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Nik Needham – December 20, 2021 Download PDF version

Monday, December 20, 2021

CB Nik Needham

(You played every snap yesterday and it looked like you played a lot of those snaps at safety whether it was a split safety or a single-high safety look. I was just curious, when you line up at safety, what are some pre-snap stuff and post-snap stuff that you are looking for as keys as opposed to when you are in the slot?) – “When you’re back there, you get to really see the whole offense. You get to see the whole formation if it’s a two-receiver set, 11-personnel, it it’s trey, you get to see if it’s a loaded set and you can really see that more – which is like an RPO set so you can see more, get more intel back there. Just communicating with Brandon (Jones), he gives me a lot of help back there. We’ve just got to just build our chemistry. You just see a lot of different stuff from the safety position. It was my first time doing it at free safety. It was cool.”

(You didn’t really do any of that in college or high school or anything like that?) – “Nah, I’ve never played free safety. I usually played corner and receiver in high school and corner in college. Slot was my first year, like two years ago but never free safety.”

(This wasn’t the first time we’ve seen you at safety, but who came up originally or what coach approached you about playing that and what was your reaction?) – “I think it was just all the coaches. We were just trying to gameplan with Jevon (Holland) down. Just see if someone can step up and fill that role just for this game. Someone that can communicate and just knows the defense. We all trust each other and just want to work on the same page. I think that’s just what it came down to on a gameday decision.”

(I just wanted to get clarity on the free safety thing. Was Sunday the first time you’ve ever played the free safety role in your whole life?) – “Kinda yeah. I’ve never really been back there like I said. I’ve always been a coverage guy. I’ve never really played the safety position until really this year. I’m just trying to step up and like I said, do whatever the team needs me to do and play to my best ability and try to play at the highest level. I’ve never really been back there like that.”

(Obviously there was a little bit of hope on Saturday that S Jevon Holland might have been able to come back. Did you know the whole week that there was a good chance you might have to play some back there?) – “We really weren’t sure. You see how it played out with Myles (Gaskin) and Salvon (Ahmed). We just really didn’t know. They just said be ready and if we need you, we need you. I guess things worked out and we came out with a W so it all played out well. It definitely will be good to get Jevon (Holland) back there for sure.”

(What did you think the defense did best in yesterday’s game?) – “I think just responding to adversity. We came out a little shaky in the first half, first quarter. We weren’t tackling well, we regrouped at halftime and all just believed in each other and tried to bounce back and you could see it out there. It just was a change of events in the second half.”

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