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BB: We're winding down here on Jacksonville. I think you guys got the announcement on the punter. We're
moving along today.
Q: You said [Rashean] Mathis primarily plays one side.
BB: He primarily plays on our right, the defensive left. Now he has
matched up at times, but not very often.
Q: What are the advantages of having a Pro Bowl-caliber corner and just
having him take a side and play one receiver?
BB: Well, again, it depends on what your scheme is. But if you move one
guy, you probably have to move somebody else. When they put both receivers
together, that puts you in some other adjustments. It's just a question of
how much you want to adjust. The more that they stay on the same side, then
probably the better communication there is between the other people that
stay on that side, the corner, the outside linebackers. Most teams are more
left-handed, or right-handed offensively so the safety alignment, there's
probably more carryover there. It's like the Colts on offense. For the most
part, [Marvin] Harrison is over on the offensive right, defensive left. I'm
sure the reason they put him over there is to build up the timing with the
quarterback. So that carries over to defense. The flipside of it is you have
to learn strong side and weak side adjustments. Again, the offense can get
you into that by moving their formations around anyway. Some players are
more comfortable playing on one side than the other. I don't know whether
that is or isn't the case with him, but when you move guys around then
there are always situations where it's hard to move him or you can't move him,
no huddle, two-minute, things like that. In the end, you end up knowing how
to play both responsibilities or just play one side anyway because sometimes
they can knock you into that offensively.
Q: Have you ever had a corner in your career that you used primarily as a
matchup corner?
BB: We've always done it at times, not just exclusively. We've never been
a corner is matched up team, although we have done it at times. In other
words, there are some teams that the corners always go to the wide
receivers. If the two wide receivers are together, then the corners always
go over with them. There are other teams that very seldom send the corners
over and then there are some teams that send the corners over when it's man,
but don't send them over when it's zone and then there's some mixture there.
That's kind of what you're looking at every week in terms of corners and
receivers. Again, whatever you do, there are advantages to doing it and
there are also disadvantages. I think that's why you see all of those things
used. There's no one set concrete way to do it because, whichever way you do
it there's going to be some downside to doing it that way, at least
potentially.
Q: Can you give us a little background on [Todd] Sauerbrun? Had you seen
him kick? What was the genesis of that?
BB: Well, he's punted in the league for a long time. There's a pretty
good history on him. We've played against him. He came in today.
Q: Did you have to check out some of the off-field stuff and was that a
concern at all?
BB: It was a league issue. You'd have to talk to the league about that.
All that stuff is done on a confidentiality basis. Even if I knew anything,
I wouldn't say anything about it, but we're not really privy to that type of
confidential information. I would say talk to the league about it.
Q: Was there any thought to promoting one of the practice squad punters?
BB: We looked at all our options and [we] feel like this is the best one
for the football team, which is what I said earlier in the week we would do
and that's what we tried to do. Do what's best for the football team. That's
always number one.
Q: Did you guys work him out at any point?
BB: He came in today.
Q: So it was just today and then he worked out and then you signed him
right after the workout?
BB: Right.
Q: If I saw right, he does have experience holding?
BB: Yes. He held in Chicago and a little bit in Carolina.
Q: How much of a factor was that?
BB: I don't know. You get the total player. He has had some experience.
There are teams that he's held for. There are teams he hasn't held for. He may
or may not hold this weekend. We'll see how it goes.
Q: Has [Matt] Cassel been doing a lot of work holding this week?
BB: All of the quarterbacks have held and all of the punters have held.
Q: Did you talk to [Mike] Shanahan at all about Todd before signing him?
BB: No.
Q: Would you guys consider having two
punters active one to hold and
one to punt?
BB: Really you'd be having a holder and a punter active, if that's
what you did. I'd consider doing whatever is best for the football team.
Whatever we think is best for our football team, for this game, I would
absolutely consider doing it. If it was to carry four punters, if we thought
that was the best thing to do, then I'd carry four.
Q: When you first got here as a coach
BB: Are you talking about in '96 or in 2000?
Q: 2000. How important was it to have a few veteran guys on the roster to
help set the tone for the team, maybe guys like Tedy Bruschi, Troy Brown and
even guys who are gone, like Lawyer Milloy? Were there certain guys who were
really important to kind of establishing the way that you wanted to do
things and the work ethic that you were looking for in your players?
