Josh Boyer – August 9, 2021
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Monday, August 9, 2021
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(How concerned are you about stopping the run this year? Obviously everyone loves to do that. But you guys actually were 16 against the run and 23rd against the pass last year. So obviously you’ve been stressing that a lot stopping the run. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve been putting on your players about that?) – “I think any time you can make your opponent one dimensional, obviously you put yourself in an advantageous position. I would say when it comes to stopping the run, we need everybody involved and we’ve got to defeat blocks. Guys have to use the fundamental techniques that we’re teaching and I think guys are working hard to do that. I think a lot of times, if you’re able to get leads and play good complementary football, teams are apt to throw more. That’s somewhat where the passing yards come from. I think obviously you want to be good at everything. You’d like to defend the run well; you’d like to defend the pass well. I think the passing yards, stats and stuff like that doesn’t really – when you look at it, it doesn’t really correlate to winning or losing. I think if you can do a good job against the run and make teams one dimensional and you know what’s coming at you, then you set yourself up in a better situation to defend the pass.”
(When you analyzed last year, what jumped out at you? Was it something that was unexpected that you noticed?) – “I think what we’re always looking for is constant improvement. You look at some of the things we struggled with – whether it be situationally or maybe it’s a certain call. I think you always look at it as if there is a better way to do it. And if we believe in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, then what’s a better way to get it taught? I think those are the things we look at. When we look at the offseason, you’re really being very critical of play calls, techniques, fundamentals and then obviously the main goal is to put the players in the best possible position to succeed as you possibly can, so those are the things we look to do there.”
(What pleased you the most about the defense and your performance in your first year as a defensive coordinator?) – “We’ve got great guys. They work hard. They are constantly striving to get better and they play with great effort, so I think those are the things you’re always pleased with. As far as myself personally, I think it goes back to the critical stage of how can I get better, how can we get better as a defense? I think those are the things that you look at and you probably spend more time on the things or situations that you feel like you can do better in and try to improve those so that you have a better well-rounded group.”
(I want to ask you about LB Jaelan Phillips. We haven’t seen him out there much at all. Where do things stand with him, what is he picking up even when he’s not on the field and what can you tell us about his progress?) – “I think he’s working very hard to be out there on the field. I think it’s a day-to-day process for him. We push him in the classroom and he’s working very hard to get better. Obviously the more we get him out there, the more we’ll be excited to see the things he can do. But he’s working hard at it and all of our guys are. I wouldn’t just point one guy out individually. I think we’ve got 10 good days of work here and we’re real excited to go to work in Chicago and practice against them.”
(Last year, obviously you guys lead the league in turnovers, and that sort of was the catalyst for your defense. Turnovers are so random. How do you build off of that?) – “I think the things that we stress is how to force them and to take advantage of opportunities when they come up. We spend a lot of time on it, we believe in it, we work hard at it. Sometimes they are not so random, and when they do become random – tips, overthrows – you’ve got to make sure you make those plays. If it’s a bad read or a miscommunication from a receiver, you’ve got to have those. But when the opportunities come up to attack the football, whether it’s a quarterback in the pocket – a sack is great but if we can get a strip-sack here, that’s a chance to get the ball and recover it. We spend a lot of time on forcing turnovers, how to force them, situations that they come up and spend a lot of time on recovery because even if you force fumbles and you don’t recover them, it’s not a good deal. Our guys work hard at it, they believe in it; and ultimately we’re trying to is get the ball back to the offense. If we can do that with a turnover on one play, it’s playing complementary football, which I think our players know and understand.”
