Ashton Grant - Offensive Coach, patriots Event: Media Availability | Date: 2026-09-06 | Full transcript (primary source).
Ashton Grant, Offensive Coach for the Patriots, addressed the media during a press conference on September 6, 2026. The session focused on the team's strategies for handling communication challenges in loud environments, particularly regarding silent counts and play-calling dynamics.
Transcript
Grant: Maybe some silent count stuff. We think Drake about it. We talked to some of the other guys. What goes into that? What are some of the specific challenges of that? I know you guys ran a lot of it last year. Kind of picking it up again in 2020. Yeah, I just think it's the communication and getting guys on the same page. A lot of what we do is verbal communicating. So when you go into a loud environment where you can't use your voices, I think just trying to get everyone on the same page when we're trying to snap the ball and what other communication we're trying to get done, I think it becomes important.
Grant: Well, it's like calling plays in the night. It was fun. I'm super grateful to Coach Brayville and Josh for giving me that opportunity. I don't think you appreciate it as much until you're the one that's under the gun calling it. So it was pretty cool to get that experience and pick Josh's brain about it. But I had a lot of fun.
Grant: How do you prepare for that? I mean, is there new things you're doing? I mean, as soon as you put the play in, are you thinking, all right, if this goes bad, I'm calling this, if this goes good, I'm calling this. Yeah, I think I was explaining it to, or just talking to Josh about my thought process about it. But you call a play, and then your brain has to be thinking about four scenarios. You know, OK, what if it goes backwards? What if we stay in the same spot? What if we only gain a little bit of yards? What if it's an explosive? And then based on the result, you can go to four different places. So just taking mental reps and trying to figure out what would I do if this happens. So it was fun getting ready for it, for sure.
Grant: During the course of the off-seasons, we're training camp up to now. What's the biggest progression you think Drake has made, or the biggest leap he's taken from last year? It'd be hard to pinpoint one thing, because I think he's done a good job trying to attack this entire off-season and kind of own in on his, I wouldn't call him deficiencies, but things that we can improve on. To point out one thing, it would be tough for me. But if I had to do one, I would just say the comfort. I think a year under his belt, and just the comfort level between him and Josh, and him and the players that are around him, guys like Jared Wilson, Morgan Moses, people that he's played with before, Pop Douglas. Now, we've added some newcomers. But I think when you're not learning a brand new offense and trying to learn new people, I think it takes a little bit off its plate.
Grant: How about in terms of taking ownership of that offense? I know that was one of the important areas where you really wanted him to grow. How have you seen it? I think he's done an outstanding job. I think every day is a learning experience. And he continues to grow. I don't think any of us are finished products. But I think he's definitely further along than he was at this time last year. So I'm excited to see how it looks on Wednesday night.
Grant: Do you see or sense of confidence the players around him have in him? I think you can see it. I know I have a lot of confidence in him. But I think it's due to the preparation and the work that they see him put in. I think confidence stems from witnessed actions. And I think they see him come in early, leave late, spend extra time with the coordinator. And I think it means a lot to him. And when his teammates see him put that type of work in, I think confidence just is something that happens.
Grant: Are there things that you've learned about Drake throughout this last year or so that you might not have known at this time last year? Are you talking like personally on the field? Whatever sticks out to you. I would say there's some natural things that pop out just in terms of his personality. I think he's a little quirkier than he might let on. And I've seen him in a couple commercials now, which I didn't see last year. So those are a couple of things that have changed. But as far as the person, I think he's the same guy that he was the first day I met him when we came in here and got hired in the end of January, early February, which has been cool to see because the success that he's had last year hasn't changed in one bit.
Grant: Mike Vrabel called him grounded. Quarterback can be tricky because sometimes you want a grounded quarterback. Sometimes you want a quarterback that's more broken with his personality. How do you balance that when you're coaching a player, maybe just in a meeting room of being vocal and open and excited about doing this, but also not getting too in front of yourself? I just think it's about me personally being consistent with the same messaging and the same personality. I think playing the quarterback position is almost like a roller coaster ride. There's ups, there's downs. Everything that you end up doing is pinpointed and criticized. So as a coach, I just try to stay as consistent as possible. So that also does not add on to the possibilities of what ifs, like what if I come in today and Ashen's this way, or he yells at me one day and he doesn't the next. So I just try to stay as consistent as I can for that entire room.
Grant: And I think I've been around a ton of quarterbacks in my short time in the National Football League. And I think in Cleveland one year, we had five different starters. And all of them had different personalities. And it kind of just trained me how to be the same person. It's not more so how you communicate with those guys. It's just being consistent in yourself.
