Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
- 1,969
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On whether he'll coach on the field or from the press box:
"I love being on the field. I get a better feel for the game on the field, and I get a great view of the players eye-to-eye. When they come off the field, I can talk to them. When you study and go into a game, you think you know what's going to happen, but you have to be ready for things that you didn't quite think would happen. You may think, 'Hey, they can't run the ball against us,' and all of a sudden, they're running the football.' ... And if you watch me, I will be about 35 yards away — I won't be even with the ball. I'll be away, and I can see. So I get a lot of the same things in the box as far as visually, but I'm on the field with the guys, and I can really get a feel for the game and how they're reacting to what's going on in the game."
On which players could possibly develop into future stars:
"If you do things by the draft, your first-rounders have to play. And we have some first-rounders on defense. Burns is a first-rounder. We have Derrick Brown. ... Shaq (Thompson) was a first-rounder. ... Tre Boston will play really solid for you and could make the Pro Bowl in the middle. I think Juston Burris is just coming into his own. So we have some guys — (Stephen) Weatherly, I think he can become an elite pass rusher at this level. So we have some pieces, in my opinion. Now, we have to develop them, and how long that takes to come together and play the type of defense that it takes remains to be seen."
On rotating players, especially at defensive tackle:
"We've always played more people than everybody else that we've played. So as the season goes, we are actually a better team late in the year because we have kept guys fresher and more people have played. The other advantage it gives you when more people play — when a player goes down, it's not a big deal. Now, it is a big deal, injuries always are, but the next guy is plugged in because he's probably played some and you feel real comfortable. So the rotation up front's really important. You have to rotate. You can't have these big guys that weigh (300 to 330 pounds) in there every snap. You're going to wear them down, especially over the course of a 16-game schedule. So the rotation will be big in there (and for) the whole group. It'll be interesting to see how many guys we can rely on to play."
On his early assessment of the Panthers' linebackers:
"Tahir Whitehead, we brought in, and he'll end up playing (middle linebacker). We have a lot of possibilities at linebacker. That's the beauty of a Jeremy Chinn. Could he go out and play the field 'backer? He's 220 pounds, 225 pounds and can run. He can do a lot of different things. Can Shaq play the Mike linebacker in nickel? So we have some flexibility with our linebackers that we're excited about."
On whether it's an advantage that the rest of the NFL doesn't know what to expect yet out of this coaching staff:
"We have a couple packages that will be new on defense. Now, the flipside of that, I haven't been in the league, either, for a while, so I haven't coached against them. But if you look at our defensive staff, I love our defensive staff. We've hired a veteran defensive coach at each position. (Defensive line coach) Mike Phair's been in the league a long time. Jason Simmons. (Defensive run game coordinator) Al Holcomb. So they've been around most of the people we're going to play and have good insight."