WON Monthly Magazine September 2020

[Sourdough Sam]

After a successful campaign in 2019, how do you plan to get even better in 2020?​

The main focus for the defensive side of the ball, and I imagine it's the same for the entire team, is to always look for ways to get a little bit better every single day. Not looking at the end result as the barometer on whether or not you're improving, but looking at it on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis. You have to ask yourself, are you as an individual finding ways to get better every single day. If you are, we trust that the results will be better, but you can't have better results unless you focus on the moment. The message that Kyle and John preach day-in and day-out doesn't change, we focus on the moment, we focus on today, we do the best we possibly can and we trust that the result will be what we want.

What can second-year players like Nick Bosa and Dre Greenlaw do to take their games to the next level?​

Same thing as everyone else. They really have to understand that what happened yesterday has no bearing on what is actually going to happen tomorrow. They have to focus on finding ways to get better every single day. There's an "I got it" mentality that second-year players usually have and for them to stay focused and understand that just because you had success in year one, doesn't mean you're going to have success in year two. You have to put in the same amount of work, if not more, and you have to continually find ways to evolve as a player or those around the NFL watching your tape will be able to catch up.

How are the pass rush and pass coverage intertwined on a defense?​

They go hand-in-hand. We always talk about rush and coverage. I look at some of our plays from a year ago and there are somewhere the coverage broke down, but the rush stayed disciplined and vice versa. For example, there'd be a guy running wide open, but the rush got home in time where the quarterback couldn't find that open receiver. On the flip side, there were times when the rush got stopped by the offensive line, but the coverage did such a good job in the back end keeping everything up that the quarterback had nowhere to throw and eventually the pocket collapsed on him. So, we always talk about rush and coverage together. Ideally, it's always a perfect rush with perfect coverage and the quarterback just can't breathe, but it doesn't always work that way. Because of that, those guys are always counting on one another. The D-line is counting on the coverage to cover so they have time to get to the quarterback and the coverage guys are counting on the rush guys to get to the quarterback so they don't have to cover for so long. Without question, the two go hand-in-hand.