Matt Burke – September 27, 2018
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Thursday, September 27, 2018
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(On Tuesday, you brought in a couple of established veteran ends who had more than 40 career sacks between them for a work out, but you go with DE Jonathan Woodard. What put Woodard over the edge among that group? What did he do in preseason and camp that impressed you guys?) – “I think obviously we picked him up late at the end of the year last year. Probably more from a physical standpoint, from a size standpoint, was why initially we brought him in. But we had him through the whole offseason and I thought he had a very successful preseason. I thought he had some production. I just think organizationally, we just felt his familiarity with the system … I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) just believes in that guys on the practice squad, they’re not just here to practice. They’re developmental players and they’re guys that we’re training in the system day to day to fill those roles for. I think at the end of the day, he’s worked hard to get to where he is and to earn his spot on the team through the preseason and through the whole offseason really. Personally, I didn’t have a ton of familiarity with him when we first signed him at the end of last season. I think since he’s been in the building, he’s done everything right. He’s worked hard. He’s a big body. He’s kind of slippery. He’s got a little knack for finding things. He had some production, like I said, in the preseason. I think he’s earned that opportunity to have a shot.”
(We’ve heard a lot going back to March about rotation and playing in waves on the defensive line. Will the rotation have to change now or do you still want to have an even distribution of snaps?) – “Both. The rotation changes week to week. There’s certain times you like better matchups or guys you want to play more or less. Sometimes the flow of the game dictates. This is obviously a week where you have to be careful substituting anyways with this offense. They’re going to try to catch you with too many guys on the field and some of those things they like to do. Even if we had the same number of people we had last week going into the game, we would have to change our substitution strategy this week because they make it difficult to do some things like that. We train all of our guys to play. That’s an ideal world, sort of the way we can do it, if we can get quick subs and to roll in groups; but if they get stuck out there, they’re going to have to play ball for us. Week to week, that strategy changes. Again, sometimes it’s about matchups and who we want to get a little bit maybe higher of a workload. Sometimes, like this week, it’s just a matter of we may not have a chance to do that. You can’t sub unless they sub, so we’ve got to be on top of that anyway. Guys may have to be in there for some extended drives and we’ll just try to get the best matchups for us when we can.”
(I know you’ve talked about DE Cameron Wake not looking 36 years old, but are there some concerns that his snaps might add up?) – “Nope.”
(What has been different about LB Kiko Alonso’s game that we’ve seen that pretty much explains why he’s second in the NFL in tackles right now?) – “Is he? I didn’t know that. Kiko has been playing well for us. I would say last year, there was probably … I’m not sure if he was as comfortable in a big picture thing. He was flopping some positions. The guys around him, he had some new faces. He was dealing with some residual injuries with the hand thing from the year before and those sorts of things. I feel like a lot of that stuff he’s kind of put behind him. He’s kind of had, at least with Raekwon (McMillan) in particular, they’ve been working together throughout the whole offseason as sort of a unit and with Chase (Allen) and ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) and some of those guys we’ve been working in. I think there’s just been that longer familiarity and comfort level with those guys and what they’re doing together as a unit. He’s probably a little bit healthier coming into it. I felt like he had a pretty good season our first year here (2016) as well. He obviously had a lot of production for us. I think he’s probably just getting back to those flying-around ways. He’s covered a lot of ground on the field. He’s going sideline to sideline and getting to the ball a lot and showing up. I think he’s probably just feeling healthier and feeling a little bit more comfortable with everything that’s going on around him.”
(Is there a strategy to getting the best out of LB Kiko Alonso?) – “(laughter) No, I don’t think so. I think he’s self-driven. Kiko, he’s sneaky … I don’t know how to word that. He’s stupid like a fox. When you talk to him, sometimes he seems goofy and aloof and you guys are around him and have spent some time around him, but he’s really smart and he’s really dedicated to preparing. When you walk by that linebacker room at all times of the day and night – off days – and he’s in there watching tape. He doesn’t really talk about it. He’s kind of a goofy personality to some extent but he’s a committed preparer. He probably watches more film than anybody on our defense, I would say. So I don’t think it’s anything about getting him to play his best. I think he’s committed to doing that. He takes pride in it. Like I said, I think for him it’s a level of comfort with the people around him and with his body and being physically healthy. I think he’s kind of in a flow right now, in a rhythm.”
