Danny Crossman – December 3, 2019
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Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick says you’re crazy.) – “(laughter) One man’s opinion.”
(Can you remember when that play first occurred to you? When did it come to your brain that this was something that could work in an NFL game?) – “I think all the plays – and we work on a lot of different things – tinkering with them in practice and seeing what certain guys can do; but at the end of the day, it’s an idea of in every play we play, it’s the idea of something that’s clear and easily understood for us but hopefully cloudy for the opposition.”
(Was it something you first conceived of like in 2004 on a napkin in a restaurant?) – “No. There’s always things popping into your head of ‘what if’ and it’s more, what if somebody did this to me? What would the response be? And that’s how you build a lot of things.”
(So how far back does it go? I know you’ve been working on it a few weeks.) – “Yeah, we worked on it for a couple weeks.”
(But does it go back years or…?) – “The ideas are always floating around for years. ‘What about this? What about that?’ But the fruition of it was working with the guys and saying, ‘Okay, I like this.’ Then you get into all the possibilities of the opposition’s response and then you have to have things off of that. So that’s why to me, things take a little time.”
(Did you have to evaluate, can we do this play? Can we run this play? Is it within…) – “I don’t think there’s any ‘within.’ Anything that’s going to help us win, that’s what it’s all about. So any play that we can come up with that’s clear for us, hopefully cloudy for the opposition, that can give us a chance to win, everything we do; that’s the only thing that we care about.”
(Was there any part of the play that came from somebody else’s playbook – a high school game or something somewhere?) – “(laughter) No, sadly…”
(What was Head Coach Brian Flores’ reaction when you took it to him?) – “Brian is outstanding. He’s willing to listen to anything. Then it’s a just matter of …”
(So what was Head Coach Brian Flores’ reaction? “This is awesome?”) – “Just a smile and let’s see where it goes, because there’s going to be things that I bring to him that he smiles and then like, uhh… (laughter) And there’s things that we practice that when you first put them out on the field, it’s like, ‘well, I don’t know about that.’ That’s why you’ve got to keep building and practicing and tinkering and eventually you’ll find a product that you think has got an opportunity to be successful to put yourself in a chance to make a play.”
(Is the first option on that play the punter to the placekicker?) – “I’m not going to get into the (specifics).”
(What was the reaction of the players when you presented it to them?) – “I think some of them looked at (me) a little bit like, ‘what do you – really? Like, okay.’ I think whenever you present anything in a meeting before you are able to take it onto the field – because when there’s no video evidence, it’s just on paper. It doesn’t always come as easy as, ‘okay, here it is on paper and here it is on the field. This is what we’re trying to do.’”
(How do you describe the satisfaction of calling a play like that and seeing it succeed as well as it did?) – “Obviously I’m excited for the team. In terms of – players are the ones that make the plays. I’m going to put them in some bad positions and hopefully they make it at least good and hopefully you give them some good stuff that they can make great and be successful. It’s all about the players. I was happy for Matt (Haack) and Jason (Sanders) because we’ve worked on it a lot and to see them be successful and doing something, that’s what’s gratifying; but it’s after the fact. Then what I’m worried about is now we’ve got to protect the PAT.”
(What was the key to making it work?) – “I think it’s a lot of things. I think it’s again, our guys having a clear understanding of what we want and them being able to take that and transition that onto the field and execute it with vision.”
(When did you know it was going to work? Did you know when you lined up?) – “Once the official raised his hands. (laughter)”
(You really weren’t sure?) – “The visual of what we got was one of the things we’d looked at, but then you’ve still got to execute the play, as we all know. You could do everything right and you get a bad throw or you drop – a lot of things can happen. Once the officials raised their hands, that’s when it was, ‘okay…’”
(Was the pass about how the way it was done in practice?) – “It’s come a lot of different ways because you don’t know how the defense is going to react. It could be an easy throw. It could be a jump pass. It could be a shovel pass. It’s all depending on what the defense does. That’s why, again, it takes time to get it to where you’re ready for any of those situations that come up.”
(Was it executed flawlessly?) – “Nothing is ever flawless. (laughter) There’s always something that could be better.”
(Did K Jason Sanders always catch the ball in practice?) – “He did. Again, once you put it on again, you put it on and sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. We liked it. It was a good situation. It was what we thought would give us a spark and we went with it.”
(How anxious had you been to call it?) – “Anything – I think you’re anxious for any call. Again, that’s part of the understanding of when is right and when is wrong. That just happened to be a good situation in the game with where we were, down-and-distance. There’s a lot of things that go into those decisions of when to put it on or when not to put it on.”
(How likely did you think it was that K Jason Sanders would be uncovered and totally open? When you drew the thing up, how likely did you think that part was?) – “We thought if we did everything right, it would be good. We felt good about it. If we did everything like it was taught and worked on, that we’d have a good opportunity for the throw part aspect of it.”
(So if you were facing that play, would you be mad that none of the three guys stayed with the kicker? I’m wondering, why didn’t anyone stay with the kicker?) – “Again, I’m not going to get into what they do or how we would do it. I don’t want to get into what we would have done or what we expected them to do; but that’s just part, again, of the clear/cloudy concept of what we’re trying to do.”
(So the idea of the Jets spending time this week practicing how to defend that play – is that amusing to you?) – “No. Again, I think you have to have – like anything we talk about – you have principles and you have rules and you live with them. You can’t chase ghosts. The Jets and that’s all our focus on now, but they’re going to prepare like they prepare and we’ll see where that goes.”
(So we will see it again Sunday?) – “(laughter) I don’t know about that.”
