Josh Boyer – December 1, 2020
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Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(I’m curious, what was the story of you going from the South Dakota School of Mines to the Patriots? How did that – kind of an odd step to take and I’m just curious how that happened?) – “Basically how it happened is Dean Pees was the linebackers coach for the New England Patriots, I believe in ’04 and ’05. I coached for Dean at Kent State. I was a graduate assistant. I worked heavily with the secondary with him, pretty closely with him, and after the ’05 season, Dean was made the defensive coordinator at New England and he called. That’s basically how I ended up at New England. It was really kind of by word of mouth, and I just went in there as a quality control coach and kind of worked my way up through the system that way; but I’d worked pretty closely with Dean Pees at Kent State, so that’s kind of how I went from South Dakota to New England.”
(Head Coach Brian Flores talks about how there’s a lot more to playing cornerback than intercepting passes. What is the thing that pleases you the most about the way CB Xavien Howard is playing?) – “I would say he’s really put in consistently some good all-around performances from a run-game standpoint, a pass-game standpoint, as far as his technique at the line of scrimmage, his leverage in pass coverage, his technique at the top of the route. I would say in the run game, making sure that he leverages the ball, being able to crack replace, really becoming a complete corner and doing it very consistently for a long period of time. It’s getting better and he’s working hard at it. That’s a credit to him and I know our guys in the secondary – (Coaching Assistant) Charles Burks and ‘G.A.’ (Defensive Backs Coach Gerald Alexander) – they work extensively with those guys and Xavien has put in a lot of work. I think the good thing about Xavien is he knows it’s a week-to-week league, so he’s got to put in that work each week and he’s striving for improvement. It’s really a credit to him and his work ethic that we’re seeing strides on a week-in and week-out basis.”
(I wanted to get your thoughts on why the run defense improved last week and were there a couple of guys that really stood out in that regard?) – “I think each week that we go into things, there’s things that we work on. Like the things that we’re doing well, we try to build upon that; and the things that we’re not doing as well, we try to correct because ultimately in this league, you’re going to see it again the next week, which we did. The Jets – they ran some of the same plays that Denver ran and I would say it’s a credit to the guys. Their work on their technique and their fundamentals, which is crucial this time of year because – we’ve had 11 games this season so there’s a lot of tape and film on us and coaches do a good job of scheming to get angles in the run game. And then obviously me personally, I just need to do a better job of putting those guys in position so they can make plays and I would say it’s really a credit to them to stay on task and work at their fundamentals and techniques, because that’s what’s going to carry us for the rest of the year.”
(I’d like to take you back to when Head Coach Brian Flores called you in whatever day that may have been and said, “Josh, I want you to be the defensive coordinator.” What was going through your mind at that point? Was it “Yeah, this is something I’ve been working toward for years.” Was it “am I ready for this?” How did that go? What was going through your mind?) – “Not much, to be honest with you. This was pre-pandemic. It was just after our season. We had some people coming over to our house and it was a pretty quick conversation. ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) – obviously we’ve known each other for a long time and he basically just kind of said, ‘hey, I’m thinking about this.’ I said, ‘yeah, that’s great.’ I said, ‘whatever you need, whatever you want me to do.’ And then it was getting ready for the dinner party that we had coming in. So there wasn’t a lot of worry, thought. Like I said, I’ve been around football my entire life. Things come up. Whatever my job is, whether it’s a position coach, coordinator; you take it very seriously. You work hard at it. I always feel like you can get better. Usually you feel like whatever you’re doing, that it’s not good enough and to me personally, I think if you ever got to the point where you’re like, ‘hey man, this is easy,’ then it’s probably time to call it quits or be done because I think you can always be better. I don’t think things stay the same. I think they get better or they get worse. It wasn’t a big – it was just, ‘hey, this is what I’m thinking.’ I said, ‘yeah, whatever you need.’ And that’s kind of how that happened. Probably not a very exciting story for you, but that’s how it happened. (laughter)”
(I know you want to be different as a defense more or less every week – multiple, as you say – what is the identity of your defense? What are your – what can you count on every week?) – “What I hope you can count on is that our guys are going to play with great effort, which they’ve done. It doesn’t matter the situation or what the score is, our guys are going to go out and they’re going to play with great effort. We’re going to get 11 hats to the ball and we’re going to tackle well and we’re going to play a physical style of football. Whatever people want to label it, they can label it. I think those are the things that we stress – the fundamentals, get everybody to the ball, be physical, tackle well – and week-to-week the scheme varies a little bit; but at the end of the day, we just want to play good sound football and get the ball back to our offense and eliminate as many points as possible from our opponents.”
(I wanted to ask you about some of the youngsters, who it seems have made improvements from the first game. You talked earlier about how you think that the unit and individual players will continue to improve throughout the year. I was thinking about guys like DT Zach Sieler, LB Andrew Van Ginkel, CB Nik Needham, S Brandon Jones, DT Raekwon Davis. They’re all young guys who seem to be improving. When you think about that group, what do you think are some of the reasons that they are, as Head Coach Brian Flores says, their arrow is pointing in the right direction?) – “I’d say it’s a credit to them and their work ethic and their consistency of coming in and striving to be better. Again, we preach this and I know I sound like a broken record: things, they don’t stay the same. You either get better or you get worse and you may hit some bumps in the road; but at the end of the day, the foundation – it’s like anything else in life – it’s your profession, it’s your craft. If you don’t practice it, you don’t work at it, your skillsets will diminish. I would say a lot of our guys, they put in a lot of extra work. There’s a lot of guys that maybe aren’t playing, but you can see the improvement in practice and we really push that with everybody. I would say it’s the same for the coaches. We try to get better from week to week and like I said, sometimes you have bumps in the road here and there, but I think it’s the process of constantly striving for improvement.”
(I wanted to ask specifically about CB Nik Needham. He kind of represents a player you guys were trying to identify and develop here since Head Coach Brian Flores has become the coach here. What can you say about his progression the last two seasons to becoming a key contributor on that defense, especially in the nickel role?) – “I think Nik’s becoming a true professional. I think he really comes to work like a sponge. He just wants to absorb as much information, whether it’s from coaches, players; and then his work ethic has really taken off to a new level. The extras he does before and after practice, the film study. It’s really an awesome thing to see as a coach that he’s taking his own initiative and again like I said earlier, I think Gerald Alexander and Charles Burks, they’ve done a good job with these guys in the back end. They push them and the players have really responded. And I think good things – whether you have success or you experience failure – that constant drive and work ethic has been the consistent thing and I think we’re starting to see a lot of improvement. I think Nik has made some great strides and I think he’ll continue to do that as long as his work ethic and drive and call it a chip – call it whatever you want to call it – that desire for him to be better, and he’s really put in the time and the work to that. We’re going to ask him to do more. He’ll probably willingly do it to see improvement out there on the field.”
