September 25, 2025 • 18 mins
DC Joe Whitt Jr. speaks to the media before today's practice.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last week.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Okay, all right, so we'll start We'll start off with
just a recap of last week's game, and then I'll
talk about Atlanta and then many questions that you guys have.
Last week, I thought, you know, a couple of guys
that really stood out, were Paying He graded the highs
(00:21):
on the defense. I mean he was just outstanding, I
mean the highest of the year. And along with him
up front you had d A and and JK. They
all graded really well. On in the mid line, Bobby,
he graded out really well, and then on the back
end it was Sean and and Trey and so I
thought we did a nice job. And we've done a
(00:41):
nice job all year on first down stopping the run.
So that's produced more second and seventh plus, which gives
us the ability to rush the passers. I think we're
produced the fourth most second and seventh plus and the
third most third and eleven plus. So when saying that,
that allows us to get after the quarterback a little
(01:04):
bit more. But it all starts with stopping the run,
especially in between the tackles. Green Bay game, you know,
they got outside of us some with some receiver runs.
So I think the Russian coverage what was good from
that standpoint. Third down I thought was really good in
the game. I think they were three of fourteen somewhere
(01:24):
around there. I think we're very high in the league
and that so some things that we have to make
sure we sure up. They had one hundred yards on
two pass plays and so you definitely don't want one
and those those went for ten points. You definitely don't
want that to happen. We once again, we had opportunities
at turnovers. You know, we dropped the interception two times.
We were sacking the quarterback. He had one hand on
(01:46):
the ball and we were close to getting the ball out,
but close doesn't cut it. So we didn't have any turnovers.
So you know, that was a recap of what you
know from the Vegas game. But I thought the guys
man the play style was what we were looking for.
We have what we call turn back, where either we
tackle them behind the line of scrimmage or their head
is pointing towards their end zone. And we had twenty
(02:06):
six of those plays. That's a lot, you know, when
you're hitting and turning people back the other way or
hitting them behind their line of scrimmage. So I really
like the running hit. We just have to cut down
the displosive plays. We have nine for the year. That's
three per game, and that's that's too many. Now talking
about Atlanta, Man really just a young talented offense, okay.
(02:27):
And it starts with the running back. You know, we
put up the key players each week, and you know,
you put your strength to strength and the weaknesses. And
I didn't have any weaknesses for the guy Man. I
was just like man, he can do it all. He
can run inside, outside, he can catch, he can block,
he can run the screen game, he can he does
it all very very well. So and then you have London,
(02:48):
who's a really good tough you know, when I say dirty,
he gets in there and block. But he's a receiver,
you know, and he blocks like a tight end. And
then you get to the tight end pits he runs
like a receiver, know, and he's very talented. I think
he's having a good year in the quarterback, really good
arm talent. The ball pops out of his hand. He
could throw a deep he could throw, you know, make
(03:09):
any throw. And then the line, you know, the veterans,
you know, Matthews is still there. The guards still mean,
they're they're they're blocking as a unit. So I know
people are gonna say, you know what happened to him
last week, Well, guess what what happened to us in
Green Bay. We did not want that to happen twice.
So they're not gonna want that to happen twice. So
they're gonna come out ready to play. Raheem's a hell
of a coach. He knows both sides of the ball,
(03:30):
and he's gonna have those guys ready to rock and roll.
So waiting with that, any questions there we go.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
With with Jon going back to him and just what
else makes him that special and hard to stop?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Like I said, he can do everything, Okay, he he
has the ability if you if you start crashing inside
to stop the inside run, he can beat you to
the to the perimeter, and he's fast enough to outrun people.
He runs with power, he has a jump cut, he
can run in between the tackles.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
The screen game.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
They haven't run a lot of screens, but he can
catch the ball, you can put them out of receiver,
he can run slancy.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
He's just a complete football player.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And I mean, I just I just really enjoy watching
his film because he does it all.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And then you talk about the explosive plays in the
past game, like how what is there a theme and
what what are you doing to help cut down on those?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It's really not a theme from this last game. We
just didn't do our damn job, you know, cover your
cover the guy and and and and send the ball
where we're supposed to send it. So every coverage that
we have there's there's rules to it, and then we
want to send the ball. So in certain coverages, if
they catch the ball on the out route, nothing is
going to be said because we have other coverages for that.