(P Matt Haack and K Jason Sanders are two pretty good athletes. How much does that help?) – “I think anytime you have guys — and it’s an old adage in this league and sometimes it’s taken for granted – but the more things that people can do, the more things you can build off of that. That’s why we work on a lot of things. We’re not going to get into it, but I can tell you some of the things we’ve worked on and you’d like at me like, ‘what is he talking about?’ But you’ve got to expand people’s boundaries of what’s possible and what can you do? If you don’t spend time looking at or, ‘can you do this? Can you do that?’ You’re not going to know.”
(Where would this play rank among the coolest plays you’ve ever called or been around?) – “I think anything that’s successful is cool to me. (laughter) Whether it’s a simple play or a dynamic play or anything that’s successful that helps us win – and that’s the most important thing – it happened in a game that we won. That’s what’s most important.”
(What’s the best feedback you got from anybody? Old girlfriends or your head coach or the owner? Anything in particular?) – “Nothing in particular. The fact that we won the game, that’s what’s most important.”
(I know you’ve done this in a few other places. You’ve done some fun ‘trickeration,’ as Rece Davis would say. The fake punts, the fake field goals, the onside kicks – ‘trickeration.’ We like it. Is this the most you’ve ever done in a season?) – “Probably. I think every game is different. Every season is different. The opponent you’re playing is different and then how the game unfolds. You may go into a game with something you like. But did you ever get the opportunity and the right situation? Those are things you can’t force. There are a lot of things that go into it.”
(Head Coach Brian Flores said this is who is. He’s a risk-taker. He wants to be aggressive and take chances. Did you know that when you took the gig?) – “Well, yeah, that was part of it. You play to win the game, and I think that’s the thing that is exciting for me in working with Brian (Flores) and working with the rest of the staff is that’s the idea. We’re playing to win, so the rest of it is irrelevant. Sometimes it’s going to work, sometimes it’s not, but if you like it and you feel confident in it, then you put it on and you live with it.”
(Will we see one of those fake field goals – not a fake field goal – like a fake punt – that’s a good example. A fake punt – is that always called from you and Head Coach Brian Flores or is there ever an opportunity where the guy can actually call it – like P Matt Haack can call it based on what he sees?) – “Right. There are certain things that are maybe auto and there are some things that we put on; but there are parameters for both of those. That’s a long discussion. (laughter)”
(Pretty interesting that because of his touchdown catch, K Jason Sanders’ long field goal at the end kind of went under the radar and that turned out to be huge.) – “What was fun to me about it was it was Matt (Haack) throwing the ball to Jason and then Matt holding the ball for Jason to kick the PAT, which as we know is vital and they’re not gimmes. As soon as we scored, that was my only focus, but I thought that was the fun aspect of it, him being able to get all seven points out of the play was fun.”
(I feel like the special teams units overall have been good, which is good. We’re not putting you on blast. Usually when you talk about special teams coaches it’s bad. When they put the camera on the guy on TV it’s usually because he’s throwing something. That’s good to have it the other way; but has the biggest challenge been the number of players? Because I’m guessing you probably are getting some guys on Tuesday and putting them in on kickoff coverage?) – “That’s always the change. That’s part of this business. I think this is maybe more than you’re normally going to see; but that’s something that you deal with in this league whether it’s trades, whether it’s cuts, whether it’s injury, whatever it may be. That’s why we do it. It doesn’t make it easier. It doesn’t make it harder. That’s just what we do. You’re always trying to help those players. Who you’ve got is who you’ve got. Let’s get them better and let’s see what we can do.”
(How would you assess RB Patrick Laird’s play on special teams this year?) – “He’s getting better every week. He’s conscientious. He works hard. He studies hard. We really like where he’s going, along with a lot of other guys trending in the right direction.”
(Do you call RB Patrick Laird by Patrick or “The Intern?”) – “I call him Patrick. I don’t know anything about ‘The Intern.’”
(Where does “Mountaineer Shot” come from?) – “I think somebody might have already (said) – it is based on Daniel Kilgore being on the field.”
(DT Christian Wilkins looked like he was an eligible receiver. I should know this. Is he an eligible receiver on that play?) – “He is.”
(DT Christian Wilkins and K Jason Sanders – they’re the only two eligible receivers the way you were lined up in that formation?) – “No. No. A couple of other guys are eligible, too.”
(What do you call K Jason Sanders’ position in that formation? Is that a slot receiver?) – “In football vernacular, yes. (laughter) Correct.”
(I think I read your Wiki and it said something – because in preparation for this interview which is 15 minutes, a lot of transcribing ahead of us – I read that you were captain of a World League of American Football team as a defensive back.) – “You went way back. Yeah.”
(What was that like? Where was that?) – “In London, many, many years ago. The World League of American Football. In it’s original form, there were three teams in Europe, a team in Canada and then six teams in the US.”
(Barcelona?) – “Yeah, Barcelona. It was Barcelona, Frankfurt and London, and then there was a team in Montreal and then New York, Sacramento, San Antonio.”
(What was the nickname of the London team?) – “The Monarchs.”
(Were you special teamer back then?) – “Yeah, I played DB and played special teams.”
(When was your love and appreciation of special teams fostered?) – “It started while playing in college. I played for an outstanding special teams coach in college. It was probably where…”
(Kansas?) – “University of Pittsburgh.”
(Who was the special teams coach?) – “Scott O’Brien.”
(What were the connections to Head Coach Brian Flores – I saw that also Michigan State, right?) – “Yeah.”
(Was Nick Saban the coach?) – “No, Bobby Williams.”
(Bobby Williams, who went on to be a special teams coach for Nick Saban?) – “Yeah.”
(Was there any other personal connection to Head Coach Brian Flores or anyone else on the staff?) – “When ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) at one point was helping coach special teams – obviously it’s a fairly tight community in special teams. That’s where I originally got to know ‘Flo.’”
(So he was in New England and you were…?) – “I was at that point in Carolina.”
