Darren Rizzi – June 6, 2018
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Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(In the practices that have been open to us, K Jason Sanders has had a much higher percentage than K Greg Joseph on field goals. Is that reflective of how it’s been throughout the offseason program? Has he been better, substantially better, in terms of overall percentage?) – “No, it’s been about even. Greg missed a couple today on the one end with the left to right wind. (There are) a couple of things we’re working on. The other thing today is Greg, with the first group, I think with the first operation I think (he was) 5-for-6. So on the days you guys haven’t been here, I think both guys have been pretty much what you see is what you get. There’s a couple of things we’re working on with both guys. I’m kind of pleased with where they’re at. With rookie kickers, you’re going to obviously always have a little bit of stuff to work on. Both guys have a great demeanor and a great start so far. I’m happy with both.”
(An encouraging 7-for-7 yesterday for K Jason Sanders. Have you executed the mechanical change that you want to do with Jason yet, whether there’s a clear difference now in his mechanics than what he was in college?) – “There’s never going to be … When you bring a guy like that in, whether it’s Jason or Greg (Joseph), there’s never going to be a wholesale change in what they’re doing. You guys know I always liken it to golf. It could be your stance, it could be an elbow … When you’re golfing, it could be a little small thing. With kicking, it could be something as simple as an inch or two on your plant foot or your walk-off or your aiming points. It’s very, very simple things. The things we are working on are not wholesale big changes that we’re trying to make. They’re very, very … They’re tweaks, if you will. Both guys have been really good. I think what everybody has seen is both guys have really good leg strength. Both have a lot of pop on the ball. Both have really gotten the ball up well, meaning elevation on the ball. Their kickoffs, which you guys haven’t seen them do a lot of, which I have seen obviously on my own, they’ve done very well on. I’m kind of pleased with the progression so far. I’m really not overly concerned about either right now. I really think they’re kind of going as I pretty much expected.”
(Is LB Raekwon McMillan going to play on special teams?) – “We train everybody on special teams, Raekwon included. Right now, obviously as roles get defined for guys, we’ll see what happens. I know the 10,000-pound elephant in the back room because he got hurt last year. I get it. His first play in the NFL, he ran down a punt and got injured. Rookie linebackers play on special teams. It doesn’t matter if they’re drafted, undrafted, first-round, second-round, 10th-round, 90th-round. Rookie linebackers and defensive backs and running backs and receivers, they play special teams. It was extremely unfortunate that happened. We’re kind of easing him in. We’ll see what his role is with when we go down and as this thing happens; but if you look at some of the things that we’re doing, he’s not really training on all four. But he’ll have a role in some way, shape or form.”
(What’s the return game look like so far? Obviously you can’t do a whole lot.) – “Obviously Jakeem (Grant) is … We know what Jakeem is, for the most part. At this point, we’re trying to really get more of a stable of returners and see who those are going to be. I think if you look back yesterday during our punt period, we had some guys back there. Obviously (Danny) Amendola is back there, (Albert) Wilson is back there, Drew Morgan is back there. Those are guys that can really field punts. Kenyan Drake is a guy that can do it throughout his career. He’s got to improve a little bit still. On kickoff return, we’re still trying to fudge with this new rule a little bit. We worked on it today in a little bit more of an individual basis. We’re kind of trying to see what we’re going to do in the back end there. You have to have eight guys up now. There’s only three guys back and where you put those three guys is going to be a little bit … There’s going to be some schematics to it. There’s going to be some game-planning to it. There’s going to be some Xs and Os types of things. If you look back today at our kickoff return, we had a bunch of guys back there. Obviously (there are) new guys that haven’t been here, (like Albert) Wilson, (Kalen) Ballage. Obviously Senorise (Perry) has done it. He’s been here. So we’re looking at a bunch of different guys. Torry McTyer is a guy that did it last year in the preseason that’s been back there. We’re trying to kind of figure out how we’re going to do it, whether it’s one guy deep, two guys deep. I think we have, as you guys know that have been here and covered this team for a long time, I like to have as many options as possible. We’re just trying to get as many guys to work at it as we can this time of year. Then as we get closer to the preseason games and all of that, we’ll kind of try to narrow it down a little bit.”
