect also, you know what I'm saying, as a team, we could all play better on the defense side and off the side, but they did do a great job this week.
Reporter: I know you guys haven't put in any of the Falcons prep yet, but who do you think y'all might see in quarterback?
Coker: I'm assuming Cooper Rush?
Reporter: Yeah, positions everybody didn't show up and make the plays that need to be made. How hard is it when you have a guy who's as mobile as Caleb to kind of stay, keep together in what you're trying to do, contain wise?
Coker: Extremely, because he can make off, like, off-schedule plays and just make everything difficult in the run and the pass and it's something they got to be a kind of forever play league quarterback.
Reporter: I'm sorry. Are you good?
Coker: Dave says one of the conversations he had with EJ was, did we put too much on their plate? Did we put not enough on their plate? Where do you, did you have an opinion on that? Where do you think that landed?
Coker: As far as too much, too little, I don't know. I don't want to, I really don't know, honestly.
Reporter: Back to Mike's question, do you guys go from playing a quarterback in Caleb to really not, I'm guessing, not knowing who you might face a quarterback in Atlanta? What will that be like?
Coker: And I don't know, Princely is just saying, like, he thinks seeing Caleb in week one can only pay dividends down the road because that guy is so slippery. So I mean, well, I hope he's right, but ooh.
Coker: It's okay. You're fine, you're like seven behind Derek.
Coker: Okay, baby. But I mean, you just got to go in with the same preparation as, you know, the biggest thing is rush lanes, like the same thing with Caleb. Like, he made the plays that he should have made that he's good at making, that he's known for making, but we also gave him a few. So we just got to be better at what we do.
Reporter: Do you like playing end more than you like playing tackle? It seems like you were able to kind of be a little bit more fluid in this game than previously.
Coker: I like playing anywhere, honestly, but it just, especially with this type of defense, it ain't no love at the nose for real, but at the same time, I play anywhere. I'm a D-liner.
Reporter: Bobby, do you feel like yesterday was not indicative of what this defense will be eventually?
Coker: No, I don't think it was. I think it just showed dividends of how good and how well the barriers played and showed up whether if we made mistakes or didn't. But I think when we were on yesterday, we was on, but at the same time, it wasn't many plays of that. So it doesn't really matter.
Reporter: You've seen this defense, or versions of this defense flourish in LA and the times last year. What's your overall thought about the technical aspects of this scheme?
Coker: We need to be more technical sound. Just speaking from a D-line standpoint, we definitely gotta be more on top of just technique period. However, I would say we gotta be more disruptive. Like you said something about LA, when I was at LA, the biggest thing was we lived in the backfield. I don't think we was in the backfield at all yesterday. I don't know if we had too many TFLs other than sacks yesterday. So that's the biggest thing.
Reporter: Why do you think y'all were unable to get back there?
Coker: Nah, I ain't gonna say nothing about that, but it's multiple things that play into that. Ski man, personal. All type of things.
Reporter: How about Darnell, right? I mean, that guy's pretty good.
Coker: Yeah, he is. He's good. He's a reason. I mean, it's a reason he's one of the highest paid. So yeah, he's decent.
Reporter: Thanks, Bob.
Coker: Thank you. Appreciate you.