(What did you know about LB Martrell Spaight before this week and what have you seen these past two days?) – “He’s similar to some of the guys we were bringing in. He’s a young veteran. He’s still a young-ish guy but he’s played some football in the league. He’s a physical … He brings a little physical presence to him. He had a lot of tackles the last couple of years when he got a chance to play. We liked that he had some experience in the league. We liked his physical play. He’s done it. He’s played special teams. He’s played linebacker. He’s played a couple spots and those sorts of things. When we brought him in for the workout, we just felt he was the best option. He’s been great. All of our reports of everybody we talked to from Washington and other places say, ‘(He’s a) great kid, great personality. (He’s) a team guy,’ and all of that stuff. He just stepped right in and done whatever we asked. We’re trying to get him caught up to speed as quickly as possible and he’s taken to that. He’s been a gym rat in the building the last couple of days trying to get everything right. Again, we like the level of experience, where he’s still kind of a younger player but has some playing experience in the league. And we like sort of his physical play.”
(We’ve seen S Minkah Fitzpatrick do so many things right. It’s almost surprising when he doesn’t. There were a couple of missed tackles on Sunday. How hard is he on himself when that happens and was it just a technique issue there or just a missed tackle because of physical reasons?) – “He’s probably not as hard on himself as I am on him. Some of it (is) he has to wrap up better. He’s trying to get … A couple of times he’s trying to cut tackle and just throw his shoulder in there and he can’t do that. Over the long haul, that’s going to lead to more missed tackles, so he was to correct that part of it in terms of his technique. He took one bad angle on one of them. I think with Minkah, we’re asking him to do a lot. Especially with Reshad (Jones) being down last week and trying to move him into some different spots, we’re putting a lot on his plate. I think – don’t print this and I won’t say this to him – but that’s sort of built into the fact that there’s going to be a mistake or two here or there because we’re doing a lot with him. We’re asking him to do a lot of things right now. He’s shown a pretty good capacity to handle that, but there’s going to be some (mistakes). He’s still a rookie and there’s some stuff that he hasn’t seen that, again, maybe he hasn’t repped because we’re moving him to different spots and things. I’m not going to tell him that I’m accepting of that, but there’s sort of an innate level of understanding that he’s going to make some mistakes. He’s another guy that is very correctable on the sideline. When something happens, it’s a one time ‘Hey, this is what we’re looking for in this’ or ‘Here’s what happened and here’s what you should do’ and it’s okay and we move on. He’s another guy that the more he plays and the more we keep giving him those reps, hopefully those kind of go down.”
(When I asked Head Coach Adam Gase about time of possession, he obviously mentioned things on offense; but he also mentioned third-down defense. What do you see there?) – “We stink right now. We do. Last week was probably similar to the first week (against) Tennessee. Some of them don’t count as official stats but I think we had 15 third downs last week and like 10 of them were less than 5 yards, like third-and-4 or less or something. There were a couple of those drives (where) we didn’t even get to third down, so that’s a whole (different) story if you want to talk about it. We’re not … That’s a good offensive team we played last week, but we’re giving up leaky yardage in the run game. Our stats aren’t horrible and all of that, but we’re side-tackling guys and we’re giving up 4 or 5 yards on a rush here and there, then it’s 3 yards on the next rush and its third-and-2. That’s hard living. We haven’t been good on third downs but we haven’t put ourselves in a spot to have success on those third downs because … I don’t know overall but the majority of our third downs have been probably 5 (yards) or less to go. That’s tough living. That’s hard to do. We have to do a better job earlier on the chains to give us a chance. Some of the stuff we want to do and get our guys rushing and give those guys opportunities to do those things, we have to get them to do those situations to where we can cut those guys loose a little bit. It’s hard to rush the quarterback when it’s third-and-3 and the ball is going to be out in 2 seconds. We have not been good on third downs and we have to do better. If it’s third-and-4, we have to get a stop. We have to get off the field. Last week we obviously didn’t help ourselves with a couple penalties and some stuff that kept drives alive also, when we did get third-down stops. We can’t do that either. We have to be better on third downs. That’s definitely an area of emphasis this week. But we have to help ourselves by trying to give us a little … put us in some better spots earlier in the chains.”
