Josh Boyer – December 8, 2022
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(LB Melvin Ingram is obviously recording some sacks, which was good to see. At this stage of his career, how would you identify this strengths?) – “I think one, he’s played a lot of football, so he has a lot of experience. And I think, I would say just over the course of my career, and probably everybody’s, I think your goal is, when you come into it, even if a guy’s had success in the league, you try to get the best season out of them possible. I can always reference 2014. I’m coaching a Hall of Fame corner in Darrelle Revis and your goal is to make sure that he has the best season possible. And I think it’s the same thing with Melvin. Obviously, we were very excited when we got him. And there’s going to be things that he does and knows and understands that, really, you don’t coach. But what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to help him, trying to put him in the best position to succeed. And he’s been a great teammate. He’s been a true professional. And he’s been productive for us when we’ve had him in there. We’re looking for that to continue and for it to continue to improve.”
(What do you think of the prospects of him, LB Bradley Chubb, and LB Jaelan Phillips as a trio becoming a game-changing type of unit together?) – “Yeah, I mean, I think anytime that we design something, obviously when we get those guys out there in a situation, it’s usually an obvious pass situation, or predominantly pass situation. And then again, all those guys in different ways affect the quarterback. And I think the more they play together, the more they work off of each other, and then obviously as a staff, we’re getting better at figuring out what they do well together, and try to put them in position to succeed.”
(What are you seeing out of QB Justin Herbert on tape and how does it compare to the first go round against him?) – “The first time that we played him, he was throwing the ball quite a bit before we saw him, and I think they took a little bit more conservative approach, I would say. These guys are throwing the ball quite a bit. He’s definitely getting the ball down the field. He has an extremely strong arm. I mean, he really can put the ball with pretty good accuracy on the receivers at all three levels. He makes quick decisions. (Austin) Ekeler is a phenomenal player. He’s probably, in my opinion, a guy that doesn’t get talked about enough. Obviously he’s up there in the league stats as far as yards after catch. They targeted him a lot in the pass game. They use him a lot in the run game. He’s got great contact balance. He does a phenomenal job. He’s going to fight for yards and he’s elusive in space. So we’re going to have our hands full. And back to Herbert, he does a good job with their guys down the field. And if there’s space with Ekeler, that becomes a problem too. So we’re going to have our hands full defending all short, intermediate and deep parts of the field this week.”
(You mentioned RB Austin Ekeler. What are some of the things you’re looking at specifically with linebackers in coverage and…) – “I think part of it is sometimes you got to credit the opponents. They make plays. And I’d say the thing from looking from the tape of last week, obviously our guys played with great physicality, great effort, and you really got to credit San Francisco. They made more plays than we did. And then obviously, there’s things that you look at that you can coach and you can drill and you can technique a little bit better and put guys maybe in more situations when those things come up. We feel very good about our coverage situation at the linebacker position. I think it’s a continuation of trying to improve week in and week out and we haven’t had – I would say we’re going on a stretch run here where we’re going to have to cover the backs quite a bit, and we’ve probably had a stretch run where that wasn’t as big of a deal. We’ll get tested on that for sure. We feel very confident in the guys that we have doing that, and as coaches, we’re going to drill and technique the best we can to put them in position to succeed.”
(You’ve bene doing a lot of different things with the safeties as it relates to S Verone McKinley and S Jevon Holland. Is the chemistry from college allowing them to do a lot of the things they are doing in the secondary?) – “And I would say their friendship probably starts more off the field. Those guys are extremely tight. Both of them are extremely intelligent. Both of them are extremely hard, diligent workers, and they put in a lot of time and effort. They’ve got an opportunity to play together a little bit more than obviously we had in the early part of the season. I think both guys are progressing. And again, even though we’re here in December in the season, our goal is to try to not so much result based, but make sure that we’re improving steadily. And there’s things that we can build on that are good that we’re doing. And there’s things that we may need to put a little bit more time and effort and work into to make sure that we’re where we want to be going down the stretch.”
(The pass rush, what are the things you look for in terms of determining whether you were successful or not? Is it stats that you value, some over others or just generally?) – “I think the stats – I mean, you can make the stats whatever you want to make the stats. I think the thing is, one collectively as a group, are we getting done what we need to get done? Are we forcing the quarterback and the o-line, are we putting pressure on them? I think that’s what we look at. And then are we getting production from it, whether it’d be downfield production or sack production, tip balls? I mean, there’s numerous things that you kind of look at. I would say week to week it’s different based on who you’re trying to get where and what you’re trying to attack. So I think that that’s a real all-encompassing thing. I think the thing is, again, it goes back to regardless of what you’re talking about, the things that you’re doing well, you try to build upon and the things that you think you can do better, either you eliminate those things or you technique or drill them a different way.”
(What else do you see out of QB Justin Herbert in terms of how difficult he is to bring down? I think LB Jaelan Phillips made a reference yesterday to how he’s about as big as he is.) – “He’s obviously a big guy. He’s got a strong arm. He can feel and see the pocket when rush lanes aren’t what they need to be. And sometimes he’ll scramble to run. He’s doing, I would say, he’s taking less hits when he runs. He’s getting down when somebody gets in the area. But he’s very good at reading. Like, if you’re rush lanes are egregious, he’s going to make you pay on them, for sure.”
(You mentioned their ability to make deep, short, intermediate passes. If theoretically defensively as a play unfolds, the window shrinks, but because of his arm strength, because of the damage RB Austin Ekeler can do, does that keep that window open? How do you approach that? How do you coach your guys to be disciplined enough to slow that down?) – “I think you have to you have to tie it into rush and coverage from the pass game perspective. And then when you’re in man coverage, then obviously you condense that space and you just have to win your one-on-one matchups. When you’re in zone coverage, what you need to do is you really need to break – again, get the quarterback to throw the ball on time and you got to get everybody – okay, when his back foot sets, and his hand comes off the ball, then our feet got to be set. We got to break on the ball and we got to get everybody to the ball.”
