Speaker 1: Dez Bryant's limited role last week, how do you configure
Speaker 1: for this week? Do you think you can assume that
Speaker 1: he's going to have a large role? How do you
Speaker 1: do how do you do we expect a full game
Speaker 1: out of Doze Bryant, probably even more targets at him
Speaker 1: than it was last last week. He's getting healthier and healthy.
Speaker 1: I think he kind of tested the waters last week
Speaker 1: and he passed all the tests, So we think we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a big dose of a healthy Desert Brant.
Speaker 1: You had all four inside linebackers practice yesterday. Kiko says
Speaker 1: he's gonna play KOs something like he's going to play.
Speaker 1: How do you see that all shake down? Well, it
Speaker 1: is with the nature of the injuries and out of coming,
Speaker 1: we need them practicing again to take that first step,
Speaker 1: kind of like Michael did two weeks ago. So if
Speaker 1: they'll pass the test during a week, then we'll be
Speaker 1: excited about having all four of them up and we'll
Speaker 1: again we'll use them as their health allows us to
Speaker 1: use them. How much and how well they did, we'll
Speaker 1: put them in certain packages and see who the healthiest are.
Speaker 1: The other factors when you have those four healthy players,
Speaker 1: they also have some special teams contributions that they have
Speaker 1: to do. So if for instance, somebody discovered a kick
Speaker 1: or you know, is winded from that, we'll put the
Speaker 1: other guy in. So there's a rotation that's kind of
Speaker 1: fluid during a game on both their health, stamina, special
Speaker 1: teams involvement, which we need a big role from from
Speaker 1: all of them, and that that also everyone here the
Speaker 1: first time that you've had all for is it something
Speaker 1: that you're looking for Different things you can do with
Speaker 1: having them all if they're all healthy. Absolutely, But one
Speaker 1: of the things that you can't you can't expand any
Speaker 1: of their roles. Of the guys that haven't been practicing. First,
Speaker 1: I got to get them back into the main role,
Speaker 1: get them oiled up and where they're very confident and
Speaker 1: play well at that spot before I can get too
Speaker 1: exotic with packages. If all of them had been playing
Speaker 1: for the whole season, then that's okay, now we're going
Speaker 1: to start going outside of the box. But right now
Speaker 1: they just haven't had enough practice or game reps to
Speaker 1: do that. Isn't a challenge for you to get all
Speaker 1: of them resenting. It's a challenge. It's a great challenge
Speaker 1: to have. Uh. You know, we've got different packages that
Speaker 1: they all kind of fit, and we can make those
Speaker 1: packages fit their their talents, which is uh is a
Speaker 1: good thing to have, but it's it's a great challenge
Speaker 1: to attack and to solve. But we're excited about getting
Speaker 1: him all back on the field. This is your perception
Speaker 1: of your optimal rotation changed since the beginning of the
Speaker 1: season because the play of Hicks, it's changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he's moved you know, he's moved himself
Speaker 1: up into the conversation. Uh. In the beginning of the year,
Speaker 1: he wasn't in the conversation other than special teams and
Speaker 1: a backup role as we grow him. But he he
Speaker 1: jumped in and did such a nice job that now
Speaker 1: he's brought himself into the conversation of a of a
Speaker 1: main rotation. Put the maccastle too. Well, you know we've
Speaker 1: had we had a game in Minnesota. He's a he's
Speaker 1: got a lot of experience and it's not too big
Speaker 1: for him, and he manages the offense. Now what he's
Speaker 1: trying to get is the new offense and all the
Speaker 1: intricacies of it. When we played in Minnesota, he had
Speaker 1: the full year with Bill Musgrave, and he had a
Speaker 1: great game against us, both with his legs moving to
Speaker 1: the sticks a little bit and throwing for I believe
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy or eighty yards. So we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of respect for Matt casting on what he's
Speaker 1: done against us and what he's now doing. And I
Speaker 1: know he didn't have all the success he would have
Speaker 1: liked against Seattle, but you know, I few do. It's
Speaker 1: a different offense and they were so to in terms
Speaker 1: of the quarterbacks, seal guys, minding backers. Yeah, is that
Speaker 1: game planned from him to applicable or a portable to
Speaker 1: go back to the drawing parts of it are, but
Speaker 1: not all. We have to adjust a little bit to
Speaker 1: get Dez Brian in the game now. So that's another
Speaker 1: weapon on top of the weapons they already have. The
Speaker 1: running back is a different running back with a different style,
Speaker 1: and I think the running game is kind of morphing
Speaker 1: a little bit and playing to what his strengths are.
