Speaker 1: We had two great days of practice this week. Exciting
Speaker 1: to get down to the fifty three. I feel like
Speaker 1: we know we're moving in the right direction, Excited about
Speaker 1: the guys that we have on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball, and definitely prepping and getting ready for the Stealers.
Speaker 1: So I know you guys have some questions with that
Speaker 1: open it up.
Speaker 2: At what point did you start really honing in on
Speaker 2: the Steelers and start formulating some ideas of how you want.
Speaker 3: To approach them?
Speaker 1: You know, I think this week is just a bonus
Speaker 1: for us. You know, we've already looked at a few things,
Speaker 1: just giving our guys an opportunity to try to settle
Speaker 1: in a little bit, you know, particularly with first and
Speaker 1: second down things, just watching them on tape. We've been
Speaker 1: doing that for a while as a coaching staff. So
Speaker 1: those guys are playing well. I think the quarterback, second
Speaker 1: year guy, he's looking phenomenal. He's taking that second year leap,
Speaker 1: doing some great things. They have the veryical threats down
Speaker 1: the field that can make things happen in any moment,
Speaker 1: and they have a very impressive solid run game. So
Speaker 1: we definitely got our hands, you know, feel work with
Speaker 1: these guys coming up next week.
Speaker 3: Are in camp.
Speaker 4: You talked about learning the forty nine ers and forty
Speaker 4: nine ers way not your way. What have you learned
Speaker 4: now that you're through sort of a full camp. What
Speaker 4: have you learned about the way the forty ninitey defense
Speaker 4: works and why it's been successful last year.
Speaker 1: I think it's just really sort of geared with our
Speaker 1: front seven and how we play. And it's certain schematic
Speaker 1: things that that we do here that I probably wasn't
Speaker 1: used to in the past, and I'm not gonna indulge
Speaker 1: in that part, but we do it well, you know,
Speaker 1: and and Fred being one of the lead guys with that,
Speaker 1: and when you have those caliber guys, then in their
Speaker 1: plan you see exactly why we play it certain ways.
Speaker 1: So I've definitely come accustomed to that, and I think
Speaker 1: complimenting what we've done on back in this particular spring
Speaker 1: leading into training camp in preseason, I think we've improved
Speaker 1: and gotten better there as well. So I'm excited where
Speaker 1: we are once again.
Speaker 2: With Nick Bosa that whenever he arrives, you just plug
Speaker 2: him in to do what other guys have been doing,
Speaker 2: or is he unique in the sense that when he
Speaker 2: gets here you can ask him to do different things
Speaker 2: than what you already have from a defensive end.
Speaker 1: I think we all know that he's unique. I think
Speaker 1: you can definitely do different things with him as we've
Speaker 1: done in the past, particularly on third down and certain
Speaker 1: things that you want to try to free him up.
Speaker 3: But he's stolid all the way around. So I don't think.
Speaker 1: Once again it's going to be issue when that time comes,
Speaker 1: so hopefully as soon.
Speaker 5: Yesterday and expressed some concern about the run defense of
Speaker 5: the preseason, but he did qualify that by saying, it's
Speaker 5: the preseason. Not a lot of the starters are playing. Well,
Speaker 5: where do you stand on that spectrum about when we're
Speaker 5: looking at the.
Speaker 1: Preseason Well, number one, you never want to give up
Speaker 1: as many yards as we have during preseason, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to the coaches that were here, you know, I
Speaker 1: had one of my moments coming out one of the
Speaker 1: games and they referenced last year against the Texans. I
Speaker 1: think it was one to fifty something as well. But
Speaker 1: you write a lot of the starters don't play, which
Speaker 1: is no excuse. My concern is it's not some of
Speaker 1: the basic fits. We can correct that. You know, you
Speaker 1: look at some of the young linebackers that just got
Speaker 1: out of their gaps off of basic fit right there
Speaker 1: that turned into an explosive play.
Speaker 3: Those things are correctable, you know.
Speaker 1: As I told the players coming out of this previous game,
Speaker 1: I take full responsibility for the Zonne read stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: I think it was an equipment of maybe fifty six
Speaker 1: yards that the quarterbacks got.
Speaker 3: I always tell the.
