Speaker 1: James. As early as May you said Malcolm and Rodney
Speaker 1: had a chance to be one of the better, say
Speaker 1: us in the league? To nine games in this how
Speaker 1: do you think face that coup? It's I mean, I
Speaker 1: think both of those guys are really good players. I
Speaker 1: think UM off seasons probably the time to talk about
Speaker 1: how they match up with other people. I haven't spent
Speaker 1: I haven't paid a lot of attension to other people
Speaker 1: around the league. I know this. They're doing a good
Speaker 1: job for this defense. Both of those guys, um are
Speaker 1: good players. Both of them are multidimensional, and I think
Speaker 1: they did They're the glue that holds our defense together.
Speaker 1: Their communication has been outstanding. Um you know, we we
Speaker 1: have very few missed assignments in the back end. You know,
Speaker 1: if we get beat in the back end is generally
Speaker 1: a physical thing and I think a lot of that
Speaker 1: credit goes to Rodney and m and Malcolm. How did
Speaker 1: Benny play on Sunday and what was his the role?
Speaker 1: I active back. It's always good to have your your
Speaker 1: players back, and I think probably the biggest impact was, um,
Speaker 1: you know, being back to a foreman rotation instead of
Speaker 1: instead of a three. We didn't play a lot of
Speaker 1: snaps in the game. The offense did a good job
Speaker 1: controlling the ball, we did a good job getting off
Speaker 1: the field on third down. That was a formula that
Speaker 1: served us very well early in the season. So our
Speaker 1: our depth wasn't as tested, um as it's been in
Speaker 1: some of the other games. But it's still good to
Speaker 1: get back to that. Um, you know. And I'll leave
Speaker 1: evaluating played a pro football focus and those people I'll
Speaker 1: just um, I'll just you know, we were able to
Speaker 1: win the game. You know, I'll be born there's not
Speaker 1: much experience experience that well, um, well, I think a
Speaker 1: lot has to do with the safety, So I'll go
Speaker 1: back to uh, I'll go back to you the first
Speaker 1: the first question, and you know, it's the safety's job
Speaker 1: to communicate to the corners, you know, and regardless of experience.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that's that's happened in
Speaker 1: our corner position is we've been very competitive. We haven't
Speaker 1: always played great, but we've played competitive. We've given up
Speaker 1: some plays, but we've made some plays. And you know,
Speaker 1: in this league, you're not going to make any plays
Speaker 1: if you don't if you don't contest. Some things I
Speaker 1: said this month ago whatever. I mean, I can play
Speaker 1: over the top of everything, I can't defend anything underneath.
Speaker 1: And there's a there's a balance between those two. But
Speaker 1: I think the competitiveness of our corners, regardless of experience,
Speaker 1: has has shown. And you know, the safeties have been
Speaker 1: able to do a good job communicating and in most
Speaker 1: circumstances do a good job of bandling those guys out
Speaker 1: when they have given up. A play was able to
Speaker 1: disrupt things in the back vield as a defensive tackle
Speaker 1: it especially in the scheme. Did those plays sometimes go
Speaker 1: overlooked by most people because they don't necessarily result in statistics. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't go overlooked when it comes to when it
Speaker 1: comes to our group. You know, disruption is a part
Speaker 1: of those guys job description. They're not holding blockers off
Speaker 1: and trying to free other people up to make place.
Speaker 1: They're trying to disrupt things. If we can get tackles
Speaker 1: for losses, UM, that helps us win drives. You know,
Speaker 1: you take teams and put them off schedule second and long,
Speaker 1: third and long. Um. You know I mentioned our run
Speaker 1: I mean our third down defense. In this last game.
Speaker 1: Our run defense was was good and it has been
Speaker 1: good and Benny's been a part of that. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's put him in a lot of third down and
Speaker 1: long situations and it allowed our defensive secondary to you know,
Speaker 1: to be able to cover get off the field. We
Speaker 1: didn't get a lot of pressure, but I think stopping
Speaker 1: that run and um and putting him in some third
Speaker 1: down and long situations had a lot to do with him,
Speaker 1: and Benny's a big part of that. Jim for for Doug, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't on the practice field yesterday. We
Speaker 1: get back, we'll get him back. But other than that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, we get ready otherwise, and he seems to
Speaker 1: be generating a pretty consistent pressure roll year. What do
Speaker 1: you think has been the biggest key to him so
Speaker 1: far this year? He's the iom player. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean there's no substitute for good players. Not only
Speaker 1: is he is he a good player, but he plays
Speaker 1: with incredible effort, He plays with toughness. Um, he's very conscientious.
