Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(I wanted to ask you about your top three guys in terms of snap counts off of the edge right now with LB Andrew Van Ginkel, LB Jaelan Phillips, and DE Emmanuel Ogbah. They are in the top 30 in terms of quarterback pressures this year and it seems like they are really playing their best ball right now. I just wanted to get your perspective on how that strong edge play has helped your defense.) – “I think that any time you look at individual stats, there is obviously a lot that goes into all 11 guys being on the same page. But at the same time, guys doing their jobs well sets somebody up on the defense for production. Like we’ve said all year, our guys work extremely hard, they’ve put a lot of work in and I believe we’re still improving and we still got room to improve. It’s really a credit to them for the execution, the communication, the understanding of what goes on in each given play and the ability to get some production and pressure. A lot of times our guys are very unselfish. You’ll see other guys actually open up stuff for other players and they’re just as happy that we’re succeeding as a team.”
(Going with CB Nik Needham at free safety last game, how did that come about? It had to be a difficult week to deal with given the uncertainty of who could be available and whatnot.) – “Nik’s a hard worker. He’s very intelligent. He’s played inside and outside from a corner position. He’s involved in a lot of the communication, especially when he’s on the inside. He’s a strong communicator, he understands where guys fit and where they are supposed to be. Obviously he has a skillset that allows him to do multiple things and he puts a lot of time and effort into it. It’s a credit to him for it to be a smooth transition for him even though it was a foreign position. His ability to understand concepts and handle conceptual learning at a fast and high rate. I would say this is something that he’s improved each year that he’s been here. He’s worked very hard at it to know and understand how everybody fits. Like I said, he’s a strong communicator, he’s confident in what he’s saying and he’s just a good all-around football player that can play multiple spots.”
(The level that CB Byron Jones is playing at right now, how would you describe how well he’s playing?) – “He had some production for us last week. I thought he had a very solid game. I think he does a lot of good things. There are a lot of things that he does on the field that even when the ball doesn’t go his way, a lot of people don’t see. He’s one of those guys that works on his craft on a daily basis. He’s very good at film study. He seems to be playing some of his best ball, and we’re going to need that this week with the Saints coming up. This is a big game for us and I’m sure Byron will come in here, work hard and continue to do some of the things that he’s been doing. We’ve been getting a lot of production out of Byron, for sure.”
(I wanted to ask you also about DT Raekwon Davis. Where is he now in his career compared to where you, Head Coach Brian Flores and Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark think he can be?) – “You will have to ask Austin and ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) on that. For me, you take things as they come. You’re looking for constant improvement from each player. It’s not just unique to Raekwon. Sometimes you feel that you’re getting that, and sometimes on Sunday it doesn’t show up like you quite think it will and sometimes it does. I’m not saying that it did or didn’t last week. I think Raekwon is improving. I think he’s a hard worker. I think he loves football. There is no question about that – he loves football. He studies it. He works at his craft. I think for every individual, it’s not unique to Raekwon, you’re constantly working for improvement but that’s just the nature of the business. Sometimes as you’re working to improve, you have a setback here or there, but the ability to overcome that, which obviously Raekwon has showed the ability to do that, and push forward and continue to get better, it’s really a credit to him. I’m glad to have him. He’s a good football player for us and I really feel like he is improving. As far as where ‘Flo’ or Austin think he is, you’d have to ask those guys. I don’t want to speak for them. But I’m really glad we have Raekwon in the building.”
(It seems like every week there is a play that gets made because guys are running to the football. I want to get your message to the team or the coaching point to get the guys to play so aggressive and so fast and always chasing the football?) – “I think ultimately when you’re playing team defense, you definitely want to get everybody with a relentless pursuit to the football. I don’t know who said it or what quote it was – a long time ago somebody said ‘you can measure your love of to your teammates by your distance to the ball.’ I think you see our guys. They play hard, they play for one another, there is a joy out there and they know that people are counting on them. Their effort to the ball is very important and obviously we highlight that when it’s done well and when it’s not to the standard that we believe it should be, then we get on that too. We’ve got a lot of guys that fly around to the football out there and again like I’ve said, we’re going to need our best football this week because we’ve got a great opponent coming up. Coach (Sean) Payton and Coach (Pete) Carmichael are phenomenal offensive coaches. They make it really hard on you defensively. They’ve got good offensive line, they’ve got great skill players, they’ve got really good running backs, they’ve got a dynamic quarterback that can run and he can throw. It’s going to be a big challenge for us and we’re going to need everybody, all 11 guys to be on the same page, to communicate well, to play with good fundamentals and good techniques for 60 minutes, one play at a time. That’s what we’re going to need this week. But we’re excited about the challenge.”