Speaker 1: Coaches as well as the players, I'm never going to
Speaker 1: hold you accountable for something that we didn't emphasize. And
Speaker 1: I didn't emphasize that that week. It was playing on
Speaker 1: the schedule for this week. I knew we were going
Speaker 1: to see it because as Russell Herd is on it,
Speaker 1: But as you alluded to, I was had a schedule
Speaker 1: of certain things I wanted to implement and get in. So, uh,
Speaker 1: we're definitely gonna be better with his own read, you know.
Speaker 1: I know that's something that we put on taping and
Speaker 1: people are going to try to expose us on, but
Speaker 1: we'll be better with that.
Speaker 6: When he was playing at Tampa Bay, he was an
Speaker 6: established Pro Bowl player, and Mike Tomlin came in hears
Speaker 6: as a first as you know, your first year defensive
Speaker 6: backs coach and challenged him and said you can get better,
Speaker 6: you will get better. Curious whether you found that with
Speaker 6: Warner to see, you know, is he okay with you?
Speaker 6: Know you because he's an established player also, but you're
Speaker 6: coming in and saying, Art, lest's.
Speaker 3: Try it this way.
Speaker 1: I think all those guys I've take that approach with him.
Speaker 1: I have a phraser of saying, you know about stan
Speaker 1: Green and you got to continue to learn this if
Speaker 1: you don't know. And I believe in challenging those guys
Speaker 1: and always telling them the truth, you know. So uh,
Speaker 1: great players like John Was as well as Fred Uh,
Speaker 1: they want to be challenged, they want to be told
Speaker 1: the truth. So uh, I think we constantly do that
Speaker 1: as coaches, you know, to try to put our guys
Speaker 1: in certain situations and constantly challenge those guys on the
Speaker 1: details and the basics of the of the techniques and
Speaker 1: the things we asking them to do.
Speaker 4: That step, how how do you make this defense better?
Speaker 4: So that was been top five the last four years.
Speaker 4: I believe in totally you And is that sort of
Speaker 4: an emphasis or a place this defense can improve or
Speaker 4: take a step forward?
Speaker 3: Uh? Yes, I think we've improved there.
Speaker 1: And I think the difference has been and you guys
Speaker 1: have wrote about it for the last couple of years.
Speaker 3: How great we are up front.
Speaker 1: You talked about Bosa, Eric, we got a hard grave,
Speaker 1: you talked about Fred green Law. But I think you know,
Speaker 1: the difference is is how we play on the back
Speaker 1: end and and how we hold up. Cause you can
Speaker 1: have a great defensive line, but if we're not doing
Speaker 1: our job back there, it's you know, it can still
Speaker 1: be a difficult time for us.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: I've always emphasized, and I tell these guys constantly that
Speaker 1: you know, we're very talented defense, and there's times that
Speaker 1: we're gonna line up against teams and just be quite
Speaker 1: an honest to tell him, you know, on paper, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be better than those guys, but it doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter if we're not really fundamentally sounds so to me.
Speaker 1: You know, people talk about it in the spring, they
Speaker 1: talk about at the beginning of the season, but week six,
Speaker 1: week thirteen, we still talk about the fundamentals and technique
Speaker 1: because to me, that's what separates teams, you know, the details,
Speaker 1: and that's what I think it's gonna be with us,
Speaker 1: that we can't get complacent the.
Speaker 7: Run defense John kim Law spoke to us a couple
Speaker 7: of weeks ago and talked about him concentrating on flexibility,
Speaker 7: on leverage and trying to add you know, improvement to
Speaker 7: that aspect of his game. Has he been able to
Speaker 7: put that to practice. What have you seen from him
Speaker 7: in that regard in the preseason.
Speaker 1: Well, I've seen him trying to emphasize and work on
Speaker 1: what you just talked about. He is a massive man,
Speaker 1: very tall, so we constantly talk about his pad level,
Speaker 1: you know, staying low.
Speaker 3: This is a leverage game.
Speaker 1: You know, low men win, so uh, being able to
Speaker 1: come off the ball and create a new line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: We always talk about attacking, which we do a great
Speaker 1: job of, but also playing with valid hands and being
Speaker 1: able to say X off into your gap and make
Speaker 1: that tackle. So I've seen that improvement with him along
Speaker 1: with him with guys across the uh, across the front.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna need that next week for sure.
Speaker 2: Were expect teams, you know, when he's on the field
Speaker 2: to go to run right at him.
Speaker 3: Well, uh, not so much right at him.
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, I think there's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that that you can sit here and scheme against that
Speaker 1: we're gonna have up front. So, uh, what what teams
Speaker 1: get with us is, you know, they try to double
Speaker 1: team us and try to get to the second level.