Speaker 1: So there's those aspects that are changing, and a little
Speaker 1: bit of protection changes with who running backs are and
Speaker 1: tight end. So uh, there's parts of it that will
Speaker 1: apply in parts that we need to to expand about
Speaker 1: the quarterback situation. I mean obviously first seeing me twenty one,
Speaker 1: now you know Castle and everything. Well, you know we
Speaker 1: played Weeding at the end of that game did pretty
Speaker 1: well against us, so we uh, you know, we've got
Speaker 1: respect for Brandon. I was with Brandon in Cleveland, so
Speaker 1: I know him well and what his skill set is,
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, we think we're getting Matt Castle,
Speaker 1: and and uh we'll get his best in the offense
Speaker 1: with with des and there will we'll be better than
Speaker 1: it has been. I think I was Keiko unique among
Speaker 1: this side my bed. Is there one or two things
Speaker 1: that he might do best out of the floor, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know Keiko, and I'm still learning Keiko. Uh as
Speaker 1: we see him out there, has him an out there
Speaker 1: a whole lot. But Keiko is a very instinctive football player.
Speaker 1: You don't have to say much. He can go out there,
Speaker 1: probably not even give him a call, and he could
Speaker 1: probably flow to the ball and be at the ball
Speaker 1: or in coverage being a good spot. He's he really
Speaker 1: gets the game of football. He sees it well. He's
Speaker 1: got great eyes, so no matter what you put him in,
Speaker 1: Like yesterday was his first day in a while and
Speaker 1: he just he was like a and miss a beat.
Speaker 1: So I think he's got a great football instincts in
Speaker 1: an IQ that that helps him make all those plays
Speaker 1: that you saw making Buffalo. The pass rush is good.
Speaker 1: I really we just we looked at obviously all week
Speaker 1: and I've said this before. Up here are we moving?
Speaker 1: Are we affecting the quarterback and moving him off the spot?
Speaker 1: There was a handful of things that should have been
Speaker 1: would have been sacks, but Eli grounded it or Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: through with his left hand in the shovel, so the
Speaker 1: pocket was collapsing. I love the way the guys are
Speaker 1: rushing together. I think it's the best year we've had
Speaker 1: four guys being where they're supposed to be together. Now
Speaker 1: you put a good coverage behind that like we are,
Speaker 1: and now the quarterback has to make that choice. Am
Speaker 1: I going to force the throw and throw interceptions? Which
Speaker 1: we're getting more of, And that's kind of replacing some
Speaker 1: of the sacks that we're happening a year ago. But
Speaker 1: I think we're doing a nice job in our stunts
Speaker 1: and games are way more efficient than they were a
Speaker 1: year ago. So we were excited about, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of self scouting that and seeing how that's grown. How
Speaker 1: do you think barn Maxwell's Max's tackling. Max has been
Speaker 1: doing a solid job. I mean, like all of them,
Speaker 1: we've got our last game, we didn't tackle as well
Speaker 1: as we had been prior to that um, but Max
Speaker 1: has been doing a good job. I can't think of
Speaker 1: of a blatant one that he that he missed or
Speaker 1: that was horrible. Older he should he should have tackled
Speaker 1: him instead of gone for the strip. He put his
Speaker 1: focus on getting the ball out, and then it was
Speaker 1: that was a bad That wasn't even a tackle. That
Speaker 1: was a It was a mistackle, but he was at
Speaker 1: the ball trying to strip it instead of tackling like
Speaker 1: you should have been played. He might to cowboys and
Speaker 1: puts multiple weapons out on the field and increases the chance.