Grant: How have you seen Barron sort of step up as this scouting quarterback in his first real week as a pro? Yeah, I think he's doing a good job. I think Barron's taking some reps. So is Tommy. I think it's important that both those guys continue to get live action throughout the year. I don't believe in one quarterback getting all the reps and the other one just sitting there and hasn't taken a drop or felt a pass rush. And then you ask him to play a month later and he's rusty. So I try to get both those guys in there on the scout team. And I think both of them are doing a good job.
Grant: How did you see Barron respond after the Cleveland games? And I get a really strong summer. And then that game felt like it was kind of the first diversity we saw in the conference. Yeah, I think it's important that young players go through that just as a learning tool. I think I didn't know that Barron was might there for Tommy or one of those guys when I saw a click. And I was just telling that every day is not going to be flowers and daisies. There are some days you're going to have to eat your medicine and I think he did a good job. But it's cool. It was cool for him to see the little things that we've talked about since the day he was drafted, kind of come to play. And he actually got to feel it live for an entire game. Earlier preseason games, he had a couple of drives at the end or maybe a half. But this one, he played almost the entire game. I think Tommy had two drives. So it was good for him to feel that for almost 60 minutes.
Grant: I feel like you got more reps than we saw the third quarterback at last year. Is that something you guys say seems like it's cooking for him? Or is it just like he earned more opportunities this summer? No, I think it's just the way the reps ended up playing out. I don't think anything went too deep into that. I think we wanted to just see him roll for a little bit. I think we felt comfortable with what Tommy did this preseason. And we just wanted to see what Baron would be able to do with his opportunity.
Grant: Something I'm curious about. You don't need to delve into state secrets or whatever. But Baron would likely be the third emergency quarterback. But coaches around the league, how do you view that third spot? Do you view it as an extra roster spot to keep an extra quarterback in uniform? Sometimes, do you feel like it's maybe just a wasted spot? How do you view the emergency third quarterback? I view all three quarterbacks as soon to be or treat them as they are soon to be starters. When I was with the Browns, Deshaun was dealing with a shoulder one year. And then on the Friday before Sunday game, the back of quarterback had a high ankle sprain. And the practice cause quarterback ended up starting. So I treat them all as their starting quarterbacks. And they wouldn't be here if they didn't have the capabilities to be that. So I don't look at it as a wasted roster spot. I just look at it as someone who's in waiting for his turn. And that's how we try to run the meetings. The meetings are geared towards Drake. But Tommy and Barron are both getting the same questions. They're getting pushed the same way, almost more so. Because they have to catch up to where he's at. Because he's getting all the reps. So I try to sympathize with those guys. Because back of quarterback and NFL is hard. There's no asterisk next to their name when they go in the game. Even though they haven't taken reps this entire time. And they haven't practiced. And their cadence has to sound like Drake's cadence. So I think it's an underappreciated position. But when they go in the game, the expectations are exactly the same with half the opportunity. So that's why we go about it that way. And try to treat all those guys like they'll play on Sunday.
Grant: I'll ask you one more about just Seattle. Any steps taken that these guys have heard about that game all summer? They've heard about you're bad, whatever. Do you try not to build this game up to be too much? This is week one. It's a tough challenge. But at the same time, don't make this out. We're going to write what happened seven months ago. To me, it's week one. Week one last year, I think we lost to the Las Vegas Raiders. And the world was crashing down on us, what it felt like. And then we did what we did. But it's the most important game because it's the next one, whether it was the Raiders or any other, or excuse me, the Raiders, if the Seahawks or any other football team, we'd be preparing the same way, which is 100 miles per hour and trying to get a W when we go play.
Grant: Tommy mentioned yesterday, he said things that we took, or maybe he took an hour with, about 10 minutes now, meetings. What does that do for the room? And is that accurate as far as things you're covering? Yeah, I think when Tommy first got here, there were things that were foreign to him that he's never been asked to do before. And so now, a lot of those things are things that he's at least had exposure to. So maybe we don't have to spend as much time peeling the onion back and getting to the bottom of things. It just gives us more time to touch on different things. And I think I mentioned this maybe in the spring or training camp. But when you have a quarterback and you're teaching them a new system, a lot of your time is spent on how to do things and why you're doing things, not necessarily how the defense is affecting you with those things, meaning what is your job as a quarterback? What are the cadences that we will use? How do you call the play? What are the formations that we get them in? How do we line them up in trips right? Or things like that, whereas they know that in the second year. So now it's like, OK, when we line up in trips right, these are the things that defenses can do. And so the first year is about, OK, how do we communicate the offense? How do we tell people where to go? How do we use all the tools? And then the second year is why do we use all the tools? And I think that's kind of something that Tommy was referencing.
