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BB: We're plugging along here on Denver, situation stuff today. [I] really don't have too much more to
add from yesterday. The more you look at them, the better they look. So,
that's always a bad sign.
Q: From a matchup standpoint, what
would you need to see from an offense that would make you decide that you
would play more 4-3?
BB: When you make up the game plan, I
think you take a lot of things into consideration, the other team's
personnel, the other team's schemes and maybe how you think they'll try to
play you, which may be different from the way they try to play somebody
else. At the same time, then you look at what you have available and what
players you have and what kind of flexibility they have and how much they
have been working at certain spots, if you want to do something new with
them now how complicated or it easy that would be to make those changes. So
all of those things are a factor in any game plan decision, what front to
play, what coverage to play, what protection to use, what routes to run, all
of those kinds of things. You just kind of have to factor it all in.
Sometimes one thing might override or weigh more than another and the next
time it may not. It just would depend on each individual situation.
Q: Would you ever take into
consideration the size of their running back?
BB: It depends a little more on the
playing style than the actual size, but I guess it could be part of a bigger
equation. I doubt that would be the only factor. I think size sometimes is a
little bit of a misnomer. I think there are some players that play bigger
than their size and then there are other players that don't play as big as
what their size would indicate. So if it's a playing style, the amount of
explosion or strength that a player has regardless of what his actual weight
or height is, a lot of times those two don't go hand-in-hand. We're talking
about a lot more in terms of playing strength, and again, a guy that could
be a so-called smaller player might actually play bigger than guys who have
more height and/or bulk. In other words, there are a lot of 6'5 quarterbacks
that get passes batted down more so than guys that are 6'1. It just depends
on their style of play and where they release the ball and that type of
thing, too.
Q: Who would be a player on your team
that plays bigger than his size?
BB: A guy like Ellis Hobbs or Troy Brown. I think they play big. If guys that are big that play
big, I think those guys you can look at them and say they are towering
players, but I think they play...Curtis Martin is a guy that I've
always thought is pound-for-pound probably the strongest player in the
league. For a 205-pound back, he played a lot bigger than that. Part of that
is his strength and part of it is his playing style too.
Q: With players like Rod Smith and Troy Brown, are there any common threads that you see there that
has allowed them to play this long?
BB: They wear the same number.
They've both been productive. They both have good hands. They both have a
way to get open. Smart receivers that utilize their strengths, and identify
the coverages, and know kind of where the soft spots are, and how to set up
man coverage, how to find the holes in zone coverage, how to release, how to
get through traffic and that type of thing. They're smart players that have
good hands and can catch the ball and they both can run after the catch.
Q: Is that what it takes is for a
receiver to last in this league?
BB: Every receiver has to have
something. He has to have some way to get open, whether it is technique,
decision making, or speed, or quickness and then ultimately have some degree
of good ball skills. A lot of players have different playing styles,
different ways to get open. Ricky Proehl, guys like that. A lot of
guys have played into a higher age category than some other positions, but
they have something going for them to get to that point and they're still
able to somehow get open. Again whether its speed, quickness, technique,
strength. It's a combination.
Q: Your defensive line receives a lot
of attention for having young talent. Are you developing the same youth on
the other side of the ball?
BB: Yeah, I think it's been a
seven-year process. Our whole offensive line... isn't Stephen Neal the oldest guy? Yeah, that's kind of a scary thought. With only five years
of playing experience. They're young, relatively healthy in terms of their
career. They've been able to play together for a while. I think it's
probably one of the younger lines in the league.
Q: Was the offensive line something
that you said along the way, 'We need to build younger depth there?'
BB: I think anytime you're a head
coach or you're a general manager or you're a personnel director, you have a vision of
where your team is going to be in two, three, four years, and you want to try
to move toward that point. You can never get it all at once, and usually,
however long you think it's going to take, you can usually add a couple of
years to that. There was a time when I came here when the line was pretty up
there in years of experience—[Bruce] Armstrong,
[Todd] Rucci, [Max] Lane, guys like that. And then there were
some younger players that didn't really develop. And then gradually there
were some free agents and some draft choices, just adding one or two guys
every year to the point where now we're fairly young. Just about everybody
is under 30. We've added a couple of guys here, the last couple years,
to the group, and we've developed some players that have come off practice squads,
and free agents—guys like [Russ] Hochstein, [Steve] Neal, guys like that. [Wesley] Britt this year made our team
as a guy that was on the practice squad last year, [and] we've had plenty of those
guys in the past. I think you're trying to get to that point. Nobody plays
forever in this league, so you have to have some way of replenishing players
at basically every position, sooner or later.
