Darren Rizzi – May 12, 2018
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Saturday, May 12, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(What helped develop the confidence you developed in K Jason Sanders despite the bottom line number of 25-for-35 career field goals?) – “We could talk about that for a long time. There are so many different ways to go with that. I think the first thing is when I go in and evaluate, when we look at the kicker position, the number one thing you’re looking at is the kicker, the talent, the ability and all of those things. I could talk for a long time about the statistical part of it. A lot of people don’t want to hear this but really, when you look at a college placekicker, one of the last things I look at is field goal percentage; and there’s a reason for that. The reason for that is because a lot of times in college, the operations are … It’s completely different than the NFL. I can sit here for hours and talk about the guys and give you examples. Stephen Gostkowski for the Patriots was a 76-percent field-goal kicker in college. Matt Bryant for the Falcons was a 72-percent field-goal kicker in college. Mason Crosby (was a) 74-percent kicker in college. Phil Dawson was a 74-percent kicker in college. Robbie Gould was a 63-percent kicker in college. Between those five guys, they have over 70 years of NFL experience. The point is the field goal percentage probably gets looked at a little bit too much; but in this day in age of fantasy football and numbers and everything, I get it. That’s really … Jason Sanders probably kicked the laces 20 times between PATs and field goals in college. That’s obviously not … Now, down here with Snowflake and all of the movies and all of that, kicking the laces is … (laughter) It seems to be a good term for down here. Laces out Marino, so we have to throw that one in, right? (laughter) But no, all kidding aside, his operation wasn’t great. I know he’s not going to stand here in front of you and tell you guys that. He’s going to put the blame on him; but his operation wasn’t great. I was really impressed with the talent, the person, and obviously we felt strong enough to draft him at that point. Even the other kicker that got drafted in the fifth round – (Daniel Carlson) – his numbers in college were … His senior year, he was below 80 percent. You can see I did a little bit of homework on that, by the way.”
(The touchback numbers for K Jason Sanders, how big of a factor was that in the thinking of this should be the guy we target?) – “Again, I didn’t really look at the touchback numbers. I know that he had great numbers. I looked at more of what I felt he could do on kickoff. It’s not just the distance and the length; but obviously the hang time, the location and the things we want to do. I just think he’s a very well-rounded kicker. He’s just a guy that didn’t get a lot of opportunity in college. He’s a guy that only had 35 field-goal attempts because his head coach went for it a lot of times in the red zone. Bob Davie is an aggressive coach. They didn’t kick a lot of field goals. I think he had more long field goals than short field goals, because it seemed like every time they were close, they went for it. He obviously did a really good job on his PATs and his kickoffs. I feel like if he was a guy that was in a Power 5 conference, he would have been much more of a household name, if you will. He might have been a little bit higher up the draft board; but it worked out great for us.”
(The last two young kickers that you’ve been drawn to and brought in here, both have the common theme – K Andrew Franks and K Jason Sanders – of strong legs. To you, is that paramount in looking for a field-goal kicker? Is leg number one on your list, as far as strength and distance field goals?) – “I don’t know if it’s number one but it’s certainly up there. I’m not going to say it’s number one; but obviously you want a guy who … I call it an NFL leg. You want a guy that’s got an NFL-type leg and is able to do a lot of different things and have the ability to give you a lot of different things and have great range. That certainly helps. It’s probably easier to take a guy with great leg strength and get him a little bit more in tune or fixed or technique-wise on field goals than it is to go the other way. It’s much harder. You can’t teach leg strength. You can teach a guy technique. You can teach a guy to get better certainly at accuracy and things like that. You can’t teach (leg) strength. It’s like a baseball comparison. You’re not going to teach a singles hitter to be a home run hitter, more or less, to give you a baseball analogy; but you can certainly teach a home-run hitter to make more contact and things like that. The power and the strength and those things were certainly … I’ve heard the things about the altitude. Certainly, he’s not going to pick his school by the altitude. Certainly it was beneficial at some point but he played plenty of games that weren’t in high altitude and did very well. Again, there are a lot of comparisons that I can continue to give you.”
