DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY CAMPANILE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2025
(On the importance of celebrating with players after big plays) “I can’t help it, being Italian,
that’s tough (laughs). I grew up like that, man. The reality is we’re like that all the time. It’s
kind of the way it is here. That’s the way I was raised and I mean that sincerely. I probably
just interact with people like that a lot. But yeah, I love coaching these guys and we
definitely have a brotherhood on this team and in that room, in the unit room. They’re hard
guys not to enjoy being around. And they’re really just a bunch of great dudes and that’s
really kind of the culture here.”
(On how to prepare the defense to potentially face three different quarterbacks) “You just
sleep less pretty much (laugh). But no, there’s three different guys who when you watch
them have all done a good job. Coached against Fields [Jets QB Justin Fields] and Taylor
[Jets QB Tyrod Taylor] before, so both of those guys are really elusive in there and they’ve
both done a really good job. Having coached against them in games past, they made it hard
on us, so I got a ton of respect for those guys. I thought they did a good job rallying in the
game the other day against Miami and did a bunch of good things also with the young guy.”
(On how beneficial it is to have seen Jets QB Brady Cook play last week) “Yeah, just to be
able to see him for sure. See him operate against the Dolphins the other day. I thought he
did a good job. He hung in there made some really good throws and kind of got them going
as the game progressed. That was really important to be able to watch him a little bit.”
(On what DL Matt Dickerson provides the defense) “He’s a great story because he’s a guy
who’s just gotten better every day and I mean that throughout his career. He’s progressed a
ton and really when you watch Matt, watching him in practice, that’s really for us, we’re like,
man, he’s done such a great job. Even when he was playing scout defense, he was getting
after it competing every play. And that kind of gave an even better look at him, what he’s
capable of doing. He’s been able to do that out there in the games on Sundays for us. So,
credit to him. A lot of the work that he put in. Jumped out to us throughout the season and
that’s why he’s out there and why I feel like he’s having the success he’s been having to this
point.”
(On what it meant to the defense to have DE Travon Walker back) “Yeah, he’s a huge boost
for us, obviously emotionally and physically. Tra’s a guy, if he can play, he’s going to play.
He’s not looking to miss any time. He’s doing everything he can to get ready. And he’s
played through a lot this year in particular, his wrist, his knee, everything. He’s a great dude.
I know I’ve said that a million times up here, but he’s what we really want to be on this team,
what we want to be about. Tough guy, does his job, loves his teammates, plays with
emotion. I think one of the things that jumped out to me about Tra the other day was him
turning and running to the ball. Perimeter plays, him turning and trying to strike somebody
as hard as he can within the confines of the rules and play good clean football, but he
sprints around every play and we value that tremendously.”
(On Walker moving around the defensive line) “Yeah, I think with Tra, moving him around,
he’s one of those guys where he’s got so much flexibility because the thing about Travon,
you could play him anywhere from a three-technique out to a nine-technique. And you see,
we drop him in coverage. He’s about as talented a guy as I’ve ever been around. He could
play defensive tackle, he plays four-technique and does a great job on the tackle. He could
play head up on the tight end and you feel like you’ve got an advantage there and he can
play as wide as the nine-technique. So, moving him across the front has been something
that’s really helped us, not only in the pass game, but in the run game this year. And
certainly, in the pass rush, we feel like he can create matchups for us and we can get him
aligned with Josh [DE Josh Hines-Allen] or aligned with Arik [DT Arik Armstead] or aligned
with somebody else where maybe we can manipulate what we want with the protection.”
(On LB Devin Lloyd’s instincts) “That’s a great word because that’s exactly what he has. He
has really good instincts, man. A lot of that though, I would say for Devin comes from the
work he does. It’s pretty tedious throughout the week. Even if you watched him in
walkthroughs, his footwork, his hand placement, where his eyes are, they’re not really
bouncing around. So, if you were to stand behind the offense and watch him, I think his eye
progression is really good every play. That jumps out to me in preparation, if he’s entering
into a block, he’s entering near foot, putting himself in a position to be hairline under chin
and strike with his hands, so he can come back and finish the play and tackle the football.
So he’s repping those things at all times, whether it’s the individual work, the walkthrough,
going into practice in the live setting. And then he’s been able to take that out there on
Sunday. So, it’s really, yes, he’s got tremendous instincts, but he’s building that every day in
the film room and out in the field. So, it’s great to see him be rewarded for that.”
