Eric Rowe – August 18, 2020
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Tuesday, August 18, 2020
S Eric Rowe
(It went so well obviously at safety for you last year. What did you go into the offseason thinking were areas you needed to improve on and did your play exceed even your expectations once you moved there?) – “There’s always stuff to work on, no matter what position or how long you’ve played. For me personally, I always work on man-to-man technique, press technique; but another thing I needed to work on was actually run game and run fits. As a corner, that’s not something you see a lot of and at safety obviously it’s a lot more prevalent, so I know that’s a thing I need to work on. Well, it was tough to work on in the offseason because there wasn’t anybody around; but for this training camp, work on my run fits and kind of seeing the run quicker than I did last year. As far as exceeding my expectations of last year, kind of – when they moved me there, I just worked on it game-by-game and I found it easier obviously to cover tight ends – they’re not as quick as receivers in the league. Some of them are pretty fast, but not all of them. Whichever one I covered, it was just my goal out there just to dominate them.”
(Earlier today, Head Coach Brian Flores mentioned that it was actually Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer’s idea to move you to safety last year. I’m wondering if he was the one who broke the news to you and if I were to give you a truth serum, what were you honestly thinking the moment they said safety?) – “(laughter) Shoot, the moment? I remember it because it was after the bye week and it was kind of like a transition. We were playing the (Washington Football Team) – not coming off the bye week, but that was the fourth game, and I remember the transition of one, because we had injuries at safety and then two, I guess when I was back there, he saw I was a good – I have a really good knowledge of the defense and I was making communication calls way from the corner spot, way out there making safety calls way on an island. It was kind of a mix of injuries and him seeing that and then I guess once I started covering tight ends, it was just already a done deal. So the minute I heard it, I was not thrown back, but I was like, ‘okay, we’ve got to help the team.’ We were super low at safety. Right now we had some pretty good (cornerbacks) – ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and Nik Needham was kind of coming on the rise. We had some good corners, so I moved back there to help the team out, however it goes down.”
(Obviously this is the second year for a lot of you guys in that secondary. It looked like you all had a good day today at practice. What’s realistic to expect from you guys as a secondary this upcoming year?) – “What do you mean ‘realistic?’”
(As far as you guys as a unit. Like what you guys want to achieve. Obviously building off last year is the first step, but like do you guys have goals as a unit of what you all want to achieve whether it’s pass defense, whether it’s interceptions – whatever you guys quantify as success?) – “Oh, yeah. First, our goal is to gel together because every year it’s a new team. So we’ve got new players in the secondary. We’ve got Noah (Igbinoghene) and Brandon (Jones) and Byron (Jones) and even whenever ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) comes back, so our first thing is we’ve got to gel together and then our second goal is to get the ball. This year we’re putting a huge emphasis on getting the ball – like getting an interception, getting the pick, batting the balls, tipping the balls to get a pick – however we’ve got to get it, that’s our huge emphasis for this year and it starts right now in training camp. We’ve even got a point board. Like whoever can get the ball out, everybody’s got like a little point list. That’s how far we’re emphasizing it.”
(We saw CB Noah Igbinoghene get some points today, I guess from that list you were talking about there. What are some things that you’ve seen from him whether it’s working with him over at Bonmarito’s and even here during training camp now? How much potential does that kid have?) – “He has a lot of potential. He’s explosive, strong, quick, and obviously he works hard as hell. He doesn’t care that he’s first round or whatever round he went; I can tell, you can see in his eye that he wants to great from the start. So what I’ve seen from him in camp … he still makes rookie mistakes like everybody does; but I can tell his learning progression, he’s going to be a good guy in the league.”
(I wanted to ask you what is the toughest aspect of this transition? You played safety in college. Is it the film study, the run fits? What is the most difficult part of making that switch from cornerback to safety?) – “Even though I did play it in college, I was mainly a free safety so I was in the post a lot. I didn’t really have to deal with run fits and all that, so when I made that transition, that was probably the most difficult thing, was knowing that I actually have a gap that I need to fit and it’s not like a corner has like the D-gap or the most outside gap. That’s easy. Like there’s some plays I actually have to read o-linemen, watch the pull – that happens fast – and at the same time, focus on my tight end in case it’s a pass play. So that’s probably the most difficult thing for me, was trying to pick up on the run game, try to understand fronts because now I’ve got to understand what front is our d-end in or the d-line in. At corner, you’re kind of like, ‘eh, I don’t really need to know that because I’m on an island;’ but now at safety, I have to know which front we’re in, which gap I have, if the o-line pulls and my guy flashes I have to get to this gap or there’s going to be a gaping hole. All that, so that’s probably the most difficult thing when I had to transition.”
(This is the second year you’re playing defense on this team along with a teammate of yours LB Vince Biegel. What are some things that Vince brings to the table as far as a teammate and a defender on the field?) – “He brings energy. Every day, consistent. Even last year when we traded for him, he brings energy every day. He can be gassed out, but he’ll still go 110 percent on the field and that’s what we need. Everybody sees it and we all know how hard he works and it kind of is a trickle-down effect, so him in (his) second year on the team, it’s the same as last year. He’s consistent, bringing the energy all day.”
(You’ve talked a little bit about today working closer to the line of scrimmage this season knowing that was going to be on your plate. Did your offseason training have a little bit of a different focus this year, coming in knowing and understanding that that was going to be a more prevalent part of your usage?) – “No, because it’s tough to train run fits in the offseason. I can’t ask like, four and five guys, ‘hey, you pull, you block down, you do this, you do that.’ So my offseason training was working on my man technique, press – because I know that’s like 90 percent of our defense playing man. I just kept with the same offseason training, just working on my feet, working on my hands, working on my route technique and then I know it’s usually supposed to be OTAs, but now this year it’s training camp, working on a lot of run fits, kind of seeing the run quicker, working with all that.”