If they catch the ball here or there, we have
(04:45):
you know, but if if you're not defending where it's
supposed to be defended, it's gonna be an issue. And
so we just got to the players that that, and
they have to do their job there so and I
got to make sure they do it.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Will Harris out unfortunately, but you guys have a deep
group back there. How do you kind of see it
shaking out?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah? First, I hate that. Will you know it is out.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
A tough player went back out there and played on
it for another player too, So.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You know, Revo, we talked about revo doing doing.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The during training camp, not training camp, but even before
then during the spring man He's deserved this time, man.
And the thing that I said was how do we
pull him away from special teams? And that's going to
be the challenge, and that's what we have to work
at because he is our special team's ace. But you
saw the play he made on third and one, you know,
just diving in there. He's a physical guy. He's a
guy that I do feel like can produce the ball.
(05:34):
He's smart, he communicates well, so you know, his role
would definitely pick up too. Will have to pick up
his role. And now that we have Savage here. Jason
Simmons had Savage in Green Bay, and I remember when
he first got him, he called me, He's like, man,
this dude is the smartest rookie I've ever had. And
so when he got here a couple of days ago,
we have our concept teaching that we put on our iPad.
(05:56):
He was popping off our defense because he had gone
through our film already and so are the concept tapes.
So he's extremely smart guy, and so hopefully he can
grasp it soon and so we can.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Get him out there.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I think late in the game at one point, I
think you had like three starters on the back end.
How did you feel the guys stepped up in their
you know.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
That made it a little bit difficult from a play
call standpoint because we had people in spaces that they
hadn't practiced. So the call sheet really shrunk down to
really three calls, and especially the last drive, you know,
when they hit that loan ball and so. But that's
just that's football, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It happens.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Like I said, injuries are just like you know, catching
and tackling.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
We have to fight through it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The game was you know, we had control of the
game at the time, but we didn't want to put
guys in harms, harm's way and calling calls that they
really weren't comfortable with, so we kept with, you know,
three calls at that time.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
With the game, I think through.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Three weeks, every week you've at some point highlighted JK
and the way he's played just as a whole through
three weeks. What is he added to your defense this year?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, I beg for the for the young man
last year when he went to the Jets, and I
sort of chuckled when people were saying negative things about him.
He is what we needed at that position. He's a penetrated,
disruptive man. Okay, and so if you know, and now
(07:27):
what has that done for pain? All right, pain doesn't
have to He's not gonna get all the doubles. He's
not gonna get because they got to take care of
ninety nine and then want to say take care of
ninety nine. Now they got to take care of ninety
four at times, and so now ninety two, all right,
he's had a sack every game, and everybody talks about
or Frankie not having a great year. Yes, Frankie is
having a good year. Okay, all right, people aren't gonna
(07:50):
allow Frankie to do what he's done. I'm gonna get
I'm gonna answer your questions. But the people are not
gonna allow Frankie to do what he did last year,
so they're turning bigs to him. So now da, So
now that people are not gonna allow Dia to keep
doing what he's doing, they're not gonna allow JK to
keep doing what he's doing. So they have to make
decisions on who are they're gonna allow to be factors
(08:10):
in the game, and so JK has given us the
ability to open up other pieces, same way that Frankie
has given us the ability to open up other pieces.
Frankie's time will come because they're not gonna keep letting
da Go wreck the game. They're not gonna keep letting
ninety nine wreck the game. So when those times come,
the other players will have their opportunities to make plays.
If that answers your question. Yeah, and then just I
(08:33):
know Preston Smith was was brand new here last week.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
What have you gotten to know about him? Who was
inactive last week?
Speaker 6 (08:40):
But is there a role.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Carved out for him?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, there's there's definitely a role you know. Once again
he was he was in Green Bay with with Simo,
so have history with him there and then we played
them in the playoff game here, So I know the guy.
