Anthony Weaver – September 5, 2024
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Thursday, September 5, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver
(I know Coach Mike McDaniel suggested that LB Jaelan Phillips’ snaps would be monitored somewhat, obviously two games in five days. So you have him on a snap count, essentially you have LB Emmanuel Ogbah, what’s your vision for who else will get edge snaps among LB Quinton Bell, LB Mohamed Kamara and LB Chop Robinson? And are you at the point where you can trust Chop on early down running plays?) – “Yeah, all those edge guys are going to play, and I honestly have the utmost faith and trust in their ability and what they’re going to go out there and do just because I’ve seen it, day-in and day-out. With some of the younger players like Chop (Robinson) and Mo (Kamara), are they’re going to have their growing pains and make some mistakes? Sure, but from my standpoint I also understand having been in their shoes, you got to let them touch the stove a little bit, and then coach them through those when they do have those hard times and try to make sure they are not repeat offenders. But all those guys are going to play. Excited about watching them play, just to see how they show up when it’s real and it counts against some of these big boys. But I know they’re going to go out there and do well just because of their daily approach to work.”
(When you have a quarterback like Trevor Lawrence – you know his turnover numbers better than I do. Do you tell your guys go for the ball also with him? Or bring him down first? How do you balance that?) – “So take Trevor (Lawrence) out of it – we’re always trying to get the ball. As a defense, from the second I’ve gotten here, we’ve always preached turnovers and we’ve charted it to the points where we’re trying to get shots on goal every day. We’re trying to take the ball away at least twice a day from our offense. That’s something we’re constantly trying to reinforce. Coach Barry just gave a great presentation to the entire team about the ball and the importance of it, both as an offense in keeping it and us in taking it away. Take Trevor Lawrence out of it – tremendous quarterback, I have a tremendous amount of respect for who he is and what he’s done in this league. Whoever we’re playing, we are trying to get that ball. That is our job on defense – keep them out of the end zone, take the ball away because just like any – I believe we have a great offense. So if you give Steph Curry extra shots, good for Golden State. If we give Tua (Tagovailoa), Tyreek Hill, (De’Von) Achane, (Jaylen) Waddle extra snaps, extra shots at taking the ball down and scoring, good for us.”
(Do you think you’ll have CB Jalen Ramsey?) – “Yeah, I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful. I say prayers every night, we talk to God. But the one thing I do know about Jalen (Ramsey), is that it’s not for a lack of work ethic. He’s doing everything he can in the training room to try to put himself out there. We just got to be smart and cognizant that we do have two games in whatever that is, a little over a week, so we’ll see.”
(You just mentioned having two games in four days, how tricky does it make it to navigate all of the injury situations? The injury report had eight projected starters on defense on the list itself. How tricky does it make it to navigate those issues?) – “The one thing, and I think Mike (McDaniel) appreciates this about me, you have to adapt in this league, right? People talk about injuries, and they complain about this and it’s like, ‘all right, are you going to complain or are you going to look for the solution?’ So ultimately for us on defense, we’re just trying to do the next right thing so when this adversity and these problems arise, it’s like OK, are we going to waste our time getting upset and mad, or are we going to figure out what the solutions are. Now fortunately, I think from a depth standpoint, we have a tremendous football team. For the 53 guys that made this roster, they had to earn their way on this roster because we cut some really good players. So even though there are guys listed injured, the guys behind them we have just as much faith in. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here. So let’s take Jalen for example. If Jalen doesn’t play, opportunity for Ethan Bonner, opportunity for a young player like Storm Duck. These are opportunities for guys who have earned their way on the roster. You wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t even think about putting you on defense if we didn’t think you could play. So regardless of who steps out there – I don’t care who starts, I want to know who finishes. I’ve said that before and I think all those guys can finish.”
(I wanted to ask you a little bit more about CB Jalen Ramsey; he seems to be the one person in the entire defense that if is off the field, you guys probably have to do things differently because he’s so versatile in so many different roles. Do you kind of have to think about two different games to call?) – “I think you’re cognizant of it just because you know the potential eraser effect he can have, but we’re not making wholesale changes if he doesn’t play, let’s put it that way. You obviously can’t replace a Jalen Ramsey with any one particular player. I think it just requires from the defense as a whole to pick up that slack and I think we’re more than capable of doing that.”