BB: I think that's always important,
yes. I do. I think that's always
important when you establish your team. In 2000, there were only 38 players
on the team when I got here. We were $10 million over the cap and we had 38
players on the roster. Whatever it was, it was something like that. So that
number actually dropped and there weren't really a lot of players on this
team that I would think would fall into that category. Now the ones you
mentioned, I would say definitely fall into that category, but it wasn't
like there was a larger number of them. There weren't very many players on
the roster and to be honest with you, in a short time, there were even fewer
players than that that carried over from the original group. I wouldn't say
there was actually a wealth of guys that fit into the category that you're
talking about. There were a few, and those few were important, as they would
be on any team, but I wouldn't say there was a very large number. In fact I
would say it was an exceedingly small number. But there weren't very many
players here period.
Q: If you look at guys who are still here, Tedy, Troy, Kevin [Faulk]
BB: That's one of the reasons why they're here.
Q: Guys like that, were they really important in maybe you getting your
message across to players that you drafted as well? Guys who came in
afterwards? How important was that to building and having those tone
setters?
BB: I think it's important to have those players on your team regardless
of whether it's in your first year or your 10th year. I think those players
are important and the right player in the right role, meaning a significant
role on your team, then that adds a lot to what the younger players, or new
players, coming onto your team see. At least they can see what the program
stands for and what it's looking for. I think they are important and we
actually brought in a lot of players, again, not so much that first year
because there was no opportunity to bring them in. We didn't have any cap
room. I think we had like 22 or 23 rookie players on the team that year,
including practice squad. It was a high number. Then the following year we
brought in more veteran players, some of whom we had background with, Bobby
Hamilton was a year earlier, but Anthony Pleasant, Roman Phifer, guys like
that. [Jermaine] Wiggins, who came in and added to that group. I do think
that is important. And there were a few guys that were here that are still
here that obviously were great examples of that, but I'd say the overall
number was small. Those guys, that's part of the reason why they are who
they are. It's not that I did anything, they did it and that's who they are.
I think they probably would've been on this team regardless because that's
the type of players they are and the type of leadership that they exemplify.
Q: Do you see some of the qualities in some of the older players who were
here already, who were holdovers, in some of the players that you've drafted
since you've been here?
BB: Sure. You're talking about guys like Troy Brown and Tedy Bruschi.
You're talking about some pretty outstanding people. The guys that have
joined a team since then, guys like [Tom] Brady, [Mike] Vrabel, [Richard] Seymour, guys like that. There are elements of those characteristics. Rodney
Harrison. You can go right down the line. There are elements of those
characteristics with other players, too.
Q: What do you teach in terms of ball security fundamentals? What are
your basic teachings?
BB: I think you always teach fundamentals, without getting into a
coaching clinic, you always teach fundamentals on ball-handling. But within
that, some players have certain preferences and feel more confident having
the ball in a certain hand or maybe catching it a certain way. If they're
able to do that successfully and consistently, then I don't have any problem
with that. That's not the way I would teach it necessarily to a young player
who didn't have a preference that was a habit for him. Again, it goes back
to my experience with a player like Everson Walls who did a lot of things
that weren't technically probably the way you would teach. It definitely
wouldn't be the way you would teach a young defensive back to do them. The
guy had 56 career interceptions. I think there's a certain amount of
latitude for a player within techniques and his playing style, as long as he
can do it productively and effectively. Basic fundamentals of catching the
ball, depending on where the ball is located, proper hand placement, thumbs
together, thumbs apart, securing the ball at the three points of contact,
the nose of the ball, the outside forearm, rib cage, playing with good body
lean. There are a million things that go into it and you teach all of those
things and you teach them from day one. Again, some players don't do all of
those things by the book, just like some passers throw three-quarter
sidearm. Some receivers don't always use great hand placement or they body
catch a little bit, but if they're consistently productive, then you can
accept some of those things.
Q: Are there more of those players today who like the ball in one hand
primarily?
BB: I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't necessarily say that's true.