Know he has the ability to get to the quarterback
and he's smart. Uh, he understands the scheme similar to
some of the stuff that he's done before. So it's
just really him getting into you know, football shape and
(09:05):
ready to go. But from a mindset, he's a smart
man that understands what we're doing. Yeah, what do you
make of PENICX with Penance, Yeah, I think, man, the
ball pops out of his hand. He's a strong arm
guy that moves better than people thinks. You know, he
put a ball in on that fourth and thirteen last
(09:25):
year up the scene against us that shouldn't have got
in there and the coverage that we were in, but
he got it in there. And so he's just a
talented strong arm guy and Raheem's going to make sure
that he puts him in position that he's going to
be successful with Daurance.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
I know you mentioned that he's obviously partly feeding off
his teammates, but for him as an individual who's been
a really strong start to the season with a sack
of every game, what has he been doing this made
him so effective?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So yeah, I know, I'm not trying to minimize what
he's done. Now.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We saw this coming because of the way that he
worked during the off season, and he's playing his best
ball because of the work that he's put in, So
you know, I anticipate that to keep going on. But
it's just not the sacks. It's the way that he
sets edge, just the way that he communicates up front.
He's a complete football player. He's just not a pass rusher.
(10:15):
He's just not a run stopper. He's a complete guy.
So please where he is, and I anticipate the play
to stay the same.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
A defensive mind. As a defensive play caller, when facing
a young quarterback who may not be seeing things as
quickly as they would like to, how do you balanceing
schematically between doing what you do best and between attempting
to confuse him?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Just generally, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't do scheme questions though, because I know Rahiem
is watching this interview just like I watched his yesterday,
and so I can't really answer that right now. But
he's a young quarterback, and you try to do certain
things with those guys. But I can't talk about it
right here. I'm doing good?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
How you doing doing good?
Speaker 8 (11:00):
One play that really stood out one of the Bobby
Wagner sacks against the Raiders. It was a situation where
Gino basically was left in the situation by the defense
to take the sack or potentially gift wrapping an interception
of jail A Holmes. I know that's probably one of
the players.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
The one that he came free of, the one that
he had them and he went down.
Speaker 8 (11:16):
With Bobby became free on that one.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It was very quick. Okay, okay, yeah, I'm with you to.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Put a quarterback in a situation like that, obviously without
the schematics of it, but like, what does it take
from your unit to put a quarterback in a situation
where literally there's just there's no victory there.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, the thing it starts with stopping the run. So
once we knew that we could get them in known
pass situations, okay, we were going to force them to
make a decision on who they're going to put the
back on or and and on that player you're talking about.
The back was supposed to block Bobby, he ran out
and he aborted it, so we were free. So now
(11:49):
that's to your point, that's a rookie running back. He
made a mistake there. And so if we can stop
the run and play the run, now we're putting putting
them in known situations. Now we can sort of dictate
on who the back is. He gonna block Bobby's, he
gonna block Oozie's, he gonna be on one of those
big guys. They don't necessarily want to do that. So
but we have to stop the run, you know, and
(12:10):
that's the most important thing, stopping the run. To get
into the known past situations you.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Talk kind of we're talking special teams sometimes about catching
a punt from a left handed punter. How it's different
playing a left handed quarterback. Is that funky for a
defensive coordinator to try and play for somebody who a
little bit different.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Than Yeah, you know it. I could think all the
way back. I wasn't the coordinator at the time, but
we were playing the Eagles, and I can't remember the
starting quarterback. Mike big was the backup, and we hurt
the starter, and we had shifted. We had our best
cover guy on the on the left side. And then
when Mike came in, he scored a touchdown and I
didn't flip the corners and he scored a touchdown on
(12:49):
a rookie corner that I had in there, and I
should have put him on the backside hand of the
quarterback and I didn't do it, you know. And then
and so things like that. You understand, Okay, which way
you know? Typically right hand quarterbacks throw better to the right,
all right, some can throw.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Which way? Do we need to roll the coverage?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Are we going to you know, roll left or right
depending on where the ball goes, but it and it
just spends out of their hands, different for the guys
catching it also.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
Hey ye, Back to Bobby, Obviously we think of a
lot of positives with him. I don't think we think
of speed as necessarily one of his better traits at
this point, but obviously on those past rushes he showed
a lot. How much of that, I'm sure scheme has
to do with it, as you said, but how much
is also just his instincts understanding where the play is
coming from allows him to maybe move faster than the
forty time.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
To Yeah, I tell I tell our scouts all the time,
because I like veteran players. They move faster than rookies
because rookies don't know what they're looking at, and so
they might run on forty faster, but they don't play
faster because Bobby and Key and Dian knowse what he sees,
and he goes while the rookie is still sitting there
trying to figure it out. You know, So he plays
extremely fast. I don't know what his forty is, but
(13:54):
he plays fast and that's all that matters.
