Josh Boyer – September 7, 2021
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Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(As you prepare to game plan for the Patriots, obviously you’re getting ready to face a rookie quarterback. What differences do you see kind of facing a rookie for the first time in the season, in the opener, compared to a more established veteran?) – “I think the preparation is pretty much the same. You look at as much film on them as you possibly can whether it’s a 10-year veteran or a rookie quarterback. So I think the process of what you’re trying to do is the same. You try to watch a lot of film. You try to study the coordinator. You try to understand some schemes based on their personnel grouping. I don’t think it’s just the quarterback. I think you’ve got to look at what their offensive line grouping is, their skill players, how they’ll use them. I think there’s a lot of components that go into facing whether it’s a quarterback – you kind of look at the group as a whole and you take into account the coaching aspect of it and kind of stuff that they’ve done over the years and ways that they might use them. But being opening day, there’s a lot of unknowns going into it.”
(Obviously I know you said you look at the group as a whole, but late last week the Patriots cut Cam Newton and kind of named Mac Jones as the starter. How far were you guys in your preparations for New England when you kind of found that out?) – “I think you prepare for everybody that’s on the roster. So when you start in the preseason or you start last spring, you prepare for all the quarterbacks that are on their roster. We were preparing for Cam (Newton), we were preparing for Mac Jones, we were preparing for Brian Hoyer, we were preparing for (Jarrett) Stidham. And you just kind of see how it shakes out. I think you have a preparation plan that goes into place for all of them and then once it kind of gets narrowed down and fine-tuned, you have to prepare for everybody that’s on their roster.”
(How much of a chunk was Cam Newton involved in that earlier part of when you were preparing for all those quarterbacks but then guess you moved once he was cut? He’s very different than the others.) – “I think that goes along with the week of preparation. When you start preparing for teams and you prepare for the quarterbacks that are on their roster and the differences that there may be and I think when you get down to the end of the week, it’s ‘okay if it’s this guy, we probably like these things a little bit better than others.’ And if you get down to the end of the week and you go ‘okay, these are calls that we like against whoever,’ we’ll carry those and if something happens in the game and the game changes and the quarterback changes; then you kind of just adapt and adjust to that with the set of calls that you like going into that.”
(Is your approach to the first game different at all from let’s say Week 10 with regards to those adjustments because the likelihood for something new you haven’t seen to come up maybe might be a little more increased? Is that different at all or is it the same approach?) – “I think we’re guaranteed to see something that we’re not preparing for Week 1. I think that was the case last year. I think that was the case the year before. You prepare for a lot of things and you look at a lot of history, a lot things that they’ve done with certain personnel groupings; but there’s always an element of unknown going into it. So I think you just have to be ready to adjust and be ready to adapt, when we’re playing on Sunday, to get things handled that you weren’t quite ready to see.”
(The Patriots did add a lot in terms of the skill positions with wide receivers and tight ends. From some of the film that you’ve seen in the preseason, what do you expect from them? What have you seen from the type of offense that they want to run?) – “Again I think it starts with, you look at their personnel group as a whole even with all their additions. I think you look at the coordinator and the things that he’s done with certain personnel groupings and you try to relate that to guys that he’s had in the past and how he may use them. There will be an element of unknown to it. I think we’ve prepared for a lot of different scenarios. In the preseason, they didn’t have everybody available to them that they’ll have available this Sunday; so again, there’s a little bit of a guess on that. I would say it’s an educated guess. We’ve spent some time on what they’ve done in the past, but there’s also going to be an element of unknown that we’ll have to handle and be ready to prepare for. What we do know is they’re going to be very well-coached, they’re going to play hard, they’re going to play for a full 60 minutes and we’ve got to be ready to match that and we’ve got to be ready to go.”
(Just curious going into Week 1, you’re facing a rookie quarterback – if at all do you even look at some of the stuff that Mac Jones did at Alabama just knowing that they may want to do stuff that makes the quarterback comfortable?) – “I think you work extremely hard especially going into Week 1 to leave no stone unturned. So I think whether it’s watching guys that are on other teams or college teams or watching years past where the coordinators used certain personnel that you think is similar to what he has now; I think all those things go into consideration and I think that’s just part of the preparation process.”