(On the impact that punching drills have had on forced fumbles) “You hope so. You hope it’s
getting to the point where it’s just something you do. You see somebody walking down the
street and you want to punch their wallet out of their hand or something. That’s your natural
reaction but there is a culture of that here and the guys do that. I would say the coaches,
our position coaches have done an unbelievable job in the pre-practice, in the post-
practice and in the drill work of just getting the guys mindful of that. Ending drills with that
all the time. And I really credit the players honestly, for their stick-to-itiveness of it and the
coaches of never relenting on it and trying to make sure because at the end of the day, it’s
really about how many attempts you get. Your percentage of success is going to go up
exponentially. The more attempts you take, the more options you’re going to get to get a
takeaway.”
(On DL Danny Striggow) “Yeah, you guys could see it when he plays. He’s a hard charging
guy. He’s a guy that plays with great fundamentals. He’s doing what he’s been coached to
do, what he’s being coached to do every day. And his effort jumps out and I think his
teammates really appreciate that about Danny. He’s put so much work into this to get to
where he is. And he’s earned everything, which I think the guys really respect and value that
about Danny too.”
(On how impressed he has been by Striggow’s play against the run) “Very impressed. I
would credit [Defensive Line Coach] Matt Edwards, [Assistant Defensive Line Coach] Derek
LeBlanc, those guys who have worked with him. And I think Danny was well coached when
he came in here from college, but to me, guys like that is so much about your mindset. He
is unrelenting on himself to get it right and you see that, that’s kind of what jumped out in
camp watching him. And in the offseason, he’s a guy that wants to get it right, going to do
everything he can to get it right, do the extra and it’s paying dividends for him. But so much
of that is, I don’t want to say how hard he is on himself, but how much he demands from
himself is probably a better way to say that.”
(On the secondary’s success despite injuries) “I thought Antonio [S Antonio Johnson] did a
great job. He has done a great job, I should say. And he’s a guy that’s really got a lot of
position flex because he’s out there sometimes playing safety, playing nickel, playing dime,
and playing linebacker type roles too. So, he’s a bright guy because that’s a lot of
techniques that we ask him to play. It really is when you go through it. And he’s the guy
that’s up in here in the office all the time trying to do extra. [DB] Rayuan Lane [III], I thought
jumped in and did a bunch of good things over that period and even the other day. So, it
says a lot about them, but it also says a lot about the older guys who have prepared them.
They kind of embraced them and brought them in to try and teach them and get them right
and are always working. They’re all always working together is what I would say is a huge
part of that.”
(On the challenges that Jets RB Breece Hall presents) “Yeah, coached against him before
when I was in Miami. I got a ton of respect for him as a runner. He’s made big plays in the
run game and the pass game. And he’s done that through his career, so I’ve seen firsthand,
how good of a player the guy is. I said this about a couple guys previously in weeks prior, but
he’s hard to tackle. It’s got to be a team tackling mentality. And their offensive line, in my
opinion, has done a great job this year. They do a great job of staying on the down guys,
moving people on double teams. [Jets C] Josh Myers, the center, was in Green Bay with me
last year, so I’ve been around him a lot. Know how talented he is, how capable he is. Both
tackles and guards I think are physical. I think the young tight end, Taylor [Jets TE Mason
Taylor] has done a really good job for them and Ruckert [TE Jeremy Ruckert] has always
been a guy who’s been a POA [point of attack] guy that’s a finisher. He’s a good football
player. So, they got a lot of guys, even when they bring Beck [FB Andrew Beck] in as a
fullback, they’ve got a lot of guys who finish blocks and they’ve done a really good job in a
run game as well. So, credit to them and it’s going to be a challenge out there on Sunday.
We’re just trying to get these guys prepared to meet that challenge.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR GRANT UDINSKI
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2025
(On if he can see the confidence building in QB Trevor Lawrence) “Yeah, absolutely. I think
you see it in practice, even in the meeting room you feel it. When you start communicating
with guys and they really have a grasp and a mastery of things, you can sense that just in
the communication, but it’s awesome to see it materialize on the field with some of those
plays that we all see him make, whether it’s on schedule or off schedule to play with that
type of confidence is really what we’ve been building towards all year long. But it takes so
much work, so much preparation, so much time on task that, you know it’s not going to
happen overnight. So, it’s great to see some of the fruits of his labor really start to
materialize.”
(On what he has seen materialize for Lawrence in the offense) “A lot of little things. I think
there are things that show up on TV or on tape that are apparent to everybody. Like some of
the throws, you look at the throw he made to [WR] Tim Patrick on our sideline, the throw he
made to Tim Patrick on their sideline, two critical downs. Some of the plays in the red zone,
off schedule, moving around in the pocket. Those things are apparent because of how fast
he’s playing, the decision he’s making. But it’s even little things with making certain calls up
front or the way he’s bringing shifts and motions and timing some of those things up. The
details of those things are so minute that people may not notice from an outsider, but they
make a big difference to the players that he’s playing with and to us as coaches to the
scheme and the system and little angles being lined up and being executed properly. So
those things kind of pay dividends for everybody else in the offense that don’t always show
up on his stat sheet or show up with a completion for him that everyone’s clapping for him.
