Danny Crossman – November 3, 2022
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Thursday, November 3, 2022
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(What qualifies a player to be a punt returner, and why does WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. get that job?) – “There’s so many things. Cedrick’s got a little bit of a history. Not a lot, but he’s been constantly out there working and just trying to find and have somebody who’s always ready to go, which is sort of where it led us to Cedrick. He had some opportunities in this last game and took advantage of them. Hopefully we can keep building on that in the future.”
(As far as the skillset, what are you – obviously good hands?) – “Yeah, but good hands has nothing to do with catching punts. It’s completely different. Tracking it, reading the nose, reading the spin, then you throw the elements into it. So it’s really a different skillset than just catching the football. Punts, kickoffs, passes – they’re all different. But he’s done a solid job and hopefully we can keep building on that the more opportunities we get.”
(Week after week, WR Trent Sherfield leads offensive players in special teams snaps. What makes him a good special teams player?) – “Well, when you look at his history, he’s been a very good special teams player. It’s the offensive snaps that have sort of transitioned for him this season. It’s a tough load. We experienced that a little bit with Mack Hollins where he’s a special teams guy whose offensive load builds, and that’s sort of where we’re at with Trent right now. He’s doing a good job on both phases.”
(We have to ask you about the one special teams play – the fake punt this time. What happened there?) – “That’s a good play by them. We sort of played the percentages. Under two minutes, were they willing to give us the ball in scoring range? And that’s how they played the game. They played the game all out to win the football game. But we did some things where we’ve got to hold our look a little bit longer, and then they made a good play.”
(That part of the field, are you not considering a fake punt?) – “You go the track record of the coach of the head coach, the special teams coach, the personnel. There’s a lot of things that go into it. Once you’re ready to play, in that particular case, we’re looking to try and get a score before the end of the half and maybe not thinking the percentages are as high with where the ball was, especially under two minutes where they had played well and not wanting to maybe give us the lead there at the end of the half. But they made a good play.”
(They had a kick return in the game correct, the Lions did? What goes into the decision making to kick it short of the goal line?) – “There’s a lot of things. It’s the kicker, our coverage people, where we’re at with how much certain guys are playing on offense, defense, how fresh we are, who the returner is, what have they shown. So there’s a lot of things that go into it. We think we may have an opportunity to make a play. And then sometimes, the kick doesn’t end up exactly where you want it and that ties into people getting a return, which I think is what happened to us. So, there’s a lot of things that go into it.”
(I talked to a couple of players yesterday in the locker room who were rookies in 2019. And they said it was a really tough year, super tough coaching that happened that year. And they compared it to this year and said it’s a complete 180. QB Tua Tagovailoa has said as well that he’s had to learn to be less hard on himself, because Head Coach Mike McDaniel’s style is to be really encouraging and positive and supporting. So I’m wondering, since you have the history here and you’ve been here for a while, have you as a coach had to change the way that you interact with players or sort of do what Tua is doing and try to be less hard on himself and less hard on others?) – “No, I think, number one, you’ve got to be yourself. Especially to your point, I’ve been here. If I change who I am and how I approach the players, they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, this is not normal.’ So I think there’s a myriad of ways to do things. Everybody’s going to be themselves. And I think that’s the beautiful thing of – I’ve been in this league for over 20 years and every coach has got to be true to who he is because the players, you’re around then too much and they’re too sharp. If you try and be somebody that you’re truly not, they’re going to read right through that. So the fact of how guys are responding, that’s part of taking coaching of who’s coaching. And some guys respond to different people. And that’s part of the nuances of being a coach is you need to approach each player as an individual, not as an entire group, because certain things work with some guys that don’t work with others.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa said to I think, Maria Taylor, on his NBC interview a couple of weeks ago; he said that Head Coach Mike McDaniel was the same guy throughout the losses that you guys had this year. And that was something that kind of surprised him because I think he might have been expecting some change or something because of the losses. So can you describe how McDaniel led the team through those?) – “Again, I think he was true to himself, he was true to his beliefs, understanding what was going on, was it the work, was it the performance, was it a combination and just being true to himself and belief in what he’s teaching, what we’re asking the players to do and then eventually performance you’re hoping is going to take care of itself and you get the ship righted.”