(Can’t let you go without asking about one of your defensive players scoring an offensive touchdown on Sunday in DT Christian Wilkins.) – “The funny thing about that is I have not seen it. A lot of times when we’re on offense, we’re always preparing on what situations could be coming up defensively. I haven’t watched any of the offensive film. I’m happy for Christian. Christian will probably tell you how athletic he is, which he is athletic. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for our team. I don’t care who scores. Any time we score, that’s a good deal for us. But I have not seen the play.”
(Did you get to see the celebration at least?) – “I have not.”
Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(I want to ask about the fake punt attempt to S Clayton Fejedelem last game. Was everyone just not on the same page? What happened there?) – “Yeah. The old adage, failure to communicate. As much as we harp about communication, we had miscommunication there on exactly the process of what we were trying to get done in that situation and you end up with a bad play.”
(I wanted to ask you about P Michael Palardy. It looks like he’s kind of coming on here of late on the average on his punts. I wanted to see if there was any difference in his approach or his routine in the last couple of weeks to get that average up?) – “I think like we’ve talked about on several occasions, in this particular game, especially based on the field position and where we were punting from, we had several games this year where we were punting from the 50-yard line or plus-50. This happened to be a game where a lot of our punts were backed up, so more of an opportunity to flip the field and more of an opportunity to get the ball down the field in terms of looking at gross (average).”
(What ultimately was the reason for opting for WR Tommylee Lewis as your returner on Sunday instead of your other available options such as WR Albert Wilson, WR Preston Williams, WR Isaiah Ford, CB Noah Igbinoghene?) – “I’m chuckling because as you guys know, it was an odd week. There were so many things going on and that was something that we just felt in that situation, with all of the possibilities of maybes and maybe nots, and the roles were constantly changing for a lot of possible actives, inactives, how we were going to use them offensively, defensively. We felt that was the decision to go for in that game.”
(What did WR Tommylee Lewis show in such a short time with the team? He had only been signed the Monday before. What did you guys see from him there?) – “I think like we’ve talked about several times, you go back and it’s not just what the guy has done here. You go back and look at his track record, and what he’s done both in college and if they have experience in the National Football League, you go back and look at those tapes. Then most importantly, when we do get them in the building, where he’s at in terms of confidence No. 1 and ball security, and making decisions and catching the football. We felt good about it and we went with it.”
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Eric Studesville
(I know who starts isn’t a big deal to coaches. It’s more of a thing of interest to fans and us. But with the approach now at running back after RB Duke Johnson’s excellent game, is Duke your starting running back? Is RB Myles Gaskin your starting running back or do you guys go into this week with an open mind and a competition on that particular issue?) – “Hopefully we’re always creating competition with things. I get the concept of the starting running back position, but we are going to determine more by the gameplan and how we want to start things and what we do and what we thinks gives us the best chance. All those guys are going to play and participate hopefully as we put things together and it will all work itself out. We’re talking about one play at the beginning of the game as opposed to we’re going to need all the plays in the game to be successful.”
(One unrelated question, how do you think G/T Austin Jackson has played in recent weeks? He’s now been at left guard for more than two months.) – “I think he’s continuing to work and develop at that position. Obviously it’s a new experience for him going from tackle to guard but he’s committed to it, he’s working at it all the time and constantly working to get better. I think we’re seeing improvement in all areas with that. All of us have to do (that) in every position – we have to keep getting better and keep working to improve all the time.”
(I wanted to ask about trusting DT Christian Wilkins at fullback there who provided one of the most fun moments of the game. Tied game in the fourth quarter and throwing to him, just the trust that the team has offensively in making that call to Christian Wilkins, a defensive tackle?) – “I think with all plays, we are going to call the plays that we think are going to give us the best chance. It wasn’t trying to call one necessarily for Christian. We thought that was the best play at the time that we had on our call sheet for that situation being down on the goal line. We had scored previously – Duke (Johnson) had scored earlier in the game on a goal-line package play and that was our next play up that we had listed and so we went with that. We had great confidence in all the execution – the line selling it, the tight end route, the fullback route with Christian and then the back in protection and then obviously Tua (Tagovailoa) making the throw.”
(What was it like going through the uncertainty in the running back room the past week and then you end up having your best rushing performance of the season? Has the team found something in the ground game that it can take through this final stretch?) – “I hope we have but every week is brand new so we’ve got to re-focus ourselves to make sure that we lock in on the run game that we want to put together this week for the Saints because it’s going to be a big task for us. This is a good defense and ‘DA’ (Dennis Allen) will have these guys ready to go. The environment in New Orleans is always loud and involved. We’re going to have to stay focused and continue. We can’t just rest on what happened last week and think that’s going to happen in the current week. We still have to focus in and we’ve got a lot of work to do this week. Part one of your question, as far as who the running backs are, I’m happy to have them all and figure out who’s going to contribute and do what on a week-to-week basis. They’re all competitive, they’re all focused, they’re all intensely prepared to contribute in whatever way they can.”