Q: Do you see those two groups are
benefiting from each other in practice?
BB: Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. A
lot of those guys, the younger players, have worked against each other after
practice and in the offseason program and things like that, guys that didn't
have a lot of playing experience that worked against each other after
practice doing one-on-ones and stuff like that. A lot of times those guys
are inactive and it's harder for them to have roles in the game compared to
the skill players when you have multiple receivers and multiple defensive
backs and players like linebackers and running backs and tight ends that can
be involved in the kicking game. For the most part, those offensive and
defensive linemen don't have much involvement in the kicking game unless
somebody gets hurt, then you're usually not doing a lot of substitutions at
those positions. Some, but not like you are with multiple receivers or
multiple tight ends and dime defense and all of that. For them to keep
improving, they have to keep working in practice and if they don't play then
you kind of have to raise that competitive level a bit in practice
situations. It's younger guys working against other younger guys that have
been playing. I do think it's a benefit. They've benefited from working
against each other. And they're getting good coaching. I think that's a big
part of it. Dante [Scarnecchia] does a great job with that
group. The younger players, the more experienced players. If they just work
hard and take the coaching and the instruction that he gives them, and he
working with the tackles some too, tackles and tight ends, because they work
a lot in combination. Pete [Mangurian] does great job too. If
they just take the instruction and work hard, they can't help but get
better. If they don't get better, it's really it's their fault.
Q: What has made [Mike] Shanahan so successful?
BB: I think he does everything well.
He's a good coach. I think he does everything well. He's good with schemes.
He's good with using different types of players. He has veteran players. He
has young players. He's not afraid to turn guys over on his team, running
backs, quarterbacks, positions like that. He turned over the whole defensive
line last year. He's aggressive trading for guys like Champ Bailey and things like that. He's an aggressive coach that will do what he needs to
do to make his team better. He has aggressive schemes. I think he motivates
players well. He's a good game-day coach. He makes good adjustments during
the game. He makes good game plans. They do stuff that makes it hard to
defend or hard to handle. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mike
Shanahan and always have, even when he was an assistant coach out in San Francisco. I think he has a great football mind. It's hard competing
against him, but when we don't compete against him, it's kind of fun to
watch him and fun to see what he's doing. I enjoy talking to him during
things like owner's meetings and Indianapolis workouts and combines
and stuff like that. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he's
done. He's won championships. He's consistently put good, success,
productive teams out there on the field. It's always a tough game with Denver and he's been very consistent. I have a lot of respect for him.
Q: Why do you think so many teams are
adopting the two back system?
BB: I don't know. I think, as I said,
each coach does what he thinks is best for the football team, whatever that
is. That's each coach's decision. I can't make any general, league-wide
trends, why everybody does this or does that or whatever. I think that
you're always going to see both and I think that's not uncommon in other
positions as well. You have two guys that both have some skill and can both
be productive in a position, then you probably want to use both players in
some capacity. I'm sure that there's always a case where one guy does
something a little bit better than the other guy and vice versa. I think you
see that in a lot of other positions, but everybody wants to make a big
highlight out of the running back position, but I think that extends to a
lot of other positions on the field too.
Q: Tackling was a little spotty in
the game against the Jets. Do you address that in practice?
BB: Every week. We address it every
week. Blocking. Tackling. All of the fundamental things. Taking on blocks.
Breaking down. All of those things. We address it every week. It's a part of
every game. Whether it was good or bad last week, I don't think that
necessarily means that it's going to be that way the following week, so I
think you always have to work on it. There's always room for improvement.
The more guys you have around the ball, then the fewer tackles you're going
to miss and the less damaging they will be when you do miss them. You get in
a lot of one-on-one situations in this league with pretty much anybody,
you're going to have some missed tackles. Really it's team defense.
Everybody missed tackles. Every team misses tackles. You have three or four
guys there and one guy misses them and then three guys get him. It's no big
deal. Nobody even talks about it. When you only have one guy there and he
misses him, then it's a big crisis, which it is. It is. It's going to be a
big play, but the more you leave these guys one-on-one, anybody in this
league, leave them one-on-one out there in space and there are going to be
some missed tackles.
Q: Is there a general percentage or
estimate on what is acceptable number as far as missed tackles go?
