Patrick Graham – November 12, 2019
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Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham
(Can you talk a little bit about CB Nik Needham and what you’ve seen as far as his progression as a player and then what he did for you on Sunday?) – “Nik came in – undrafted free agent – and he did the stuff that we talk about. You try to explain it to those guys when you’re calling them on the phone to come here that you’ll have a chance to work hard and you’ll have your opportunity; and he did that. He came in here, worked hard, got cut – we knew the work ethic was there but got cut – told him what he needed to do in order to be (back) – (Defensive Pass Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach) Josh (Boyer) did a great job of explaining exactly, ‘this is what you’re going to have to do. You’re going to have to transform your body. You’re going to have to – in terms of just how important it is to you, that’s a decision you’re going to have make,’ and he did that. Now he’s starting to see really the fruits of his labor in terms of the success on the field and he knows he still has a long way to go, and this week is going to be a huge challenge with the receivers we’re going to see when they play down here from Buffalo. He’s making steps in the right direction.”
(Did you want him to slim down at all in weight? How did you want him to transform his body?) – “Just in terms of being an NFL corner. It’s a different job. It’s a very different job. The caliber of athlete – you try to cover these guys from Buffalo (and) these guys are running. This is true speed. I always tell people, in college you were probably one of the fastest guys and you probably faced two or three fast guys, but these guys get paid to play football. These are the fastest in the – 1-32 (teams). That’s what I talk about with the running back; he’s probably one of – 3 times 32, what’s that, 96? Is my math right? (laughter) So he’s one of 96 in the world, these guys are. You’re dealing with true speed right there.”
(If I had told you that no CB Xavien Howard, no S Reshad Jones, CB Eric Rowe playing a lot of safety and your defensive backs did the job they did on Sunday – if I told you that two months ago, what would’ve been your reaction?) – “In this league? That’s what you anticipate – stuff like that. For my career – this is Year 11 I believe – you anticipate. If you’re not thinking ahead and trying to anticipate those situations, in a physical league like the guys play in and I coach in, you’re going to be behind because it’s going to happen. Of course I wish everybody was here and healthy and all that stuff, but we’ve got to prepare – whoever’s out there on the field – to win games. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
(S Steven Parker had the big play and was a big factor in the pass defense. That came one week after he didn’t play any defensive snaps against the Jets. Was this a matchup issue or is it something you saw in practice last week?) – “(laughter) Y’all are going to ask that question every week somehow, some way. That was a different route right there. (laughter) Sorry, I could see that one. You’ve got to find a way where I don’t see it, (laughter) but here goes my answer on it – I’m going to push play. (laughter) We are going to do what we think is best for the team and for the matchup to put guys in the best situation for that week. Stop. (laughter)”
(Had S Steven Parker been practicing well because he wasn’t really involved for the last month?) – “In order for him to get on the field the amount of snaps he played last week, (he is) definitely practicing well. That’s how you get rewarded – the play time is in terms of what you’re doing on the practice field. That’s how we look at it. Just like this week, it’s a whole new week. We’re playing Buffalo – different scheme, different quarterback, different coordinator we’re dealing with, different set of skill players we’re dealing with – and we’re going to determine who we think is best for those matchups. It’ll be determined based on practice and how guys practice and prepare, and we’ll go out there and try our best to beat those guys.”
(How do you have that conversation with guys at the end of the week maybe Friday or Saturday…?) – “It’s a private conversation. It’s the NFL, though. Everybody’s aware just in terms of – play time, that’s all private. That’s the stuff we discuss internally. I don’t want to get into the details of that, but the guys – we discuss it with them. They understand that what we’re trying to do is based on the matchup and what we think is best. (We’re) always doing what’s best for the team – that’s what we’re trying to do.”
(What do you need to do better on defense than the first time you played the Bills?) – “One, we’ve got to make sure that – we’ve got to tackle these running backs. We’ve got to do a good job of tackling these running backs. We’ve got to eliminate the leaky yards there. We’ve got to do a good job of setting the edge. We’ve got to play with some power on the inside and then in the pass game, we’ve got – it’s the normal fundamental stuff that we have to do a better job of, just in terms of playing our leverage, defend the deep part of the field and then applying some pressure on the quarterback by transitioning in the play-action pass rush, making sure we’re taking advantage of any one-on-one battles we get in the pass rush. There’s a lot of stuff we could do better obviously because we didn’t win the game, but that’s stuff we need to work on for this week regardless of who the opponent would be. We need to tackle better. We need to defend, set the edge better. That would be whether it was Buffalo – whoever we were playing, that’s how it would be right now.”