(LB Jaelan Phillips – obviously the way you guys list the depth chart you have three linebackers with Phillips listed as third-team. Is there some motivation aspect that goes into it? Or when you guys do run traditional base with a front seven do you envision him obviously being higher?) – “With all of our players, I think our defense will evolve over time. It’s one of those things that kind of remains to be seen, what we’ll be on defense. It’s exciting but it’s also a process. Hopefully we’ll be good at certain things. Where guys are listed or where guys end up, I think how you start the season and how you end the season will be two different things. We’re excited for all of our guys. Any guy that we march out there on the field on Sunday, we’ll have confidence in, and we’re looking forward to getting ready against a well-coached, a very talented opponent this week and we’re all going to need to be at our best.”
(In that preseason finale, LB Jaelan Phillips was asked to do a lot of different things so the staff really got to see him hand in the ground, standing up, one time dropping back. Your assessment of how handled different responsibilities and how he’ll be used in real games going forward?) – “I would say not unique to Jaelan (Phillips), but we’re all striving to be as consistent as possible. I think there were some good things out there. I think there were some things that we can correct. I think we’re all striving to be consistently good at coaching. We’re all striving to be consistently good at playing. I think that’s a work in progress for all of us and like I said, I don’t think it’s unique to Jaelan. I think we saw some good things out there. I think we saw some things that we could probably get a little bit better and the good thing about all of our guys is they’re diligent workers. They’ll come in, they’ll put in a good day’s work and again, our goal really hasn’t changed from Day 1 as we want to be better tomorrow than what we were today and then just carry that and try to string good days together.”
(I had a bit of a two-part question for you. I was looking at some stats on defense and some different packages and I think last year, your defense – only like nine teams were in base packages more. Could you just kind of talk about do you think that was more maybe because of situation just what was kind of going in games? As a defensive coordinator what kind of goes through your mind as you’re kind of subbing in players and trying to match with different packages to the offense?) – “I think it all starts with you consistently want to put players in the best position to succeed and I think week to week that can differ. I think a lot of it is based on the offensive personnel. Some of it will be based on our personnel and then really kind of their scheme and what they’re trying to do. But I think the underlying factor is really what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to put the players in the best position to succeed.”
(And then along those lines, how valuable is it to know that you can play heavy packages, heavy fronts with the defensive line, but you can also do a lot of dime and nickel with the depth that you have in the secondary?) – “I think regardless of who you are on the football field, if you can only do one thing, you better be able to do that one thing really, really well. Because it won’t take anybody very long to figure out what you’re doing. So I think any time that – we ask our guys to do multiple things and I think collectively from a group, when guys can do multiple things, it gives you the opportunity to run different looks. And again, it goes back to just trying to utilize everybody’s talent and putting them in a good position to succeed.”
(Question about the Pats tight ends. With the amount of money that they spent on that position and the skillset that those guys bring to the field, what are you expecting to see from the Patriots tight ends on Sunday?) – “I think it goes back to they have some talented guys at that position for sure, and I think they’re very good football players. You can go back and look at how the coordinator, Josh McDaniels, who does a very good job – you can go all the way back to Daniel Graham and Ben Watson. I think you try to look at how they’ve utilized their tight ends in the past. They’ve had good tight ends there in the past and how their skillsets are similar to some of the players that they’ve had. But again, like I said, there’s an element of unknown and we definitely expect to see the unexpected. We’ll just have to prepare and adjust for that as it comes up, but again, I think just when it comes to preparation that you don’t want to leave any stone unturned so you kind of study the player themselves and where they’ve been and what they’ve done and what they’ve had success with. And then you look at just from a philosophical offensive standpoint of how they may use them.”
(Traditionally speaking, and I don’t want to put anybody’s cards on the table, but traditionally speaking from your experience, how do offenses that are kind of tight end-heavy use that position to help a quarterback who might be making his first start or is just relatively inexperienced?) – “I think it varies from team to team and how they use them and again what the tight end’s skillsets are. I think obviously when you put a good group of guys and I’ll say this – it doesn’t really matter what the quarterback’s (experience is), whether it’s his first game or his 10th game or his 12th year – whoever Josh (McDaniels) is going to put out there on the field on Sunday, they have a lot of confidence in him and confidence that he can run the offense and he’ll run the offense well and he’ll make good decisions; and it’s going to be a big challenge for us to make sure that we know and understand what personnel they have on the field and what they’re trying to do to us and how we can best try to get them off the field.”
