Matt Burke – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(With the run defense we know you said that you won’t know until the games are real and live but how much and where do you think you’ve made the most improvement from the run stopping standpoint?) – “I mean first of all, you guys haven’t let any one forget about it, so the awareness level is pretty high. We’ve been emphasizing it. I think our techniques up front have gotten better (with) another year in the system and those guys working those things. I just think it’s another year of every one progressing and understanding what we’re actually looking for in their spots again, especially in the front seven, so I feel pretty good.”
(With this defense do you see yourself being a blitzing – I know you don’t want to tip your hand – but do you see yourself being an aggressive style defense?) – “I think we’re … I think the way we play our front is aggressive anyways, naturally, even when we’re not pressuring. The thing I like about where we’re at right now is I think we’re actually a pretty multiple scheme, where week-to-week we can pressure if we need to, and we have the build-ins that we can work off some stuff and if it’s a week that we don’t want to do that, we have that capability too. I feel like that’s where we’ve kind of moved forward where we’ve just got … We’re getting more multiple in what we do and it’s going to be a weekly thing of ‘this week it’s more of a pressure type situation and next week maybe it’s not and we’ve got to play more coverage and just play with our front.’ So I feel pretty good about our pressure package. We’ve got some new pieces. Having ‘20’ (Reshad Jones) back and (Lawrence) Timmons, in terms of guys that can blitz and be effective pressure guys. We have some new weapons – some new tools – that we can use there, so I feel good. Kind of both. This league is so different week to week. It’s hard to say we’re going to always do one thing or the other. We have to adapt a little bit to what we’re seeing.”
(On a personal level, this is your first NFL game as a defensive coordinator.) – “Yes. It took long enough, right? (Laughter).”
(What are your thoughts on that?) – “Oh, I’m excited. I mean, I’m excited. I really am. Probably for me, the hardest thing last week was just that. We were building and building and building and the anticipation of playing, regardless of the whole 16 weeks in row and all that stuff, for me it was not getting to have that game. I was pretty amped up and the week, the process of the week is such that it kind of builds like that throughout. We were getting – the way we had prepared last week – we were getting right to that, so the end of our prep week. So I’m just excited. I’m ready to get out there and just go have some fun.”
(Are you a booth guy or a sideline guy?) – “I’ll be down on the sideline. I’ve been both places in my career. Sort of the generic thing is from up top, you know you can see better obviously, in terms of some of the pictures of what you’re getting. Down on the field, I thought it was important for me to have a connection with the players. Even just making a correction, sometimes you’re upstairs and you’re on a phone and you’re trying to say ‘Hey, make sure you do this or this,’ and they’re going ‘Yes, yes, yes coach,’ and they hang up and you’re like, ‘I don’t know if he got that or not.’ Whereas (when I’m on the field) I can grab a guy and look him in the eye and say ‘Hey man, this is what we’re doing,’ and I can get a better feel for that and kind of get a pulse of the sideline, the team. So I want to be down with that. (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) felt the same way. I’ve been up. I’ve done both. I’m about split in my career in terms of where I’ve been, up top or down below. We have good guys upstairs that will help and we’ll be alright.”
(Do you worry about doing maybe too much like getting with those guys on a one-on-one basis as opposed to the bigger picture?) – “No, no, no. I mean the corrections are player to player. There may be a series comes out and we only have to make one correction or something. Again, no one’s doing this on their own. I trust our assistants and those guys are good. What we do is when the series ends, we come off the field and we all go through the pictures together and talk it out. So I’ll say, ‘Hey man, with play one, we’ve got to change this. We’re good, we’re good, we’re good. On play five…’ and then let those guys go coach, and then I’ll go around and make sure that the adjustments I want to make are what we’re getting. It’s been a pretty smooth process through the preseason so far, so I feel comfortable with that.”
(What makes LB Mike Hull ready to be an NFL starter?) – “He started last year for us. He’s already been an NFL starter.”
(One game. There’s a difference. One game.) – “There is. I mean Mike Hull is the guy there everybody always wants to count out. Everyone looks at him and thinks he’s too small or too this or too that. Every time we’ve had to play him, whether it’s in game situations, practice – he’s already ready. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a great instinctive football player. He’s always around the ball. I mean I have the upmost confidence in Mike Hull playing football for us.”