Speaker 7 (13:57):
And you were your first game with that. Ditrich wise,
how do you kind of think that defensive end rotation
worked for you as in Slashkin.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, you know, I've been really pleased with Jacob Martin.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
He's a man's man. He can set edges, he's tough.
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Initially when we brought him on, I thought he was
gonna be a guy that just rushed the pastor he
is not that. He is a complete football player, So
been pleased with him. Baptiste was able to get in
there and start to do some things. I was pleased
with what he did. And then we brought Jayalen Holmes
up and he's a big, square body that can play
inside and outside. So I thought the front played. I thought,
I think they played really well all three games, you know,
(14:32):
to be honest.
Speaker 9 (14:32):
With you, thank you hey, coach. So going back to
the non explosive plays that you mentioned in the first
three games of the season, were any of those without
giving any of the secret sauce of course, where any
of those of is it just football or is it
one of those things where it's like, okay, yeah, we
were not in the right spot.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Okay, like the ones in Green Bay. We guy was free, right,
We didn't play that correctly the very first play of
the game this that past week. The kid didn't play
it correctly, right, he should not be that open. The
last play, played the covers right, then played the way
they should have been, you know, shouldn't have been open.
So those three players were. They were just wide open.
(15:15):
And that's bothersome to me because if you're fighting like
hell and the guy catches the ball like on the
one that was on Sean that I thought was OPI
on the sideline in Green Bay, that really don't that's football. Okay,
they're gonna catch some balls, okay, every once in a while,
but we can't have free runners. And so the switch verticals,
(15:35):
which this team ran again, they ran to switch verticals
and and well Noah broke it up and then we
ran to switch verticals on them, and McCaffrey scored the touchdown.
Same play, all right, they ran the same play. We
ran the same play. Where you're gonna get it every
week at some point you just have to defend it.
We got against New York. We defended it. We got
against Green Bay. We didn't got it this week. We did.
(15:58):
Hopefully we defended the rest of the week because you're
going to get those issue type plays. But we can't
allow those those those free runners.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
Hey, coach, and looking at your safeties and dbs, whatever
you've seen with them, as far as communication and trusting
each other.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I've seen it's being really, really good. You know.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
One reason that we're getting so much pressure on the
quarterbacks because those guys are coming their ass off on
the back end. You know, you can say what you
want to either. The free runners sort of skew the
look of everything's open. Well, we're number one in the
league and completion percentage. We don't give up a bunch
of completions, okay, and so but just the ones that
we have given up have been just too long. And
(16:38):
once we share that up, and that's why I just
talk to those guys about if we do two things,
we share that up and start getting the dang ball.
Now the defense takes up because the run game has
been under control with pressure in the quarterback and the
communication of the safeties have been outstanding, communication of the
DB's have been outstanding.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
A lot of.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Those sacks come from there's been nowhere to go with
the football, all right, and so the guys can get
to their second rush. It's complimentary defense when the Russian
coverage worked together. And so I told the guys that
we left meat on the bone in this game. From
from we should have had three more sacks, we dropped
the interception, we didn't get the fumble out, and then
(17:17):
to have the points at sixteen and to give up
that deep touchdown. If we want to be the type
of defense that we can be, we can't give up
and put that stink on us at the end of
a game and make it feel bad, you know, because
the game if we if that play doesn't happen, it
don't feel like you know, it feels just better, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And so.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Hopefully we can just not let that happen. And I
don't I don't anticipate it to happen. Yeah you can,
because I was. I was a jerk to you last weekend.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
On the right side, yeah, yeah, you know, I called
myself up being smart one year to Sam Shill's played
on one side of the field.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
He's always on the right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I said, man, I'm gonna put him on the left
and and and he didn't play as well over there,
and I put his butt right back on the right.
You know, because that's where he made his living. So
to that point, yes, but Sean can play because he's
a He's matched before a lot, you know, and so
once Sam got to matching, it didn't really matter putting
them left and right. So Sewan has matched, so he
(18:25):
can play left and right, and Tray and play left
and right as well.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
That's a very good question. All right, y'all have a
great one.