But those impact the team in a lot of ways.”
(On if he sees Lawrence getting the team into the right look at the line of scrimmage) “I
think he’s done a really good job of that all year. I think it’s just the speed and the
comfortability with which he’s doing that has continued to improve. There’s a lot that we
put on guys and it is foreign for everybody. It’s not just foreign for the quarterback, it’s
different for the wide receivers, the way we call formations, the way we change plays, the
way we have multiple plays in the huddles or the way we call different plays at the line of
scrimmage and check in and out of things. So, it was different for everybody. So, I think he’s
improved in that and the wideouts have improved, the running backs have improved at that
because even for those guys, you’re up at the line and if I’m a guard or I’m a running back
and I’m thinking, okay, I’ve got this run, what’s the front? What am I looking at? What’s this
block going to play out like? And then all of a sudden everything changes and I’ve got a
totally different play. Now I’ve got to restart that whole mental process and the ball’s getting
snapped, I might not have the time to think back through, okay, wait, now I’m doing this run.
What’s the front? What’s the look? What’s my cut going to be? And you have to speed up
that process, do all that in an instant. And we’re getting closer and closer and closer to that
being instantaneous to where guys are processing. We’re never going to truly achieve
automaticity where guys are up there and they’re just out there playing totally mindless,
totally unconscious, but that’s what we’re shooting for. And the closer we can get to that,
typically the better it is.”
(On how WR Jakobi Meyers has a great feel for the game) “There’s a lot of different
examples that show his feel. I think the first one that shows up is kind of his feel in space.
You see some of these teams playing zone coverage where they have defenders who have
vision on the quarterback and they have different spots to get to and different landmarks or
they’re reading off of what our routes are to kind of determine what their drop’s going to be.
He has a feel for where those defenders are going, where they’re trying to get to, and then
where his route fits off of that. And that kind of takes a second and third level order of
processing, not just to know we tell you to get to this spot, but this spot is going to open up
because we’re telling you to get to a spot that looks covered. But if you have a great
understanding of what the defense is doing or what the defense is trying to do, then you can
run your route in a certain way to try to get to that spot on the field or to try to dictate the
coverage to play a certain way. Alright, now I run a route this way and I lean out a little bit,
gets that defender to move out and now I opened up my window inside. Little things like
that that are really subtle show up with him when he is running routes. Then you see it in
the run game too, with my understanding of angles on the block. You see a lot of plays that
he’s making, getting down blocking safeties, blocking corners. He’s blocking linebackers on
some plays. And you really can only do that when there’s a physical mismatch at times. If
you have great technique, great angles, you have a great understanding of where the run is
going to go, where the blocks inside are going, because how those blocks distribute will
change how the safety or the linebacker is going to trigger on the run. Because they’re
keying, he knows, okay, the safety is keying the tight end, or the safety is keying the tackle,
the tackle does this, this is what the safety’s response is going to be and because he’s
responding that, I have to take this angle. That’s a really high-level series of thought to be
able to go out there and play fast and execute that type of block for just a simple run play.
But to be able to process all of that so fast does require really a special feel for
understanding the game of football and just a feel for space out there.”
(On the concept of Meyers’touchdown against the Colts on Sunday) “That’s another great
play and really he had one in Tennessee the week before too, with a great understanding of
space with those guys where they know, hey, a coverage is going to distribute a certain way,
let me get to this spot. And even the week before in Tennessee, like that one I’m talking
about, he feels a defender drop out. And you probably notice on there he feels that guy
drop out, feels that space and let me just sit down right now. Where it’s tough on those type
of routes because you give him a certain landmark and say, hey, the open space is probably
going to be from here to here. Maybe you say it’s between the hashes or it’s from the hash
to the numbers. Well, that’s a lot of space that could be open. So, it’s some gray area in
there and they’ve got to be able to distinguish, or on the fly, make that decision and be
decisive and sit down. It’s extra impressive in the red zone because everything happens so
fast down there. You’ll see, Trevor is separating his hands, he’s starting the process of
throwing before Jakobi is actually coming out of his break before Jakobi is looking for the
ball on some of these touchdowns he’s had. And really even some of the deeper plays he
had on some of the in cuts and some of that stuff too, he’s counting on Jakobi to be at a
spot. So, the connection between those guys and the understanding of where they’re
getting to is really the key to what makes those plays so successful.”