Q: Is that hard as a coach, when a player comes in and he likes it in his
right hand? Is it hard for you to maybe hold back and then he fumbles twice?
BB: I think anytime a player is
doing something and he's not being productive with it, then I think that's a
good reason to think about changing it. 'I understand you like doing it this
way, but it's not really working that way.' Again, I think that's true with
every position, with every player a guy's stance, his footwork or a certain
way he positions his hands, blocking or playing blocks, that kind of thing.
There are a lot of
things that, yes, this is the way I'm used to doing it, well as long as he
can do it productively that way, then maybe we can live with it. But if it's
not productive, then I think that's the point where you say 'I'm not going to
let you do it that way.' I talk about that with players, especially guys that
we bring in, guys like [Junior] Seau and Everson Walls, guys like that who
have played in other systems and have been tremendous players. To all of a
sudden start telling them, 'Change your batting stance,' change how they
shoot foul shots, they might not do it as well. I don't think that's
necessarily the way to go, but I think you do tell them, 'Within the
structure of the play, here's how you need to do it and this is what the
results need to be. Now if you can produce those results with your outside
foot back instead of your inside foot back,' with a player like that, I
could live with it. If it's some guy that's coming in here at 21 years old
and really hasn't had that kind of experience or that kind of production in
this league, for the most part, I would try to get him to do it the way that
I think is the best way to do it for our system, for our team, for that
position. Again, if a guy had a big problem making that adjustment then we'd
work with him on it and you see if we can try to find some kind of middle
ground. In the end, we all want the same thing. The player wants to be
productive. The coach wants the player to be productive. It's not about 'you
have to do it this way, you have to do it that way,' it's about getting the
job done. I have some latitude and some tolerance for different ways of
doing it. I don't have any problem with that as long as it's getting done.
If it's not getting done, then that's a whole different story.
Q: Is having a solid special teams unit critical as you are coming down
the stretch here?
BB: It's critical at any place, whether you're playing the last game or
the first game or any game in between, it's critical. Having been a special
teams coach, I know what goes into that phase of the game and I know what it
does in terms of field position, scoring opportunities and momentum. It has
a lot to do with it. Special teams is a series of one-play plays. That unit
goes out there and plays one play and then it's off the field. That unit
never plays two plays in a row, unless there's a penalty and the play is
repeated. Even if you have a long punt return, then you're out there for an
extra point, then you're out there for a kickoff. You just don't play the
same plays repetitively. So it's always a new unit. It's a one play, one
situation event and that's situation football. Those plays are huge plays in
terms of, like I said, what they can do in terms of field position, momentum
and being able to set up the other two phases of the game, whichever one is
the one to follow it.
Q: Is that one aspect in football that is critical to winning games?
BB: I don't want to minimize offense and defense either. I think they're
all interrelated and they're all important. Now there are some games where
one aspect of the special teams overrides another one. You could have a low
scoring game where you have a lot of punts and not very many kickoffs. You
could have a higher scoring game where you have fewer punts and it's more of
a kickoff/kickoff return game. You get a close game that comes down to made
or missed field goals. You never really know which one of those is going to
be a critical one in that game or it could be a combination of all six of
those units, three on each side of the ball. But the big thing you want to
do is be strong in every one of them because there are one play situational
plays. You just never know at the end of the game what it's going to come
down, whether you have to block a punt, kick a field goal, recover a
kickoff, convert a fourth-and-one, stop a fourth-and-one, convert a
third-and-10, score from the 10-yard line, score from midfield. You just
don't know, so when the game is that close and it comes down to one or two
situational plays there at the end, you have to be ready for all of them. If
I could ever sit here and tell the team, 'Hey fellas, this week, this is the
one we really have to have,' that would be great. We would spend more a lot
more time on that. But you spend all of your time on punt returns and it
might turn out the play of the game is being able to recover an onside kick,
whether you're kicking it or they're kicking it. You just don't know how
that's ever going to play out. So you have to cover all of your bases. You
have to feel like you're good at all of those situational plays or at least
your team knows what to do in those situations and how to execute them.
Then, when it comes up, once, twice, three, times a year, however many they
occur, you're able to go out there and nail it. That's situation football.
That's all special teams is, it's all situation football.