Last week.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Okay, all right, so we'll start We'll start off with
just a recap of last week's game, and then I'll
talk about Atlanta and then many questions that you guys have.
Last week, I thought, you know, a couple of guys
that really stood out, were Paying He graded the highs
(00:21):
on the defense. I mean he was just outstanding, I
mean the highest of the year. And along with him
up front you had d A and and JK. They
all graded really well. On in the mid line, Bobby,
he graded out really well, and then on the back
end it was Sean and and Trey and so I
thought we did a nice job. And we've done a
(00:41):
nice job all year on first down stopping the run.
So that's produced more second and seventh plus, which gives
us the ability to rush the passers. I think we're
produced the fourth most second and seventh plus and the
third most third and eleven plus. So when saying that,
that allows us to get after the quarterback a little
(01:04):
bit more. But it all starts with stopping the run,
especially in between the tackles. Green Bay game, you know,
they got outside of us some with some receiver runs.
So I think the Russian coverage what was good from
that standpoint. Third down I thought was really good in
the game. I think they were three of fourteen somewhere
(01:24):
around there. I think we're very high in the league
and that so some things that we have to make
sure we sure up. They had one hundred yards on
two pass plays and so you definitely don't want one
and those those went for ten points. You definitely don't
want that to happen. We once again, we had opportunities
at turnovers. You know, we dropped the interception two times.
We were sacking the quarterback. He had one hand on
(01:46):
the ball and we were close to getting the ball out,
but close doesn't cut it. So we didn't have any turnovers.
So you know, that was a recap of what you
know from the Vegas game. But I thought the guys
man the play style was what we were looking for.
We have what we call turn back, where either we
tackle them behind the line of scrimmage or their head
is pointing towards their end zone. And we had twenty
(02:06):
six of those plays. That's a lot, you know, when
you're hitting and turning people back the other way or
hitting them behind their line of scrimmage. So I really
like the running hit. We just have to cut down
the displosive plays. We have nine for the year. That's
three per game, and that's that's too many. Now talking
about Atlanta, Man really just a young talented offense, okay.
(02:27):
And it starts with the running back. You know, we
put up the key players each week, and you know,
you put your strength to strength and the weaknesses. And
I didn't have any weaknesses for the guy Man. I
was just like man, he can do it all. He
can run inside, outside, he can catch, he can block,
he can run the screen game, he can he does
it all very very well. So and then you have London,
(02:48):
who's a really good tough you know, when I say dirty,
he gets in there and block. But he's a receiver,
you know, and he blocks like a tight end. And
then you get to the tight end pits he runs
like a receiver, know, and he's very talented. I think
he's having a good year in the quarterback, really good
arm talent. The ball pops out of his hand. He
could throw a deep he could throw, you know, make
(03:09):
any throw. And then the line, you know, the veterans,
you know, Matthews is still there. The guards still mean,
they're they're they're blocking as a unit. So I know
people are gonna say, you know what happened to him
last week, Well, guess what what happened to us in
Green Bay. We did not want that to happen twice.
So they're not gonna want that to happen twice. So
they're gonna come out ready to play. Raheem's a hell
of a coach. He knows both sides of the ball,
(03:30):
and he's gonna have those guys ready to rock and roll.
So waiting with that, any questions there we go.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
With with Jon going back to him and just what
else makes him that special and hard to stop?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Like I said, he can do everything, Okay, he he
has the ability if you if you start crashing inside
to stop the inside run, he can beat you to
the to the perimeter, and he's fast enough to outrun people.
He runs with power, he has a jump cut, he
can run in between the tackles.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
The screen game.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
They haven't run a lot of screens, but he can
catch the ball, you can put them out of receiver,
he can run slancy.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
He's just a complete football player.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And I mean, I just I just really enjoy watching
his film because he does it all.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And then you talk about the explosive plays in the
past game, like how what is there a theme and
what what are you doing to help cut down on those?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It's really not a theme from this last game. We
just didn't do our damn job, you know, cover your
cover the guy and and and and send the ball
where we're supposed to send it. So every coverage that
we have there's there's rules to it, and then we
want to send the ball. So in certain coverages, if
they catch the ball on the out route, nothing is
going to be said because we have other coverages for that.
