Matt Burke – September 6, 2018
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Thursday, September 6, 2018
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(The most encouraging things to you this preseason? What were you emerged from preseason feeling better about your ability to do this, whether it’s S Minkah Fitzpatrick, whether it’s defensive tackles, whether it’s DE Robert Quinn. What, to you, were the couple most encouraging signs?) – “I was encouraged, honestly, by the way we progressed through preseason. I wasn’t necessarily happy with how we started, but I thought we got better as we went through week to week to week, really at all levels. I thought every week it was sort of something that we were either emphasizing or looking to work on (and it) showed up or a player that we needed to sort of start making some plays or showing that progress on an individual level, that happened. Obviously, some of the younger players that were playing a little bit more started getting some action between Minkak and even Raekwon (McMillan) and ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) and those guys. Obviously, from a new addition standpoint, Robert and obviously some of the production he had. I was pleased with, again, sort of the progression that I felt we got better with every week throughout the preseason and that was a goal and obviously hope we keep on that trend.”
(You don’t see a ton of mobile quarterbacks, but obviously you have one this week.) – “We see one every week in practice.”
(That’s true. In a game, I meant. What lessons have the last two years from mobile quarterbacks you faced do you think you can take going forward?) – “We’ve had, I’d say, mixed success with some of those guys. I think for us, the biggest thing is going to be obviously having a committed rush plan on how we’re attacking him on third downs and those sort of situations. (It’s) a little bit about getting the right athletes on the field and the type of players that we’re using to work him in. At the end of the day, if you only have four people rushing the quarterback and they have five offensive linemen, there’s some space in there and there’s ways (to get out). So, we have to try to utilize ways of dictating how we’re leaving some lanes open or how we’re closing some windows and those sort of things. I think one thing that sometimes you get … One thing I’ll say I’m cautious of is I think one of the mentalities is, ‘I’ll keep him in the pocket and mush rush and squeeze it down sometimes.’ A lot of times, those guys get sticky on blocks and then when he starts moving, they can’t get off to help chase or close things down. I think I’m a little cautious of telling those guys, ‘Just stand there and try to two-gap and fight it a little bit.’ We’re going to try to do some things. We’re still attacking and that’s our mentality, but we have to be able to dictate what windows are open and how we’re closing them and who … We’re always going to have a set of eyes on the quarterback from the back end as well, whether it’s in zone coverage or spying and those sort of things. We’ll have some different pitches hopefully and have some success.”
(Is there any concern on run defense – I know there’s concern for everything – but on run defense, your defensive line is fast, quick, but smaller and now behind them you’ve got young linebackers that might not always be in the right place.) – “They better be in the right place. (laughter) No, I don’t think so. Our scheme is designed on attacking and with those guys up front, in terms of size-wise, we like to build our power with speed and knock guys back with explosion as opposed to just raw size. Obviously, the bigger you can get and the more explosive you are, that’s even better for us. We’re trying to set edges in the run game and knock things back. The complement of the front line and the linebackers is that if those guys are climbing on our linebackers to the second level, then our front line, if they’re getting off the way they’re supposed to, should be able to make plays. Now if they’re concerned about stopping our d-line the way we’re getting off the ball, then our linebackers better trigger and make plays. Obviously, that’s something we’ve been working on in terms of those guys working together having younger linebackers that haven’t played in that system before. I feel pretty confident in our ability to play the run this week.”
(How do you think the relationship between LB Jerome Baker and LB Raekwon McMillan in college maybe helps them?) – “Very much. Very much so. You can tell there’s a relationship there. They’re different personalities for sure. I’m sure you guys have spent some time with both of them. Raekwon is a little more serious than ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) is. Raekwon is kind of like his big brother. I think it helps Raekwon having someone to talk to and that he’s comfortable with out there and those sort of things. They have a good back and forth. ‘Bake’ is always trying to sort of loosen Raekwon up and Raekwon is always trying to yank him back down to reality and focus and stuff. I think it’s a good relationship. Those guys work well together, and they’ve been fun additions to the room.”
(You mentioned their personalities being ying and yang. Have you seen that whether it’s in the locker room, on the field?) – “Yes, all the time. Yes. I can’t talk about ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) too much. I’m going to lose it here. (laughter) ‘Bake’ is a kid at heart. He likes to have fun, which … I encourage all the guys … I truly believe this, just probably in life: you have to be yourself. You can’t be successful in what you do if you’re not who you are. We don’t try to dictate personalities. Everybody has to be serious about their job and do what they’re supposed to do. ‘Bake’ is a little different than Raekwon, but sometimes Raekwon is tugging on him like, ‘Hey, man, settle down and let’s pay attention.’ You see times when Raekwon is serious and ‘Bake’ is trying to clown around on him a little bit to loosen him up. It is, it’s a good back and forth those two have.”