BB: Who is the defender and who has
the ball? LaDainian Tomlinson out there one-on-one in space against
me, probably one out of a hundred would be good. You put somebody else out
there against somebody that's not very athletic or fast or mobile and plays
a skill position against somebody that is, he'll probably him 24 out of 25
times. Then there are other matchups that are more competitive. Some guys
area going to win. Some guys aren't. You put Kevin Faulk and Laurence Maroney and guys like that, Troy Brown, you put them out
there in some space there's going to be some missed tackles. They missed
them every week too. We go against guys like that, Laveranues Coles and [Tatum] Bell and Rod Smith and guys like that, we
get out there in one-on-one situations sometimes we're going to get them, I
guarantee you sometimes we're not. We have to do the best we can in those
situations. We try to limit them as much as possible and try to get more
guys around the ball and not just leave it to one guy to make the play.
Q: Is it worse to miss a tackle by
having a guy fake you out or my getting your hands on him and just not
making the tackle?
BB: What difference does it make?
Look, defense, don't make it too complicated, all right? Our job on defense
is to get the guy with the ball. That's it. It doesn't matter who has it,
where he has it, our job is to get him and get him down. If you haven't done
that, then you're not playing good defense. So, whoever has it, we have to
get him down. Whether we trip him up by his shoestring, whether we wrap him
up and have a perfect form tackle that ends up on the highlight reel,
however you get him. If you get him, then that's good. If you don't get him,
you could do 10 things right on the play and then miss the tackle and it's a
bad play. You can do 10 things right in covering the receiver and then
misplay the ball or mis-time the jump or something, let him take it away
from you and the guy gains whatever, it's a bad play. Finishing plays on
defense, making the tackle, getting the guy with the ball, like I said,
let's not make it too hard. If we do that, then it's a good play. If we
don't, we're not going to be happy with it.
Q: On that particular play with Coles, do you think the reason you guys couldn't maybe get two or three
guys to follow because their down field blocking was really good?
BB: There's a lot of things that
could have been better. There's a lot of things that could've been better.
Some of it is leverage. Some of it was good running. Some of it was bad
tackling. Some of it is blocking protection. Hey, I'm not saying getting off
blocks and being in position isn't important. I mean, until you do that, you
really don't have a chance to make the play, but then once you get there,
you have to be able to finish it. It's no different than a receiver getting
a good release, running a good route and dropping the ball. What would you
rather see? Would you rather see the guy covered or would you rather see him
get open and drop the ball. I don't know. What difference does it make? It's
second-and-10 either way.
Q: I know it was a long time ago, but
what do you remember about your year in Denver?
BB: [Laughter] That it was a long
time ago. I was young. It was my fourth year in the league and I worked with Joel Collier and Richie McCabe on the defensive side of the
ball and they had a great defense. Joel played a 3-4, which was not all that
common back in those days. The way they played it was a lot different than
the way we played it with the Giants a couple of years later. It was
a lot different than the way we played it with the Lions in '76 and
'77, even though it was off of a 4-3, it was 3-4 spacing. So it kind of
looked like a 3-4, but it was with the defensive end as one of the outside
linebackers. But it was a lot different than the way we played it at Detroit. So it was a great learning experience for me to work with Joel
to see how Joel broke down the other team's tendencies, to see how he set up
his 3-4 defense, to working with Richie McCabe in the secondary, I learned a
lot about coverages, and particularly defensive personnel, defensive backs
and wide receivers and tight ends personnel techniques, how to cover, how to
evaluate players, how to identify their strengths and weaknesses and how to
compensate for them. So those were some great experiences. I worked on
special teams, and again, it was exposure to a whole group of coaches and I
didn't know any of them. Babe Parilli. I spent a lot of time with him
and that was a great experience. Joel Collier. Richie McCabe. The personnel
department, some of those guys out there. Red [Miller], he had
a different style of coaching, probably as opposite as you could get of Ted Marchibroda, as an example. Although they were both offensive
coaches, Red was a line coach, Ted was a quarterback coach, their coaching
style, their personality, their philosophies were kind of at opposite ends
of the spectrum. Both good, but again, as a young guy, I was able to see
that there's a lot of different ways to do it and there isn't necessarily
one right way. The right way is what's best for you and what's best for your
team.
Q: When you take a job like that, did
you think you were going to stay there for a while?
