Steve Gregory – October 20, 2022
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Thursday, October 20, 2022
Safeties Coach Steve Gregory
(So we saw, I think seven snaps last Sunday of the three-safety look. What’s the advantage of that? And I know obviously being shorthanded at corner might incline you guys – you, Cornerbacks/Pass Game Specialist Sam Madison, Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer – to do that more? What’s the positives of that? Is there any negative with that pairing?) – “Yeah, I think it’s just obviously a different type of player. Safety is a little bit more in tune to fitting the run, playing closer towards the box, different things like that. Obviously a safety as opposed to a corner, coverage skills playing like man coverage on a receiver might be a little bit different. But for us, it’s really just whatever our game plan is. Like we might have some packages that involve three safeties. We might have some packages that don’t. So however we see the game plan going based on what the opponent is showing us, we’ll gear some of those packages each week to help benefit us and try to execute what we think can give them issues and help us win a football game.”
(How much of an adjustment has it been for your safeties unit with the injuries there have been at the cornerback position?) – “Yeah, I think part of it is not necessarily an adjustment; like we pride ourselves as a secondary of just believing in the next man up mentality. Our guys prepare and get themselves ready to play games like they’re starters, regardless of if you’re a practice squad guy or a backup or a fifth corner, or whatever you want to call it. Those guys are always ready to go in the game. I think there is an awareness level of knowing that when a guy comes in the game and he’s a young guy that hasn’t played a lot or a guy that hasn’t had a lot of snaps, as a safety, of just understanding what the matchup is or what the situation is, as far as communication and helping those guys and helping them understand what we’re doing and calming them down and making them feel comfortable and play at a high level. So we just got to work together, communicate together and help each other out as best we can.”
(Seems like a big part in the secondary is hiding the coverage pre-snap and post-snap. Obviously S Jevon Holland spends a lot of time in like a deep safety role and somebody like S Brandon Jones. What’s the key with him making it to maybe disguise the look that he’s showing pre and post-snap and are there like tells that you have worked with him?) – “Yeah, I think any situation of a good defense is always self-scouting yourself and making sure that there’s not too many tips and tendencies to what you’re doing and becoming a defense that they can really identify and pick things out that would allow them to have an advantage. We try to move those guys around a lot. We try to work on disguise, work on different things, different looks, different things schematically that’ll allow us to kind of help one call maybe look like another call and things like that. But I think that’s just defense in general, I think as you look across the league, not just in particular with us; teams want to disguise. They don’t obviously want to tell the offense exactly what you’re doing because if you are, those guys are too good, the quarterbacks are too good. It just makes their job easier.”
(I was looking at your opponent’s passing charts and not a lot of balls downfield so far against you guys this year. What would you attribute to that? Like why are you guys are doing a good job of holding the deep ball?) – “I think it’s just the players going out executing and playing at a high level and understanding that if you give up big plays over the top of your defense a lot, you’re going to not do well. You’re going to lose. So we talk about it each week of trying to find ways to eliminate big plays, keep things in front of us, limit the explosives, make an offense earn it in certain situations and also blending that with being aggressive and taking chances and different things in the right moments. So it’s just a combination of blending the defense together and understanding in key moments and key situations and offensive formations and different things that they’re doing of when those things might come and when you can prevent them from happening.”
(The expectations were big for S Jevon Holland coming into the season. We know he had the interception. How has he done as far as play and meeting those expectations?) – “He’s been great. The biggest thing with him is any time you’re given expectations from the outside looking in of you need to be a certain type of player or you need to be a playmaker on every play, you really got to try to ignore that and just play fundamentally sound and within the scheme of the defense and keep everything in place so that when the plays come, when your moment is called, when your opportunity shows up, you’re in the right position to go make a play. You don’t stress anything, don’t push for anything. Just communicate the defense, work with the guys around you, do your job within the scheme, and his abilities and his intellectual abilities as a player will allow him to make a lot of plays on Sundays.”