Speaker 1: So I'm that's asking you to give this away, increases
Speaker 1: the chance that you're not going to be in base,
Speaker 1: that you may be in specialty packages. Does that make
Speaker 1: that challenge of your inside livebacker rotation more challenging, to
Speaker 1: make you look at a little bit differently when you
Speaker 1: realize you might not be in base a hole, Well,
Speaker 1: what you don't know is what they're going to come
Speaker 1: at you with, so you can go off what they've
Speaker 1: gone on. But what we're challenged with right now is
Speaker 1: we've got really three different quarterbacks. We're looking at two
Speaker 1: different main running backs. We're looking at an offensive line
Speaker 1: shift some of the protection. So who are they come
Speaker 1: We have to be prepared for being a full game
Speaker 1: of base or a full game of nickel or dime
Speaker 1: or whatever they throw at us. But as far as
Speaker 1: the inside backers go, so far, our base and our
Speaker 1: nickel has been about equal. So those reps as we
Speaker 1: interchange them, even though in whatever dallas And then what's
Speaker 1: the offensive score? What's the score differential in the game?
Speaker 1: That affects a lot of what they do and in
Speaker 1: turn what we do. Legal league year, we put a
Speaker 1: huge emphasis on it and we've got the dummies all
Speaker 1: around the building. We really believe since the beginning of
Speaker 1: football that that's stat to take away differential has been
Speaker 1: a huge stack in wins and losses. So we put
Speaker 1: a lot of focus on it, and the guys have
Speaker 1: it on the front of their mind. Therefore, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's been, it's where we're at at the halfway point.
Speaker 1: We needed to be there at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: I didn't spat and train care I think you mentioned
Speaker 1: the possible of firematchal bomb and like the other teams
Speaker 1: and receiver around, you know, wherever he runs up, is
Speaker 1: that no longer possible? No, we we've done it in spurts.
Speaker 1: We've done in different packages. I think it was in
Speaker 1: the Jets game and dime only he followed Brandon uh,
Speaker 1: he followed Julio in the first game. We move in
Speaker 1: and out of that. It's kind of attached to You
Speaker 1: can put a guy on there and leave them alone,
Speaker 1: or you can put two guys like we did on Beckham.
Speaker 1: We always had two guys with a little bit of
Speaker 1: an eye on them. So if you have that, you
Speaker 1: don't need to match up. If you're going to where
Speaker 1: you're given help, maybe somewhere else that you want to
Speaker 1: match up. So there's a lot of things to go
Speaker 1: into that. But he's out. That is absolutely still in
Speaker 1: the mix that we can and we'll go in and
Speaker 1: out of doing against the guy like Brian. Yes, we could, yeah,
Speaker 1: and we liked whose idea was to put the dummies
Speaker 1: all around the building. I was a collective idea, you know,
Speaker 1: we had looked at a lot of different things, and
Speaker 1: we just said, how can we really put on the
Speaker 1: front of their mind. And we put the dummy and
Speaker 1: we got the you know, the one throwing and one
Speaker 1: holding the ball, so it's gonna be a passer or
Speaker 1: a runner. And we just said, hey, guys, in and
Speaker 1: out of every meeting, just put it on your mind.
Speaker 1: Just you know, we all talk about habits, and habits
Speaker 1: reflect the mission and it's just a habit that we're
Speaker 1: trying to get to. And then does it happen in
Speaker 1: a practice field? And most importantly, how many times are
Speaker 1: we actually attempting to punch a ball out in the game.
Speaker 1: There's the more shots on goal you get, the more
Speaker 1: success you have, And that's really there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of hidden punches. Now. One of the bad parts of it,
Speaker 1: it's like Max tried to take the punch and the
Speaker 1: turnover instead of the tackle on Toberd and we lost
Speaker 1: on that one. So we it's a fine line between
Speaker 1: the tackle and the turnal one balanced like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the three yard line. You haven't been a chance
Speaker 1: of getting to stop if you punch it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the tackle has to be secured for Earlier in
Speaker 1: the season, Max had a great one, but I've been
Speaker 1: against Dallas. It was it was Escobar and Max came
Speaker 1: up and tackled and punched at the same time, and
Speaker 1: mount scooped it up. That's an example of the tackle.
Speaker 1: First the body in a position and then the punch.