(In looking at the end of your bio, there’s a gap year between 2008 and 2010. Was that just you were finishing up your career and getting into coaching?) – “Yeah, so that was 2009, I had microfracture knee surgery. So at that particular point I was rehabbing, seeing if I could get back. Didn’t decide probably until like November, December when I was out there training, and I was just in pain. I was like, ‘Probably shouldn’t do this anymore.’ (laughter) So that’s where the gap year is.”
(How did you get into coaching then?) – “Yes, so at that particular point there was part of me that thought I was going to be in media. I had done radio shows and TV in Baltimore, but at that particular point in time, there was a bunch of former coaches of mine who were doing well in the coaching profession and I still had this football itch that I wanted to scratch. So I started to reach out to some of those guys. Greg Mattison was at the Baltimore Ravens at the time, he was the first guy that I reached out to. He was trying to bring me there potentially as a pass rush specialist or something of that nature, but there was still a bunch of guys that I had played with. And Coach Harbaugh, at that particular time, was a little nervous with that. Got it. And then Coach Mattison reconnected me with Urban Meyer. And I’ve known Urban since 1996, I believe. He helped recruit me to Notre Dame. So I call and I talk to him. He was like, ‘Weave, how long have you been out?’ At that point all they had left was a graduate assistant job and there’s a time limit on that, like how long you’ve been out of college, and I had just hit it. So I had to run and take the LSAT or whatever it was, had to pass that, thank God I passed. I was a little nervous about that, I hadn’t been to school in a while. But passed that and then was fortunate enough to go down there in 2010 and join the Gators with Urban which once I stepped on campus and got around the players and saw the impact, I could have on them, not just as football players but as men, I was sold. I was in my element and there’s part of that like when I got to Houston in 2006, it was like me, and I had to kind of be that coaching mentor to Mario Williams. Well then next year we drafted Amobi Okoye who was like 15. So there was a stretch there in Houston where I kind of fell into a similar role, so it was very natural to me as I got into the coaching profession.”
(I’d to ask a little bit about the play calling duties that you’re assuming. First time I assume?) – “I called defenses in Houston in 2020.”
(Oh, that’s right. How is it going for you? How comfortable are you doing that?) – “I think it’s been great. We’ll find out. (laughter) But you know what? Went through 2020 – went through 2020 in Houston. It was my first time to call plays in this league and obviously had some adversity for a number of reasons. (In) 2021, actually turned down a coordinator opportunity to go to Baltimore because I just thought from a scheme standpoint, my knowledge I was lacking. Baltimore had played really good defense for a number of years at that point with Wink Martindale. They were top five almost every year. So I’d been in that building; I knew just from a culture standpoint what it was, but I had never actually been in the kitchen to see how the dinner was being cooked. So at that particular point I was like, ‘You know what? If I get another opportunity, I’m not going in with less guns than anybody else. I want to make sure I’m fully loaded.’ That was my motivation to go to Baltimore. Got there – not only did I learn a bunch defensively, but learned a bunch from Coach Harbaugh who I think is one of the best in the league. Hopefully, God willing, taking that step back and acquiring more knowledge helps us be more successful here in Miami.”
(What is it about Baltimore? What is the secret sauce? Because you were there as a player, you were there as a coach. And I’m not bigging them up even though I’m a big Ravens fan, what is it about that mentality that you hope translates?) – “I think there’s so much ingrained in the building just from that 2000 Super Bowl team. And the fabric of that team, you still feel it when you walk between those walls. We’re building towards that. I think we have the men in this locker room to get that done. But why that sustains in Baltimore is because they finished the job in 2000. So we have everybody in this building to have that type of dawg mentality so to say that they have in Baltimore, but ultimately, you got to win it all if you want it to be long lasting.”
(The secondary has faced injuries throughout training camp leading into Week 1. If CB Jalen Ramsey is ready to go, how confident are you seeing as how that unit, the starting unit, hasn’t practiced together?) – “Oh man, incredibly confident. Just because even though they haven’t been able to be out there and take full speed reps together as a unit, in terms of walk throughs and all the communication and interworkings that are involved with that are just as important. From a skill set standpoint, once the ball is snapped for those guys to go out there and execute, I have a tremendous amount of confidence in that. What you missed is that continuity and communication, and I think we’ve been able to get that through walkthrough reps.”