(The deep balls, I have never seen this many deep balls in the first 10 days of practice. Great for the offense, great for QB Tua Tagovailoa, it’s nice; but as a defensive coordinator you’ve got to be looking at it like why is there so many balls going over our heads?) – “I think each one of them is unique and you kind of go back and you look at the situation. Again, talking about playing complementary football, I think we’ve had a competitive camp and obviously as a defense, there is a part of you that says, I don’t want to give up anything. But there is also another part of you that says we’ve got an offense that can make some plays too. But the things that we can’t have is we can’t have mental errors and busted coverages, which we’ve had some of those. If guys are using our fundamentals and our techniques and we make them make a hard throw and they make a great catch, that’s going to happen, that’s football. The thing we can’t do as a defense is we can’t make it easy on them. We can’t give it to them. Those are the ones that – then really a lot of times at practice, situations are controlled. We want to look at the rush that’s going on but no matter what the rush is, we want to allow the quarterback to have an opportunity to get the ball down the field because a lot of times as a DB, you’ll work individual drills and you’ll get a couple of deep balls in practice and you get them in individual, but there is nothing like getting them in a team situation. As many deep balls we can see, I think is good for us. I think it’s been great. I think it’s been very competitive. I think it’s good for the offense. I think it’s good for the defense and obviously the ones that they are able to complete, we go back and we look at those and it’s ‘are we competitive on it, are we where we’re supposed to be, are we playing with our fundamentals and techniques?’ And if the answer to that is no, those are things we’ve got to fix immediately. That’s kind of how I look at those.”
(I want to get your opinion on the RPO offense from a defensive coordinator’s perspective. Obviously it’s about trying to get extra guys in the box. When you see it, is your goal to stay back or not get your defense to bite?) – “I think it depends. Obviously, it depends on what kind of defense you’re in and who is responsible for what. I think in each defense that you have, you have to have guys responsible for the pass element, for the run element, and it’s not necessarily always easy. They make it hard. There are sometimes in this league they’re not going to call a lineman that might be going up on a linebacker because it happens so quick. It’s a hard thing to see. So we’ve got to do a really good job playing good assignment football for the guys that are responsible for the pass element and the guys that are responsible for the run element. A lot of teams do it in this league. It’s not an uncommon thing. It’s definitely something we prepare for. It doesn’t necessarily make it easy but the easiest way to defend it is to play good assignment football.”
(How much is it growing in this league?) – “I would say – you’re going to have to forgive me here, this is Year 15 or 16 for me? I would say when I first came into the league, there wasn’t that many of them. I would say pretty much all teams do it now. I think the league evolves. You’re seeing a lot more of the – call it jet, missile motion, you see a lot more of that. I would say it’s evolved quite a bit over since the time I’ve been in the league.”
(Going back to LB Jaelan Phillips – he was defensive end primarily at UM, or at least that’s how he is listed, and now he’s listed as a linebacker. The thought process that went into that and how much should we read into it?) – “Again, I think Jaelan – I think there are a number of things I think he can do for us. Obviously we’d like to get him out there and see as many things as we can. I think it’s not just unique to him, it’s all players; and we try to make them as multiple as possible. I think the more that guys can do from a position flexibility standpoint, it makes you a little bit more multiple as a defense and it gives them more value as a player. If he can do a couple things that are end-type responsibility and do a couple things that are backer-type responsibility – the other thing is it allows us to be multiple. You don’t necessarily know where guys are gong to line up play after play after play.”
(I was going to ask you about that and how much of it is getting in the quarterback’s head? “Ok where is LB Jaelan Phillips going to be this time kind of thing?”) – “I think we try to do that with all of our guys. We are always trying to put pressure on the offensive line, trying to put pressure on the quarterback, which in turn hopefully puts a little pressure on the offensive coordinator. I think if you consistently line up in the same thing and run the same thing over and over again, the coaches in this league and the players in this league and the offenses in this league, they are just too good. Eventually they’ll get you.”