Speaker 1: So we got to do a great job of maintaining,
Speaker 1: uh and splitting that double team and not allowing them
Speaker 1: to push on the linebacker. So that's where it's all about.
Speaker 1: Get off and guys really standing in the gaps we.
Speaker 8: Do for safety situation.
Speaker 4: Looking with Huff and Gibber working on the side and.
Speaker 3: How you were coming in, Uh, they're they're fine. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think you know, again with with in the number
Speaker 1: of years he's played mentally, he's where he needs to
Speaker 1: be from a physical standpoint. I think it's plug and
Speaker 1: play with him. He does a great job. And then
Speaker 1: you know, a Huff coming off his Pro Bowl year,
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be ready as well. So I
Speaker 1: think once we get out, you know, I started eleven
Speaker 1: guys out there, they're gonna be in sync and doing
Speaker 1: the things that we're acting them to do.
Speaker 6: A couple of little defensive linemen come in here and
Speaker 6: refer to Eric Armstead as Blueprint. That's his nickname, which
Speaker 6: I assume has to do with technique and fundamentals.
Speaker 3: I'm curious.
Speaker 6: He fought all last year against various injuries, and I
Speaker 6: don't know if he was ever really right. He has
Speaker 6: been so far this offseason. Is he a guy that
Speaker 6: now that you're here, you're appreciating more now that you're
Speaker 6: in the building and really get to see him work.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I definitely appreciate Eric. I think he's had
Speaker 1: a great off season. He is the blueprint, as we
Speaker 1: call him. He sets his standard with those guys up front.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked to him another day. He wasn't
Speaker 1: practicing and just was talking about a few things. Are
Speaker 1: you ready? And I think k in a subliminal way,
Speaker 1: I was joking with the coaching staff. He sent me
Speaker 1: a long, detailed text about everything in the run game
Speaker 1: with Pittsburgh, and I was like, I said, yeah, I
Speaker 1: fucking think he's ready, you know so?
Speaker 3: Uh I it was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely detailing everything that they're doing and and
Speaker 1: what we need to do to make sure that we
Speaker 1: attack it.
Speaker 3: So very impressive.
Speaker 4: It's from a.
Speaker 8: Coordinator's perspective when you're facing if you were to face
Speaker 8: it an offense like the Niners, and they have how
Speaker 8: you and Samuel and McCaffrey and Kittle and you know,
Speaker 8: on and on. Does it? Maybe this is a stupid question,
Speaker 8: but is it we're shooting some ways to be more
Speaker 8: basic and just like, hey, we're not gonna go like
Speaker 8: double this guy all the time, you know, does it
Speaker 8: We're sure to kind of just simplify a game plan
Speaker 8: just because you can't focus on one specific guy too.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I I mean, I think we have definitely weapons and
Speaker 1: Caw does a tremendous job, uh, and in really trying
Speaker 1: to spread the ball around and create different looks. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's been great going against those guys cause it's prepared
Speaker 1: us for different things that we're going to see throughout
Speaker 1: the year. So you can easily get out of position
Speaker 1: based off what you think maybe twenty one personnel and
Speaker 1: they break the hud on all of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: looks like eleven. So you've got to be very signed
Speaker 1: on what you're doing going against our offense.
Speaker 5: Beyond the teams and.
Speaker 4: X's and those we're talking about, what is it about
Speaker 4: this defense and some of the players. Do you think
Speaker 4: that's propelled them these last few years? Is there some
Speaker 4: personality trade or some thread between Fred and Nick or
Speaker 4: whoever that sort of elevates this defense above other.
Speaker 3: Defenses around the least.
Speaker 1: I think it's the culture that they've created. I talk
Speaker 1: about it all the time, coming in here and seeing
Speaker 1: exactly what we have established over the years. It's very
Speaker 1: hard for anybody to come in here and hide, meaning
Speaker 1: that you're gonna get very exposed in this defense if
Speaker 1: you don't practice at a certain level, you know, if
Speaker 1: you don't study at a certain level, because everybody in
Speaker 1: that room is doing it at a high level, oh
Speaker 1: every day, you know. So Uh, the standard is the
Speaker 1: standard here and how we do things, and it starts
Speaker 1: with Eric Fred uh all those guys across the board.
Speaker 1: So again, excited where we are. Uh, and it's about
Speaker 1: taking one step at a time. So we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to next week.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you guys, Thank you for