Danny Crossman – October 27, 2022
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Thursday, October 27, 2022
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(One of K Jason Sanders’ field goal attempts, it looked like Pittsburgh had a five-on-four to defend the field goal. CB James Pierre is coming in by DE Christian Wilkins to his left, but I’m wondering, what is the timing of that? How quickly – 2.5 seconds – does that kick need to be off? And how much time does that guy have before he gets to that point?) – “Way, way, way faster than that. You’re giving them about twice as much time. Those kicks, around the league, everybody’s timing is between 1.1 and 1.3 (seconds).”
(The guy who’s coming off the edge, how long does it take him to get there?) – “You could spend hours talking about the geometry of that, his angle, how hard, is he up the field, how flat he is – you could talk about that until you’re blue in the face. But the idea is if that guy is not heavily contacted, he’s got to be really wide, or you’ve got to make sure you’re accounted for.”
(We saw WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. back to field some punts on Sunday. It was another game where whether it was the kick return game or the punt return game, you’re not really getting a lot of explosive plays. Just what needs to kind of flip and switch to start getting more of those explosive plays?) – “A lot of time, it’s opportunities. There’s so many parts that go into it of the field position, the down and distance, the call, what we’re playing for. So it’s sort of going around the block several times this year in terms of the opportunities and when they’ve come and who’s back there. There’s so many different parts of it that, obviously, we’re not going to get into here. But there’s a lot of things. Obviously, when we do get opportunities – when we get those opportunities, we’ve got to make more happen.”
(What went into the decision to put WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. back there?) – “There’s a lot of things that go into that.”
(Just kind of piggybacking off that a bit. You guys currently are last in average yards per punt return, furthest back average starting field position. What’s the split between that just being coincidental or situational versus something you guys can actually do differently?) – “Well, I think it’s a combination of both. Some of those situations are – you look at some of the starting field position, we’ve had several goal line stands on defense, which is fabulous. But then you look at it as starting field position and it’s not so fabulous, but I’ll take that every single time. If we got started at the two-yard line because our defense just stopped them from scoring, that’s a win for the team. So it’s all about that. The key again is when we do have opportunities, when those things come up, trying to make something out of it and that’s every single play.”
(How would you evaluate the blocking on returns so far this season?) – “Punt returns, kick returns, we haven’t had that many opportunities. We talked about this a week ago on the punt return game –we haven’t had many opportunities where the ball has been in play where we had an opportunity. So it’s hard. We’ve been – some of them we have good blocking, and we don’t have an opportunity with the ball. Some of them we’ve had bad blocking. So it’s a culmination. I think kickoff return, we’ve had a couple more opportunities. I think we’ve missed a couple of opportunities with some blocks, but I also think we’ve had some decent opportunities where we’ve been able to be one-on-one, which is what you’re trying to design it to do.”
(When you elevate guys on Saturday – S Verone McKinley III is a prime example – do you look at his special teams contribution and can he contribute?) – “Everybody is different. Some guys are brought up for offensive reasons. Some guys are brought up for defensive reasons. Some guys are brought up for special teams reasons. So it varies based on the individual.”
(How much do you enjoy seeing your special teamers make plays in other aspects of the game like CB Justin Bethel and S Clayton Fejedelem?) – “Again, whatever it takes to win. If those guys have to play offense and defense for us to win games, go play offense and defense for us to win games. If we have to – we’ll figure it out, but let’s go win games.”
(Along those lines, I remember last year, us was asking you about WR Mack Hollins and how he was like a unique guy who could you know play one down as a gunner and then go back and play offense if needed. Do you find yourself kind of monitoring the special teams snaps for some other guys?) – “Without question. And it’s hard to find those guys to do that. It’s hard to play high numbers on a phase offensively or defensively and also in the kicking game. So those guys that can do that, we have the utmost respect for those guys.”
(What have you gotten from P Thomas Morstead this season?) – “I think No. 1, the veteran leadership. He’s a guy that’s been there, done that, seen it all. A great communicator with myself and the players. I’m very happy that we were able to add Thomas (Morstead), and I’m very happy with the job he’s done this year.”
(I’ve run into P Thomas Morstead pregame before and like he’s got this full – he’s soaking in sweat. He said he does a full body workout before every game. Is that normal for a punter to do?) – “Again, every guy is different. Every guy’s routine – whatever they have to do to get themselves prepared mentally (and) physically to perform at the highest level, that’s something I let them do. As long as it’s not interfering with anything or setting them back, we really don’t care what they do. As long as they’re prepared and ready to execute when we call them in the game.”
(There was a moment, speaking of P Thomas Morstead, where CB Justin Bethel goes down to cover a punt. He misses the guy, but he’s lying on his stomach around the 10-yard line and P Thomas Morstead goes down and kind of pats him on the back. When you see that kind of leadership and that kind of bonding, camaraderie, what does that mean to you and what does that do for special teams as a unit?) – “Well, No. 1, I think that’s just the culture of the entire team. You look at it – whether it’s offense, defense, kicking game, guys are holding each other accountable and congratulating guys for big plays (and) encouraging them for the opposite. When you have that and guys are playing for one another, as a whole team, it’s going to pay dividends.”
