Darren Rizzi – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(I don’t think we’ve talked to you since cuts and the kicker change? What went into that change and how did that come about? – “The kicker position, the punter position – all of those positions – are things that you’re evaluating all of the time. It was a deal we thought we could upgrade. We kept our eye on a couple of close battles that were going on throughout the league, the Browns being one of them. Cody Parkey is a guy that I’ve always thought is a really good player – a really good kicker – consistently. I knew that they had drafted a guy out in Cleveland so we kept an eye on that one. It’s no slight on Andrew (Franks). Andrew’s done a lot of great things here. Andrew Franks has done a lot of great things in the two years he’s kicked for us. Certainly last year, he had a lot of great moments; but we just felt like overall, it was a better situation for us moving forward.”
(How about the change at punter?) – “Matt Haack has a little bit of a back story. Every year we evaluate the kickers and punters coming out. Myself and (Assistant Special Teams Coach) Marwan Maalouf, we get together in the offseason and evaluate all of the kickers and punters and specialists, and we had Matt Haack the No. 1 rated punter coming out of college this past year. I was very surprised that he did not get drafted. No punters got drafted. I think there were three kickers that got drafted, one snapper, no punters. So he was there at the end of the draft. We had a very good relationship with him. I had gone out to Arizona State to work him out. He came out to Miami for a 30-visit, and we had a really good relationship with him. It was just an opportunity to get a really good player and he did the rest himself. From the first day he punted out in OTAs, right on through training camp, he performed very well. He kind of raised Matt Darr’s game a little bit too because Matt started to really perform well towards the middle of training camp and towards the end of preseason games. It felt like we were in a no-lose (situation) there. We had two NFL punters; but Haack really, really punted the ball well. We just felt like overall, again, moving forward, it was the best situation for all of us, because he’s got a lot of great tools. He obviously has really good hang time on the ball, he gets rid of the ball quickly, he’s a lefty punter. All of those things factored into the decision. Again, he won the job. I’ve heard some different things about why we picked him to be our punter, but the bottom line is that he won the job. He won the job fair and square. He was more productive in the preseason.”
(How much does a left-footed punter make a difference in the return game?) – “It does make a difference. You’re starting to see more and more lefties make teams. There’s no doubt about when we play a left-footed punter, it’s a whole new dynamic for the returners. I could tell you that Matt Haack is making our returners better, just by having them go out there every day and having to catch that lefty ball; but it’s definitely different. If you talk to your returners, if you asked Jarvis (Landry), if you asked Jakeem (Grant), if you asked anybody that’s ever been back there returning punts, they’ll tell you that the lefty punter is certainly a different dynamic for them, and Matt Haack, in particular, gets really good hang time on the ball and good rotation, so he, specifically, is really good at that.”
(Can you name three youngsters, rookies or otherwise – drafted or undrafted – young guys, who you feel will be able to contribute effectively on special teams units?) – “Sure. Some of the guys I was impressed with in the preseason – and obviously the preseason and the regular season are two different animals as we know – but a guy like ‘Mo’ (Maurice) Smith definitely jumped out. He flashed in every one of our games, every one of the preseason games. He played in all of them on special teams and defense, and he definitely jumped out at us as a guy that it didn’t seem too big for him. Another guy that I thought – he didn’t play in the last preseason game but the first three preseason games – Senorise Perry really played well on special teams, in many different facets. I think many people will probably point at (the fact that) he fumbled a kick return and all that, but he really played well in all of the other facets. I was really, really impressed with him. Then a couple of guys that I thought really got better as we went along were Chase Allen and Torry McTyer. I thought those guys really progressed nicely. (They had) really a nice rookie progression as camp moved forward and they were peaking at the end of preseason. So those guys, all of those guys, were impressive throughout for a lot of different reasons.”
(What’s the learning curve, in general, if a few of these guys do it at the NFL level for the first time on Sunday?) – “It’s a big learning curve because a lot of these guys haven’t done it at all. It’ll be the first time – if some of these guys are active on Sunday – it’ll be the first time ever doing it in live action. Listen, the preseason, there’s a lot of great things about the preseason, but it really for me as a special teams coach, is a lot different than offense or defense, because we’re really evaluating personnel. I’m really not a big scheme guy in the preseason and I really could care less, to be honest with you, about the statistics part of it. To me, it’s irrelevant. All that matters is getting ready for the regular season, so really the evaluation tool in the preseason is great for us, because a lot of those guys haven’t done it before, so we get them in live action. But it’s different. Some of those guys have played a little bit (of special teams), but a lot of them have not, so that’s what we’re really trying to drum home in their minds is that this regular season is going to be amped up a notch. It’s going to be a little bit different for them; but all of those guys, in one way or another, have really shown it.”
(My colleague is not here yet but he asked me to ask you how your dogs are doing and where do you put them?) – “(laughter) I don’t know. My dogs have become a topic of conversation along with many other people that got uprooted from South Florida. Yes, I have five children and two dogs. And the two dogs that I own are probably not what you would expect me to have; but I am a nice peaceful guy so therefore, (you guys) probably thinks I have Rottweilers and Pitbulls. But I have two Westies. Those Westies are alive and well and doing great in South Florida. We were able to find a shelter for them, a place for them to stay, while we traveled out to the West Coast. I don’t know how my dogs became a topic of conversation; but I think a lot of people, obviously, when you get in this situation with the hurricane and you have to leave home for a while, it’s probably a lot of things. I grew up in the Northeast so I didn’t deal with a whole lot of hurricanes – a couple here and there growing up. There’s a lot of things you don’t think about; but certainly taking care of my dogs, it was much more important to my children. I’m not going to lie to you. It was much more important to my kids; my kids were ready to bring them with them.
(How did your house do during the storm?) – “Fortunately, it sounds like … I lost power for four or five days; I just got it back yesterday; but I think maybe small gutter down, a bunch of trees, but no major damage.”
(The whole family came out here?) – “Yes. My one daughter’s in college, but the rest of the crew came.”
(In terms of the punt returners, is the plan going in to focus on WR Jakeem Grant and RB Kenyan Drake and then use WR Jarvis Landry on an if-needed basis?) – “No, Jarvis is always an option. He’ll always be an option as long as he’s here. Jarvis is a guy we know can do it in games and he’s always going to be in that mix of punt returners. Obviously, Jakeem got the lion’s share in the preseason and Drake is a guy that we’re continuing to work with. Those are really the three guys right now. The main focus is on those guys; but again, moving forward game plan-wise, Jarvis is always part of the equation, no doubt.”
(How much do you think WR Jakeem Grant’s good performance in preseason is going to help his confidence?) – “I think that’s huge with that position. I think maybe more than most positions, you’ve got to be confident back there. If you’re unsure of yourself back there, it’s not good. I liken it to a guy stepping into the batter’s box in baseball. If you’re not confident walking into the batter’s box, you’re probably not going to do very well. It’s kind of that same thing. You’re on your own back there. Being a punt returner is a lot like being a baseball batter in a batter’s box. It’s all you. So when you step back there … That’s something we worked on a bunch with him, and to Jakeem’s credit, he worked on his self-confidence a bunch, even before we got back to OTAs. You guys know the back story on that about how much he worked on it in the offseason, so I do think it’s a big difference. I see a different person taking the field this year than I did last year at this time. I see a much more confident guy, a guy that’s really worked at learning the game and learning that position. There’s a lot of nuances to that position, so I think he’s done a hell of a job with that, and to his credit. I see a totally different guy. We always say you want to see that big jump from year one to year two and I’ve seen that out of him, so hopefully we’ll see the fruits of that labor pay off for us in the regular season.”