If they catch the ball here or there, we have
(04:45):
you know, but if if you're not defending where it's
supposed to be defended, it's gonna be an issue. And
so we just got to the players that that, and
they have to do their job there so and I
got to make sure they do it.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Will Harris out unfortunately, but you guys have a deep
group back there. How do you kind of see it
shaking out?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah? First, I hate that. Will you know it is out.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
A tough player went back out there and played on
it for another player too, So.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You know, Revo, we talked about revo doing doing.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The during training camp, not training camp, but even before
then during the spring man He's deserved this time, man.
And the thing that I said was how do we
pull him away from special teams? And that's going to
be the challenge, and that's what we have to work
at because he is our special team's ace. But you
saw the play he made on third and one, you know,
just diving in there. He's a physical guy. He's a
guy that I do feel like can produce the ball.
(05:34):
He's smart, he communicates well, so you know, his role
would definitely pick up too. Will have to pick up
his role. And now that we have Savage here. Jason
Simmons had Savage in Green Bay, and I remember when
he first got him, he called me, He's like, man,
this dude is the smartest rookie I've ever had. And
so when he got here a couple of days ago,
we have our concept teaching that we put on our iPad.
(05:56):
He was popping off our defense because he had gone
through our film already and so are the concept tapes.
So he's extremely smart guy, and so hopefully he can
grasp it soon and so we can.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Get him out there.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I think late in the game at one point, I
think you had like three starters on the back end.
How did you feel the guys stepped up in their
you know.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
That made it a little bit difficult from a play
call standpoint because we had people in spaces that they
hadn't practiced. So the call sheet really shrunk down to
really three calls, and especially the last drive, you know,
when they hit that loan ball and so. But that's
just that's football, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It happens.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Like I said, injuries are just like you know, catching
and tackling.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
We have to fight through it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The game was you know, we had control of the
game at the time, but we didn't want to put
guys in harms, harm's way and calling calls that they
really weren't comfortable with, so we kept with, you know,
three calls at that time.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
With the game, I think through.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Three weeks, every week you've at some point highlighted JK
and the way he's played just as a whole through
three weeks. What is he added to your defense this year?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, I beg for the for the young man
last year when he went to the Jets, and I
sort of chuckled when people were saying negative things about him.
He is what we needed at that position. He's a penetrated,
disruptive man. Okay, and so if you know, and now
(07:27):
what has that done for pain? All right, pain doesn't
have to He's not gonna get all the doubles. He's
not gonna get because they got to take care of
ninety nine and then want to say take care of
ninety nine. Now they got to take care of ninety
four at times, and so now ninety two, all right,
he's had a sack every game, and everybody talks about
or Frankie not having a great year. Yes, Frankie is
having a good year. Okay, all right, people aren't gonna
(07:50):
allow Frankie to do what he's done. I'm gonna get
I'm gonna answer your questions. But the people are not
gonna allow Frankie to do what he did last year,
so they're turning bigs to him. So now da, So
now that people are not gonna allow Dia to keep
doing what he's doing, they're not gonna allow JK to
keep doing what he's doing. So they have to make
decisions on who are they're gonna allow to be factors
(08:10):
in the game, and so JK has given us the
ability to open up other pieces, same way that Frankie
has given us the ability to open up other pieces.
Frankie's time will come because they're not gonna keep letting
da Go wreck the game. They're not gonna keep letting
ninety nine wreck the game. So when those times come,
the other players will have their opportunities to make plays.
If that answers your question. Yeah, and then just I
(08:33):
know Preston Smith was was brand new here last week.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
What have you gotten to know about him? Who was
inactive last week?
Speaker 6 (08:40):
But is there a role.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Carved out for him?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, there's there's definitely a role you know. Once again
he was he was in Green Bay with with Simo,
so have history with him there and then we played
them in the playoff game here, So I know the guy.
