Matt Burke – November 8, 2018
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Thursday, November 8, 2018
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(It seems hard to be in your job this week facing the Green Bay Packers and QB Aaron Rodgers.) – “It’s a fun challenge for us. He’s obviously one of the great players in the league – great quarterbacks in the league. It’s going to be a challenge. It’ll be fun.”
(How do you explain what your vision was for S Minkah Fitzpatrick and then what the execution was last week?) – “Obviously with Minkah, we’re excited about him as a player and his talent and what he brings to the table. We’re just trying to find different ways to get him on the field in different spots and utilize his skillset. Every time we’ve done that and put him in a spot to perform, he’s performed well. That was the vision: just keep finding ways to get him some different playing time and utilize … One of the reasons, even going back to the draft and why we brought him in, was his versatility in terms of what he brings to the table from that point of view. We’re just trying to find ways to utilize those different skills that he has.”
(Were you really thinking cornerback back then for S Minkah Fitzpatrick? I know you guys made that move in August but when you drafted him, were you thinking if you had to, if things went wrong, we could play this guy at corner?) – “You have all sorts of scenarios. I don’t think we ruled anything out with Minkah. Every time we ask him to do something, he shows that he can do it. Obviously earlier in his college career, he had some of that experience on the outside part of the field. Kind of all bets are open with him and again, the more we keep giving him, the more he keeps responding. Play to play, game to game, series to series, we’re just trying to find different ways to utilize him in the best way possible and find a chance to get him in a matchup that we like or in a spot that we like or in a call that we like or whatever it is. I wouldn’t say it was like, in the draft, ‘This is a guy that’s going to play corner for us or be this for us,’ but that was obviously one of the biggest things in terms of going through that process with Minkah was saying this guy is real versatile and has a lot of different abilities that we can try to take advantage of. I feel like we’ve all talked in here before about the way the league is going and the passing game is going and the type of athletes you need on the field and those sort of things, so that’s a valuable weapon for us to have.”
(Your relationship with S Reshad Jones is what and did you need to rehabilitate that relationship this week?) – “No, I don’t think so. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been in here a bunch and probably spent too much time going through all of this. We’ve had a lot of conversations – the whole defense, myself, Reshad and myself, Adam and myself. I think we’re all on the same page. We have a big challenge ahead of us this week, so we’re really trying to move forward. That’s been addressed with the team, with Adam, with myself and the defense, and I think everyone is on the same page moving forward. We’re going to try to go win a ballgame in Green Bay on Sunday.”
(Everybody is saying that you’re all on the same page now so the question is what wasn’t on the same page?) – “Obviously there was some sort of disconnect. I can’t really get to the details or specifics of how that came about. I think any time anything happens, the important thing for us is trying to move forward as a team. We’re in the middle of … This is hard. We’re in the middle of a tough stretch of games we need to win. There’s been a lot of conversations at all levels the last four days or whatever it’s been. I think the important thing for us is it’s been a very transparent process, I think, on all sides and where we’re at. I think we’re just trying to put it behind us and move forward.”
(Are you comfortable with the answer you got from S Reshad Jones as to why he took himself out of the game?) – “I’m comfortable with everything. I’m comfortable with where we’re at right now. I’m comfortable standing in front of you guys saying that we’ve gone through a process as an organization to address anything that we felt we needed to address and we feel like it’s been addressed. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of stuff to get ready for on Sunday. I’ve wasted too much energy on a lot of stuff already so my energy is going to be on getting ready for Green Bay.”
