Darren Rizzi – September 27, 2018
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Thursday, September 27, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(You had obviously for the first two games WR Tanner McEvoy involved in a lot of special teams. Who replaced him on Sunday and who do you move forward with now that he’s no longer on the roster in that role?) – “It wasn’t one specific person. It was kind of a combination of guys. I’ve always said that we’re kind of getting a bunch of guys ready, so we kind of made the decision that Tanner was going to be inactive last week. It was kind of a bunch of different people going through the different squads in my head, the different phases in my head. It wasn’t one person that was plugged in. Obviously, the roster spot with DeVante (Parker not being) active the first couple of weeks was really the spot that Tanner had, and so we were able to use him. So, with DeVante back now, it kind of shuffled the deck a little bit differently. It wasn’t one specific person. Obviously, you guys know my job as special teams coach is to always make sure there could be a different combination every week. (It’s) no different this week. It could be a different combination of guys, so it really wasn’t one particular person. Again, I’m going through the phases in my head. That will be kind of the case every week. Once we make the final decisions on who the actives are, then it’s my job to make sure obviously that we’re kind of plugging in the right holes. You guys know last week, we had some injuries in-game. It’s no different, when we have injuries like that in the game, all of the sudden some guys who maybe have not had a lot of reps in the past on special teams, all of a sudden have to jump forward. With the injuries last week in the game, that same situation came up.”
(You obviously have a full grasp of what New England does on special teams, playing them many times and watching tape; but does RB Brandon Bolden give you anything extra as far as intel?) – “It’s a really good question. Obviously we have Danny (Amendola) here and Brandon here. The Patriots, much like other teams, do a good job of changing things up in terms of calls and cadences and maybe tips and things like that. It’s hard to go wholesale on one particular thing. I have no greater respect for any organization than theirs and they do a great job. Coach (Bill) Belichick has a special teams background. Their special teams coach, Joe Judge, and I, we were both on the kickoff return committee together. I spent a lot of time with him as well and have a lot of respect for what they do. It’s really just one individual game, just this particular game and getting the game plan ready for this one. I’ve certainly picked Brandon’s brain about some players and maybe some things like that about personnel; but when you get into the scheme stuff, it’s very easy to change some different things. So, we’re not getting about wholesale and that stuff.”
(How would you describe RB Brandon Bolden’s personality and leadership style?) – “I would call it A-plus. I think I mentioned before that I kind of knew Brandon Bolden as the player, but getting to know Brandon Bolden the person, the leader, that kind of thing has been kind of neat for me. A really mature guy (with) really good football IQ. He’s been really good, to be honest with you, with some of our younger players. We have a lot of younger guys playing on special teams. He’s been in a role in New England in the six years he was there where he had to work with some younger players and be a mentor. He’s kind of been doing that. That’s been really cool to watch in the few weeks he’s been here is watching some of the younger players kind of gravitate towards him, knowing that he has a really good background in special teams. (He’s) a guy that right away kind of earned the players’ trust and the coaches’ trust when he got here just by his work ethic, his preparation. You watch this guy walk around the building, you watch him in meetings, things like that. He has a really good professional mentality, if you will. He prepares like a pro and he’s a really good role model to have around, not only on the field because I think he does a great job between the lines, but watching the guy and watching what he does outside the lines has been really good for our younger guys as well.”
(You’ve had two field goal attempts and made them both, but not a ton of opportunities with K Jason Sanders.) – “It’s just the way the games play out. There’s going to be three-game stretches where you have maybe 10 and three-game stretches where you have two. That’s cyclical. You look around the league and there’s a lot of those situations. There was one time we decided to go for it on fourth down down there. It was more of a game plan decision. There was a couple times where we were on the fringe of a short punt, long field goal. He just really hasn’t had the opportunities; but he obviously has to stay ready because again, we could have a three-game stretch where all of a sudden he’s called on a lot”
(Do you have a sense of K Jason Sanders’ range?) – “He has a long range. Leg strength is certainly not his issue. You guys saw in the preseason, he had a couple attempts in the 50s. We’ve stretched him out before. I’ve seen him make really long field goals. Again, it’s really situational – where we are in the game, score, all of the field position things. The one thing you always worry about on really long field goals is if you miss it, obviously your opponent gets the ball at that spot. But I’m certainly not worried about his strength. His leg strength is very good.”
(It seems like P Matt Haack has had a really strong first three games. Do you see anything different in him?) – “The only thing I’ve seen with Matt, I think a lot of times, everybody overuses the analogy about Year 1 to Year 2 with players and that big jump the players make. I really think in this instance, for a specialist, there really is a correlation there because you learn a lot on the run. You’re going through it for the first time last year and everything is brand new. Now, you get to kind of press the reset button a little bit and go back, watch last year’s film, say ‘what didn’t I do well, what could I do better?’ All of those kinds of things. I think Matt’s a really intelligent guy, so not only does the talent come into it, but I think he’s gotten better at our situational punting. I think the directional stuff, the situational stuff, obviously he has a decent amount of punts inside the 20, which has helped our field position. So, I think after going through it after a year, especially for a guy like him and his football IQ and kind of his mentality, getting the second go at it has really helped him. It’s not a surprise to me, because as I’ve said before, I think he’s still really just getting started. I really think this guy has a brilliant career ahead of him. He has a really good mindset, really good temperament, a really good work ethic and the talent is there, so that’s a pretty good combination.”