(Would you be alright if it is Week 1 and you don’t have a clear cut punt returner? Would you be alright with that?) – “Like one guy doing everything? Yes. I think you guys know, I’ve done that in the past. Obviously when Jarvis (Landry) here, he was a guy that we used situationally. I think Danny Amendola is obviously … He was really last year, he was New England’s primary punt returner. So if you look at our roster, we have two primary punt returners on the roster, if you look at it that way. Danny has taken a number of reps in his career. I think here would probably be a little bit more of a situational thing. I don’t think he’s going to be back there every time, for sure; but again, it’s great to have as many guys on the roster that can do it, the better we are.”
(Going back to LB Raekwon McMillan on special teams for a second, will it be in the back of your mind? Might you dial it back 5 percent or 10 percent…) – “I’m going to coach every guy the same as I’ve ever coached. If you start coaching guys based on injury history … I think you guys know me well enough by now. We’re going to coach everybody the same. Listen, it was a really unfortunate thing that happened to him last year. To his credit, he’s jumped right back in. He’s doing our drills. He’s doing everything. Obviously right now, if you looked at it, he’s going to be a starting linebacker for us today. That may change. Who knows? He’s certainly not going to be maybe a three or four core (special teams) guy, but everybody is going to have some type of role on special teams. We’re not going to start making decisions based on injury history. You’re not going to have anybody left on the field. We’re certainly not going to do that. He’s going to have his role and again, we’ll define it as we move along.”
(Of the undrafted free agents, were there any really, really good special teamers in college?) – “Undrafted free agents? The rookies? I’m just thinking through in my head. A lot of the rookies have really flashed athletically. Obviously at this point, we haven’t been able to go in pads, and that’s going to be a big determining factor for obviously special teams, when we start putting the pads on in training camp. I’m thinking through kind of by position-by-position. Offensively, I’ve kind of liked Buddy (Howell). Buddy has done a good job right now as a running back so far on special teams. As far as the defensive guys are concerned, a couple of defensive backs have flashed as well, (and) a couple of the corners. Linebacker is obviously … (Cayson) Collins is a guy that athletically has moved around pretty well so far. (Mike) McCray as well. We’ll kind of see how that goes. I don’t think any of them had an extensive, elaborate special teams career in college; but they’ve all … So far, I’ve been very pleased with the class as a whole in terms of moving around and getting things picked up. That’s really the biggest thing right now.”
(With punts, what to you would be the ideal mix between WR Jakeem Grant and another player, whether its WR Danny Amendola, as you mentioned or whether it’s somebody else? Would you ideally like to split punt returns among a couple of guys about evenly? What’s your vision?) – “I think it’s an annual thing. It’s a yearly thing on how that’s going to play out. It’s not … I don’t have an ideal thing in my mind. If you ask any special teams coach, I think sometimes going with the one guy in a particular year, that can do it all, is great. I think in other years where you may be able to give a guy a rest or a blow or whatever you want to call it, and you can kind of make it a committee type of thing, that’s worked well for us here the last few years – the committee approach. It takes kind of one guy, the onus, off of just one person and makes it more of a thing where we can have a couple of guys do it. Again, the biggest thing … I’m going to go back to the same answer I gave before. To have the most amount of guys on the team, or a group of guys, that can do it and go into the game with that, to me that’s the … What you don’t want to do is have one guy only on the team that’s your primary returner and no one else can do it. That’s when you run into issues. So having guys, having a stable of guys, that can be returners for you, to me that’s really the ideal situation.”
(What are you doing this summer? Have you been to Bora Bora?) – “Well, I haven’t been to Bora Bora. Do I look like a Bora Bora guy? (laughter) No. I get a little down time. Obviously I have five kids. I’m going to spend some time with them and we’re going to probably keep it a little bit more local than Bora Bora. (laughter) The Bahamas might be the outreach for me. (laughter) And I’ve got some basketball stuff. My daughter plays AAU basketball so I’ve got all of the travel with her this summer. She’s got some tournaments going on all over the U.S. – Louisville, Chicago, Atlanta and all of that kind of stuff. My boys have baseball and football starts up, so I’m going to kind of be a dad for the summer. You guys know this job takes us away for a lot that we do, so I’m going to try to be a dad as much as I can. I’ve got a daughter that’s going into her senior year of high school. I have a son that’s going to be a sophomore and plays football at St. Thomas. So I’ll spend some time with them and relax a little bit and enjoy. We all know, as you guys know that cover a team, it goes quick. It goes real quick, so we’ll be looking forward to a little down time when that comes. But I will definitely not be in Bora Bora. (laughter)”