(How do you feel about those two guys – LB Raekwon McMillan and LB Jerome Baker – on the field Sunday?) – “We’ll see. I feel good. I feel like they’re going to be out there. We’ll find out.”
(You’re re-designing the secondary. You moved CB Bobby McCain, you moved S Minkah Fitzpatrick. Did it click instantly for those guys or was there a little bit of a transition process?) – “It’s both. Bobby has played outside for us before. He started a few games at the end of last year there. We always have been cross-training those guys. We don’t like to have just an inside guy or just an outside guy or whatever. He’s got some of that work there. As a unit, obviously that’s kind of a different collection. Really, a little bit with ‘Mink,’ (Minkah Fitzpatrick) how he interacts with inside guys too, a lot of times that nickel spot … Bobby was really good communicating in to Kiko (Alonso) and to Raekwon and whoever to work those games. A lot of times they’re dealing with each other in terms of passing stuff off. That was a new level of communication on the inside part of things. Bobby, for him to see, to really get the depth of work that he’s getting outside now, to see some of those things from that perspective, there’s always growing pains and stuff like that; but the one thing about both those players – about Bobby and Minkah – they’re both dedicated students of the game. They love ball. They’re always in the building. They’re always working at it. The approach, we had zero reservations about their approach to taking over those spots and doing what they’re going to do to put their best foot forward on Sunday.”
(On offense sometimes you hear the cliché, “We’ll go with the hot hand” if there’s two backs or some teams that run two quarterbacks in college. Do you have that idea with your defensive line or is it, “No, we’re going to split these snaps. It doesn’t matter who’s playing well this game. Our plan is to rotate?”) – “Yes, I think that’s the best answer. We’re going to wave our guys. Really, our philosophy is we want those guys fresh. The way we ask them to play in terms of chasing the ball and getting off and exploding and running and doing those things and playing with the relentless approach that you can’t ask a guy to do that for 75 snaps a game, no matter how hot he is or how good he is or all that stuff. Credit to (General Manager) Chris Grier and (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) and those guys for building some depth there a little bit that we feel comfortable with putting all those guys out on the field. We’re going to try to – like I said – try to wave those guys as best we can. We feel better about all those guys getting however many pitches they have. If it’s 25, 35, 45, whatever it is; but having them at full speed than having to play 75 snaps and many not getting what we want for half of them.”
(I assume you would want your – A-team isn’t’ the right way to put it – but DE Cam Wake and DE Robert Quinn are your… ) – “They’re pretty good players.”
(They’re good players. You want to make sure they’re on the field for the most important part of the game?) – “Yes. I think (Defensive Line Coach) Kris (Kocurek) does a good job managing the group and it’s hard. It’s a hard thing to anticipate that stuff. I think – I’ve got to get my brain straight here – the Baltimore game I guess it was, we had that long drive. We had a 16-play drive, the one they got points on after they kicked the field goal at the end that we held them on. Actually Adam (Gase) had made a comment … We got a stop at the end because it was a 16-play drive, but all those guys were going about two, three snaps, getting out, getting the next group in. Two or three more (snaps), get the next group in. By the time we got in to the red zone, Adam made a comment like, ‘Hey, man, A lot of times we do that on offense and they’re so gassed by the time they get down there. They played a lot of snaps in a row. You can kind of knock them in and stuff.’ And we obviously ended up making a stand there and holding them to a field goal. That’s the philosophy that if we do – hopefully that’s not the case a lot – but if we do get into longer drives, that there’s fresher bodies when in a critical situation comes in, those guys haven’t been playing for 20 snaps in a row and stuff like that. It’s hard. It’s not easy to manage a game like that from his perspective in terms of rotating that group in. I kind of leave that on him and make sure that, ‘Hey, I’m not calling certain groups out there.’ He’s got to get a feel for the game situation and how he handles his group and he does a really good job with that. That’ll be our plan to keep all those guys fresh as best we can. Hopefully it’s hot out this weekend.”
(CB Bobby McCain is going to end up being the guy on the outside. Do you anticipate CB Cordrea Tankersley or CB Torry McTyer being the first guy to spell one of them if they need to?) – “I don’t know that we have any direct plans to do any of that right now. Again, it partly depends on who’s active from a team-wide approach and what Adam (Gase) decides to do there. I’m not sure that we really have any plans to rotate guys in right now at this point.”
(You expect what from CB Xavien Howard?) – “I expect him to do his job to the best of his ability.”