(What went into the strategy and the decision to implement a secondary rotation?) – “Again, I think we talked about after the Houston game (that we) obviously weren’t playing at the level that we want to be playing at and competing at. Adam (Gase) and I spent a lot of time together that weekend going through a lot of things. So as a coaching staff, we just felt there were different opportunities. I don’t want to say it’s a burden but we have a lot of good players back there. We have a lot of, we feel like, good players that we want to get on the field in different spots. We felt it wasn’t obviously working to just stick with one thing and do whatever we were doing in those two weeks prior. As an organization, as a coaching staff, we said this is one thing that may help some things. We made a lot of other changes that maybe weren’t as obvious from some schematic stuff and some little things that we were tweaking and working with. That was part of that process that we went through – through the half-off week – and through things we addressed, we said this is something that we’re going to try to use to get some players on the field and do some different things moving forward to not play like we played in the Detroit and Houston games.”
(S Reshad Jones has been a leader on this team, at least that’s our perception. Does his standing on this team change coming out of this?) – “I think he’s … Again, it’s been addressed with the defense. We try to be as transparent and as honest as possible. I know he’s had conversations with his teammates and how he’s going to move forward with things. I don’t see an issue with that.”
(Would the preference be to be able to determine at some point in the next few weeks which of the many roles you have S Minkah Fitzpatrick doing now is best for him or are you perfectly happy and think it’s good to move forward with using him in many different spots as you did last week?) – “I think every week there’s different challenges. There’s different players you’re trying to combat, there’s different schemes you’re trying to deal with. I don’t know that every week we would look at something and say it’s good to move him around so much this week. I think that’s just something we come into as we game plan for a week not just with him, (but) with all of our players. ‘This week, this is what we’re facing. These are the issues, the players, the scheme that we’re trying to attack, so how can we line these guys up in the best form possible to win a ball game this week?’ An advantage of having a player like Minkah is that he’s able to do that and slide between positions. Look, I know this is all getting brushed under the rug but there were a lot of players on Sunday that played multiple positions and that moved around. Bobby (McCain) played inside and outside. We had a rookie corner (Cornell Armstrong) get work for the first time all year. We had two d-tackles that we signed on whatever day – Tuesday or Wednesday – that played for us (and) played a lot of snaps for us. There were a lot of guys that did those types of things as well. I know Minkah obviously is a first-round draft pick and gets the spotlight, but there were a lot of guys that moved some spots and did some different things and new players that stepped up for us on Sunday also. That’s kind of where we’re at. Every week we’re going to try to find … ‘These are the guys that are available to us this week’ and where can we line those guys up to best win a ball game?”
(Do you feel like as a defense that your best ball is still ahead of you?) – “Yeah, I hope so. Hope is not a strategy but you hope the trend from last week is more where we’re heading than the weeks prior. If we execute the way we executed against Houston, then no. It won’t look like it did last week. If we execute and perform the way we performed last week then we’ll have a chance to hopefully put a decent showing together. Yeah, you’d like to think (your best ball is ahead of you). It’s whatever the quote is. ‘Once you think you’ve got it figured out, you’re screwed.’ We’re not approaching this week any different. The first thing I told the guys on Wednesday when we came in was … Last week we came in on Wednesday obviously coming off the two bad games and said ‘Look, all I know is we have to go back to work. Here’s some things we’re going to do. Here’s some solutions. Here’s what we’re trying to do.’ And we just went back to work. We went back to fundamentals, back to technique work and got back to kind of our roots. I think some of that showed on Sunday. So when I came back in yesterday, it was the same thing. Just because now we think we’re coming off a great win, we have to go back and do … The reason we got to Sunday is because of what we did Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and going into that. So we had to take the same approach yesterday and the same approach today, and hopefully that gives us the best chance to have a similar showing on Sunday.”
