Josh Boyer – September 29, 2020
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Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(Just wanted to ask you – I’m doing something on S Bobby McCain. What more can you get out of him and out of that position this year? He’s going to start his 12th game at safety. What do you expect out of that position in this defense?) – “We ask Bobby (McCain) to do a number of different things. I would say one, his leadership that he brings to the defense. I would say he’s a good communicator. He’s able to, I would say, pre-snap make sure that we’re aligned correctly, and I would say his reads and breaks based on what we ask him to do in the deep part of the field I think have been good. He had a big pass breakup for us a week ago. Bobby’s been playing really good football and like everybody, we’re hoping that we continue to improve. Really, the month of September in the NFL is really for improvement, and all of us are working hard to do that.”
(So last week obviously the result was different on the surface. Take us below the surface. What was different that made that defense look better and play better?) – “I think it starts with a team win. I think all three phases, we were able to play complementary football. We had good field position. We were able to win the time of possession, so the offense was moving the ball. They were scoring. We were able to get off the field and get some stops, get some turnovers. So it was a good team win. I thought the players played hard, so obviously the results were a little bit better for us.”
(Looking ahead to this weekend, what type of challenge does Seahawks QB Russell Wilson present and just what’s the kind of message to the defensive unit throughout this week?) – “I would say he presents an immense challenge, and he seems to be getting better each year, which is hard to do because he’s played at a high level for a long time. He’s very good at reading defenses. He’s very good at making all the throws. He’s very good at extending plays and making things happen that way, whether he runs or throws. It’s a huge challenge and he’s got a good cast around him. He’s got a solid o-line. He’s got a good group of skill players – the receivers, the tight ends, his backs – and then I think Coach Schottenheimer (Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) does a good job of mixing his play calls, and he can definitely dial up some calls against certain fronts, certain coverages that I think it’s all rolling for them, which obviously they’ve produced a lot of points in these first three weeks of the season.”
(I wanted to ask you about your linebackers. Obviously LB Jerome Baker and LB Kyle Van Noy are getting a ton of snaps. I don’t know if you consider DE Shaq Lawson a linebacker or a defensive end as an edge defender; but after those three you played a pretty good rotation of LB Elandon Roberts, LB Kamu Grugier-Hill and LB Andrew Van Ginkel. Based on what you’ve seen in film, could you just kind of give us your mindset of who does what well, how you decide a rotation with those three guys and are some stronger against the run than pass?) – “I think it starts with one, what do they do well individually? Two, what are we trying to structurally do from week to week? And then I think the play time, obviously if a guy’s making the most of his opportunities and we feel like it’s a good position to put him in, those will continue. If we feel like it’s a certain set or a certain situation that maybe somebody else is better, then that’s what we go with on that. I think all of those guys have had an important role for us. All of them will continue to have a role for us and again, like we’re asking of everybody, is to keep improving and we need to get better.”
(As a play-caller – it must having Patriots QB Cam Newton and Bills QB Josh Allen then Seahawks QB Russell Wilson in your first month – that must suck. How are you kind of preparing for this? Did you look at the month of September in your schedule and were like, ‘man, I have a really tough schedule coming up?’ Did you try to piece it all together like having a plan before the month started of each guy or are you taking this week by week and how do you take this challenge as a play-caller this week?) – “I would say for me individually, it starts with the same thing that we ask our players to do. You just try to take the day that’s at hand and try to get the most work and improvement that I can in that day. Obviously we look at the schedule. Obviously we go through teams in the offseason of what you think it could be, what it might be and again like I said, really, September is for improvement. I start with myself. I need to continue to get better. Our coaching staff – those guys are working hard to continue to get better. Our players – those guys are working hard. Different opponents, they bring up different challenges. I think it’s hard in this league to win on a week-to-week basis. So all those things you take into consideration, but I think it all starts with your work, your effort and your ability to improve over time because things don’t stay the same. They either get better or they get worse. So I think all of our effort and energy and time is at the day at hand. This week it happens to be Seattle, so that’s where our time and energy are spent. Then next week it’ll be somebody else.”
(I want to go back to a couple questions ago referring to LB Jerome Baker. He’s played well in 177 snaps this year – roughly 97 percent of the reps. He’s one of two guys that has over 90 percent of the snaps on the defense. I’m curious what is the common thread between those types of players that can play that much and what does Jerome do in your opinion to warrant that many reps?) – “I would say the first thing is he’s in good physical condition. So he’s able to take as many reps as we can give him, and he’s been productive for us. He works hard. He’s been all over the field. We ask him and he’s got the mental capacity that he can handle multiple roles, so that with the physical condition, we think we’re putting him in positions to succeed and he’s shown the ability to make plays. So that’s all a culmination of him being out there as much as he is.”
(What did you learn from those first couple of games as far as what went right and what went wrong in your ability to contain mobile quarterbacks? What did you learn from those games that you can apply to the challenge that Seahawks QB Russell Wilson presents?) – “I think you always go back and no matter what the game is, whether it’s the run game, mobile quarterback, pass game; you’re always evaluating what you’re doing. You’re evaluating your players and are we putting them in the right position. I think there’s definitely things that have come up that we’ve learned that some things that we can do and do well. And we’ll continue to roll doing those, and then there’s other things that haven’t worked out so great, and then obviously we’re going to try to stay away from those. But I think you’re always self-evaluating, always looking at things big picture of how you improve and how you get better. Instead of trying to beat your head against the wall and be like, ‘well this is the way it is and this is what it’s going to be,’ I think for us, we’re pretty fluid and we’ll be able to adapt week-to-week. I think again, like I said, a lot of it starts with me that I need to be better, and we’ll ask the players to be better. We’ll ask our coaches to be better and to continue to improve so that we put a pretty good product out there on the field on Sundays.”
(I wanted to ask you about CB Noah Igbinoghene. He seemed to tackle well on Thursday. He bounced back overall it seemed pretty well from a tough game the week before. What did you see from Igbinoghene in terms of bouncing back? The one play also if I can just ask, was that just a mental error when Jaguars WR Chris Conley got behind him? Did he think he safety help on that play?) – “Again, structurally there’s some things that happened and I’ll probably never talk about specific plays or we’re doing this or we’re doing that. I just – I think things sometimes can put you at a competitive disadvantage if you talk about scheme that way. But as far as Noah (Igbinoghene), he’s a mentally tough kid and we knew that when we drafted him. I would say I think the expectation was all of our guys – not just Noah, but everybody – all of our guys that (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) have brought in here are physically and mentally tough kids, and they’re going to be able to handle adversity and bounce back. That’s kind of the expectation and good, bad or indifferent, we don’t dwell a lot on the past. We’ll study from it. We don’t dwell a lot on it. We try to get better from it and then move forward because another game is coming. So that’s kind of how we approach it. Hopefully that answers your question there.”
(I wanted to know, because everybody talks about Head Coach Brian Flores and this coaching staff – if you perform well in practice you’ll play or they’ll find a role for you that week. What does performing well look like to you guys?) – “I would say first of all, it probably goes back to an assignment thing. You can handle your assignments, alignment, all that; and then actually the execution of practice which is something that I know – I’ll speak for myself personally – I believe practice execution becomes game reality. So if you’re able to execute in practice, we should be able to go out there and execute in the game. I know as coaches we try to make it as tough as we possibly can in practice, so it’s actually a little bit easier in the game from situation to situation. That’s the thought. That’s the process behind it. So if guys perform well and they make the most of their opportunities in practice and in the game, it leads to more opportunities.”
