Press Pass: Jim Schwartz

two big plays that I can remember. One, Um, Deshaun Jackson beat us for a big play and another one I think Crowder got us down to scene late in the game that that put him in that situation. So, Um, you know, it always comes down to the same things. Stop the run, no big plays. Um. You know, a couple of guys gave us some trouble last year, particularly Pierre Garson made some key catches in both games. Um, I'm not I'm not sorry to see him gone. Um

you know Deshaun the same way. You know, they've replaced those guys and moved up roster or moved up draft picks and things like that. But um, you know, I think that I'm not going to be disappointed not to see those guys on the field. How would you rate Kirk Cousins quarterbacks. Um, you know, it's it's about winning. He threw for almost five thousand yards last year through

twice as many touchdowns as interceptions. UM. You know, quarterbacks like UM, like coaches, are ultimately judged on on wins. So I think, you know, just in this small microcosm, he was too and oh against us, so that certainly has our respect. Yes, he also I think he also made a couple of big plays with his feet and both of those games, and he's sort of sneaky that way. I think if you ask around in the league, they wouldn't you wouldn't put him up there with some of

the classics scrambling quarterbacks. But that's also something we're gonna have to be on guard for because he did make a couple of key first downs with his feet and UM in those games. There's so many new pieces in the secondary. How do you think the process is going to kind of turn it into a unit from a bunch of new guys from from the start. OT still now, yeah, you know, I like where we are. I mean, UM,

I think I've told you before. I think that Jalen Mills is one of the most improved players on our team. UM has really settled into the outside corner spot, played the deep ball very well. Um, you know, he's he's that quintessential take a big jump to second year guy. At least he has been so far. I mean, we've we're judging training camp in preseason games. Obviously, the proof is in the putting um over the course of the season. Um,

you know. Adding some veteran guys in like Patrick Robinson and Corey Graham, both of those guys have some multidimensional skills. Can play inside, can play outside. Um, you know, Corey gives us a lot of confidence to be able to move Malcolm down to Nicol at times. Um. You know, I like, I like, there's a lot of different ways we can play. Well. Well, we'll probably have six different personnel packages that we can play in this game, which is a little bit more than we carried last year.

And I think a lot of it has to do with some of the flexibility the guys have in the secondary. The starters took seventy to seventy last year, with more death there this year. To expect a more balanced rotation, I would, I would hope. So, I mean, over the course of my career, whether it's been Tennessee or Detroit. We've always been a rotational group, and I think we've always been at our best when we've been UM close

to fifty fifty. Um. You know, keep guys fresh and keep them I know you guys get tired of it, but keep throwing fastballs out of the bullpen. Um. But you know that being said, over the course of the season,

you also have to reward production and UM. But here's the here's what I the way I sort of approach it is, UM, particularly early in the season, rotation can help you get too later in the season, UM, you know, and hopefully that's where where we are late in the season and meaningful games in December and January and maybe even February. And there's a lot of different layers to rotation. Of those is that it can keep guys durable and keep guys available for a long period of time. Boy.

I think that's one of the things you saw last year. We had an injury at defensive tackle in the Redskins game first time, but we stayed pretty healthy at defensive end, and a lot of it had to do with our rotation. The key is is is trying to get the production. Wait, whoever it is out there if whoever's playing left defensive end, how what's the production of that? My experience has been if you get two guys that can stay fresh, you can have more production than one guy that's out there

the whole time. Sort of. You know, addition, good with Derek Harnett, and we clearly showed that he can play at this level, perhaps even at a high level. Are you typically want to hold back on young guys like that because you don't know how they're gonna look come November and December? Or do you feel like you just got to kind of feed those guys because you don't want to you don't want to sit them back. In terms of their confidence, it's early confidence. I don't worry

about his um his confidence. I mean he's first round draft pick. You know when you got to stand up on that stage and holding number one jersey, UM, you know you've already. If you're lacking for confidence, you're you know, you're you're probably the wrong guy. UM went against JP UM all the time in training camp. But that's that's some baptism by fire too. You know, we threw him out there a bunch and UM, you know, you guys,

you guys widely reported him against Lane Johnson at times. Um, you know, I don't worry about his psyche, um, but there is um you know, I probably I don't want to say in the back of in the back of our mind, but you know, over the course of season, we do want to try to keep him fresh and keep him on the field. And I think that, um, you know that that's an important goal of ours as

well as being productive. But I'll say this, I mean, if if we got to play one hundred and fifty snaps in this game, and we got eleven guys that got to play one hundred and fifty to win this game, I'm you know, I mean, we will sell our soul to win a game. So you have to balance both of those out for sure. And you know, I think that the positives there is We've seen good production out of Derek in the run end pass game, and I think as a whole, wire defensive line has been very productive.

And I think a lot of that has to do with additions of those guys, you know, like you know, Fletch was very productive, and some of that has to do with you know, having a guy like Journey get in there and him getting more one on ones, and you know, Derek getting some one on ones maybe because of Brandon Graham and you know, and um, you know all that. I think Vinny Curry also had an outstanding training camp. He was very good against a run end pass. He was as productive as I've seen him. He was

not on the ground as much as he's been. I think he's a much improved player. I mentioned jail with Mills. I think Vinny has shown it. But again, it proof is in the course of the season four ends, though, did you kind of view it as almost like two lines? Do you want to kind of keep them taking the hockey? Yeah? Okay, all right, right, yeah I don't have as much hockey. Yeah, I don't have as much. You have to skip jacks. EHL. We used to go just to drink beer and watch

the fights. I think that's all anybody goes to the EHL for. But um um, yeah, I do think. I do think there is some shift change in there. And I mean, hock hockey is that sport. I mean, you nobody can play. I mean when Gretzky couldn't be out there every single time, I mean it's just impossible to play that way. So they do have to shift and you do need to rely on other guys. Well, you you mentioned four defensive ends. I'll take that further with five.