Speaker 1: What happened against Carolina was not right. He went on
Speaker 1: one half of the man trying for the ball and
Speaker 1: didn't secure the tackle. He knows I do. It's actually
Speaker 1: real good at it outside linebacker. And then you know why,
Speaker 1: why no longer I'm out there and say it again
Speaker 1: outside linebacker? How Well, we've got multiple packages that Vinny's in,
Speaker 1: and we were that was putting them in all the packages,
Speaker 1: which I don't think it was real fair to Vinny
Speaker 1: not giving them the off season to do it. And really,
Speaker 1: when we had Travis Long and we had some other
Speaker 1: bodies out there, we felt like we had some depth
Speaker 1: and we had a lot of competition and Vinnie could
Speaker 1: could grow inside and do all those things. And then
Speaker 1: when we lost Travis and lost some numbers there, we
Speaker 1: put Vinnie out there, but it kind of weakened the
Speaker 1: rest of his game, So we kind of put them
Speaker 1: back in there and say go do what you do.
Speaker 1: You've had a lot of success there, and let's look
Speaker 1: at some other spots because outside backer conversion takes a
Speaker 1: lot of reps to get it down, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: it wasn't really fair to Vinny throw them out there
Speaker 1: that quick, and I was trying to manipulate what he
Speaker 1: was doing out there, but we felt like it weakened
Speaker 1: us and Vinnie's game. Are you looking at any other
Speaker 1: alternatives at the third outside linebackers? Thought must leave Brad Jones. Well,
Speaker 1: Brad practice out there a lot recently. He's gone inside
Speaker 1: because of the injuries because you've been the third guy.
Speaker 1: He has been early in the season, he was when
Speaker 1: Marcus wasn't active, Brad Jones really was the guy active
Speaker 1: for the outside backer spot. He was available to us.
Speaker 1: Now we were on with Vinnie, but we could go
Speaker 1: with Brad. So he's definitely an option for us at
Speaker 1: the outside backer spot. The defense to go from, where
Speaker 1: do you guys were couple years ago among the worst
Speaker 1: in the league and now you're at a point where
Speaker 1: you're leading the NFL and turnovers, Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: a it's a credit to the organization, the players, selection,
Speaker 1: the personnel department. I think it's it really goes to
Speaker 1: the players more than anybody. When you have a group
Speaker 1: of guys that what the workers hard as they work
Speaker 1: and put their focus in the right spots. I think
Speaker 1: I'm more excited about the conversation we first got here
Speaker 1: and we had a hundred times up beer was tackling, tackling, tackling.
Speaker 1: Are you guys doing tackling to the ground drills and
Speaker 1: training camp and where the tacklings come. I'm more proud of.
Speaker 1: The turnovers are always part of winning NFL football games.
Speaker 1: You've got to get the turnover ratio. But it's the
Speaker 1: players putting the emphasis on it. It's the position coaches
Speaker 1: daily and meeting pointing out you know where we're doing
Speaker 1: it right, where we're doing it wrong. And then in
Speaker 1: the individual period and Chip does a great job, which
Speaker 1: is better than most places I've been of. We get
Speaker 1: extended individual period which lets us work the fundamentals a
Speaker 1: lot more and put that empstats and you see guys
Speaker 1: out here and you're watching, you see that part of practice.
Speaker 1: That's a big chunk of why you play well. As
Speaker 1: the fundamentals are right, the footworks right, the eyes are right,
Speaker 1: the tackling is where we work on that there, that's
Speaker 1: where we work turnovers. So it's a combination. Like all things.
Speaker 1: You succeed as a group and an organization, and you
Speaker 1: fail as a group an organizations. Four inside that prostrating
Speaker 1: any of them on the outside, we could, but again,
Speaker 1: zach it, I have done that, but right now, especially
Speaker 1: with the injuries that are happening. I mean, for instance,
Speaker 1: Brad Jones is both he is in and out of
Speaker 1: both meeting rooms at all times. Some other guys could,
Speaker 1: but right now, you know, we're just coming in and
Speaker 1: out of injuries. So you cannot without reps on the field, guys, don't.
Speaker 1: You've got to have reps to really learn and get
Speaker 1: it right and play well in a game. So if
Speaker 1: they're having multiple reps and multiple weeks of having reps,
Speaker 1: then I'm more comfortable moving them and cross training them.
