Press Pass: Jim Schwartz

good players. Both of them are multidimensional, and I think they did They're the glue that holds our defense together. Their communication has been outstanding. Um you know, we we have very few missed assignments in the back end. You know, if we get beat in the back end is generally a physical thing and I think a lot of that credit goes to Rodney and m and Malcolm. How did Benny play on Sunday and what was his the role?

I active back. It's always good to have your your players back, and I think probably the biggest impact was, um, you know, being back to a foreman rotation instead of instead of a three. We didn't play a lot of snaps in the game. The offense did a good job controlling the ball, we did a good job getting off the field on third down. That was a formula that served us very well early in the season. So our our depth wasn't as tested, um as it's been in some of the other games. But it's still good to

get back to that. Um, you know. And I'll leave evaluating played a pro football focus and those people I'll just um, I'll just you know, we were able to win the game. You know, I'll be born there's not much experience experience that well, um, well, I think a lot has to do with the safety, So I'll go back to uh, I'll go back to you the first the first question, and you know, it's the safety's job to communicate to the corners, you know, and regardless of experience.

I think one of the things that's that's happened in our corner position is we've been very competitive. We haven't always played great, but we've played competitive. We've given up some plays, but we've made some plays. And you know, in this league, you're not going to make any plays if you don't if you don't contest. Some things I said this month ago whatever. I mean, I can play over the top of everything, I can't defend anything underneath.

And there's a there's a balance between those two. But I think the competitiveness of our corners, regardless of experience, has has shown. And you know, the safeties have been able to do a good job communicating and in most circumstances do a good job of bandling those guys out when they have given up. A play was able to disrupt things in the back vield as a defensive tackle it especially in the scheme. Did those plays sometimes go

overlooked by most people because they don't necessarily result in statistics. Um, they don't go overlooked when it comes to when it comes to our group. You know, disruption is a part of those guys job description. They're not holding blockers off and trying to free other people up to make place. They're trying to disrupt things. If we can get tackles for losses, UM, that helps us win drives. You know, you take teams and put them off schedule second and long,

third and long. Um. You know I mentioned our run I mean our third down defense. In this last game. Our run defense was was good and it has been good and Benny's been a part of that. Um, you know, it's put him in a lot of third down and long situations and it allowed our defensive secondary to you know, to be able to cover get off the field. We didn't get a lot of pressure, but I think stopping that run and um and putting him in some third down and long situations had a lot to do with him,

and Benny's a big part of that. Jim for for Doug, Um, you know, it wasn't on the practice field yesterday. We get back, we'll get him back. But other than that, um, you know, we get ready otherwise, and he seems to be generating a pretty consistent pressure roll year. What do you think has been the biggest key to him so far this year? He's the iom player. UM, you know, I mean there's no substitute for good players. Not only is he is he a good player, but he plays

with incredible effort, He plays with toughness. Um, he's very conscientious. He doesn't make mistakes very often, and when he does make a mistake, he's quick to correct. He's he's also um you know, he's quick to take responsibility for for plays that he doesn't make or plays that he should make. He's a great teammate. Um. I can't say enough good things about him. He plays the way the game should be played. Um, I'll probably give him, in my mind,

my greatest compliment. Um. You know, I wasn't a very good player, but if I played in the NFL, I hope I would have played like Brandon Graham. They had a couple of tackles, one guy who's an experience, the other guy with the other side was a little bit of a mystery of the one who's going to play. And you're facing a similar situation heading into the Davia Seattle. What have you seen from from their tackles. Well, I think it's a completely different situation because the quarterback is

so different. You know, Sam Bradford, we knew very well wasn't going to move around a whole lot. That's it's completely different dynamic this week. You know, every week Russell Wilson has gotten healthier. Um. You know, last week he looked like he was back to himself. I don't know how much is knee injury still bothering him, but it

didn't look like a lot. So it's not just a matter of beating the offensive lineman Now it's a matter of chasing the quarterback and getting the quarterback on the job on the ground and and holding up in coverage. Puts a lot of pressure on your coverage. The ball's not coming out quick, um, you know, so we got to do a good job of covering and you know, to be able to exploit those kind of matchups. Got fur then he had a long break. Does he looked