Speaker 1: He doesn't make mistakes very often, and when he does
Speaker 1: make a mistake, he's quick to correct. He's he's also
Speaker 1: um you know, he's quick to take responsibility for for
Speaker 1: plays that he doesn't make or plays that he should make.
Speaker 1: He's a great teammate. Um. I can't say enough good
Speaker 1: things about him. He plays the way the game should
Speaker 1: be played. Um, I'll probably give him, in my mind,
Speaker 1: my greatest compliment. Um. You know, I wasn't a very
Speaker 1: good player, but if I played in the NFL, I
Speaker 1: hope I would have played like Brandon Graham. They had
Speaker 1: a couple of tackles, one guy who's an experience, the
Speaker 1: other guy with the other side was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a mystery of the one who's going to play.
Speaker 1: And you're facing a similar situation heading into the Davia Seattle.
Speaker 1: What have you seen from from their tackles. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's a completely different situation because the quarterback is
Speaker 1: so different. You know, Sam Bradford, we knew very well
Speaker 1: wasn't going to move around a whole lot. That's it's
Speaker 1: completely different dynamic this week. You know, every week Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson has gotten healthier. Um. You know, last week he
Speaker 1: looked like he was back to himself. I don't know
Speaker 1: how much is knee injury still bothering him, but it
Speaker 1: didn't look like a lot. So it's not just a
Speaker 1: matter of beating the offensive lineman Now it's a matter
Speaker 1: of chasing the quarterback and getting the quarterback on the
Speaker 1: job on the ground and and holding up in coverage.
Speaker 1: Puts a lot of pressure on your coverage. The ball's
Speaker 1: not coming out quick, um, you know, so we got
Speaker 1: to do a good job of covering and you know,
Speaker 1: to be able to exploit those kind of matchups. Got
Speaker 1: fur then he had a long break. Does he looked
Speaker 1: now like he's close to being game ready. Well, we
Speaker 1: were counting on him being game ready last week because
Speaker 1: he had a uniform one and anybody that's got one,
Speaker 1: you never know how it's going to play. They might
Speaker 1: get in there and play. Um, you know c J.
Speaker 1: Smith had to go in and play again, play at
Speaker 1: the end of the first half where we had to
Speaker 1: defend a deep ball, Um, you know, and that's just
Speaker 1: expected of those guys. Aaron's a really hard worker. Um,
Speaker 1: he's he's another tough minded guy and you know that
Speaker 1: the time off, Um, you know, he was able to
Speaker 1: use that number one to get healthy. But he also
Speaker 1: you know, just the kind of guy he is, he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to get too far from his craft. Um.
Speaker 1: He's a young player, but he's also got a little experience.
Speaker 1: He's played professional football, you know, in Canada, but it's
Speaker 1: professional football and he knows what it takes. So we
Speaker 1: know that if he's if he's called upon, he'll be ready.
Speaker 1: I was just wondering, um, just how much grow with
Speaker 1: it you kind of scene from him? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know obviously some of it was because the injuries to
Speaker 1: and and the others and stuff, but like how much
Speaker 1: is Jail and Groan to be able to you know,
Speaker 1: take that kind of role. Yeah. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would really put it in terms of growth because
Speaker 1: from the time he's come here there there hasn't been
Speaker 1: very many situations that have been too big for him,
Speaker 1: including this last game. And you know, if you were watching, um,
Speaker 1: you know we actually flip sides with him for Julio Jones.
Speaker 1: You know, I don'd seventh round draft pick and be
Speaker 1: flipping sides with Julio Jones. I mean, you know, some
Speaker 1: of it had to do with Jail and some of
Speaker 1: it had to do with, you know, where the health
Speaker 1: of our other corners we were. But I'll go back
Speaker 1: and you know, Jail and when I talked about the
Speaker 1: competitiveness of our corners, Um, you know in a large
Speaker 1: part I was talking about Jail and when you know,
Speaker 1: we were trying to manage our injury position at corner
Speaker 1: and at halftime we decided that, you know, we wanted
Speaker 1: to get him on. There was no hesitation, there was
Speaker 1: no I don't know, you know that guy's really good
Speaker 1: or what coverages are you going to call? It was
Speaker 1: I got him and you know, like I said, he
Speaker 1: didn't always make the play, but you know that that's
Speaker 1: not what this league is about, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't pitch a shut out to every wide receiver,
Speaker 1: particularly a guy like that that is, if not the best,
Speaker 1: one of the best wide receivers in the NFL with
Speaker 1: up with a hot quarterback. You know, but he was
Speaker 1: able to you know, his competitiveness carried carried that. They
Speaker 1: made a big play at the end of that game.