Q: What makes a player have that certain ability to be a special teams
player?
BB: I think the best special teams players are players that, number one
can run because it's a space game. They cover a lot. I'm not talking about
field goals now. Punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return game, speed is a
factor. Toughness is a factor. Instincts are a factor. Most plays in
football are pretty well organized plays. Once the ball is kicked, it's
really kind of organized chaos. It's not like basketball or hockey where
it's a free-flowing play and you can't predict how long the ball is going to
be in the air, or where it's going to come down, or how the distribution of
the players is going to be when the guy gets the ball. It's usually really
not a balanced situation. There's somebody here and then there's somebody
else there and somebody is getting blocked and somebody is unblocked. You're
dealing with a very fluid situation. A lot of it has to do with leverage and
angles. Again, that's where being fast and being tough and being instinctive
or being smart about knowing how to play those situations. Some of that
comes from experience. Some of it is just football instincts. When you sit
there and look at a special teams reel at the end of the year, you look at
all of your kickoffs, you look at 90 kickoffs or however many you have, you
look at all of those kickoffs, there are not a lot of plays that are the same.
There might be some elements, but each one kind of has its own life. The way
the play develops the way the matchups, the blockers and the returners and
guys that are covering. I think what makes players good in that area are
guys that are fast, guys that are tough and guys that are instinctive enough
to be able to figure out kind of what to do in a split second given a
situation where you can't really practice or set up on a regular basis.
You're telling the tight end to down block on a defensive end, the end is
either going to run up field or he's going to play across it and here's
where he's going to line up. You're talking about blocking a guy, I'm 50
yards away from a guy who is going to run downfield, I'm going to block him
out. There's a lot that can happen in that 50 yards. That's the kind of
thing they're working with. It's a different game.
Q: Is Willie Andrews almost a natural special teams player?
BB: Willie was very good at that in college. [Derrick] Wimbush is a good
example of this from Jacksonville, but a lot of times some of the best
blockers are guys who are runners. Andrews blocking for [Ellis] Hobbs on
that kickoff return, Andrews saw the hole and he made the block, came in
there and kind of split that gap between Corey Mays and Pierre Woods and
made the block there on [Demarcus] Faggins and saw it like the runner would
see it. Wimbush, who is a fullback for Jacksonville, the way he reads the
blocking schemes and reads the holes and the backs follow him in there, he's
reading those blocks just like a running back, like he would read them if he
had the ball. So he's really the eyes of the ball carrier. So if a guy is a
good blocker like that, in other words he's tough, and he has some
willingness to block, then his ability to read the play and get in the right
area to make the block, that's something that's sort of hard to teach that
for a blocker. It's like when you're trying to teach a pulling guard, it's
easy for a guard if he pulls and blocks the guy and the guy is standing
right there where he's supposed to be, but when the play gets a little bit
muddied in there, for whatever reason, they stunt or somebody loses their
position or whatever and now he's pulling around, you really want that guard
to be like a running back. Where the running back would run the ball, that's
where you'd want the guard to run it. You want him to see that hole before
the back does and if he doesn't, if the guard makes the wrong decision and
the back is like, 'Oh, we should be going out here,' and then he goes in
there and now the back is dead. He follows the guard, he's following him in
for nothing. If he goes away from the guard, he's going into no blocking.
Anytime you can get a blocker like Andrews, who was also a returner, a lot
of times you have a lot better chance for those guys to make those same good
decisions that the guy with the ball in his hands would make.
Q: Is there a reason why younger, athletic quarterbacks tend to be a
little more effective outside the pocket throwing the ball than they are if
you pin them in there?
BB: A lot of times when a guy gets outside the pocket, the coverage
clears up. You can see one or two receivers in space and there are one or two
defenders and you throw it to them and put it where the defender can't get
it. When you're in the pocket, you have guys coming in there, there are some
defenders, some younger quarterbacks, they just don't see them. They're
looking over here, but then as they're doing that somebody else flows into
the pattern and they're really not accounted for, especially if they
hesitate on the play. That's true of veteran quarterbacks, too; I'm not
saying just younger guys. Being really able to see the field. Any time you
have guys that are crossing across the field, you have to be aware of the
area that they're going through, where they're going to sit down or
accelerate through it or whatever. But then you have to be aware of what's
over here, where that guy is running to because they're going the other way.