(Re-watching the game, it looked like a lot of the big runs came behind double teams with T Liam Eichenberg and G/T Austin Jackson, I just wanted to get your take on how they executed those combo blocks and also how those combo blocks benefit both of their games?) – “There’s a lot of different runs in there and they hit different places where it’s not always dependent on a certain tandem. We need everybody. Everybody has got to do that. There was a lot of line movement that happened in the game against the Jets so we had to shut line movement off. Obviously we did run good behind some double teams. We had a number of good double teams where we moved people off the ball. Those big runs and things that happen, those are involved in a lot of different things. It starts with the offensive line. Certainly the back gets all the credit for the yards but it starts with the offensive line. It starts with the wide receivers coming in and blocking for us and pushing people by to get extra yardage downfield. It’s a group effort with everybody involved in it. There was some good double teams in there but there’s a lot of good things that happened in there too with everybody on the offense trying to contribute to the run.”
(You guys lose WR Jaylen Waddle late in the week. I was just curious the process of having to adapt your gameplan when you had him in the beginning of the week to not having him later in the week?) – “Unfortunately, those situations happen where your personnel changes. When that does happen, they’re not going to stop playing the game on Sunday so we’ve got to have an opportunity to get somebody else ready to go. Somebody else has got to take advantage of that opportunity to be ready to go and then we’ve got the expectation for everybody – coaches and players – that we have to perform at a high level when that opportunity comes up. Does it change your plans? To a certain extent, certainly it does with a good player that you’re missing in there. But we’ve got to be ready to go and someone has got to step up there because they’re going to put a ball down on Sunday.”
(The process of the week when you start creating a gameplan Monday and Tuesday and begin implementing it on Wednesday, at what point do you work it and then see it and say, ‘eh I’m not liking it, don’t feel it,’ and sort of move along? Or is that something that you just continue to work at? What’s the thought process as coordinator when you have an idea and then it doesn’t practice out the way that you want it to?) – “We usually throw it out. (laughter)”
(That’s it? It’s just thrown out?) – “We look at it and we talk about. We say, ‘Can we fix it? Can we get it? Do we need to use a different technique? Do we need to change a scheme? Do we need to do something if we like the concept?’ But if it comes to a point where we don’t feel like that play has a chance to be successful, then we don’t want to call that play. Just because the play drew up good on paper on Monday or Tuesday, it’s got to be a play that we all feel comfortable about – coaches and players – and we feel like we have a high level of execution for on Sunday. That’s the dominant decision-making factor in there is do we think this has a chance to be successful on Sunday?”
(Is this when you are running it against the scout team? So, if the scout team just sniffs it out then it’s just like ‘ehh, it’s not good,’ or just the level of speed that they’re playing? What are you guys looking for when you say this isn’t going to cut it?) – “It’s all those things. Obviously we are repping it against a scout-team look that we think is simulating what the opponent is going to do. Sometimes it’s angles, sometimes we’re trying to anticipate how the defense will react on gameday, what their potential adjustments would be to something. We look at a lot of different things on that. But again, we’re talking through, ‘Do we have good angles? Is the scheme right? Is whatever happens in there?’ That’s all things that we are constantly talking about throughout the week. That’s on every play. That’s run plays, protections, pass routes. It’s every part of the offense. That’s what we call running a string through.”
(When we talked to Head Coach Brian Flores yesterday about G Robert Jones and his 10 offensive snaps, he referred to him as a tight end on those plays. How long has he been working at that position in your heavy packages and what made you guys think he would thrive at that spot? He seemed to play well.) – “It’s something that we’ve talked about and have the capability of doing. You can utilize an extra player in a number of different ways and it was an opportunity to get Rob in there. We felt that it was something that would give us an advantage and again, we thought that it was something that would give us productive plays potentially. We do those things on different personnel groups at different times and different plays, whatever that is. We have the capability of using different players much like we used Christian (Wilkins) as the fullback in the goal line package. A very similar sort of concept.”
(Had DT Christian Wilkins over the last two months good naturedly reminded you or Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey to use him or was this something you and George had always been thinking about just waiting for the right time?) – “Regularly he reminds us. (laughter)”
(I wanted to get your perspective on that final drive to go ahead late in the game. What’s your message to the offense after they go down off the interception and the message to come back and say, ‘Hey, we have to go out there and put a drive together right now?’) – “I think the message is consistent and it starts coming from Coach (Brian Flores) all the time that ‘hey, we’ve got to play for 60 minutes.’ This game is going to be 60 minutes and we are going to have to play right down to the end. We don’t know how it’s going to end up but we know if we’re in it at the end, we believe that we’re going to play hard enough and find a way, so we’ve got to play for the full 60 minutes. When adversity happened, our players responded really well in that situation and gave us a chance to win the football game. We’ve got to play the whole game for 60 minutes and Coach preaches that all the time.”