(What has DT Calais Campbell brought in his time here and how have you seen his teammates respond to his leadership in a guy like him?) – “Yeah, I’ve talked about Calais (Campbell) before, and I don’t even know if I could put his value into words. You talk about a guy who’s done this for 18 years or something like that, has every right to walk in this building and be entitled – Man of the Year, however many hundreds of millions of dollars he’s made. But I’ve never been around anybody that’s done what he’s done and continues to stay humble and hungry. So if there’s any example to the younger players of what it takes to be the consummate pro, and have a long-lasting career in this league, just look at Calais and do that. When I was in Baltimore and I was with him – take Justin Madubuike for example. People like to give me credit for Justin Madubuike. Yeah, I coached him. Gave him everything I had. I also told those guys, ‘Watch that guy. Do everything he does, and if you can do it from a young age just imagine what that’s going to do for your career.’ Because Calais, he acquired this wisdom and habits through time. And ultimately, like as parents and adults, we’re always trying to share that wisdom to try and shorten that time for younger people. So for all of our younger players, he does just that and the beauty is that he wants to share. He wants to give it because he wants to help everybody around him to make our team better so we can win a Super Bowl. His effect, even me talking that much, I don’t feel like I’ve justified him. Because there’s not – I’ve been around a lot of good ones, and I don’t know if I’ve been around a leader better than him.”
(How much does that help for any unit to have that one or two players that have been there, who have seen different things over their career to have younger guys kind of gravitate to?) – “I think it’s incredibly important. As coaches you’re always trying to talk and preach and help. You can say, ‘Yeah I’ve been there, blah, blah, blah,’ but it’s a different generation. They don’t remember Anthony Weaver, the football player. They just see this old guy out there with his gray hair, who gimps around with knocked knees and gets hurt playing basketball. They’re like, ‘I’m not listening to this guy. He just got a shot in his hip because he played basketball with these other old men.’ But when they hear it from real dudes who are their peers, it carries more weight, it means more.”
(What’s the best part about getting everything started on Sunday?) – “Oh man, it’s like football Christmas. You’ve been wrapping presents. You have all this anticipation. You really don’t know what you have yet. You think you know; you don’t quite know, but come Sunday, we get to unwrap the gifts and see what we’ve got. So super excited. My family gets it – season starts I was like, ‘Football season, bye.’ (laughter) But just really excited to see what we have on this team because I know right now, we feel whole heartedly we have a special group, so just ready for the rest of the world to see that too.”
(What does TE Evan Engram mean to their offense? What does he do for their offense?) – “Wow, you talk about a matchup problem. He’s a guy who’s really underestimated as a blocker in the run game, but he has all the skills of a wide receiver. He is a matchup problem. I don’t think you can task any one person with taking a guy like him away. It’ll take multiple guys, but yeah, you have to account and be cognizant for him on every snap. The problem they present is that they have a bunch of those guys. They have a lot of good skill players which as a defense, you’ve got to love the challenge.”
(You mentioned John Harbaugh and you talked about his impact on your career. The other guy you talk about is Romeo Crennel, what did he do for you?) – “Oh man. Particularly that year in Houston was a trying one, so you talk about a calming force and a steadying influence in my life, it’s Romeo Crennel. It’s funny because in this coaching world, there’s nothing he hasn’t seen or done. The guy has been to however many, X amount of Super Bowls – I think he’s won like four or five. He’s been a head coach, he’s coordinated and then if you just talk to him – first you look at him, he still wears Air Monarchs like 1980, I don’t know where he’s spending his money. (laughter) He to me epitomizes just what it is to be a coach. He’s not in it to pound his chest and be like, ‘I’ve done all of these things.’ He’s in it for the players and to share wisdom and knowledge and ultimately, that’s all I want to be.”
(We’ve seen three safety looks a lot with Baltimore, do you think we’re going to see a lot of S Marcus Maye as a result? And was he the ideal guy to complement S Jevón Holland and S Jordan Poyer when you play the three of them together?) – “You’re definitely going to see a combination of three safeties at some point. What combination that’s going to be? Yes, I love Marcus Maye – tremendous football player. I wouldn’t sleep on Elijah Campbell either. I also think he’s a football player who is, yeah, he’s at a stage in his career where people think he’s descending. I don’t believe that. I think his knowledge and wisdom continues to grow. So you’re going to see us play three safeties because I think at times, based on specific personnel groups where we want our best 11 on the field, one of those guys need to be on the field. So ultimately, that’s what’s going to dictate it.”
