Kris Kocurek – May 30, 2018
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Defensive Line Coach Kris Kocurek
(What are you general impressions of the group that you’ve got this year? What do you think of the talent you’ve been given?) – “So far, I like the talent; but the talent has got to work and that’s the thing these guys have been doing. Since Day 1, they’ve bought into the work ethic that we’re looking for as a coaching staff. They show up every day prepared. I’m just making sure that we get better one day at a time; but the talent is there. So we’ve just got to work hard to make sure we maximize our abilities and help the team win as much as we can.”
(Where did the emotion you coach with come from?) – “I’ve just always kind of been like that, starting at a young age. (When I) laced them up for middle school football, right when I hit the field, my heart started jumping out of my chest, I started sweating, got nervous and hit the field with my hair on fire. That’s kind of my approach and we’re going to go as hard as we can for as long as we can.”
(We’ve seen some different plans for DE Cameron Wake from, “He’s a starter and he’s the starter,” to “He’s a pass rusher and we bring him in on passing downs.” At 36 years old, what’s your plan for him this year?) – “Right now, we don’t really have any depth chart set, but all I know is that we’re looking for eight, nine or 10 guys, and in my history, we’re going to roll guys through games. We want to keep our guys fresh throughout four quarters and then we want to keep our guys fresh through 16 games. We’re going to wave them in and we’re going to hopefully develop eight to 10 guys to roll through games and try to keep snap counts down as much as we can and go as fast as we can for as hard as we can.”
(You’ve got a lot of young guys that got a lot of reps on that defensive line last year. Do you see it in the second-year guys?) – “Oh yes. As d-lineman, the jump from your first year to your second year as a defensive lineman in the NFL should be drastic, and then second to third year should be even bigger. Then they say by the time your third year hits around, you should be hitting your stride.”
(What have you emphasized with DE Robert Quinn as far as trying to get him back to some of those big years that he had a few years back?) – “Get on his aiming point, key the ball and go as fast as he can go as hard as he can go.”
(DT Davon Godchaux, he looks like a veteran. Even from the start he looked like a veteran. I know you didn’t see him last year, but…) – “I did see him last year. I saw him on film a lot last year and I like what I saw from him last year. We just need to take that next step with him. He’s doing a good job. (He’s) very serious about football, very serious about getting better and those things should lead to success on the field.”
(What’s your early assessment of DE Charles Harris based on obviously watching his film from last year and now being out here with him a little bit?) – “Very serious about his craft. (He) works extremely, extremely hard. It’s hard to outwork Charles. (He) wants to get better (and) strives to get better every single day.”
(What did you think of DE Charles Harris’ year last year?) – “Just from afar, good. As a rookie, it’s always hard. As a defensive end coming in as a rookie, I thought he played well. Now we need to take that next step.”
(How does the d-tackle group get better without DT Ndamukong Suh there?) – “Rotation. We plan on having four to five guys in there rolling. I know Ndamukong played a lot of snaps last year. We plan on waving guys through this year. Having depth at the position always helps. We’re going to rotate them through there and try to keep their snaps down as much as we possibly can and keep them playing as fast and as hard as we can go.”
(How many can you keep on the active game day roster? Four, five? Or have you thought that far?) – “We’ve kept anywhere between three to five in the past. Hopefully four at least. That way we can keep them fresh.”
(How significant was the acquisition of DT Akeem Spence and that being a guy you’re very familiar with?) – “Spence is a hard-working guy. Obviously, I put my name on him to bring him here (and) we got him here. He fits our style of play. He fits the culture we’re trying to build in our locker room. He fits in with the guys. He’s a team guy. He works really hard and he’s really quick-twitched to play the type of aggressive defense that we want to play.”
(The way it was relayed to us, the DE Robert Quinn thing kind of came out of nowhere, and I know you had been around for a couple months already before that happened. What was your reaction when you found out all of a sudden you guys were getting him?) – “Kind of the same reaction as (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Matt) Burke. We kind of found out … He found out probably about two minutes before I found out. He came into my office and kind of the way he described it is he thought it was a joke to begin with. I kind of said the same thing when Coach Burke came in and said he wanted to watch Robert on film. I was like, ‘Come on now.’ And then (I) figured out we were possibly going to get him. Obviously, I got excited about it. He’s been a guy that going all the way back to North Carolina that I’ve had my eye on. I liked him coming out of the draft. Obviously, I’ve watched him throughout his NFL career. He fits our scheme, and we’re very fortunate to get him. As good a player as he is on the field, he’s as good a guy off the field.”
(Do you have a handle on what held DE Robert Quinn back the last couple years? The last couple years weren’t his better seasons.) – “I have no idea. I wasn’t in the building.”
(When you were watching his film though, was there anything you saw where you were like, “This is the thing we can correct?”) – “It’s just scheme. He was asked to do something differently than he had done in the past going from strictly a 4-3 type guy to being more of a stand-up outside linebacker type. It’s not an easy transition sometimes. It’s not like he played bad.”
(What are the areas that DE Charles Harris needs to apply that hard work to so he can make that jump from the first to the second year?) – “Just like all young players, just consistency down in and down out. In our scheme, we play an aggressive, attacking, fast style of defense, so just playing as fast as he can every single down. We can live with the mistakes when he’s playing fast. We want to take the guesswork out of things and get him going fast as he can go, and that should lead to production.”
(Do you ever lose your voice on the practice field? Do you ever get too excited?) – “Especially early on, your voice you’ve got to train it a little bit. Right when we first started, I get a little hoarse; but then as the season and OTAs progress, it gets game ready.”
(DT Jordan Phillips said to us the other day that you’re going to help change the culture in the defensive line room. What does he mean? How do you react to that?) – “I really don’t even know what the definition of culture is. All I know is we’re going to show up every day, we’re going to put our hand on the door and we’re going to walk in and we’re going to try to get better that day. We’re going to work as hard as we possibly can to make sure that we improve, to get our defensive line playing the way our coaching staff envisions our front playing – fast, physical, aggressive and with extreme effort.”
(Have you talked to DT Jordan Phillips about maybe needing more from him with DT Ndamukong Suh no longer here?) – “I talked to all of them about needing more, not just Jordan. We want to maximize our production from every single positon on the front, so not just Jordan. We’re asking all of our guys to give us everything they’ve got every single day they’re here. We’re all working collectively, not just Jordan.”
(DT Jordan Phillips at his best is obviously very good. Do you see still enough youth there where you think, “Maybe we can see a more consist player?”) – “I think we’re going to get more consistency from top to bottom. That’s what we’re striving for each day we come out here. Jordan, I’ll just say this: Jordan has showed up this offseason with a very good attitude. He’s striving to get better every single day. He’s working extremely hard and it’s important to him. I would anticipate him getting better along with the whole group. We show up every day to get a little bit better. That’s what we’re trying to do as a collective group, to help our team win and to help make sure we positively influence the game and help us win games.”
(There were a lot of big names on this defensive line last year, and at the end of the year, all of them said, “We don’t know why it didn’t translate to something better.” Having watched it on tape, can you pinpoint things that you need to change so it does translate to something better?) – “Show up and get this much better as a group every single day [signals a small amount]. I don’t care really about big names, small names, big-school guys, small-school guys. We’re here to work and to get better. Hard work is going to equal success. I’ve always believed in that. We’re trying to be the hardest-working group on the field and go at it as hard as we can every day, and try to get a little better every single day.”
(So far so good?) – “So far so good.”