Speaker 1: And a lot of players have talked about yesterday that
Speaker 1: you guys are now in the same class, it should
Speaker 1: be in the same conversation as Seattle's defense. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you guys are at that point at this
Speaker 1: point the season. You know, I'll go back to comparing
Speaker 1: our safeties to other people. You know, I think it's
Speaker 1: our job to get our give our team a chance
Speaker 1: to win every week. If we're doing that, then you
Speaker 1: know we're we're we're going to be good enough. I
Speaker 1: guess you'd say, Um, you know, I think we need
Speaker 1: to compare ourselves with ourselves and not other people. Everybody
Speaker 1: has different situations with you know, strengths and weaknesses and
Speaker 1: different schemes and you know, different you know, offenses and
Speaker 1: special teams and all those different things to go into it.
Speaker 1: We just need to worry about ourselves. And you know,
Speaker 1: if we can go out and give a good performance,
Speaker 1: we can stop to run, get off the field, and
Speaker 1: third down pressure to quarterback, create turnovers, then you know
Speaker 1: we'll put ourselves in position to win a game. And
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's the only thing we can
Speaker 1: really judge ourselves on. In general, are there things a
Speaker 1: defense has to do against the quarterback isn't necessarily as tall?
Speaker 1: You know, Wilson might be six feet tall and does
Speaker 1: just move bit okay? And then secondly, does it his
Speaker 1: mobility change any of those dynamics or things in general
Speaker 1: you might do for sure? Yeah? Well, I mean the
Speaker 1: mobility number one does um, you know it obviously his
Speaker 1: ability to create a play it's tied into their wide receivers.
Speaker 1: Their wide receivers are used to it. They run around
Speaker 1: if the ball's not thrown right away. They're not like
Speaker 1: standing around looking. They know right away it's a scramble drill. Um.
Speaker 1: He also scrambles backwards, which makes it hard to catch
Speaker 1: because he already has a little bit of cushion. Um.
Speaker 1: Fran Tarkington did a lot of the same things. And
Speaker 1: I grew up as a kid watching Fran Tarkington and
Speaker 1: and Chuck Foreman and those guys. I mean, I allowed
Speaker 1: Luke grew up in Baltimore, but I love the Vikings
Speaker 1: because I like those two guys. Um, But he did
Speaker 1: a lot of the same things. That scrambling backwards puts
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on the defense, and scheme wise,
Speaker 1: they do some things that help him out. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're not as tall as other quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: they drop him a little bit deeper, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's not it's not rare to see him ten twelve
Speaker 1: yards behind the line of scrimmage when he throws, and
Speaker 1: you know, the farther back you get the you know,
Speaker 1: it evens out the height advantage. They open up windows
Speaker 1: we got to do a good job of closing windows
Speaker 1: in our pass rush, and then they get him on
Speaker 1: the edge with the boot game. All those things make
Speaker 1: him six foot five. You know, the Y nine in
Speaker 1: theory be a good way to counteract that, getting guys
Speaker 1: afield and then again dosiness mobility coming to play again.
Speaker 1: We'll see you on Sunday. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that are good in theory difficult in execution.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the reasons that, one of
Speaker 1: the reasons he's been successful through his career is that
Speaker 1: he's not a one trick pony. You see it with
Speaker 1: some quarterbacks. You know, they come in and they have
Speaker 1: a little bit of success, and the defensive coaches, coaches
Speaker 1: around the league sort of figure out a book on them,
Speaker 1: so to speak, and they take away those strengths and
Speaker 1: make them play to their weakness. And you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of guys effectiveness, you know, starts to wane, but
Speaker 1: not him. You know, people have had a long time
Speaker 1: to try to figure him out, and nobody really has.