(You gave us a chuckle last week when you said ‘at some point you just have to learn some bleep.’) – “Yeah. I try not to curse as much anymore. (laughter)”
(Did they learn some bleep over the last week, do you think? Was that a factor?) – “I think it comes down to execution. My perspective … I think the term ‘something’s broken, we fixed it.’ I think that’s the wrong lens to look things through. I think as a defense we focused better, we executed better and the results showed. We had not many mental errors, we had not many missed tackles, we didn’t have some of those things. We had no pre-snap penalties, no post-snap penalties. We had those back-to-back face masks that were kind of a couple of freaky deals there. So some of those things … The errors, the error in our game were kind of cut out. I don’t know if that’s learning some (expletive) or if that’s just … And we tried to as a staff. Our job is to say, ‘What do we think these guys can do? What do we think we can put on these guys’ plates? How much, what schemes, physically, what we are asking these guys to do that they can or can’t?’ Maybe we found some things that we feel that these guys can execute better. We’re going to keep working to do that every week and find answers to put those guys in the position to make some plays.”
(We all have ego, we all have pride, we all have emotions as human beings – coaches, players, and journalists. What have you found to be the way you try to approach not just drawing up football plays but managing personalities, emotions, all of that stuff?) – “Honestly, I don’t know how you guys feel about me so we don’t have to get into that part of it, but I try to be as transparent as possible with you. I consider myself a pretty honest person, pretty genuine. That’s how I try to approach things with the players. At the end of the day, this is 15 years in the league for me. To me, I’ve always found guys just want to know you care about them, know you’re invested into what’s important to them, know you’re invested into the team. I try to make that clear with my actions and my words. I try to spend time with almost everybody on the defense. It was hard coming from a linebacker job when you’re obviously focused on a smaller group. I’m conscious to try to make sure I get around with all the groups and spend time with everybody and make sure I try to have conversations about what I think is in their best interests. At the end of the day, we’re all on the same page. We all want to win ball games. Everybody does. You guys do too. It’s probably easier to cover a team that’s winning ball games. At the end of the day, if they think your interests are trying to help them be a good player and be the best player they can be and help win ballgames and all of the focus is on that, then those egos tend to move to the side pretty quickly. If everyone’s focus and attention is on let’s get better and go win … That’s where I approach things from.”
(How has this week been for you emotionally? You had a really good week but this S Reshad Jones thing is taking center stage.) – “Yeah. Well, you guys know I don’t read anything you write. No offense. (laughter) I don’t have the energy. I’m spending too much energy doing other stuff. Honestly, the thing I was most disappointed about with all of it was that it took the focus off a great effort by all of those guys that played. That was a great … Just from an effort and energy standpoint. Don’t tell Adam (Gase) this … (laughter) But every possession was critical. It was a tight game the whole way. It felt like every possession that we were out there was critical. It was a 3-point game, a 3-point game, we’re going back out there and just the energy and emotion with those guys, it was cool, especially coming off a disappointing performance the week before. The emotional part for me was that I felt bad it took away from the highlight of some of those guys on what we accomplished on Sunday. Again, that’s the 24-hour rule. It’s the next day and we have to move on. This is not an easy offense we’re about to go face. I don’t have the time to be emotional about worrying about all of this other stuff. We have conversations we have to have conversations about, but I’ve moved on. We’ve moved on. Monday afternoon I’m looking at Green Bay getting ready to figure out how we’re going to contain this offense. It’s an emotional game and there are emotions involved in everything we do. In a sense, my job is easy because I have to focus on putting a plan together to go beat the Packers. That’s where I put my energy to try to win this next ball game.”
(True or False: last week all the players in your secondary knew there was to be a rotation system on game day?) – “I’m not going to get into the details of how everything went about. I think things were clear in terms of what our approach would be on Sunday.”
(So true?) – “That’s my answer.”
(Why would S Reshad Jones be upset about it if he knows. That’s what’s confusing to us.) – “I can’t answer questions for Reshad or for anybody else. I can tell you again, we’ve addressed what happened and I’ve had multiple conversations with Adam (Gase) and everybody else in the building about it. We’ve come to a point as an organization, as a team, that we’re settled where we’re at and again, we’re trying to put that behind us and move forward to the next game.”
(If you choose to do what you were going to do last week, which is not play S Reshad Jones on certain snaps, are you fully confident he will accept that and go back into the game on Sunday when called upon?) – “Yes.”