I think Stephen Means is a quality player, whether he's active or not on a weekly basis, I know this much, he'll be ready for when his opportunity comes. Maybe it'll be because of an injury, maybe it'll be because somebody's not producing as much as they should. But I think Stephen Means is also a quality guy. I like a five man group up there that I did. I answer the question here to cut you off. Do you like

to keep them together? I mean doesn't matter having no I think that m Yeah, it's it's hard to keep them together because everybody comes from a different spot. Like it's not just for new defensive linement. There are times where we do that, particularly in the middle of a series. But over the course of the game, you got to play with a lot of different combinations and even some

potential rush situations. Um you know, not every team will allow you to sub guys on a situational basis, but um you know sometimes you can and to be able to get third down rushers out there. It's not as prevalent as it used to be in the NFL. But you know, there could be some opportunities to to work some rush groups out there also this year. And what do you need out of them? Well, just the same

as everybody. We need consistent play. Um, we've got to be good against the run and the pass um, I think, um, you know, and and consistency has to do with a lot of things. Be able to do your job, being able to execute the scheme, um, you know, being available to like. But again, very encouraged by where where Vinny's gone. I think, I don't know if you guys notice it, but it's been well noticed with within our team, on our coaching staff. Um, the strides that he's taken. But again,

none of that matters right now. I mean talk about you know, new guys we've added, talk about you know the Arby or or or Journe again or you know, improved players like Jalen or Vinny. None of that matters. If they don't produce them, we don't win games. So we know we have to keep our eye on that. Is he at the point now where he's been here long enough that you can do everything with him. Uh yeah,

we don't hold anything back. Maybe the first week, like when we played Buffalo, there were some things that we sort of held back in some communication that the safeties were a little bit hesitant to give him. He's unencumbered when it comes to scheme. He was saying the other day that safeties with cornerbackground are part of the prototype that you give those guys as far as what to

look for when they're when they're scouting safeties. You've got four of them on your team right now with that background. Has that always been the case with you or has the increasing tempo by teams made it more imperative. I don't. I don't think it's increased tempo. For me. It's more um. It's more wide receiver tight ends. You know the college

guy and you know you've seen it. I mean, you know Washington's got Jordan Reid, Um, you know they've got There's there's a bunch of those guys around in the league. Whether it's Jimmy Graham or you know, whoever it is, they all line them up at wide receiver, and you have to be able to have that ability to cover um, being able to blitz. You know, a lot of times your safeties have to cover almost every offense is I mean probably sixty to seventy percent of our snaps this

year will be against three wide receiver sets. So anytime you're blitz and that guy's not now just covering a full back or tight end, he's covering a skilled player, he's covering a wide receiver. And it gives you some you know, some flexibility to be able to handle those things. You know, I I go back. I mean, I've been around a while. You know when when safeties were named you know, um, you know thumper and um. You know,

I had a guy in Tennessee. First name was Tank, you know, and I joked to and and Tank was hell player, Tank Williams out of Stanford. But Tank was two hundred and thirty five pound safety. You know, we saw a lot of two back sets. You know, he was sort of an extra linebacker in there. Even though he was he was fast. You know, I don't need guy's name, Um, you know Hammer and and and Tank. I need guy's name swifty and and ball hawk and you know, um the glove. You know those are nicknames

we're looking for more. Um. Now, he progress gap faster than you thought, like the course, no Um, I think we expected that from him. I think a lot was made with him being a bit of a one trick pony. He was a edge speed rush guy in college and he had such the ability to do that that I think he got labeled a guy that's all he could do. And I think we saw more in him than that. You know, he's, like I said, he's played tough against the run. He's been instinctive. UM, you know, he's he's

he's he's been productive when he's been out there. We can only judge him on that. Um. But there's there's nothing that Here's nothing that that I just say, we haven't been surprised by that about him. I don't know the best way to put that. But this defense still top fift team defense last year. Now with what appears being bigger, better pleas of the player, better definite desicians because it possibly feel even more weight and more pressure

on your shoulders. Well, there's always there's always pressure. I mean that goes along with this job. If you if you don't accept pressure in the wrong business. UM, please don't on my resume that I elevated this to a top fifteen. I mean, I don't know that that I mean, that's that's participation trophy in my mind, um, you know, And I don't want to um um split hairs or whatever. The stat that we care about the most is points allowed.

I think we were twelfth in there. That's still that's still not as good as as as we can be. And I do I do agree with you, um, you know when paper were better. We have added, um, not only depth, but we've added some key components to the defense. It's our job as coaches, our guys, our job as players to be productive, you know. I mean that this press conference doesn't matter. We can say all the right things we can, you know, um, you know, have the

greatest plans. It's it's we have to execute it and and the proof is in the pudding. And it's our job to do that. Over the course of a year. We're going to have good games, We're going to have bad games. When the when the season's over, we have to give us our offense or our team consistently at chance to win the game. And the best way we can do that is points. A loud hold, There's there's two things. First is don't allow very many points. And number two is set the offense up to score. That's

one thing we were very good at last year. We um, we were Where were you guys? Where were we in turnovers? Takeaways? We were? Yeah, we were, we were. We were better than we set the offense up. Because it's one thing to say, yeah, we didn't give up very many points, but if the offense was on a long field the whole game, maybe maybe you could have done a little bit more. So I think when it's all said and done, after after sixteen week or after seventeen weeks plus, you know,

hopefully more. I think if we can say that, um, you know we we we minimize points alloud, and we also gave our offense a chance, I think them will have been successful and any other ranking really doesn't matter to us. Okay,