DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY CAMPANILE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2025
(On preparing to face Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes) “That’s a great question. Yeah, definitely
not easy to prepare for, have done that a few times in the past, but just an exceptional
player. As good as there has ever been, I think at the position. Super talented, super smart,
tough guy. So, it’s a lot of work preparing for him. That’s probably the best way to say it.”
(On the strain Mahomes can put on a defense) “He has every attribute. He’s top tier, so he
can put a ton of strain on you. Obviously, everybody has to do a great job plastering down
the field because he’s just kind of kept so many plays alive in his career and been able, like
you said, to get the ball down the field. But, not only that, he really does a great job of
throwing on time, the rhythm pass game is as good as there is in the league too. So, you
can’t say enough good things about him because he really is an incredible player.”
(On the keys to the team’s red zone defense) “Yeah, I think really the guys their
communication, their ability to settle down and just keep playing through the rhythm of the
down, understanding where you are on the field and in some ways it can be advantage
defense in terms of the field being oftentimes three times as wide as it is long. Just
understanding how to play, what type of routes you’re going to get and anchoring down in
the run game was something I thought we did a good job of last week in San Fran,
especially early. They did a good job in their opening script and moved the ball down the
field and the guys really locked in and did a good job in our three red zone snaps down
there.”
(On how impressed he was with LB Jack Kiser and S Rayuan Lane III stepping in last week)
“Yeah, I was very impressed by both of those guys because football’s a game like that as
you know. Your number may get called and you’re up there, you’re ready to go and they were
prepared. Credit to them and then really a credit to their coaches, like [Defensive Backs
Coach] Anthony Perkins I think has done a great job with Ray Lane up to this point and then
same thing with [Linebackers Coach] Tem Lukabu, who’s done a great job with Jack Kiser all
throughout the spring, summer and everything. Jack’s been ready to go.”
(On where WR/DB Travis Hunter is currently at) “I think like everybody, I was just having this
conversation with our guys, we just need to be more detailed as a whole defensively and I
think that’s something you would say—I probably would say that every season I’ve been
coaching. And I think most coaches would say that, but that’s really it. I could say that
about us as a unit and you’re working through that. I talked about this in the past too, how
it’s a long season and every week you’re kind of finding out what you do well, and you start
to gravitate toward those towards those things that your players do well. And I think that
there’s a bunch for all of us to improve on.”
(On preparing for Mahomes’ ability to run) “Yeah, I feel like he’s always been pretty active as
a runner. I know he is running the ball a little bit more, but in past games he’s done a good
job of that against us. When I was in Miami, we had played him a bunch of times, and I
thought he always did a good job keeping plays alive and trying to get through the middle of
the defense or getting an escape hatch in the pass rush, finding a way out of there. So, it
really does add another difficult element to a defense, for sure.”
(On the challenge of facing Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy) “Yeah, I think he’s got elite speed. He
is a special player as well. Really, I think he’s a good route runner and I know he got banged
up early in the year, so he adds a whole other dimension to them, when he came back and
he obviously makes it difficult, years back when they had [former Chiefs WR] Tyreek Hill,
another guy could really, really, really go. He kind of brings that element to their offense.”
(On if he credits takeaways in games to its emphasis in practice) “I credit the players and
the coaches with that because it’s something that the players take very seriously and even
just culturally in the room, that’s something that they want to be about and they put a lot of
emphasis and effort into that every day. I talked about that when I first got here that we
want every drill to end with a tackle or a takeaway or else, by definition, we don’t feel like
there’s a finish to the drill. It’s not a good enough drill. So, they’ve spent a lot of time
emphasizing entry level on the tackles, finishing on the tackles, leg drive, same foot, same
shoulder mechanics, all that stuff. And then when we’re not doing that, there should be a
violent finish to the play. Whether that’s ball in the air as a defensive back or back-seven
guy competing in the pass game or attacking the ball at the end of a run or catch. That’s
something I would credit the players wholeheartedly with that.”
(On how to help replace DE Travon Walker with his injury) “He’s a tough kid, so if he’s
available, I know he’ll do everything he can to play. But like we did the other day, the guys
that went in there I thought did a good job and didn’t let go of the rope and they produced
for us. So that whole room, that’s a great room and we feel like we got a bunch of good guys
in there and they did a good job stepping up for him last week when he had to exit the
game.”
(On what he saw from LB Devin Lloyd that others did not) “I don’t know so much what I saw.
I just think that he is a great fit for what we do. To me, he’s just a true three-down linebacker.
There’s just not that many three-down linebackers in football, and some guys are three
down linebackers in a certain way and some are three down linebackers in another way.