(How do you judge mental toughness when you look at a young kicker?) – “It’s hard. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do. If I had to give any knock on Jason Sanders coming out, it probably would be that he just didn’t get enough opportunities. I would have liked to see him get more opportunities and to be put in the fire, if you will, a little bit more. It would have been a little bit nicer to see; but again, that wasn’t on him. Mental toughness is a really, really hard thing to judge. I really like his demeanor. I like his background. I’ve obviously spent some time with him. He comes from a military family. He’s got two brothers that are serving right now. His dad served in the Air Force. He’s got two brothers who are serving in the Air Force right now. I kind of really liked … He’s the youngest of four kids. For a guy having five kids, I kind of know what that young guy is like. He’s a little bit of a competitive guy. My little spit-fire 11-year-old, he’s a competitive son of a gun. All kidding aside, I really liked his makeup, his background. It’s tough, at the end of the day, to figure it out; but the thing I like about him is his mentality. He’s one of those guys that’s always right (in the middle). I really like that in a specialist. A lot like Matt Haack, he never gets too excited, too high or too low. I kind of like that. Again, everything remains to be seen. How he performs is going to be the bottom line. We all know that. The other guy, who we haven’t really talked about is Greg Joseph, the free agent we took from Florida Atlantic. He’s another guy with a really big leg. He’s got a really good kickoff leg. He has to work and fine-tune some stuff with the field goal; but he’s another guy that when you guys see him kick, you’ll be very, very impressed with his leg strength.”
(The organization decided not to bring in another punter. What did P Matt Haack do last year to give you confidence that he didn’t need the competition?) – “I just think Matt’s best football is ahead of him. The one thing you’ve got to remember with rookie kickers and punters is when they come in, if they make a team and go all the way through, they end up punting or kicking for 18 months in a row. ‘What do you mean?’ Well, they just finished their college season, then they train for the NFL the entire time and get right into the NFL season, and the NFL season is a long year. So Matt Haack was on an 18-month punting streak, if you will, so he hit a little bit of a wall at the end of the year. But he’s got tremendous upside. I really feel like his best football is ahead of him. (He has a) really high ceiling. He’s a very talented guy. I really like where he’s at. I only think he’s going to get better, so I didn’t feel at this point … I felt like he needed the reps in camp and really didn’t feel like we needed to split time with him and anybody.”
(Regarding kickoffs, I think you were consulted about changes that should be made. What do you think of the changes that are on the table or have been reported on the table and what do you think should happen with kickoffs in the immediate future?) – “So to give you a little background, I was part of a committee that went up to New York and was part of the discussions about … I was on the kickoff committee. I really felt like it was a really productive and positive experience and a productive and positive meeting. Myself and eight other special teams coaches from around the league got invited to go up. What we had done is a couple of weeks leading up to the meeting, we kind of got together and looked at the kickoff play as a whole. We all know the NFL is trying to make this play a safer play. At the same time, we want to keep the play competitive. We want to keep it exciting. We want to keep the fans tuned in. We don’t want to make a ton of wholesale changes. The bottom line was making the play safer. I felt like we got together, came up with a collaborative effort and went in with a proposal. A lot of the things we proposed have now gotten approved or are getting approved by the competition committee, or moving forward to the owners and going to get brought to the owners next week. Some of the changes are going to be on the kickoff, from the kickoff side. Some of the proposal is taking away the 5-yard running start down to a 1-yard start and kind of limiting the kickoff team’s formations, if you will – limiting those to 5×5 and the motions and shifts and things like that are probably going to be a thing of the past. Then the kickoff return team, really bringing more players up to the front part of the group – what we’re calling the setup zone now. (We want to have) eight guys up within 15 yards of the restraining line. What we tried to do was really look at the plays that had unnecessary collisions and things that were happening, the more dangerous types of things. That’s what we’re trying to take out of the game. We really feel, moving forward, that we’re making this a safer play; but at the same time, keeping it very competitive. A lot of injuries were happening on the back end and the NFL did a great job of presenting some statistics and analytics on that. So we’re trying to eliminate the back-end wedge, the wedge that’s in front of the ball carrier. A lot of the injuries were taking place at that point of attack spot. Then also, in the first 15 yards, it’s going to be more or less a free running zone for the kickoff team, where you can’t go and attack and chip. Again, all of this stuff has to get approved still. It’s not done yet; but it is up for a vote at the owners’ meetings and I really feel like, moving forward, it’s going to be a really positive thing for everybody. Number one, the players, from a safety standpoint; and then number two, I think the fans are really going to enjoy the play because I think there are a lot of new nuances to the play that can really add some competitive things that are going to be pretty cool.”