(Does LB Mike Hull have the girth to basically anchor the inside of that defense especially against aggressive guards?) – “Yes. I mean if you have guards that are climbing up on Mike Hull too fast, then it means they’re leaving (Ndamukong) Suh and Jordan (Phillips) and ‘D.G.’ (Davon Godchaux) one-on-one. So our front is tied in together like that. Everybody said the same thing about Kiko (Alonso) last year, playing inside there. It’s a symbiotic relationship with our front – with our d-line and our linebackers. If they’re worried about sending guards up to Mike Hull, then they have to deal with our tackles, who we think our pretty talented. So I have no concerns about Mike Hull holding up. He is honestly probably one of our better technique players at batting hands and stuff because he probably has to be, because he’s giving up a little bit in length. So he has to be technically sound. So he’s probably one of our best people at punching off linemen, to be honest with you. I honestly have no concerns about playing Mike.”
(Is LB Rey Maualuga out or likely out for this week?) – “He’s still working through his things. Me and (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) will sit down as we progress. I don’t know. He obviously wasn’t out on the field yesterday. He’s working through his injuries and when we determine he’s ready to go, he’ll go. I’ll have a plan for either way.”
(There’s a couple of position battles – defensive tackle and corner. Any kind of clarity on those yet?) – “For me or for you? (laughter).”
(Yes.) – “Again, we’re working through … We’re going to play the best guys for that week for those matchups. Tackle particularly, I mean they’re all going to play. We wave guys in there. We want to keep guys fresh. We feel good about the progress that Jordan (Phillips) and (Davon) Godchaux have made. I mean those guys are all going to play up front and like I said, we’ll just work our matchups in situations that we feel good about where we’re playing those guys. I have some clarity.”
(That was an artful dodge.) – “Thank you.”
(How is being out here affecting your preparation?) – “I mean it really hasn’t, in terms of, once we got here, it’s been a normal week. Literally we got out here, I got out here late Sunday night. Really, we just got into it. It kind of played out where then Monday was a Monday for us. We treated it like such and Tuesday, the same thing. Preparation actually has been pretty normalized once we all got out here. If you really want a little side note anecdote, my first NFL game I ever coached in was in 2004 when the game got moved to Saturday down in Miami. We got the call, I think it was either Thursday night or Friday morning or something that we were coming down. So the first game I ever coached – regular season game I ever coached in – in 2004, I was with the Titans and we got moved to a Saturday game. So we scrambled. We got on a plane Friday night, I think. Shot down a day short, came down and won, and then got on the plane back. So it’s kind of a little closed circle for me in my first coordinator game moved for a hurricane too.”
(That seems like it would be a much more difficult set of circumstances to adapt to.) – “Yes. Like I said, I mean honestly for me, last week it was … Personally, it was a little more of the emotional, like building that readiness to get going for Sunday. Opening week’s kind of a special day. You know it is. Everyone around the league is playing and it kind of has that … it carries that weight. So that for me was really the hard part. Preparation-wise, it’s been a really smooth process. Being out here, I mean you guys see everything that’s been set up. Our operations guys and everybody did a great job getting this place like home away from home. I feel good about our prep week and we’re ready to go.”
(How would you assess DE Charles Harris’ readiness?) – “He’s ready.”
(DE Charles Harris is ready in all facets?) – “Yes. He’s been good. Honestly, it was cool to see his transition. I think he was building, building, building and I felt like he hit a little bit of lull, like right in the middle of preseason. Maybe this rest has helped him a little bit. Even that last week, like after Philly going into Minnesota, it’s Week 4 preseason, and I just saw his speed back and where his … the way he was running and moving and chasing and it showed out here again yesterday. So I feel really good. I feel like he’s back to moving the way we want to see him moving, for sure. I’m excited to see him play.”
(Speaking of what you were talking about. You got built up, built up, built up last week as your first time as a coordinator. Do you need to build that up again?) – “No. I have no problem getting amped for games, trust me. No problem. I’ll be screaming and spitting and doing whatever I do out there.”
(Do you have a routine?) – “Do I have a routine?”
(Do you have a routine getting ready for the week?) – “No. I mean we’re busy going through all our prep right now, obviously as it is. It’ll probably be a little different for me on Saturday night in the hotel, just going through sort of my thought process last minute. But other than that I’m good. I’m excited.”