Know he has the ability to get to the quarterback
and he's smart. Uh, he understands the scheme similar to
some of the stuff that he's done before. So it's
just really him getting into you know, football shape and
(09:05):
ready to go. But from a mindset, he's a smart
man that understands what we're doing. Yeah, what do you
make of PENICX with Penance, Yeah, I think, man, the
ball pops out of his hand. He's a strong arm
guy that moves better than people thinks. You know, he
put a ball in on that fourth and thirteen last
(09:25):
year up the scene against us that shouldn't have got
in there and the coverage that we were in, but
he got it in there. And so he's just a
talented strong arm guy and Raheem's going to make sure
that he puts him in position that he's going to
be successful with Daurance.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
I know you mentioned that he's obviously partly feeding off
his teammates, but for him as an individual who's been
a really strong start to the season with a sack
of every game, what has he been doing this made
him so effective?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So yeah, I know, I'm not trying to minimize what
he's done. Now.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We saw this coming because of the way that he
worked during the off season, and he's playing his best
ball because of the work that he's put in, So
you know, I anticipate that to keep going on. But
it's just not the sacks. It's the way that he
sets edge, just the way that he communicates up front.
He's a complete football player. He's just not a pass rusher.
(10:15):
He's just not a run stopper. He's a complete guy.
So please where he is, and I anticipate the play
to stay the same.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
A defensive mind. As a defensive play caller, when facing
a young quarterback who may not be seeing things as
quickly as they would like to, how do you balanceing
schematically between doing what you do best and between attempting
to confuse him?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Just generally, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't do scheme questions though, because I know Rahiem
is watching this interview just like I watched his yesterday,
and so I can't really answer that right now. But
he's a young quarterback, and you try to do certain
things with those guys. But I can't talk about it
right here. I'm doing good?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
How you doing doing good?
Speaker 8 (11:00):
One play that really stood out one of the Bobby
Wagner sacks against the Raiders. It was a situation where
Gino basically was left in the situation by the defense
to take the sack or potentially gift wrapping an interception
of jail A Holmes. I know that's probably one of
the players.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
The one that he came free of, the one that
he had them and he went down.
Speaker 8 (11:16):
With Bobby became free on that one.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It was very quick. Okay, okay, yeah, I'm with you to.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Put a quarterback in a situation like that, obviously without
the schematics of it, but like, what does it take
from your unit to put a quarterback in a situation
where literally there's just there's no victory there.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, the thing it starts with stopping the run. So
once we knew that we could get them in known
pass situations, okay, we were going to force them to
make a decision on who they're going to put the
back on or and and on that player you're talking about.
The back was supposed to block Bobby, he ran out
and he aborted it, so we were free. So now
(11:49):
that's to your point, that's a rookie running back. He
made a mistake there. And so if we can stop
the run and play the run, now we're putting putting
them in known situations. Now we can sort of dictate
on who the back is. He gonna block Bobby's, he
gonna block Oozie's, he gonna be on one of those
big guys. They don't necessarily want to do that. So
but we have to stop the run, you know, and
(12:10):
that's the most important thing, stopping the run. To get
into the known past situations you.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Talk kind of we're talking special teams sometimes about catching
a punt from a left handed punter. How it's different
playing a left handed quarterback. Is that funky for a
defensive coordinator to try and play for somebody who a
little bit different.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Than Yeah, you know it. I could think all the
way back. I wasn't the coordinator at the time, but
we were playing the Eagles, and I can't remember the
starting quarterback. Mike big was the backup, and we hurt
the starter, and we had shifted. We had our best
cover guy on the on the left side. And then
when Mike came in, he scored a touchdown and I
didn't flip the corners and he scored a touchdown on
(12:49):
a rookie corner that I had in there, and I
should have put him on the backside hand of the
quarterback and I didn't do it, you know. And then
and so things like that. You understand, Okay, which way
you know? Typically right hand quarterbacks throw better to the right,
all right, some can throw.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Which way? Do we need to roll the coverage?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Are we going to you know, roll left or right
depending on where the ball goes, but it and it
just spends out of their hands, different for the guys
catching it also.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
Hey ye, Back to Bobby, Obviously we think of a
lot of positives with him. I don't think we think
of speed as necessarily one of his better traits at
this point, but obviously on those past rushes he showed
a lot. How much of that, I'm sure scheme has
to do with it, as you said, but how much
is also just his instincts understanding where the play is
coming from allows him to maybe move faster than the
forty time.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
To Yeah, I tell I tell our scouts all the time,
because I like veteran players. They move faster than rookies
because rookies don't know what they're looking at, and so
they might run on forty faster, but they don't play
faster because Bobby and Key and Dian knowse what he sees,
and he goes while the rookie is still sitting there
trying to figure it out. You know, So he plays
extremely fast. I don't know what his forty is, but
(13:54):
he plays fast and that's all that matters.
