Darren Rizzi – September 27, 2016
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Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(On Head Coach Adam Gase saying P Matt Darr saved the Dolphins and what his thoughts were on his performance) – “I don’t know if he saved us but he certainly played a very good game. His performance on Sunday in particular was impressive. The things that Matt has been working on are hang time on the ball and location, and that’s something that he’s really improved on. The best thing about Matt (Darr) is he’s really never satisfied with his results and he’s always looking to get better. He’s a little bit of a perfectionist. For a guy that’s only in his second year in the league, he’s really kind of already a pro, and that’s rare to see for a guy that’s only played as many games as he has. In particular, Sunday, our net averages are obviously very good. He had a couple of great locations on the ball. The punt at the end that we downed at the 9-yard line was a huge play for field position certainly. But there were some other ones there. I think we downed four inside the 20. There was some real good coverage on a couple of them. Our gunners –Tony Lippett and Walt Aikens in particular – did a really good job of facing up the returners. It’s not surprising me because I see Matt (Darr) do it every day on a consistent basis in practice and a guy that’s really working on his craft. He’s a talented player. We’re very, very happy to have him and again, I think he’s one of those guys who is always trying to get better. I certainly know where Adam’s (Gase) coming from. I mean, at the end of the day, when you look at the stats sheet and you look at the overall game after you step outside and kind of look back, you could certainly look at it like that. He really helped us from a field position standpoint and that ended up being a huge part of that football game. You didn’t know what play was going to be the biggest one because it ended up being a see-saw battle. So all those plays were huge at that stage.”
(On LS John Denney and the influence of a veteran has in the locker room) – “Yes. I’ll tell you what, John Denney’s great for everybody – including me. As a coach, when you have a guy that’s been around the game for a long, long time, John (Denney) has got the perfect temperament for his position as a long snapper. He’s always right here [holds hand up to the middle]. He’s never too high, never too low. He’s just got a really, really good temperament and personality. He’s great for the younger guys. A guy like (Matt) Darr and (Andrew) Franks that were rookies last year, both were undrafted rookies that came in here and they’re playing with a guy that’s been doing for it as long as he has. He was a really good role model for those guys to get oriented into the league. Not only is he good for the specialists, but he’s also good for the rest of the group, the rest of the team. He’s a guy that you’ll see, even some of the players in other positions will bounce ideas off of him or bounce thoughts off of him because he’s a wise guy and he’s really very thoughtful in everything that we’re doing. Like I said, he’s seen a lot of things around here. He’s been through a lot of coaches and he’s been through a lot of regimes. He’s seen a lot of things and he’s a very well-grounded guy. He’s a very smart person, very intelligent, and like I said to another guy, we’re very, very fortunate to have (him). Sometimes a long snapper is kind of like a referee or an umpire. If you don’t talk about them, they probably did a pretty good job. That’s kind of the way John Denney’s been. I can count on one hand, in the eight years I’ve been here, how many mistakes he’s made – mental mistakes. Knock on wood. But that’s a guy we’re very fortunate to have, not only from a special teams standpoint, but from a team standpoint. He’s a guy that’s on our leadership committee – voted in by his peers – and not surprising. Just again, he’s a consistent, steady performer week in and week out, and hopefully he continues to do so.”
(On the Browns kicker situation and the level of confidence in his kicker on the road) – “I’m very confident in Andrew (Franks). I think Andrew (Franks) really had a great preseason. Talk about our guy, I know a lot of people point to the kick in Seattle and things like that, but again, I have the upmost confidence in him as a person (and) as a player. So I’m not only worried about that. As far as the Browns go, that’s a very unfortunate situation. In the eight years I’ve been here, it’s happened twice to us – maybe not on Friday, but late in the week a couple of times when Dan Carpenter was here. We had to pick Nate Kaeding one time and Shayne Graham the other time later in the week. That’s a rough spot. It’s a rough spot. I don’t envy anybody –their coaches, Cody (Parkey). I think Cody’s (Parkey) a very good player – obviously went to a Pro Bowl. But to be put in that situation, that’s a tough one. You look around the NFL right now and I think already through three games, (there are) some pretty mind-blowing stats. Already 24 teams have missed field goals out of 32. Seventy-five percent of the teams have missed a field goal and 13 teams have missed an extra point, so 40 percent of the teams have missed an extra point. Those numbers are pretty eye-opening and again you’re seeing it around the league. That play, the field goal and the PAT, is no longer a ‘gimme.’ I think we’re all figuring that out as we go. Every point matters. It’s something we take very seriously. It’s just an unfortunate situation that the Browns got themselves into with the injury to their kicker late in the week. Getting back to our guy – I’ve got pure confidence in him, and I think if (he was) put in that situation, I’d have no problem with that at all.”
(On if he remotely had that situation of losing a kicker) – “I can remember Nate (Kaeding) came up here, off the top of my head. I remember that Shayne Graham played in a game in Dallas. I think he was 3-for-4. And then I remember Nate Kaeding played in a really, really windy day up in New England. He started one about 10 feet outside the right post and it ended up about 10 feet outside the left post. He ended up missing one up there. When you only have one (kicker) on the roster, those are situations … I’ve seen it happen with long snappers. I’ve seen it happen with kickers. I’ve seen it happen with punters. Heck, I even know of situations where guys have gotten hurt in pregame after the inactives were in. That’s really when you find out a lot about some guys. So those situations, unfortunately, can come up. That’s why you always have to have your short list. We travel around in the offseason working out free agent guys, just to have a punter, kicker, long snapper, kind of a short list in case it ever comes up. I think one of the things, a few years ago, we had one of our specialists got sick the night before the game. (He) came down with like a really high fever, vomiting and all that. We weren’t quite sure what was going to happen. That was on a Saturday. So it can be a touchy situation and, again, I’ve been there. It’s not an easy situation. I think the thing when you look back to the Browns game is, you get a guy like Cody Parkey in there, who’s been there. He was out of it for a little bit. He was out of it since preseason. It’s very hard to simulate. You can go to any field. You can go to – I know he’s from Jupiter – you go to a high school field or a college field and kick field goals and stay in shape and all that, but to simulate a live rush in a situation like that? It’s like me going out in my backyard. I can make 20 free throws in a row there by myself (laughter). And then all of a sudden, if you put me in a game, and we’re running around, the situation changes. So it’s very, very hard to simulate live action, a rush coming at you, a new holder, new snapper. I think a lot of people forget there are a lot of factors that go into it. It’s not just the kick itself. There’s a guy, I think, like I said, he was a rookie and he made a Pro Bowl. (He’s) certainly a good player. It certainly worked out … We’re happy that it worked out the way it did, and kudos to our rush team because they, as I said last week, our rush team has really been coming after people. Certainly, I think we’ve kind of put that in the back of the minds of a lot of kickers.”