BB: Every job that I've taken, I've
always taken with the approach that is going to be the last one. I'm going
to be there. I know that's not realistic, but I've never taken a job where
I've said, 'Okay, well I'm going to go here and then I want to get out of
here in one year, two years.' I've just never done that. Kind of the bloom
where you're planted type of philosophy. I was only there one year, but I
didn't go there [saying], 'Well I'm going to go somewhere else,' anymore
than when I went to Detroit or Baltimore or the Giants and after those four years, one year in Baltimore, two in Detroit, that was
under two different head coaches and then one year in Denver. I went
to the Giants, I was kind of thinking, 'Maybe I shouldn't bother to unpack,'
and then I ended up staying there for 12 years. That's kind of always been
my approach that whatever job I'm in, this is my last job and I want to make
both short and long-term decisions on the job, whether it be as an assistant
or coordinator or head coach or whatever it is.
Q: You mentioned that Shanahan isn't afraid to turnover his roster.
BB: Let me say this, Mike is
not afraid of anything. I think that's the way he coaches, that he's not
afraid of anything. I mean a fourth-and-one last week against Kansas City and he runs a reverse for about 20 yards. He's not afraid on fourth-and-one
to go for it. He's not afraid to blitz. He's not afraid to trade Clinton
Portis for Champ Bailey. He is not paralyzed by any decision. I
think he's going to look at his team, he's going to look at the situation
and he's going to do what he thinks is best and not be worried too much
about what everybody might think or that he might get criticized, that type
of attitude. I think he's going to be aggressive in every phase of the game.
And he has a lot of guys on the roster, guys like Rod Smith, guys
like Matt Lepsis, that weren't drafted. They've turned out to be
really good players that he wasn't afraid to put in there. Whether it's Brian Griese, and turn the quarterback position over and trade for a
guy. I think he just has to do what he thinks is best for his football team.
I totally respect that, and like I said, I have great admiration and respect
for Mike Shanahan as a coach and what he's done with the Broncos and
the other teams that he's been with in the league.
Q: Is that the type of approach that
you take?
BB: I wouldn't compare myself to Mike. I'm not saying that. I'm not even trying to talk about me. I'm
just saying I've competed against Mike. As I said, it almost seems like
they're in our division. We're playing them every single year. Just my
looking at him and what he's done with his team and the way the he's kind of
built the organization, certainly I've learned a lot from what he's done and
I've tried to take some of the things that I think Denver has done a
good job of and in some cases apply them or at least partially apply them to
the situation that I've been in, whether it was in Cleveland or here
or even as an assistant coach here and with the Jets. I think what
he's done out there has been pretty unique and pretty special. I'd like to
have his record. Let's put it that way.
Q: When you speak to that
aggressiveness, going for it on fourth-and-one, does that create
unpredictability? Does that make them tough to defend?
BB: Yes. Absolutely, yes. I think you
have to defend everything. You can't sit there and say, 'Well this is what
they're going to do,' because you don't know what they're going to do. It's
just like at the end of the game last year. They got a lead. They're running
out the clock and they throw the ball for a first down when probably most
teams in that situation would've handed it off and punted it and played
field position. They threw it out there. They had a quick pass on us when we
were blitzing and it was a good call against the defense that we were in and
they picked up a first down and they were kneeling on the ball. No matter
how obvious the situation is, I don't think you can assume that he's just
going to take the traditional way. Like I said, he's going to do what he
thinks is best and you have to worry about that. You can't just isolate it
and boil it down to, 'Oh, okay. You're not going to take any chances,'
because that's not them.
Q: How pleased are you with Ty
Warren's progression from '03 to now? It just seems like he's raised his
game to another level.
BB: He has. Ty works hard. Ty
works as hard as anybody. Football is important to him. He's here all the
time. He's here early. He's here late. He's here in the offseason. He works
in the weight room. He studies in the classroom. He works hard on the field.
He is a total team player. He's very conscious of what the team concept is
and how he fits into that, and plays within that, so that everybody else can
play within their role in the team concept. He's been very receptive and
diligent in his role in the kicking game, as an example, which isn't a
primary role for him, but it's an important role. He takes those things
seriously and has done a good job for us there. He's a guy that we'd
probably like to use more than we are using him, but because of his role on
defense, we haven't used him quite as much there as we what we would like
to. He's one of those guys that I think every coach wants out there for
everything. You want him out there if they're running. You want him out
there if they're throwing. You want him out there on special teams. You
wouldn't mind using him on offense if you didn't have somebody else on goal
line, or field goal team, or stuff like that. He's a good football player
and he works hard and he really tries to do the job exactly the way you want
it done. I don't think you could ask any more of a player than that. It's
been that way for several years and I think that's why he's continued to
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