now like he's close to being game ready. Well, we were counting on him being game ready last week because he had a uniform one and anybody that's got one, you never know how it's going to play. They might get in there and play. Um, you know c J. Smith had to go in and play again, play at the end of the first half where we had to defend a deep ball, Um, you know, and that's just

expected of those guys. Aaron's a really hard worker. Um, he's he's another tough minded guy and you know that the time off, Um, you know, he was able to use that number one to get healthy. But he also you know, just the kind of guy he is, he wasn't going to get too far from his craft. Um. He's a young player, but he's also got a little experience. He's played professional football, you know, in Canada, but it's

professional football and he knows what it takes. So we know that if he's if he's called upon, he'll be ready. I was just wondering, um, just how much grow with it you kind of scene from him? I mean, I know obviously some of it was because the injuries to and and the others and stuff, but like how much is Jail and Groan to be able to you know,

take that kind of role. Yeah. I don't know if I would really put it in terms of growth because from the time he's come here there there hasn't been very many situations that have been too big for him, including this last game. And you know, if you were watching, um, you know we actually flip sides with him for Julio Jones. You know, I don'd seventh round draft pick and be

flipping sides with Julio Jones. I mean, you know, some of it had to do with Jail and some of it had to do with, you know, where the health of our other corners we were. But I'll go back and you know, Jail and when I talked about the competitiveness of our corners, Um, you know in a large part I was talking about Jail and when you know, we were trying to manage our injury position at corner and at halftime we decided that, you know, we wanted

to get him on. There was no hesitation, there was no I don't know, you know that guy's really good or what coverages are you going to call? It was I got him and you know, like I said, he didn't always make the play, but you know that that's not what this league is about, you know. I mean, you can't pitch a shut out to every wide receiver, particularly a guy like that that is, if not the best, one of the best wide receivers in the NFL with up with a hot quarterback. You know, but he was

able to you know, his competitiveness carried carried that. They made a big play at the end of that game. And a lot of players have talked about yesterday that you guys are now in the same class, it should be in the same conversation as Seattle's defense. Do you feel like you guys are at that point at this point the season. You know, I'll go back to comparing our safeties to other people. You know, I think it's our job to get our give our team a chance

to win every week. If we're doing that, then you know we're we're we're going to be good enough. I guess you'd say, Um, you know, I think we need to compare ourselves with ourselves and not other people. Everybody has different situations with you know, strengths and weaknesses and different schemes and you know, different you know, offenses and special teams and all those different things to go into it.

We just need to worry about ourselves. And you know, if we can go out and give a good performance, we can stop to run, get off the field, and third down pressure to quarterback, create turnovers, then you know we'll put ourselves in position to win a game. And you know, I think that's the only thing we can really judge ourselves on. In general, are there things a defense has to do against the quarterback isn't necessarily as tall? You know, Wilson might be six feet tall and does

just move bit okay? And then secondly, does it his mobility change any of those dynamics or things in general you might do for sure? Yeah? Well, I mean the mobility number one does um, you know it obviously his ability to create a play it's tied into their wide receivers. Their wide receivers are used to it. They run around if the ball's not thrown right away. They're not like

standing around looking. They know right away it's a scramble drill. Um. He also scrambles backwards, which makes it hard to catch because he already has a little bit of cushion. Um. Fran Tarkington did a lot of the same things. And I grew up as a kid watching Fran Tarkington and and Chuck Foreman and those guys. I mean, I allowed Luke grew up in Baltimore, but I love the Vikings because I like those two guys. Um, But he did

a lot of the same things. That scrambling backwards puts a lot of pressure on the defense, and scheme wise, they do some things that help him out. Um. You know, when you're when you're not as tall as other quarterbacks, they drop him a little bit deeper, you know, and it's not it's not rare to see him ten twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage when he throws, and you know, the farther back you get the you know,

it evens out the height advantage. They open up windows we got to do a good job of closing windows in our pass rush, and then they get him on the edge with the boot game. All those things make him six foot five. You know, the Y nine in theory be a good way to counteract that, getting guys afield and then again dosiness mobility coming to play again. We'll see you on Sunday. You know, there's a lot of things that are good in theory difficult in execution.