(Between S Eric Rowe and S Jevon Holland and DB Jason McCourty and the list kind of goes on at safety – what does having that kind of depth do for you throughout the game? Like was this just, okay, we’ve got guys to fill in when need be or is there a plan to just continuously rotate everybody in throughout the game?) – “Again I think a lot of it is – it’s the same thing. When you see guys out there for us on Sunday, we’ll have a lot of confidence in them and we’ll have confidence that they know what they’re doing and they can execute our game plan well. Not really getting into hey, we’re going to use this guy on this or use this guy on that. I think that would just put you at a competitive disadvantage, but we’re excited about all of our guys that we have on our roster and we’ve got to get everybody ready to go and we’ve got to get ready to defend everybody on their roster. So that’s kind of how we look at it.”
(Biggest challenge – knowing Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick as well as you do – biggest challenge going against one of his coached teams, what makes him unique in terms of game planning against where you obviously have to be on your toes every week in this league but perhaps even more so with a Bill Belichick?) – “I think you start with the premise of it’s hard to win in this league. And every week, if you just try to slap it out there or roll the ball out there, the results are not going to be very good. You have to prepare very well each week. Everybody has to understand the plan and then you have to execute the plan at a very high level to even get into an opportunity to be in the game to win. And I would say this week, we know that this team is going to be very well-coached. They’re not going to make mistakes, they’re not going to beat themselves; and we have to match that. I would say our staff and our players, we’re all excited for the opportunity to go up there and play and we kind of understand that this is going to be a 60-minute game and we’ve got to play well the entire time we’re out there.”
(I wouldn’t ask you what for strategic reasons, but would you say there are a handful of meaningful strategic things that you learned from being around Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick that you’ve been able to apply as defensive coordinator? How much of his imprint has impacted how you do your job?) – “I do believe that you learn from everybody you’re around so whether it’s good, bad or indifferent you kind of take all those things. Obviously I spent some time there. I spent some time with Dean Pees who’s been a coordinator for multiple teams in this league. I think you try to learn from everything and I think there’s a lot of good things, a lot of good concepts, but I think the big thing is not so much who you’re learning from or what you’re learning; it’s really the process that you go about preparing and getting the end result which is execution on Sundays.”
(Did anybody give you a piece of advice that sticks out to you in your coaching career?) – “That’s a good one. Because I mean, my father is a high school coach…”
(Is he still coaching?) – “He is still coaching so yeah, he’s over 40 years and I’ve been around coaching since I could walk. Since I could talk, since I could hear. (laughter) So I’ve heard so many things over the years that have been so valuable. I think collectively what you do is you just kind of put all that stuff together and you kind of mold your own thing about it. And I would say the thing that for me personally that I enjoy about football is I think that it’s so much like life because there’s a lot of bad things – every day you have trials, tribulations – and football, it can knock you down from time to time and the only way to get through that adversity is to fight through it. The only way to get through a block is to defeat it. I think I’ve always enjoyed that. So I think one thing that somebody said over the years – it’s probably been an accumulation of a lot of things.”
(In the offseason, do you look at your dad’s tapes?) – “We have conversations just about on a nightly basis usually on my ride home which is a little bit longer now which is kind of a blessing in disguise. I really value that time that we have because a lot of things that come up at his practice, sometimes they may be similar to come up at this practice so it’s an enjoyable time and it’s definitely something that’s probably connected us throughout my life for sure, going all the way back to when he would take me to their practices. So that’s about, call it 40 years of us talking football.”
(Was he the coach for your school?) – “No, he actually coached our rival school.”
(You were helping the rival?) – “(laughter) Well actually I think the leagues have changed so much over the years. When I was playing it was a rival school. I’m not even sure that they’re in the same league anymore. So yeah, that’s kind of how that went.”
(When you drive, is the talk mostly just about football? Most of the conversation about football?) – “It’s mostly about football or it’s about being a father, which to me is the most important thing in the world. We talk a lot about my daughter. So those two things are the things that we really talk about in those conversations. But the good thing is, is usually on a daily basis, I’ll get about a 40-minute conversation with him. Like I said, the longer drive has kind of been a blessing in disguise for me for sure.”