Grant: OK, because he also mentioned having more tools in the toolbox. But you mentioned some of it's new, which kind of is every year. But I'm curious, it's a hypothetical. So I know that's usually a dead end when we ask those type of questions. Knowing the things that, say, Drake has access to now in the system and the understanding, would that game in February have gone a little bit differently? He's talked so much about getting into the right play. Yeah, like the hypotheticals, I'm not sure. But is that at least a difference, I guess, the guy in February versus what he could do now at the line versus what he saw? Well, I think the entire offense is going to be different. I think we spent an entire off season studying things that we can do better as an offense. So I think everybody should be better suited to play that game now, because I hope that everybody is a better version of themselves. As far as tools and maybe what he had available or didn't have available, it's hard to say whether or not that would have helped him.
Grant: I'm excited. I'm sure you're ready to play Call Us Game. This morning, I spoke with Josh, and I spoke to Rome young age, and just getting an applicator to personal offense, and he kind of said, it was because of Todd. Todd really was instrumental in that. How has it been helping those two kind of get acclimated, and what's it been like working with them? I appreciate him saying that, but it was really those guys. Because I can make as many PowerPoints as I want and cut-ups as I want. But if they're not there to watch them and go through them, then it's not going to do very much help. So those guys have incredible work ethics. They're both pros. They know exactly what they need to be ready for a game, and that helps me try to provide it for them. And that's all I try to do is give them the tools they need to succeed and listen to them when they tell me that they need something, or if I hear them trip up over a question. So those guys are pros.
Grant: What did you see from Romeo this summer? It seemed like he was getting more confident as something went on, and he was just mossing people in the back of the end zone by the end. What was it like to kind of see him grow? I think confidence only comes from repeated success. And so you have to have some time on task to be able to develop the confidence you need to go do it over and over. And I think he put in a lot of time to do that, extra time with Drake, finding out what Drake saw or what he needs. So it's been cool to watch him grow. I'm really happy for him. I like where he's at.
Grant: What's it been like just having AJ back? Mike said his maturity and the way he goes about things is different than what's in Tennessee. What's your experience been like? He's an infectious personality. I know you guys have probably seen a little bit of a tempered, tapered side of him. But it's just fun to be around him every day, infectious smile. But that makes it easy to get excited to work with him and to try to challenge him too. And I think he's had a conversation with him today. He's excited to continue to push the boundaries and grow on this offense and understand more. And he's not a guy that gets very complacent quickly. And so it's my job to challenge him and keep him growing. And that's the fun part of coaching.
Grant: You have a veteran. How do you go about challenging someone like that? Yeah, I think number one is consistency, right? You challenge them to repeat at a high level. Anybody can do it a couple of times, but the great ones do it over and over again. And then trying to challenge them to do it different ways that if somebody's seen a certain release a certain amount of times, can we come up with a counter? Or if there's a route top that's efficient versus man coverage, can you find another one? Kind of making it about a challenge and playing on his competitive spirit a little bit.
Grant: What was Seattle at the defense that played that much zone? What does that change or anything for you guys? First of all, I'd say zone is a relative term, right? If you're in quarters, vertical routes on the outside of the field, it turns into man pretty quickly. Same thing with some cover three stuff. So that can be a bit of a misnomer. But we certainly have to be ready for anything. It's the first game of the season. They've had all off-season. And so have we to tinker with what they've done. And so we just have to be sound and follow our rules and whatever coverage they play. We got to do a good job of finding our spots.
Grant: All summer you worked with Cameron and Kyle who are now in the practice squad. What was it like to kind of see them this summer and to now earn this opportunity to stay with this team a little longer and get to play a role? Yeah, I'm so proud of them both. Different journeys, right? Cam battled with learning some of the terminology and playing more than just the X position, put a ton of work into it. Met extra with Riley Larkin, came in, saw me in the mornings and grew and grew and grew. And as he got more comfortable, he played more and more and more and he truly earned that practice squad spot. And what Kyle Dixon, a little bit different, he's banged up, wasn't available as much, but found ways off the field to show that he was our type of football character and football junkie. So really proud of those guys, the way they both took kind of roundabout journeys to the practice squad, but I'm excited to be working with them.
Grant: So like seeing them show them in 11 this week. That probably means more to you guys. I don't think we've talked to you about it since, you know, K-Shawn, you know, being traged. You know, probably knew that was coming, but like, what was your reaction to it? And, you know, I guess who sort of steps up and fills more depth with the power? First of all, I want to take a minute to tell you guys how professional and how awesome it was to work with K-Shawn on a day-to-day basis. We'll have a relationship forever. He showed up every single day and worked his tail off. And even when the drama outside the building got loud, he was the same guy every single day. And so I really appreciated that about him, you know, and it made it really enjoyable to work with him every day. You know, as far as who steps up, I think we've been wide receiver by committee since the day I walked into this building. That's the way that Josh runs his offense. That's the way that Coach Breville runs his team, because it's the next man up. We did it last year, you know, with a lot of different guys playing a lot of different roles, and I would anticipate us doing the same this year.