(I know you don’t get into the negotiating part, the business part. But as a defensive coordinator for about a week or so, our team MVP was hanging in the balance. What’s that like for you?) – “You coach the guys that are in the room. I would say, I’m assuming you’re referring to ‘X’ (Xavien Howard –, ‘X’ has been great in the meeting rooms. He’s really been in-tune, he’s been paying attention. The opportunities he’s had to get on the field, he’s been good. He’s been a good football player for us and again, our job as coaches is to make him the best possible player that we can. That goal hasn’t changed. Nothing is really personal. All of that stuff is on the business side and from the coaching aspect, our focus is making him the best version of himself as we possibly can.”
(So you weren’t sweating it out a little bit?) – “No. You coach the guys that are in the room and where the chips fall, they fall. That’s kind of how you approach it.”
(I know it’s a collective effort on the defensive side. I’m not going to say Head Coach Brian Flores is a defensive coach, but he’s been a defensive coach. Can you imagine having to share defensive coordinator duties and what that would be like when you think about your counterparts on the offensive side?) – “I think it’s just a collective group effort. ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) obviously has a defensive background. He’s coached on offense, he’s coached on special teams, he’s coached on defense. Obviously I’ve been with him in defensive meetings for a handful of years, a number of years actually. We rely a lot on each other. We rely a lot on our assistants on our staff. Everybody has input and our players have input. They’ll tell you things that they are comfortable with or not comfortable with. Obviously the goal is to put them in a position to succeed and make plays. I think it’s all a group effort and I’ve said this a thousand times, it’s amazing what you can accomplish when nobody cares who gets the credit. I feel like we have a bunch of coaches on staff that their egos are very small, so I feel very fortunate coming into a work environment that’s like that. We’re all trying to do the same thing. We’re all trying to win games. What the titles are, who is doing what really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. We’re just all trying to put a good product out there and win games.”
(That signifies the type of player – I know you’re real close with Head Coach Brian Flores. Do you see this team taking the same personality that he wants?) – “Yeah. I think it starts with you bring in guys that love football, put the team first, they are mentally and physically tough – which ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) embodies all of those things, and they really have a humble personality or mentality or however you want to look at it. I think ‘Flo’ embodies all of those things. I think a lot of our guys embody all of those things. Yeah, I would say it takes a little bit of his personality for sure.”
(The multiple look defense, the way you guys do it, it looks like a shell game. You’ve got to have guys like that right? You can’t have stubborn guys that say I only do this or I only do that?) – “Yeah, for sure. I think the more multiple you can be, the more position flexibility you can have, the more multiple it makes the entire defense. It just makes it harder on the offense. I’ve said this before, If we just lined up in the same thing over and over, the offensive coaches and the offensive players in this league are too good. They’ll be able to pick you apart. We try to apply pressure to the offensive line, apply pressure to the quarterback and we try not to make it easy for them.”
(LB Jaelan Phillips, how much are you itching to see more of him out there?) – “Whether it’s Jalen or any of our guys, I’m itching to see because our defense is going to evolve and it will evolve over time. Exactly when it will be, I’m not real sure; but I’m excited to see these guys get out there and work. I’m excited to put guys in different spots and see how that looks. I’m real excited to go to Chicago and practice against them. We’ve been hitting our guys for call it 10 practices if you will. I think our guys know and understand we need to play a complementary game and we’re excited to go out there and compete against Chicago as a defense, offense, special teams. I’m excited for it all.”
(I know it’s an advantage for the coaches to go and practice against another team. But at the same time, how much do you want to show going against the Bears and then the Falcons for those two practices. You don’t want to show too much, but you want to see a lot of guys.) – “I think there is always a fine line between – again, it’s still an evaluation period. You’re evaluating guys on are they doing the fundamentals and techniques that we are teaching. But also there is an opportunity to try some new scheme things here and there. As it comes to practicing against other team, it doesn’t – it’s not like a lot of this stuff gets out one way or the other. It’s not like we’re doing this or we’re doing that. I think it’s a great opportunity for team building. We’re real excited about it. I’m excited to see guys in different spots and doing different things against a different opponent.”