(Come on.) – “That’s what I expect out of him. Listen, all of our guys … I have high expectations for all our players. We have high standards in our room what we expect from them. ‘X’ has obviously been a developing player and an on-the-rise player for us, so I’m excited to see him play. It’s like any of them, we don’t … You start putting expectations on those guys in terms of how many picks you’re going to get or how many this you’re going to do or you’re going to shut this guy down and then they start trying to press the issue to me. I don’t want, ‘Hey, ‘X’, I want you to do this this year and make the Pro Bowl and have 20 picks and shut this guy out and your guy never catches the ball.’ Then he starts pressing and getting outside the framework of what we’re asking him to do. I know it sounds sarcastic, but I want ‘X’ to take every call that we send out there and execute that. I think the best of his ability will be a pretty good result. I don’t want him to think, ‘I have to get a pick this play,’ or, ‘I have to knock a ball down this play,’ or ‘I have to shut this guy down this play.’ I want him to play the defense. If he’s as good as we think he is, those plays will come to him.”
(After that New England game – last year with the 15 interceptions – did CB Xavien Howard feel like he had to replicate that week after week after week?) – “I don’t think so. Again, interceptions, they can not throw at him for a whole game. Some of that is out of his world, out of his realm, out of his control. Again, I don’t think so. But again, we don’t want to get into that game to where we’re pressing to make plays. We’re trying to execute our defense. Again, if those guys that we feel are good players are in the right spots and doing the right thing, then the plays will come. That’ll happen. I’m cautious of telling guys, ‘We want this,’ or ‘We need to do this.’ We need to run our calls and execute our defense. Sometimes there’s calls that aren’t designed for him to make a play. It’s somebody else’s job to make that play. If he tries to make the play, then we’re exposing something else. He’s got to just go play defense for us and he’ll be fine. His plays will come to him. If we’re right about the type of player that he is, he’ll make plenty of plays this season for us.”
(Was there a time in meetings Friday and Saturday where you said, “We need more than five linebackers. It’s not enough?”) – “No.”
(So five would seem a low number, obviously.) – “Again, listen, the roster construction is … We have meetings on that and the way I look at it is this: I voice my opinion to Adam (Gase) and to Chris (Grier) and to (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and all of those guys and I let them know what I feel like who’s earned a spot on this defense and who’s going to help us as we move forward and where we need depth and where we need whatever else. Again, those are team-wide decisions. I tell the coaches that. I tell everybody that like, ‘Look, when those decisions are made, that’s our team.’ That Hoosiers quote when he’s got four guys and he says, ‘My team is on the floor.’ That’s our team and if it’s five linebackers that we’re going to play with, we’re going to play with five linebackers and we’re going to go win some ball games with those five linebackers.”
(We’ve seem DE Cam Wake have two pretty good seasons after the Achilles injury. What would it take for you to not be sure about him at this point? Would he have to be like 50 years old?) – “I feel like I answer this question every year. I stopped looking at his age. It’s irrelevant in that case for him. I just look (at) what I see on the field. If no one in this room knew Cam Wake’s story and were watching him, you wouldn’t say he’s … How old is he? Whatever he is. You know what I mean? At this point, my first year or so, you’re marveling at it and you’re going, ‘This guy, coming off the Achilles.’ When we first got here he was rehabbing back into it that offseason when we first got hired. In maybe that first year … At this point, it’s just Cam. That’s who he is. Until his play dictates that he’s not capable of performing at an elite level, then I stop wondering about it. I just accept that’s who he is. Age is nothing but a number, whatever they say. He’s had a good camp for us. He’s been performing well. Again, we feel pretty good about our guys up front and the way they’ve been rushing and I’m looking forward to seeing Cam Wake play season No. 10 – his 10th season.”
(With DE Cam Wake, how much does DE Robert Quinn help him?) – “All of that. Again, it’s not just those two guys. We feel we got a lot of depth at the end position. Obviously, if you don’t, and you say you only have a Cam Wake as a threat, you see a lot of different protections over there – people are chipping, they’re putting tight ends over there, they’re doing a lot of things to try to slow him down. Obviously, the more threats you have to rush the passer, the less you can isolate one player. Again, now, you start getting to the point if Robert continues having some success, then now you’re worried about, ‘Okay, how are we going to block him?’ And then you forget about Cam Wake maybe for a day and that’s the game you have to play. Again, that’s part of keeping those guys fresh and rolling that group and having all of those guys throwing fastballs play in and play out and not being able to isolate a guy like that. Any time you have paired up rushers that obviously helps. It balances out what an offense can do to protect, because you’ve got threats from both sides.”