Meaning that some guys may be out there and hey they do a bunch of stuff in the coverage,
they’re kind of a lighter guy and they’re off the ball off the ball all the time but he’s a guy, I’ve
said this about him in the past, that has a very unique skill set in that he could play on the
edge early down. If you lined him up outside as an open five-technique on a tackle or a
nine-technique on a tight end, he can do a really good job there, setting the edge, zone drop
and all that stuff. He can play off the ball early down because he sees it pretty good. He can
run and hit. He does a good job in the pass coverage, and then if you want to use him as a
pass rusher he has the ability to do that. So, I don’t think there’s that many guys that have
that unique skillset where they’re a three-down guy. Like I said, he’s able to cover, he’s able
to rush, blitz and he’s able to set the edge early down, play off the ball. So that’s a multiple
skillset and I’ve said that in the past here too, that’s what we really value in players and he
definitely has that. And he’s worked so hard, that guy. Just everything that he does
fundamentally every day is showing up in the games and he really has done a great job
building up a lot of that in his skillset over the course of the last few months.”
(On if DE Josh Hines-Allen will get more attention if Walker is out) “Yeah, I think Josh gets a
lot of attention every week. He’s used to that, if that does happen, and he’s just done a
great job for us because he is really been relentless in the rush and he’s done a great job in
the run game. So, I think he kind of just goes about everything as business as usual and I
think he’ll give us great effort there on Monday too.”
(On if there is still room for growth by the defense) “I think there’s a ton of room for growth
with us. I think the players feel that too. There’s stuff there that can be better, we can be
more detailed. As a coach in my position, I can be better and we’re all fixated on that every
day. Just how can we be better? How can we get it better today from now to the end of the
season? That’s the goal and as a coach, that’s basically how you’re evaluated, how much
can your players improve in comparison to the competition over the course of the season.
That’s how we should be evaluated and that’s how we’re trying to approach it.”
(On his evaluation of the outside cornerbacks) “Yeah, I think they’ve been super
competitive on everything. They made some great players for us. I think Tyson [CB Tyson
Campbell] has made some great plays for us down the field. Some of those plays are, I say
this all the time in our room, there’s five or six plays in every game that are going to dictate
the outcome of the game in the pass game because there’s going to be two guys at the
point of attack five or six times in a game. And who wins those one-on-one matchups?
Those 50-50 balls or who violently finishes at the point of attack, whether they’re going to
snatch the ball out of the air as a receiver or us violently finishing separating the man from
the football. That’s going to dictate the outcome of the game, and I think our guys have
been really, really competitive with that. Have we had every one of them? No, but we’re
working to do that every day and I think they’ve given us great effort that way. I think
Jourdan’s [CB Jourdan Lewis] done a great job with that as well and good to have Montaric
[CB Montaric Brown] back. I think he’s a great competitor too. Travis [WR/DB Travis Hunter]
has given us some great reps that way and Jarrian [CB Jarrian Jones] so. Yeah, really
pleased with all those guys to this point.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR GRANT UDINSKI
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2025
(On how big of a stage Monday Night Football is for the team) “I think you approach it the
same way you approach every week. The environment will be different. Hopefully it’s a
phenomenal environment, great opportunity for our fans to see us in Monday night
primetime. So hopefully we get to experience that, and the guys feel that but really the way
you approach it is just like every other game. You kind of have to have that same process-
oriented mindset where we’re taken every day as its own day, every week as its own week.
And if you treat this game any different than the previous couple of games or the future
couple of games, then that’s really not doing justice to the games that we play at one
o’clock at home, away on the road, on all those different time slots. So, we approach it the
same way. It’s another game for us in that mindset, but we’re obviously excited to see the
environment and the fans.”
(On the track QB Trevor Lawrence is on) “Sometimes putting it on a schedule or a definitive
schedule is tough because there’s so much grey and there are so many conditional things
that are happening out there on the field or the guys he’s playing with or certain things will
happen on certain plays that you don’t anticipate or that you don’t prepare for exactly in
that situation and there’s so many different ways you can handle all those different
situations. So, you don’t necessarily have a schedule saying he has to be here with this
exact number of yards or this exact number of completions by this week and then by the
next week it has to be that. But I think you see the progress from an overall perspective
when you kind of zoom out and see where we started in the spring, where he was in training
camp and where he is, you see bits of progress show up. It’s not going to be linear where
everything’s going to be perfect in a straight line going from where we started to what we’re
going to, there’s going to be ups and downs. He knows that, we know that, but you see the
progress show up in bits and pieces. The goal is to continue to build on that progress and
hopefully January, February we’re saying the same thing about where we are there relative
to know that we say now, relative to the spring. So, if we continue to keep building the way
we’re building, I’m confident that that improvement will continue to come.”
(On the what defenses have presented when the offense is in third-and-short) “There’s
been a number of different things, kind of similar to what we talked about evaluating the
quarterback. Each one of those is its own instance and each one of those kind of has its
own breakdown. So, you go back and evaluate the whole picture, what are we doing
holistically that we can improve on as an offensive unit, and then how does each play break
down? And when you look at it, each one kind of fails for its own unique reason. Now we
still have to address what’s the best way of mitigating those risks and preventing that from
happening overall because we know we would like to be at a much higher percentage on
those down-and-distances, but I think the variation of fronts and the variations of
coverages and pressures that we’ve seen is something that we need to do a better job of
handling and building a plan to put guys in a better place to attack those different
variations. I think the combination of that, having cleaner plans for those things and the
guys having some more experience in those situations where there are looks you might not
see or more challenging looks or something that doesn’t show up the entire game except
for that one play, they’re more prepared and they can handle that better moving forward.”
