Danny Crossman – November 14, 2024
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Thursday, November 14, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(I was going to ask about the two waiver claims this week, what they can do from special teams from what you’ve evaluated over the years on them, LB Tyrel Dodson and TE Jack Stoll.) – “Both guys have been productive. Obviously (Tyrel) Dodson when he was in Buffalo early in his career was a four-phase player and a good special teams player, like you hope for most guys who was able to develop into a starting player and has done a good job as a starting linebacker. Really excited, fast, physical so like to see where he’s going to be. Obviously picking up (Jack) Stoll, played on a couple of phases in Philadelphia. Again, another big athletic body, so you can’t have enough of those.”
(You guys sticking with LS Tucker Addington at snapper this week?) – “For right now, he’ll be getting the reps and we’ll see where the rest of the week takes us.”
(LB David Long Jr. since his demotion on defense was getting some special teams snaps. Now obviously waived, what were you seeing from him in those few snaps?) – “Was doing a good job. As you guys know, when you get a uniform on game day, if you are not playing, we’re wasting a roster spot. When you’re limited to 48 guys on game day, everybody that gets a uniform on game day except hopefully the backup quarterback and maybe the eighth lineman, everybody better be participating in some phase. David (Long Jr.) did a great job, made the transition and was able to play on all four phases for us the last couple of weeks and did a good job.”
(CB Siran Neal got a flag running out of bounds. I don’t think there is a general yardage on that, but what is the rule? I know you’ve got to try to get back in. I think he was out of bounds for like 20 yards or something.) – “The penalty wasn’t necessarily that he was out of bounds. Once you start your track and your course back into the field of play, you can’t make any adjustments in the white. Once you start that angle back into the field of play, if you make any kind of move when you are out of bounds it is a penalty. So as he’s making that track back into the field of play, he sees the returner going hard to his right and just naturally adjusts his course but that is considered a move out of bounds which is illegal.”
(To get clarity, once somebody gets you out of bounds, you have to make one track?) – “Once you set that angle – it’s got to be not without reason angle. You can’t set an angle to bring you back into play 40 yards down the field. You got to start your angle and your course to get back into play, and if you make any move back out of bounds, you can make a hard turn to go into the field of play, but if you do anything that changes your course to stay out of bounds, it is a penalty.”
(K Jason Sanders has a kickoff that lands right at the 20, right inside the 20 early in the game. I’m wondering, is that kind of the perfect kickoff execution to hit it in the landing area?) – “Well it was deeper than that, but any time you can get the ball where there’s got to be an adjustment where you’re able to get a head start, it’s an advantage to the kickoff team.”
(Back-to-back weeks where P Jake Bailey has a couple of short punts. Were those just mishits?) – “The angle, the course – he hit three good balls. Obviously the one course the line was a bit wide, ball ends up turning and gets out of bounds. Hit three good balls, we just got to work the line a little bit better.”
(I wanted to ask about some of the kicker injuries that we’re seeing across the league. Obviously, we’re seeing more 50-plus yard kicks. Do you think that practicing those is putting a strain on kickers’ legs? What are your thoughts on that and how do you kind of be proactive in preventing those leg injuries?) – “I think it’s a combination – I think some of the injuries have been related to having to make plays in coverage, that’s come up with a couple of guys. There have been a couple of ankle injuries with guys that have had to try and make a tackle, and that’s come up that way. The soft tissue stuff is always a concern. I don’t think the length of field goals has anything to do with it, maybe the amount of workload some of the guys are having. We always work backward, so as the season progresses, we’re going to get less and less reps because of just the natural wear and tear. When you start in July, you’re building to be able to be active and kick for really six hours. Guys start warming up 10:30 (a.m.), 11 o’clock and you got to be able to go until 4:30 (p.m.), so that’s a long time to be active. You’ve got to make sure you’re doing a good job during the week.”