(Did you have an idea with Colts WR T.Y. Hilton out that TE Eric Ebron would be their No. 1 target to go after 12 times?) – “He had a big year last year. He was a big part of their offense and you saw him throughout the season. I think he was limited a little bit in terms of how many times they were throwing the ball to him, but he’s a good player so we prepared for – he might be the main guy. Whether it was him, (Zach) Pascal – whoever it may be. Just like any week, you look at Buffalo right now; they’ve got a number of skill guys and we’ve got to figure out, ‘Okay, who do we anticipate will get the ball the most and what matchup are they going to try to exploit?’ Because that’s what it’s all about in the NFL. You’re trying to go after certain matchups and you’re trying to put your players in the best position, so you try to anticipate that as best you can.”
(CB Eric Rowe has spent the last month playing safety the majority of the time. What went into the decision to have the roles evolve? Was it the CB Nik Needham stepping up or was it just a need?) – “I think the main thing is the selflessness of Eric. He’s willing to do whatever we need (him) to do to help us win. It starts there. He’s willing to do it. He’s a guy who’s been a hard worker in this league – a diligent worker – and he’s smart. He can tackle. He’s tough and he provides us with an advantage in terms of size, his length, combination of speed; you put that on a tight end in terms of coverage, that helps out a lot. It’s a different skillset than dealing with a linebacker. Then he also provides us with some flexibility because he can do corner skills, safety skills, set the edge – he can do a bunch of things.”
(Going back to the play time equation – obviously let’s take the secondary for example. I’m sure you would agree that continuity is a good thing because guys know each other, but at the same time you’re talking about guys performing in practice; so how do you weigh the two whether you get chemistry going vs. a guy who may be underperforming or performing very well at practice? How do you weigh all that?) – “The continuity thing – of course you’re striving for that, but it comes down to the bottom line: we’re going to do what we think is best for that opponent (and) to help on that opponent. If it means a guy that just came off the street is going to help us cover so-and-so or help us in the run game in terms of secondary support, that’s what we’re going to do; but in terms of how do we weigh it? It’s always a constant evaluation. We try to bring them up to speed as quickly as possible and I think that’s partly our job and it’s also partly the job of the players because we’ve got a great group of guys, so whenever the new guys came in, they’d pull them right underneath them and they’re spending time with them – extra time with them. We do stuff to help facilitate that process if that makes sense.”
(When you say “extra time” can you kind of give me a picture of – how much time? When you brought guys in like you said, right off the street and they’re starting on Sunday…?) – “We’ve got our time slot – whatever it is for the NFL; but the players, just like – I’ve said it before – I’m a professional football coach. That’s what I do. I’ve got that and my family. During football season, that’s what I do. Professional football players – I’m assuming they’ve got their family and they play football. We only have 16 of these opportunities guaranteed to us during the year, so you find the extra time. You find the extra time whether it’s on your own, organized – whatever it may be. I get up in the morning not only just to get here for work but also to get my mind right for my job. That’s my extra time to get my job right, and when I’m driving home I’m thinking about football on my time because you only get 16 opportunities and they’re precious so you spend the extra time. You have to talk specifically to the players about how they do it, but I’m assuming professional football players (and) professional football coaches, that’s what we do and we only get to do it for six months; so I put in as much time as I need to.”
(When you went back and watched the tape of that first Bills game – that 98-yard drive – what kind of got to you?) – “Again, it goes back to fundamentals. We’ve got to do a better job whether it’s tackling, whether it’s understanding the situation – all the stuff that’s going to come up again this week, is all going to come up this week – we’ve got to be better at it this week. We’ve got to make sure we’re tackling, defending the deep part of the of field, set the edge – all the fundamentals – play with low pad level, know the situation, the situations within the situations and excel at that; that’ll help us play it better.”
(With S Reshad Jones, we’ve seen him practice now for the last two weeks. At what point do you feel like he’s getting ready to be back in this defense?) – “You’ve got to ask ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) about that stuff, with the guys that are injured and stuff like that. You’ve got to ask ‘Flo’ about that stuff.”
(Bills WR John Brown – he seems to have kind of, not come out of nowhere but have a pretty impactful rookie season – what does he do well?) – “Speed. (laughter) That’s one of the top things right there. (He’s) fast and presents some problems. Again, it goes back to our fundamentals. We’ve got to be able to tackle him. We’ve got to be able to defend the deep part of the field and anticipate some of the stuff they’ll do to get him the ball, so we’ve got to do a good job with that.”