Grant: It's been fun to watch that room kind of embrace that challenge. I know Kyle has the go-ball down, but he's talked about, you know, expanding his route for you some of the more intermediate stuff this summer. How have you seen that process go for him? Yeah, I don't think the go-ball works if they don't respect intermediate routes, because if all they're doing is trying to stay on top of a go-ball, there are plenty of corners that can run in his league. But his release package, the way he sets things up at the second level, I think has really been cool to watch that mature, and I think he's working really, really hard at the things that we don't ask him to do a lot. And earlier, I alluded to with, you know, his role and confidence, you know, it takes that repeated success, and so for Kyle, I think he's trending towards more and more confidence with more and more roles on this team, and I'm proud of him for how hard he's working.
Grant: You know, you can get to a point where you can't hear, you know? I mean, that's obvious, you know, in a lot of different stadiums that you go, and then, you know, it's the amount of, really, for me as a player, when I did it, it was a matter of just managing, you know what I'm saying, that, you know, here it comes, and then you're going against, it's different than college, because now you're, the best player you're playing in college, you're playing every week, you know what I'm saying, and it's at every position. So you're kind of just, you know, making sure, like, look, I'm not going to try to cheat this thing, I'm not going to get it, I'm going to get off at the same time, and we're going to be okay.
Grant: The last question from the answer is that, when you've seen teams screw it up, for lack of a better term, is there, and you kind of alluded to it with like the accordion thing, is there some single overriding thing you can point to where you can say, yeah, you know, that's the reason why the silent count, it didn't work? I can't, I can't speak for every player where I've seen it not work. I would say from my own experience of doing it is when, you know, at that point, where I'm seeing, you know, what my responsibility is and what I have to do, you know, and then right at that point, you know, there's something that pops in my head that creates just a little lack of, just a tiny little bit of lack of focus. And really that's, for me, that's all it would take to either, maybe I snapped it, you know, a little bit late, maybe I was playing guard and I got off the ball a little bit late, you know, or, you know, maybe all of a sudden I saw something and I went early, that was my experience in doing it. And then I've always tried to train myself when I was a player to just be like, okay, I'm just gonna, okay, here's my job, here's my responsibility, okay, here we go. The number one thing I have to do right now is just focus on this snap count. And it doesn't change really. And I think this is where people may not really, maybe understand, it's the same way when we're doing it with the cadence. You see what I'm saying? So it's that same type of focus that you need, you know what I'm saying, when all these things occur.
Grant: Having a veteran in the room, like a larger bear attacker, what have you seen from him and what's it been like just working with him? Yeah, I've enjoyed, you know, working with him, you know, and communicating. And I think it's always great, you know, when you come in as a coach and you bring in a veteran player that has had success, you know, and then how do you continue it? You know, how do you build back on, you know, maybe some of the time that he missed, you know, as a player, and then really creating that relationship and creating that communication. You know, the biggest thing for me, you know, with players is trying to create the communication and understand that, hey, listen, my job is really just to get you better. You know, so I'm gonna do everything I can. I may say things a little bit differently. How did you do things before? What'd you think of this? What'd you like to do? Hey, this is what we do. You know what I'm saying? So those conversations have been going on and I feel really comfortable, you know what I'm saying, in the position I'm in as a coach, you know, being able to communicate with him and try to help him become a better football player.
Unknown: Guys, what's next?
Unknown: Good morning. After the Super Bowl, some of the Seahawks players had mentioned that they might have had a tail on some of the linemen, the bats, and I'm just wondering if you guys, I'm sure you guys look for that kind of stuff all the time, but did you look for that specifically and did you find anything?
Unknown: I think, I mean, you're looking all the time for that, you know, whether it's just in a normal down situation, passing down situations, whatever it may be. So, you know, it's something that, you know, we monitor ourselves and, you know, we just try to make everything look as consistent as possible. You know, there's some situations that you get in these games where, you know, you're behind and you got to throw the football that, you know, pretty much, you know, we're going to throw the football. You know what I'm saying? Or you're in two minutes with no time out. So, I mean, there are situations in the game that, you know, I could say for what you don't want to do is you don't want to give it away in situations where, you know, we can go either way.
Unknown: So, it's with Jared Wilson, and I apologize with you. No, that's okay. But with Jared Wilson, moving back to some of these here, what have you seen from him when we've talked from Peter's talks about his comfort level and kind of being back in that position? Are you seeing that comfort level, and how are you seeing him develop?
