Anthony Weaver – October 24, 2024
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Thursday, October 24, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver
(I’m going to ask you about LB Mohamed Kamara who had the two pressures in the seven pass rushing snaps. What did he do to convince you guys he was ready to play on Sunday and has he earned potentially any more time off his play on Sunday?) – “‘Mo’ (Mohamed Kamara) is one of those guys who – he’s putting in the work. He’s a rookie, so sometimes when you don’t have the consistency at the trajectory you’d like, you get a little bit frustrated but it’s not through lack of effort. The one thing we talked about before, he is a physical presence out there. He wants to do right every time he’s out there and he’s going to play more just because we see his talent. We know he has playmaking potential and we’re going to have to live through some of those rookie mistakes.”
(How ready do you feel CB Cam Smith is just coming back off of IR, especially now that we see CB Kader Kohou and CB Storm Duck are dealing with some injuries?) – “I’m excited about Cam (Smith). He has his adversity in Year 1 and when that happens to a player, it’s real easy to kind of tuck your tail and hide from the fight. He hasn’t done that – had some adversity here earlier this season, was put on IR, but since he’s been back, you can just tell he’s been back with a different attitude, a different energy. He’s been locked in. He’s still a young player, I don’t expect him to go out there and be perfect, but I’m excited to see him compete and have fun playing the game that he’s obviously been blessed with some special gifts and go out and play well.”
(With CB Kader Kohou and CB Storm Duck injured, who are some of the other players that you know can play the slot position? Obviously, CB Jalen Ramsey, CB Ethan Bonner can, CB Nik Needham, who do you feel comfortable at the slot?) – “We have a bunch of guys I think are capable of doing it, each with their own specific skill set so you just try to cater to that. Obviously, you mentioned Jalen (Ramsey) already, we’ve played three safeties with Jevón (Holland) there in the slot. I think Siran Neal is a guy we can use to play in there, potentially you could see some Cam (Smith) in there. I think we have a bunch of guys that have the skill set to get the job done. It’s just really a matter of what we’re trying to do at that particular moment and who we’re going to put there.”
(With DT Zach Sieler and DT Calais Campbell, we see the sacks, we see the TFLs, we see the fumble recoveries. What have they done for this defense if you could put it in tangible terms? I know that’s a very broad question.) – “Oh man, I can’t sit here and verbalize how important they are. When you’re trying to affect the passer – not even just affect the passer and play good run defense, you have to be strong on the interior. When you’re trying to attack a quarterback, you need push up the middle. Sometimes that push comes through power, sometimes it comes through games, sometimes it comes through just guys winning. Those two guys do all of that, which is pretty awesome which inevitably you’ll see that’ll benefit our edges. Outside of what they are doing on the field, the impact they have in the locker room, in this building is tremendous. I can’t say enough good things about them and the people that they are.”
(We’ve seen them both kick out and play a lot of four and five technique. Was that something that was kind of in the plan coming into the year, or was that due to the attrition you guys have had off the edge?) – “We try to be multiple and have our guys do as much as they possibly can with their skill set. We don’t want to pigeonhole anybody and say, ‘Hey, you’re a zero technique,’ or ‘You’re just a two-I.’ Guys like them that have length, but still can bend and play on the interior, you want to put them all over the place just to create matchups in your advantage as a defense.”
(What has DT Da’Shawn Hand shown you where now he’s consistently seeing these levels of defensive snaps, just now week after week? It’s not even a surprise when he plays this much.) – “I think you said the word in your question – just the consistency, and that’s who he is. He is rock solid. You know each and every day exactly what you’re going to get out of him. Particularly if you’re playing linebacker, you want to know where that guy is going to be and what he’s going to do in the run game so you can kind of gap and a half and you can feel comfortable back there. Some of our younger players are still working towards that. I think Benito (Jones) has done a good job of that too in the snaps he’s been out there, but Da’Shawn Hand is exactly what you said. He has been consistent in his technique which is allowing him to go out there and play more snaps.”