(On Head Coach Liam Coen saying ‘it takes a village’to prepare for Chiefs DT Chris Jones) “I
would echo Liam’s exact thoughts. The fact that he can line up inside, outside, he can rush
with a variety of moves, speed, power, get to the quarterback in a bunch of different ways,
affect the run game in a bunch of different ways, makes it challenging as coaches, but it
also puts stress on the players that they have to identify him. Know where he’s at, know the
different techniques and moves and different changeups that he has and how they want to
approach blocking him or approach attacking him. So, it’s an every single time he’s on the
field type thing where you have to be aware of where he is and what your plan is for him.
Whether it’s red zone, open field, third down, it’s every single down.”
(On the confidence gained from seeing the offensive line depth perform last week) “I would
say it confirmed the confidence. It’s something we probably saw in training camp a little bit
that we talked about with those groups. There was a lot of questions on why the lineup is
changing so much and why guys are playing at different spots, why guys are going with the
ones, why guys are going with the twos and it was really for that instance. We referenced
that it’s very rare for an offensive line, the same five guys to play the entire year in the exact
positions that they started the game and finished the season in those exact positions. So,
you saw that come to life in that San Fran game and that was a little bit of the fruits of those
guys labor and their flexibility and versatility. They’ll play guard, play tackle, play some tight
end at different times, rotate in at different positions. So, it’s a testament to their work and
all the work they put in really, not just in the week preparing for the game, but the whole
training camp spring, everything leading up to that.”
(On the process of determining the right number of snaps for WR/DB Travis Hunter) “It’s
certainly like anything in the game plan where you’re evaluating it. Every single week, you’re
evaluating it and then even during the week you’re evaluating it as you’re building the game
plan. There’s absolutely a push and pull of saying what’s too much, what’s enough?
Because we want to try to maximize and at the same time optimize his time on the field. We
know there’s a lot being asked of him mentally and physically with offense, defense. So, we
want to try to keep things as efficient as possible while still capitalizing on those talents.
You see it on that third down and you see it in different situations when he gets a catch and
run. So, we’re always exploring what’s the best way we can get him on the field and let him
go play fast, go play free without detracting from all the other things he has to do.”
(On if the offensive holding calls are an issue or circumstantial) “I don’t think we can ever
approach anything like that as circumstantial or fluky. Just from our mindset. We have to
stick with that mindset of controlling what we can control and what’s the way that we can
improve the situation. So how can we improve it? We can improve it by trying to be better
with our technique, our fundamentals, maybe as coaches, putting the guys in better
positions and doing a better job of teaching and emphasizing those techniques and
fundamentals. So those holds and all of those penalties really don’t show up. So, we have
to approach it really with how can we improve that as opposed to brushing it off as fluke,
even if something were to be a one-off here or there. We try to take accountability for all
that stuff that happens on the field and always evaluate what’s a way we can improve it,
what’s a way we can find a way to fix those issues.”
(On what WR Dyami Brown provides the offense) “Dyami provides a lot in terms of run
game and pass game. I think his toughness and his effort shows up in the run game that you
might not always see on TV, but from the sideline or from a coach’s perspective, you see
him doing a lot of work, inserting on blocks, digging out safeties, blocking corners.
Sometimes he ends up on a linebacker every now and then, his toughness is felt in the run
game, and it’s felt when another guy’s getting the catch and he’s transitioning the block,
you’ll see someone else take a catch and run down the field and he’s down there blocking
for the guy, and we love that effort. That effort is infectious for the entire team, the entire
offense really. So, you see that in the run game. Then you see in the pass game his ability to
run really a wide variety of routes. When he is outside, he’s lined up inside. He’s another guy
that over the course of time as he’s become more and more comfortable with the offense,
has really improved his versatility to run a bigger route tree, get the ball in hand that he’s
done in previous years. But adding that layer gets him each kind of level of the field where
he’s been deep, he’s been short, ball in hand and now he’s got the intermediate layer over
the middle, out-breakers. So that continued growth has been encouraging and know when
we have him out there, I think the guys feel that, feel that energy that he brings.”
(On if he watches the ball or the coverage when a play starts) “It can depend on play a little
bit based on what we’re doing, but most of the time I’m watching essentially through the
defense into the offense. If you’ve practiced that play all week and you’ve gone through it,
you know where guys are supposed to be lined up, you know what they’re supposed to be
doing, who they’re supposed to be blocking or what routes they’re supposed to be running.
So, assuming that they’re in the right position at the right time and we get that executed
correctly, you know what that’s going to look like from our 11 standpoint. So, you’re really
trying to see how’s the defense reacting to what our 11 are doing.”