(What do you see with LB Martrell Spaight?) – “Just getting to know him a little bit. Obviously, I had a chance to watch him on film a little bit and got a chance to talk to their special teams coach a little bit in Washington, a guy that I know well. I was just trying to get a feel for what he’s … I have an idea of what he’s played positionally. Just getting to know the guy a little bit, I’ve really liked what he’s done the last couple of days just in terms of jumping right in and catching up. I told him yesterday when he came out to practice ‘This is a baptism by fire.’ So we’re kind of learning on the run as we go. As a special teams coach, it’s just one of our deals. You have to get guys ready to play. We’re going through and getting him as much work as we can here and kind of getting caught up on all the mental stuff, but so far so good. We’ll see how the rest of the week plays out with him.”
(You’ve been a part of so many different regimes here, so many different Dolphins teams, but nobody has had success since 2008 in Foxborough. What is it that makes playing up there so challenging and so difficult?) – “That’s a really good question. Obviously, it’s a tough road environment. They’ve obviously had a lot of success at home. I think a lot of the reasons are you look at statistically what they do. They don’t turn the ball over a lot as a team altogether, but they don’t turn the ball over a lot at home. They do a really good job of situational football there. You take the crowd and all of that stuff, the weather – there’s a lot of factors. But more importantly, they’re as good of a situational football team as any in the league in terms of winning the situations and not self-destructing, or we call it unforced errors, if you will. That’s one of the things they do really well. I’ve been part of teams here where we’ve gone up there, as you guys know, and we’ve jumped on them early and gotten early leads and somehow, someway, they came back. By the same token, I’ve been on teams that have gone up there and dug a hole early and we’ve battled back. So, we’ve had a little bit of everything up there, kind of a mixed bag. I do think the beginning of the game there is important. They have a knack of jumping on teams early there and kind of getting the snowball rolling downhill, if you will. I think it’s importantly for us every week to do that, but certainly on the road. When you get on the road, your start to the game is going to be very important. I think that will be the case this week.”
(Who, so far, this season has stood out on special teams in areas that don’t show up on the stat sheet?) – “There’s a lot of those. I like talking about this, this is kind of my avenue right here. Special teams is obviously sometimes not the focal point of the game. There’s been a lot of little things that guys have done a good job. Walt Aikens has really played a significant role on our punt, not only with Matt Haack punting the ball but covering the ball. The last couple of weeks, Cornell Armstrong has done a really good job for us in terms of coverage, a guy that may not be a household name but certainly a guy that is kind of an ascending player. Guys like (Senorise) Perry and (Brandon) Bolden, those kind of guys have been really solid for us in the game. Stephone Anthony is a guy that last week really played a very solid game all the way around. (It was) probably his best game on special teams since he’s been here. So, little things like that. There’s been some younger players that have been thrust into some roles because of where we are in terms of the roster, and some of those young guys have been a little bit hot and cold. For the most part, we’ve been pretty consistent, and that’s what we have to continue to be, to play a team like we’re playing this week. As I’ve said to our guys many times, you have to be really on top of your stuff. They do a really good job of film study, kind of know what you put out there and that’s going to be important for us this week.”
(Do you call them a flyer or a gunner?) – “Gunners. When we’re punting the ball, we call them gunners. Some people call them flyers. It’s just special teams lingo. Some people call it a split end and some people call it an X receiver, some people call it a flanker. On punt team, we call the wide guys gunners and then the guys that are blocking them jammers.”
(How difficult is it for S Walt Aikens in particular to take on two jammers and consistently win?) – “It’s a very unique technique. We call that a vice technique when two jammers go out and block one gunner, which you see a lot in this league. Sometimes you see that on one side and not the other, but obviously Walt has been really productive, so he draws a lot of attention. A lot of times, he’ll get the vice in particular.”
(So you call that a vice?) – “We call that a vice. When there’s two players, two DBs usually, go out and play on the jammer, we call that a vice technique. If there’s one guy and one guy shows up late, we call that a crunch technique; but essentially it’s a two-on-one, whether you’re on the line of scrimmage or whether one is on the line and one is off the line. That’s a technique we spend an awful amount of time on. You go back to OTAs, it’s one of the things we start working on right away because it’s a very difficult task. There’s a lot of little nuances that go into that, a lot of fundamentals and techniques. Knowing how to use the sideline, knowing when you can use the sideline, your re-entry onto the field. You see a lot of penalty flags thrown. Sometimes a guy goes out of bounds and doesn’t re-enter the right way and stays in the paint, so to speak. Knowing when to release inside, outside, hand placement, leverage – there’s a lot of little things that we spend a crazy amount of time on, because two good jammers can take away a gunner in a heartbeat. We want everybody, whether they get two-on-one or one-on-one, obviously to be down by the ball. Walt (Aikens) is a guy that’s gotten better and better. He’s a physically strong guy and he can run, but that technique sometimes – it doesn’t matter how strong you are. If you get two-on-one, if you’re not technique-savvy, you’re going to lose that battle. So, that’s something that we spend a lot of time on. I could clinic for a long time on that. Just little things, your flat release, your hand placement, your speed, your angle, all of those things. Your re-enter, your finish, your pad level – a bunch of terms that we use. So, it’s a really unique technique and Walt has really improved as we’ve gone on. He’s worked with some of our younger guys – Torry (McTyer), Cornell (Armstrong), ‘Mo’ (Maurice) Smith – some of these younger guys that go out there and try and speed them up along as well.”
