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Danny Crossman – December 28, 2021 Download PDF version

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman

(I wanted to ask about that perfectly downed punt between P Michael Palardy and WR Mack Hollins in that fourth quarter. How is a play like that executed? What is Mack looking for and how does he know where he’s at on the field as he’s looking up at the ball, and just the execution from a technique standpoint?) – “It’s something we work on quite a bit, especially later in the week at practice. The biggest thing is trying to have a good understanding of where we believe those ball are going to be to give the gunners a good landmark. Obviously Mack is doing a good job of winning at the line of scrimmage and making sure he avoids the returner and then obviously being able to finish the play. Very well executed. A big play at that point of the game.”

(I was hoping you were able to give me some insight on this beyond – I know every decision will be made that’s in the best interest of the team. But specifically the decision to move away from WR Jaylen Waddle since he’s come off the COVID-19 list and use WR Tommylee Lewis on returns. Obviously Tommylee got hurt. Can you share thin insight on whether you guys are trying to save Jaylen’s energy, whether Tommylee had such a good skillset returning, a combination of the two, what the reason has been?) – “No, I won’t share. (laughter) There are so many things that are going into these things and as you guys are very well aware over the last couple of weeks, there is even more that goes into it in terms of who we’re going to have on game day and how we’re going to be able to use them. There are so many things gong on right now, it really makes it interesting during the week.”

(With regards to long term with both WR Jaylen Waddle and S Jevon Holland as returners, has their work in those roles this year left you encouraged that they will be good NFL returners as we saw in college?) – “I believe so. I think both of those kids are really good. It’s been a bit of a blessing that they’ve both evolved as quickly as they have both offensively and defensively, and their roles have really, really expanded on those two sides of the ball. Both are really good players.”

(K Jason Sanders, I think we all would agree that the mental side of kicking is a big part of it. What’s his process or your message to him when the opposing team tries to ice your kicker before the half or before the end of the game?) – “For us, it’s a practice kick. Any time we snap the football, we’re gong to kick it. I thought both balls were well struck. I thought the first one he hit very well down the middle and maybe the second one, maybe after just hitting from 59, maybe he tried to give it a little umph after just going from that distance and pushed it a little bit. But to me when we miss, as long as we’re hitting good hits, and I thought that was a good hit on the ball. In terms of icing, you just play the play. You can’t control what they are going to do. The percentages and numbers are interesting when you look at them. You really got to get into certain individual players. Then it’s what the head coach wants to do. They had the timeout and didn’t feel like taking it into the half and it worked out.”

(LB Andrew Van Ginkel’s defensive snaps keep going up the past few weeks but his special teams has not decreased. I just wanted to ask you about his ability to play 80 percent of the defensive snaps and still give you 20 snaps on special teams every week?) – “A kid that we’re really happy to have, has really developed over his three years here. His production has gone up on defense, his play time has gone up on defense, and that’s how it should work. But at the same time, he’s still heavily involved in the kicking game. He’s still a very good player for us.”

(On a list of moves that have come out of nowhere, RB Jordan Scarlett being elevated was probably high on that list. Had he shown you something with his special teams acumen during his limited time on the practice squad that made you think he’s be helpful in that role last night?) – “Really, it goes more back to training camp. We had him in training camp and we felt like he has some good attributes. When we put him on practice squad with all of the issues that we had in the Jets week, then he picked up where he left off and showed us some good things, especially at the positions that he played and some of the other things that happened to us during the week. It was a move we felt comfortable and he went out and performed very well.”  

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