(What was the decision to use LB Anthony Walker Jr. 20 snaps in place of LB David Long Jr. last week a result of David being troubled by the knee, or have you concluded that Anthony Walker Jr. deserves regular playing time?) – “Probably a combination of both. We see our linebacker room as a position of strength for us. I would love to have Duke Riley play more snaps, too. There is only so many snaps in a football game and they are all really good. David (Long Jr.) has been battling some knee injuries. ‘Walk’ (Anthony Walker Jr.) certainly isn’t a young player, but is an outstanding player so in order to get them both right through the course of the season we’re trying to rotate them a little bit.”
(Regarding DT Calais Campbell, is there an on-field moment from this season either watching live or on film that kind of jumps out to you?) – “I think it’s how he started off the season. How rare is it to start off the season with a sack, and I think he may have called his shot. He may have ‘Babe Ruthed’ it, too, so that to me sticks out the most just because I remember him bringing the team up pregame and essentially saying ‘I got you. I’m going to get you there.’ To start the season like that, I think it’s just carried on in every game. Outside of his special physical traits that he was given by God, his will to want to go out there and impact the game is so great. I love the guy; I can’t say enough about him.”
(You guys are No. 1 in the NFL in pass defense but have only three picks. Where does that leave you feeling about the work of the pass defense?) – “I think our guys are doing a tremendous job, both as players and coaches. Brian Duker, Ryan Slowik, (Mathieu) Araujo, DeShawn Shead, that combination, I always said, when we were assembling the staff, me and Mike (McDaniel), you know what you want because you know what you aren’t. I know by nature I’m not a back seven guy, obviously I have knowledge of it, but when we brought those guys together, it was to help fill in some of the gaps where I may potentially be weak. I’m incredibly proud of these guys and the work they’ve put forth. I’m incredibly proud of the players just adjusting to the system, because technically there’s some things particularly from the safety position that’s been different from what they’ve done here in the past. We kind of worked through some of those fights early on, but now they’ve absolutely bought in. We’d love to have the takeaways and turnovers and things of that nature; I do believe that those will come. I still think schematically they are growing more comfortable. We’ve always said it’s going to go from competency, to confidence, to flow state, and we are still very much chasing flow state as a group. I think when we hit that, that’s when those takeaway and turnover ops will come.”
(How much of your usage of CB Jalen Ramsey on the blitz comes from the fact that you kind of know that teams are shying away from his side?) – “I’m trying to bring Jalen (Ramsey) as much as I possibly can, and that is actually a funny story. I blitzed him three straight times and obviously, you don’t want to have a tell or tendency. He’s so smart that we can do everything with him without having to just blitz him when he’s at a particular spot. We get to halftime and our corners coach Mathieu Araujo comes up to me and he goes, ‘Hey coach, Jalen has been at nickel five times. You’ve only blitzed him one.’ I go, ‘Alright, thanks.’ (laughter) And that was the next drive where he went three straight times. Like is said, he is a weapon. He is so much more than a corner; he is a football player. So as much as we can get him around the ball to make an impact, we’re going to try to do that.”
(Going back to DT Calais Campbell, we all know his record in this league is a mile long, his accomplishments, but you also know how old he is. When you put all that together, if you could go back to before the season began and project the expectations you may have had for him versus the production you’ve gotten from him, how do the two compare?) – “I think they are exactly what you see. Having been with him for two years prior, just knowing the work ethic and the standard he has for himself, I don’t think he’s out on that field if he couldn’t have this impact. He’s too prideful, as we all are. He wouldn’t want to tarnish his legacy and I don’t blame him for that. I think what you’re seeing from him is exactly what I expected.”