(I have a technique question for you. Admittedly, I don’t know what I’m watching when I watch these games. I thought when Denver blocked Kansas City’s field goal, they double-teamed one of the linemen, kind of knocked him over and came in. I thought the Rams tried that with T Patrick Paul on K Jason Sanders’ first 50-yard field goal. I thought Patrick held his ground pretty well. What’s the technique when one guy is on either shoulder, what do you want them to do?) – “That’s one of the common rushes you’ll see around the league, and everybody plays it different. Some people play people, some people play gaps. So the technique and what you’re teaching and obviously what we teach is a little bit different maybe than maybe some other teams. That’s a hard play. We talked about it a little bit last week when you guys mentioned Calais (Campbell). For the rush team, you’re able to tee off, not a taxing play, but it’s tough. You get two or three bodies on one individual, you start getting 800 or 900 pounds playing against one guy, it’s a hard down for the field goal protection team.”
(How do you anchor yourself? Can you give me any technique?) – “I won’t. Maybe in the offseason, we’ll spend some time. We’re not going to get too into detail with that.”
(Do you go look at the Kansas City blocked field goal, just a professional curiosity?) – “Yeah, we do weekly plays around the league – all the onside kicks, all the blocks, all the big returns, all of that stuff, penalties, all of that stuff. I get a cut up every week and go back and look through it and see what’s happening around the league, what’s happening good, what’s happening bad, why it’s happening most importantly.”
(You show that to the team as well?) – “Parts of it, it’s an extensive tape. We don’t have time to watch the whole thing, but there’s pieces of it weekly that we try and bring to the attention of the team. A lot of it’s trends, what’s happening, what are people trying and then technique. If you don’t play the right technique, this is what could happen. If you do play, this is what’s happening. All of that stuff is part of our weekly plan.”
(Is that Kansas City play, is that a common–?) – “Yeah, especially for them. That load, getting four guys heavy, on two on the outside, that’s a common thing for them.”
(What makes P AJ Cole one of the best players at his position in this league?) – “I think No. 1 how they use him. They want to play ‘the flip the field’ as I refer to it. They are not afraid to – when they are punting from the minus-20, they’re not worried about a 60- or 70-yard punt. They’re feeling good about their coverage team and they are letting him rip it away. You see trends around the league where some people go to that and then they are coming back to playing more hangtime and directions. He’s a talented, talented player, and they’re letting him play to his skills.”
(We’ve talked about the 50-yard field goal before. The last game there was four of them and you just don’t bat and eye, right? That’s just football in 2024?) – “It is. I don’t think it’s necessarily different from any other year. I think a lot of times what happens on a lot of those plays, what is the down and the distance for that play. I think you’ve seen around the league the analytics of the fourth and short. Those field goals decrease because people are more willing and apt where the numbers are telling you to go for it. But now it’s not fourth-and-1 or fourth-and-2, it’s fourth-and-8 or fourth-and-9, and now that’s why you’re seeing the field goals based on distance to gain more than how long the field goal is.”
(I’m curious about your hands team. I don’t necessarily want to get into specifics, but when you have your hands team out there for an onside kick and then they I guess they a linebacker, is that something they target? The linebacker because he’s got the worst hands?) – “No, I think every kicker has his favorite kicks. Every coach has his favorite kicks. That just happened to be a situation where an inside ball goes to a player who we feel great about. That’s a spot where a lot of teams are going to kick the onside kick, is an inside ball. Anybody that we put out there, we feel very strongly about them being able to make the play, but it’s not about somebody targeting an individual. It’s more you want your best kick. Whether it’s obviously, the look that you’re getting, the people – it’s such a low percentage kick, it’s 7%. You want your best kick to give yourself the best opportunity.”
(Wasn’t there a rule that they were trying to change? I forget, there’s so many special teams rules, because at this point, the onside kick is kind of–?) – “Part of the discussion in the rule change with the new kickoff was when they did and we were going to play back from a normal 35-yard line with both the cover team back to the 35 and normal restraining rules of the return team, being able to change the numbers – hey changed it where you have to have two outside the number, two in the alley. They talked about being able to go to six and four as opposed to having five and five. They talked about being able to put more people in those restraining line areas where you can play more of an overload, but for player safety standpoint, they didn’t go with it.”
(Do you know the percentage before the rule change?) – “Over the last, it’s always been somewhere – at the end of the season, it will be somewhere between 8% and 12%.”