Speaker 1: And it's because he's a good player and because you know,
Speaker 1: even though he's five ten and a half or you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever he wants to be um, he plays big, and
Speaker 1: you know, when when he's out there, we're not going
Speaker 1: to be concerned with his height. We're going to be
Speaker 1: concerned with his ability to make plays and his ability
Speaker 1: to extend plays, his ability to make plays with his feet,
Speaker 1: to run for first downs. All those things are going
Speaker 1: to be the important thing. Not not what he measured
Speaker 1: at the combine. Back what asks are you? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think if we thought they were really good, we
Speaker 1: would have drafted him earlier. So um, I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't want to take too much credit for that. You know,
Speaker 1: if you draft them in the first round, they're good, Okay,
Speaker 1: good second round. You know, when you're drafting late in
Speaker 1: the draft, you're you're drafting traits. You know, I'd rather
Speaker 1: not talk too much about those, but one of those
Speaker 1: is competitiveness. Competitiveness not just as a you know, which
Speaker 1: you would think, you know, a guy that wants to
Speaker 1: win or a guy that's interested in playing, but competitiveness
Speaker 1: at the ball, a guy that you know can can
Speaker 1: go and defend and isn't afraid to be on an island.
Speaker 1: I think if you went across, whether you were drafted
Speaker 1: in the first round, the seventh round, a free agent
Speaker 1: fifth round Sherman. Those guys all possessed that. You know,
Speaker 1: Sherman is an incredible competitor. He's out there, he wants
Speaker 1: to defend every past. You know, that shows you know,
Speaker 1: you don't need to be a scouting genius to see that.
Speaker 1: He's he's very competitive at the ball and um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think all good corners that way. Getting sacks, I know, overall,
Speaker 1: the more important is getting because the pressure. Um. That
Speaker 1: being said, Benny Curley only has one sacked this year.
Speaker 1: Are you getting enough production out of him aside from them? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, he's There's a lot of other ways to contribute.
Speaker 1: We don't define ourselves by stats. I think the only
Speaker 1: stat we really define ourselves by is wins and losses.
Speaker 1: And you know, defensively, I think you could you could
Speaker 1: continue to points alloud, you know, points allowed when you're
Speaker 1: on the field, you know, anything else. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways, you know. I mean we had
Speaker 1: one where we got intentional grounding. It was Benny, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Benny had You don't get credit for a sack, even
Speaker 1: though they lose it down and he gets the ball
Speaker 1: right there, he doesn't get credit for a sack and
Speaker 1: maybe you guys can do something professional football writers of
Speaker 1: America can get I mean, because in my mind that's
Speaker 1: I mean, he created the sack, they gave us the sack,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't get credit for it. But that's just
Speaker 1: the way this game goes. I don't think any of
Speaker 1: our players are, you know, worried too much about stats.
Speaker 1: They're worried about making plays that help us win the game.
Speaker 1: That played that Benny made helped us win the game.
Speaker 1: And if we can make those, then we're happy. Whether
Speaker 1: it's that or you know, the week before I talked
Speaker 1: about Connor bar when you know, tipping a pass that
Speaker 1: we intercept and you know, and gave us a chance.
Speaker 1: We weren't able to win the game. But you know,
Speaker 1: those are all plays that you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the year, maybe you say, wow, they didn't he
Speaker 1: didn't have enough sacks or he didn't have enough tackles.
Speaker 1: But you know, some of those fly below the radar.
Speaker 1: We don't judge ourselves on those. Have you spent much
Speaker 1: time studying Seattle's defense and so yeah, um yeah. Over
Speaker 1: over the years, you always in the off season look
Speaker 1: at opposing defenses and or other defenses around in the
Speaker 1: league in different areas, third down, red zone, run defense,
Speaker 1: pass rush, you know, UM, to try to get some
Speaker 1: ideas to to be able to steal from UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, we've robbed some coverage, some coverage techniques,
Speaker 1: UM from Seattle a couple of years ago. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I think they had a relationship with some guys I've
Speaker 1: worked for it. They robbed some pass rush concepts from us,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was in Tennessee and Detroit. So
Speaker 1: that that stuff goes around the league. It's this league
Speaker 1: is about finding what your players can do the best.
Speaker 1: If if that's something that can help your players, then
Speaker 1: it's good. But you know, it always doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: Just because another team has success doing something doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's going to fit for you. And that's our job
Speaker 1: as coaches. Find out what fits the best, find out
Speaker 1: what gives us the best chance to win every week,
Speaker 1: and find a way at this time of the year
Speaker 1: to juggle things like depth or injuries or things like that,
Speaker 1: because that stuff comes up and every week it's not
Speaker 1: going to be exactly the same. Okay,