(When you have young edge guys, how much is the film that you’re able to show them helpful for their overall development and their overall growth?) – “I think the film is incredibly important. You try to show them the way and hopefully they can go out there and I don’t want to say mimic but take pieces and parts of all these tremendous edge players in this league, take parts of their games. What happens with young players though is you’re just inundated with so much information in terms of the scheme, the pre-snap information that the offense is giving you and then how you want to play blocks, how you’re attacking particular sets on these guys – it’s a lot to process. Early on, the game just seems like – I still remember my rookie year and I played against Jonathan Ogden, fun. Guy is like this wide, I’m blocking it out, I can’t find the ball. He’s like a perennial Hall of Famer, he’s faster than me probably. I was like, ‘What is happening?’ I think I was on the ground seven of the first ten plays I’m playing in the spring. But inevitably what happens is you get comfortable; you now know the scheme where you don’t have to think about what you’re going to do, you just know. Now you can take the next step and you’re seeing, all right where’s the depth of this tackle, where’s the back offset, how deep is this tight end, this is a condensed formation, all these things that you know are going to tell you pre-snap give you something where you’re a good poker player now and you’re getting the tells. And then the game starts to slow down and now you can just go win your technique and fundamentals. You now have a million reps in and not 100 reps in. So again, I’m pleased with where those guys are at. We’re obviously trying to push them to get where they got to get to faster. I do believe that repetition is the mother of skill. We just got to give them reps. Reps, upon reps, upon reps in everything – in the meeting room, on the football field and the classroom and they’ll come along.”
(You were around QB Lamar Jackson in Baltimore obviously. How close is QB Kyler Murray to him in terms of the scrambling ability and how hard you have to drill into your edge defenders particularly to be very discipline and not overrunning plays?) – “We certainly have to account for that. He’s one of those guys – he is so special from a speed standpoint where you could be perfect and you think you have an angle and he’s going to outrun you. We’ll try to simulate some drills to try to create that on the football field, I don’t know how real it actually is. The kid is so special – he looks like Tyreek (Hill) playing quarterback. We’re going to do our best to try to contain him, but we know if he decides he wants to pull that thing down, it’s going to take multiple defenders to get to him.”
(You guys are towards the bottom of the league in sacks, so how does a defense that’s doing that, how do you get to No. 1 in pass defense and No. 1 in third down?) – “I think it’s a combination of one, how well we’re playing in the backend, and then the fear offenses have of where we’re potentially bringing pressure from. Whether that’s a true blitz or a sim, I think quarterbacks, we’re speeding up their clocks a little bit which when we do a four-man rush, they may still be thinking, ‘Oh, I got to get this ball out.’ I think it’s always the balance there. It’s the balance of showing pressure, rushing four, getting them to a second hitch, blitzing where now he’s getting the ball out because he knows. I think right now that’s probably hindering some of our sack numbers, just guys thinking they have to get the ball out because they don’t know what’s coming behind them.”
(Kind of that same application about the edges getting their feet wet, I know you called the defense back in 2020 in Houston, but how would you say the experience of the first six games here, how have you kind of grown and fallen into the role of being comfortable of how you call your defense?) – “They say you go to grow through some adversity in order to sharpen your skill set like a pencil. You’ve got to sharpen – you’ve got to go through some rough patches in order to get to the point. I am a much better coach than that year in 2020, but I’m a much better coach because of that year in 2020. Just going through adversity with COVID and injuries and things of that nature, and then trying to adapt and then really recognizing where my weaknesses were and trying to work on those. I think that’s benefited me through the six games thus far, and it’s one of those things where you’re in that fire in the moment, you sit there. I referenced the Book of Job to the guys this week where he had everything, was essentially stripped and had to remain faithful and you’re wondering why, like count it all joy. But inevitably, he gets all of those riches back because he remained faithful. And I’ve told that to the guys this week; we had expectations, we’ve taken a hit, but remain faithful and have trust and belief in who we are and we can get this thing turned around. That’s just what we’ll do, and I think it’s the exact same thing that pertains to me being in this seat again.”
(How does QB Tua Tagovailoa return helps this defense in tangible and intangibles?) – “Any time you get your starting quarterback that threw for 10,000 yards the year before, that’s going to provide a spark for everybody. Not just the defense, the offense and everybody in the building. He’s a heck of a player, a phenomenal person, and when you’re in situations like this you want hope and I think he provides that. We just got to go out there and continue our job. We’re not trying to put any pressure on him. We’re just know who he is and the talent he brings.”