And you know, one of the reasons that, one of the reasons he's been successful through his career is that he's not a one trick pony. You see it with some quarterbacks. You know, they come in and they have a little bit of success, and the defensive coaches, coaches around the league sort of figure out a book on them, so to speak, and they take away those strengths and make them play to their weakness. And you know, a lot of guys effectiveness, you know, starts to wane, but

not him. You know, people have had a long time to try to figure him out, and nobody really has. And it's because he's a good player and because you know, even though he's five ten and a half or you know, whatever, whatever he wants to be um, he plays big, and you know, when when he's out there, we're not going to be concerned with his height. We're going to be concerned with his ability to make plays and his ability to extend plays, his ability to make plays with his feet,

to run for first downs. All those things are going to be the important thing. Not not what he measured at the combine. Back what asks are you? Yeah, you know, I think if we thought they were really good, we would have drafted him earlier. So um, I mean, you don't want to take too much credit for that. You know, if you draft them in the first round, they're good, Okay, good second round. You know, when you're drafting late in

the draft, you're you're drafting traits. You know, I'd rather not talk too much about those, but one of those is competitiveness. Competitiveness not just as a you know, which you would think, you know, a guy that wants to win or a guy that's interested in playing, but competitiveness at the ball, a guy that you know can can go and defend and isn't afraid to be on an island. I think if you went across, whether you were drafted in the first round, the seventh round, a free agent

fifth round Sherman. Those guys all possessed that. You know, Sherman is an incredible competitor. He's out there, he wants to defend every past. You know, that shows you know, you don't need to be a scouting genius to see that. He's he's very competitive at the ball and um, you know, I think all good corners that way. Getting sacks, I know, overall, the more important is getting because the pressure. Um. That being said, Benny Curley only has one sacked this year.

Are you getting enough production out of him aside from them? Yeah, you know, he's There's a lot of other ways to contribute. We don't define ourselves by stats. I think the only stat we really define ourselves by is wins and losses. And you know, defensively, I think you could you could continue to points alloud, you know, points allowed when you're on the field, you know, anything else. And there's a lot of different ways, you know. I mean we had

one where we got intentional grounding. It was Benny, Yeah, Benny had You don't get credit for a sack, even though they lose it down and he gets the ball right there, he doesn't get credit for a sack and maybe you guys can do something professional football writers of America can get I mean, because in my mind that's I mean, he created the sack, they gave us the sack, but he doesn't get credit for it. But that's just

the way this game goes. I don't think any of our players are, you know, worried too much about stats. They're worried about making plays that help us win the game. That played that Benny made helped us win the game. And if we can make those, then we're happy. Whether it's that or you know, the week before I talked about Connor bar when you know, tipping a pass that we intercept and you know, and gave us a chance.

We weren't able to win the game. But you know, those are all plays that you know, at the end of the year, maybe you say, wow, they didn't he didn't have enough sacks or he didn't have enough tackles. But you know, some of those fly below the radar. We don't judge ourselves on those. Have you spent much

time studying Seattle's defense and so yeah, um yeah. Over over the years, you always in the off season look at opposing defenses and or other defenses around in the league in different areas, third down, red zone, run defense, pass rush, you know, UM, to try to get some ideas to to be able to steal from UM. You know, I'll be honest, we've robbed some coverage, some coverage techniques, UM from Seattle a couple of years ago. UM. You know, I think they had a relationship with some guys I've

worked for it. They robbed some pass rush concepts from us, you know, when I was in Tennessee and Detroit. So that that stuff goes around the league. It's this league is about finding what your players can do the best. If if that's something that can help your players, then it's good. But you know, it always doesn't work that way. Just because another team has success doing something doesn't mean it's going to fit for you. And that's our job

as coaches. Find out what fits the best, find out what gives us the best chance to win every week, and find a way at this time of the year to juggle things like depth or injuries or things like that, because that stuff comes up and every week it's not going to be exactly the same. Okay,