(On if things like drops are attributed to bad weather in games like Sunday or used as
teaching points) “Well, the rain and the elements in general will always, in a sense, expose
your fundamentals or exacerbate the effects of your fundamentals or the impact of your
fundamentals. So, if guys are playing with poor footwork, it’s going to result in guys slipping
and ending up on the ground where in a dry turf, it may end up in a slight stumble or a slight
misstep or you’re not as quick off the line. So, it kind of exacerbates all of the issues that
show up with poor fundamentals. So, the first priority is getting us back to clean
fundamental football. Same thing really comes true with catching the football, proper
framing of the catch, seeing it all the way in, the proper tuck. All those things you talk about
just come to life. They’re always important, but now they’re just highlighted in those
weather elements. Then for our standpoint as a coach, we never want to just chalk up a
mistake and say, ‘oh well it’s going to happen’ and kind of put our hands up. We’re going to
always try to call the game or dictate the game in a way where we stay out of situations
where we have to put guys in a spot where you could have those drops, you could have
those plays that are a little more difficult to execute in the rain and elements. You want to
have enough in the game plan, especially going into a game where you know it’s raining,
where you can get the plays and say, we can execute these rain, shine, wind, hail, whatever.
We feel good about getting these done. Now credit to the guys, we go out there and practice
with the wet ball and do a bunch of different things to simulate the elements, but it’s a
whole different beast to go out there and do it in the game. And I thought the guys handled
it at a high level.”
(On how to keep the confidence high after a mistake) “Yeah, that’s a great point about
keeping the guys’ confidence high. We always, whether it’s ball security, reads, pass
protection, a process-oriented approach. So, with that we cannot go too high, too low on
the results. We know the process will drive the results, but we’re not going to live and die by
those results because it’s the process, the process, the process, for all the guys that we
control. So, knowing that, we just have Tuten [RB Bhayshul Tuten] just like everyone else, go
right back to the process. He’s got thousands and thousands and thousands of reps of
proper ball security and we’re going to continue to practice those habits over and over and
over and over again for the backs, the quarterbacks, the receivers, the tight ends,
everyone’s going to practice proper ball security every single time they catch or touch a
football. That’s no different for him. We’re going to go right back to that process, and I’ve got
the confidence in him that he will go out there and continue to do what he’s done all season
prior to that.”
(On the importance of tight ends blocking in his scheme) “I think the group we have is
especially unique, that I don’t know if any of us on the offensive staff have quite had the
group that we have here where we really have four guys who can do all those things you talk
about. So, I think we all have experience with little bits and pieces of guys being able to
block on the edge, coming back across the line, inserting for blocks as a lead blocker, like
you said, there’s so many different blocks then they’re around the edge going out there
blocking DBs. What’s unique about this group is we have four guys that can do all of those
blocks. You see [TE] Quintin Morris, you see [TE] Brenton Strange, you see [TE] Johnny
Mundt, you see [TE] Hunter Long blocking defensive ends, then you see them blocking
safeties out in space. Then you see them coming back and blocking defensive tackles.
Then you see them coming across and blocking a defensive end. To have those guys that
are kind of puzzle pieces that you can mix and match and then all of them are able to make
catches in the pass game, run after the catch. That versatility is really unique, and it opens
up a ton in the run game first and foremost. But then the play action game, then the pass
game, quick game, even on third downs, those guys are weapons out there where we’re
trying to find different ways to continue to say how can we get these guys out in routes to be
the first read or primary because they’re such a great matchup at times.”
(On how much of a weapon OL Cole Van Lanen is) “Huge. In the NFL, I’ve probably
mentioned this a couple of times, you know you’re going to go through the whole year and
probably not be able to start the same five guys for every single snap for the whole year. So,
it’s really important that that room specifically to have a unit of guys that you feel can go out
and start. It’s awesome to see those guys actually do it and to have that confidence grow
more and more that not only Cole but some of those other guys who have gotten
opportunities, could truly go out there and start and play at a high level at those positions.
Because whether you like it or not, at some point we’re going to need it, and we did need it
and he went out and kind of answered the bell as he went out there in multiple positions in
different weeks and did it. So, it’s a testament to their preparation, their work and it’s a huge
luxury for us as coaches to have that depth in that room. And not only to have that depth, to
have that cohesion in the room where the guys who can start, you’ve got eight guys,
sometimes seven guys, you can still feel good about starting five no matter what the mix
and match is. That’s awesome.”