(It seems like in general, just anecdotally, every time I hear people talk about making safety-related changes, among the players and coaches, a lot of times there’s this natural backlash to it. You seem genuinely concerned and interested and passionate about improving the safety.) – “Yes. Number one, I think if you talk to any fans in and around the game and everybody loves … The kickoff has been a part of the game since it started. I think there were some false narratives out there about getting rid of the play and all of that stuff. That’s not really what this was all about. This was about making the play safer and taking some unnecessary collisions and hits out of the game. There were some injuries that were happening on touchbacks, for example. (There were) some unnecessary things that were happening and injuries. Is it ever going to be 100 percent? That’s unrealistic; but I think the steps that were taken were to make this play a lot safer for the players and keep it exciting and competitive for the fans. Yes, I am passionate about it. There were some rules that I think were – the things that we’re moving forward with and trying to implement – that are really going to help the players out. I’ve talked to our players about it. They’ve really been receptive to what we’re talking about. We’ll see what gets passed and what doesn’t, but I really feel like, moving forward, this is going to be a really good thing.
(Do any of the changes open the door for more explosive plays?) – “Yes. It’s going to be really interesting to see how it plays out because the kickoff team only have a 1-yard start, they’re obviously not going to be as far down the field. So what I don’t think you’re going to see, if the rules do get passed – again, this is all an if – I don’t think you’re going to see as many high, short kicks anymore, because I think the advantage of doing that is to get your kickoff team down and pin the team inside the 25 (yard line). Well, now your kickoff team is not going to be as far down the field. So I think you’re going to see a few more deeper kicks from a percentage standpoint, and now your returner pulling the ball out of the end zone maybe a little bit more than we’ve seen the last couple of years because the kickoff team is not as far down the field. The way the play is going to set up, it’s going to look a little bit more like a punt return. Those bigger players aren’t going to be out there – your big d-lineman and o-lineman that you see in the back end and the wedges. The day of the wedge-busters, that’s a thing of the past. We all grew up in football and you always had the wedge-busters in high school and college. That’s really where the injuries were happening, quite frankly. So it’s going to be a little bit more of a speed game. It’s going to look more like a punt return in terms of personnel, the guys that are out there, and it’s going to look more like it because you’ll have the eight guys up and they’re going to be getting on blocks a little bit quicker. It’s going to be more one-on-ones and less double teams and traps and all of that kind of stuff. So some of those unnecessary collisions that were happening … It’ll be more of a wide-open play. I do think it’s interesting. I think there’s enough things you can do from a scheme standpoint to still make it competitive and exciting, but it’s going to be a much more wide-open play.”
(So more DBs, more running backs and fewer lineman?) – “Absolutely. Fewer defensive ends. Defensive lineman and offensive lineman, I don’t think you’re going to see because if you have eight guys up and only three back, the majority of the people that are going to run this are going to have guys that can handle the ball in the back end. Or else that guy is going to end up getting the ball kicked to him a bunch of times. So you’re going to see much more skill players. Offensively (it will be) running backs, receivers and tight ends; and then like you said, DBs and skilled linebackers, faster-type players (on defense). It does make you actually start to think about your personnel a little bit too, and how that’s going to shape up your roster. I’ve talked about that with our front office here and with (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase about how this rule change could potentially change some of the … maybe the last couple of decisions with your 53 (man roster).”
(How does it play into a guy like WR Jakeem Grant, with his speed?) – “Listen, I’ve talked to Jakeem about the new rules. I know he’s excited about it. A guy like Jakeem could potentially – again we’ll see where it goes, it’s all potential because right now this all remains to be seen if the rule is going to get passed – but if it does, I think a guy like Jakeem could certainly benefit from the rule. It being a more wide-open play, I know he’s excited about it for sure.”
(Is there any fear that the kickoff would go away altogether at some point or no?) – “I don’t think so. The conversations that I’ve been a part of and the committee that I’m on, it’s about improvement and player safety. We’re making some changes now and I think that you could continue to make … You just look at the play and continue to see where these things are happening and take some things out of the game.”
(In WR Jarvis Landry, obviously you lost a guy that had 89 career punt returns here and 12 last year. Who replaces him as an option along with WR Jakeem Grant as a punt returner?) – “We’ve added a couple of guys onto the roster that have had return experience. Obviously we all know (Danny) Amendola did it with New England. Albert Wilson is a guy that did it in Kansas City. He just got buried behind a couple of really good returners; but he’s got returner experience. Obviously he had De’Anthony Thomas and Tyreek Hill in front of him; but he’s a guy that’s done it before. Then Kalen Ballage was a kick returner at Arizona State. He’s a big body that can run really well. He had some really productive kick returns. We’ve kind of added a couple of pieces there, as well.”
(So you would be open to WR Danny Amendola and WR Albert Wilson maybe getting some opportunities as punt returners?) – “Oh, yes. We’re definitely going to look at all of them here in the preseason. You know how we’ve done it. You just kind of look at everybody and see what the best … At the end of the day, when we get to September, kind of feel what our best competitive advantage is moving forward; but all of those guys will be part of the equation, for sure.”