Speaker 1: When they're just coming off an injury and they and
Speaker 1: they're working our way back in or the reps haven't
Speaker 1: been huge, then just stay there until we get real
Speaker 1: comfortable there and then then we'll go outside of the
Speaker 1: box down the road. Could Hicks have that sort of versatility.
Speaker 1: Jordan has the skill set to do it. I think
Speaker 1: he could, you know, I think I really. I don't
Speaker 1: think any of them couldn't. I mean, there's Michael Kendricks
Speaker 1: has a nice pass rush off the edge. Kiko is
Speaker 1: length to get out there. But right now we got to,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of get them in there. And there's
Speaker 1: packages where you can get them out in space a
Speaker 1: little bit. So we'll play the healthy ones as much
Speaker 1: as we can get the eleven best on the field
Speaker 1: at all times. He was saying yesterday that teams are
Speaker 1: starting a double all three of those guys up front.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing that at times they get the doubles
Speaker 1: but the backers if how do I say this is
Speaker 1: easily when you are playing split safety coverages, double teams
Speaker 1: stay on the D line longer, so when you're trying
Speaker 1: to stop the run and split your safety so you're
Speaker 1: better in the passing game, the double teams can stay
Speaker 1: on D linement longer. And we've done a little bit
Speaker 1: of that lately, so it's schematically. I know when it's happening.
Speaker 1: If it becomes a problem, I bring a safety down
Speaker 1: in the box, which gives everybody a single gap so
Speaker 1: now that double team can't stay on as long because
Speaker 1: a backer takes a gap, the double team comes off,
Speaker 1: and now they're not double teams as much. So that's
Speaker 1: that's scheme related our scheme and there you know, their
Speaker 1: their run of choice, and so some of that has
Speaker 1: happened lately when I try to go split safety to
Speaker 1: the run game, that definitely happens more as the season
Speaker 1: goes on. Here is rows roll going to the standard off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as we as we go and grow the corner spot
Speaker 1: who we're playing and how we're playing it. You know,
Speaker 1: we're very happy with Eric's progress. We think we're taking
Speaker 1: probably the right pace with him, and we were very
Speaker 1: excited about where he's going to go in the future.
Speaker 1: Two more games. Any other major takeaways from the evaluations
Speaker 1: during to buy a week billing val your defense. I
Speaker 1: think we were getting better each week, and that's the goal.
Speaker 1: We talk about it all the time, the goal of
Speaker 1: this season. We're chasing greatness, but it takes one week
Speaker 1: at a time, and greatness is defined as being better
Speaker 1: than your former self. So are we better this week
Speaker 1: when we were last week? We were a little bit
Speaker 1: disappointing Carolina because we didn't feel like we took that
Speaker 1: step forward in some areas. But we've got to take
Speaker 1: the second half of the season and grow it. We've
Speaker 1: got to get better than we have been. The X
Speaker 1: plays have been like this seven to one, game zero,
Speaker 1: the next six, one, game three, the next. We're a
Speaker 1: good spot with X plays over the seven games, but
Speaker 1: that's got to be more consistent. Our third down has
Speaker 1: to be more consistent. We have one good game, one
Speaker 1: bad game. The third longs which should be knocked out
Speaker 1: every time. That's been a little bit of an achilles heal.
Speaker 1: We talked about that a lot, and then you know,
Speaker 1: those are the type of things that we looked at
Speaker 1: hard and put our focus on. You mentioned the improved
Speaker 1: the efficiency of the Demons of Mind stunts. Why do
Speaker 1: you think that's gotten better. We worked at it, We
Speaker 1: put more time into it. You get better at what
Speaker 1: you work on. Yere one, we were really saying, hey,
Speaker 1: let's get this STU gap and stuff down, and let's
Speaker 1: let's really put our focus there. You really will, and
Speaker 1: I've had in my whole career. What you put your
Speaker 1: emphasis on, you'll get. You just can't emphasize everything at once,
Speaker 1: so you have to pick and choose as you go. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's intact. That's intact. This is weak. Let's dive into
Speaker 1: this and add more to it, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: how we grow it. We're good. Thanks John,