Speaker 7 (13:57):
And you were your first game with that. Ditrich wise,
how do you kind of think that defensive end rotation
worked for you as in Slashkin.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, you know, I've been really pleased with Jacob Martin.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
He's a man's man. He can set edges, he's tough.
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Initially when we brought him on, I thought he was
gonna be a guy that just rushed the pastor he
is not that. He is a complete football player, So
been pleased with him. Baptiste was able to get in
there and start to do some things. I was pleased
with what he did. And then we brought Jayalen Holmes
up and he's a big, square body that can play
inside and outside. So I thought the front played. I thought,
I think they played really well all three games, you know,
(14:32):
to be honest.
Speaker 9 (14:32):
With you, thank you hey, coach. So going back to
the non explosive plays that you mentioned in the first
three games of the season, were any of those without
giving any of the secret sauce of course, where any
of those of is it just football or is it
one of those things where it's like, okay, yeah, we
were not in the right spot.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Okay, like the ones in Green Bay. We guy was free, right,
We didn't play that correctly the very first play of
the game this that past week. The kid didn't play
it correctly, right, he should not be that open. The
last play, played the covers right, then played the way
they should have been, you know, shouldn't have been open.
So those three players were. They were just wide open.
(15:15):
And that's bothersome to me because if you're fighting like
hell and the guy catches the ball like on the
one that was on Sean that I thought was OPI
on the sideline in Green Bay, that really don't that's football. Okay,
they're gonna catch some balls, okay, every once in a while,
but we can't have free runners. And so the switch verticals,
(15:35):
which this team ran again, they ran to switch verticals
and and well Noah broke it up and then we
ran to switch verticals on them, and McCaffrey scored the touchdown.
Same play, all right, they ran the same play. We
ran the same play. Where you're gonna get it every
week at some point you just have to defend it.
We got against New York. We defended it. We got
against Green Bay. We didn't got it this week. We did.
(15:58):
Hopefully we defended the rest of the week because you're
going to get those issue type plays. But we can't
allow those those those free runners.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
Hey, coach, and looking at your safeties and dbs, whatever
you've seen with them, as far as communication and trusting
each other.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I've seen it's being really, really good. You know.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
One reason that we're getting so much pressure on the
quarterbacks because those guys are coming their ass off on
the back end. You know, you can say what you
want to either. The free runners sort of skew the
look of everything's open. Well, we're number one in the
league and completion percentage. We don't give up a bunch
of completions, okay, and so but just the ones that
we have given up have been just too long. And
(16:38):
once we share that up, and that's why I just
talk to those guys about if we do two things,
we share that up and start getting the dang ball.
Now the defense takes up because the run game has
been under control with pressure in the quarterback and the
communication of the safeties have been outstanding, communication of the
DB's have been outstanding.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
A lot of.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Those sacks come from there's been nowhere to go with
the football, all right, and so the guys can get
to their second rush. It's complimentary defense when the Russian
coverage worked together. And so I told the guys that
we left meat on the bone in this game. From
from we should have had three more sacks, we dropped
the interception, we didn't get the fumble out, and then
(17:17):
to have the points at sixteen and to give up
that deep touchdown. If we want to be the type
of defense that we can be, we can't give up
and put that stink on us at the end of
a game and make it feel bad, you know, because
the game if we if that play doesn't happen, it
don't feel like you know, it feels just better, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And so.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Hopefully we can just not let that happen. And I
don't I don't anticipate it to happen. Yeah you can,
because I was. I was a jerk to you last weekend.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
On the right side, yeah, yeah, you know, I called
myself up being smart one year to Sam Shill's played
on one side of the field.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
He's always on the right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I said, man, I'm gonna put him on the left
and and and he didn't play as well over there,
and I put his butt right back on the right.
You know, because that's where he made his living. So
to that point, yes, but Sean can play because he's
a He's matched before a lot, you know, and so
once Sam got to matching, it didn't really matter putting
them left and right. So Sewan has matched, so he
(18:25):
can play left and right, and Tray and play left
and right as well.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
That's a very good question. All right, y'all have a
great one.
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