You need to see more than just the receiver coming, go behind this
linebacker, go in front of him. If there are other guys coming from over here
that if you're watching this too much, you're not going to see in front of
those crossing receivers and that definitely can lead to trouble.
Q: Can it be a handicap that they do have that option to scramble just
because it's harder to teach them?
BB: I think it depends on the quarterback.
But again, most quarterbacks,
once they leave the pocket, in a way it's easier to defend because you're
not defending the whole field. There are not many quarterbacks who can
scramble over here and still throw the ball the entire width of the field,
or length of the field, to a certain point. When a guy drops back in the
pocket, a good quarterback, you're defending sideline passes, deep balls,
post patterns, and all the stuff in between. You're defending the full
field. That makes it hard. When a guy sprints out, there are certain patterns
that are good for that, but again, defensively, you're defending a lot less
of the field, unless you have a guy that has a tremendous arm that can run
out there and throw it all the way. Again those are hard throws. That's a
tough way to throw the ball.
Q: With [David] Garrard, when he does break contain, do you see his
receivers breaking up their routes and coming to the ball and completing
some of those broken plays?
BB: They make a lot of broken plays like that. A lot of them. Sometimes
it's them breaking to open areas. A lot of times, though, it's more the
quarterback just throwing the ball to those guys in one-on-one situations
and letting them go up and make the play. So if the defender is here and the
receiver is here, then they throw the ball up there away from the defender
and let the guy go up and get it. If the defender is behind them, they throw
it in front of him, in front of him or behind him, that type of deal. So, a
lot of times, you look at the play and say, 'Well, they had pretty good
coverage on that play. Then [Matt] Jones or [Reggie] Williams they end up
with the ball, because they're big and it's sort of like rebounding. If you
get position under the basket and you can box the guy out, you can make the
play on the ball. It's the same thing on a scramble play. If you kind of
have position on that defender, and the quarterback puts the ball away from
where the defender is, and the guy goes and gets it, or goes up and gets it,
these guys move down the field. Garrard is not looking to hit some of those
two-yard passes on the line of scrimmage and just get rid of the ball. He's
looking down the field, much more so than a guy like [David] Carr. In the
contrast, when you watch Carr scramble, most of the time he would run or he
would throw to one of his outlet receivers short and try to avoid the sack
and get a positive play out of it, not that Garrard won't throw short, but
he's a lot more apt to chuck it 50 yards down the field and make a big play
than he is to try to get rid of the ball for a four or five yard gain or
just throw it out of bounds and avoid a sack. It's a little bit of a
different philosophy in scrambling.
Q: That has to be tough on the defensive backs.
BB: It's a defensive back's
nightmare. A scrambling quarterback is a defensive back's nightmare because
you're back there, you read the pattern, you cover the route, then the play
breaks down and you don't know what's going to happen. You have to defend
the deep balls, you have to defend the receiver coming back to the
quarterback, you have to defend him starting one way...if you look at the
quarterback and the guy uncovers, and you look at the receiver and you don't
see the quarterback running with the ball or you don't see other receivers
coming open because they're uncovering off of their guys too, it's a
defensive back's nightmare. Scramble plays...I can't imagine one defensive
back saying, 'I like to see the quarterback scramble.' The only guy who
might want to see that is the middle of the field safety because, again, now
he doesn't have to defend the whole field; he basically can slide over and
defend the side that the quarterback is scrambling to. You don't want
scrambling quarterbacks to have the extra time to throw. The plays that he
made last week against Tennessee he made
two of them where he came out, scrambled, went out to his
right, they were covered, double-back, and hit Williams all
the way back on the other side of the field twice for huge
plays. Those are the kinds of plays that he makes. Some
quarterbacks don't make those, but he can definitely make
them. He's a strong guy [and] he's hard to tackle guys get a shot at him and
they kind of bounce off. I'm not saying [Ben] Roethlisberger,
but like Roethlisberger. You see guys hanging on him, they're grabbing his
jersey and they're hanging onto his arm and his leg and he's just stands
there and throws it. You could see Garrard doing that stuff, too. |
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