No college. More comfortable, aren't you with this new book secondary? Obviously guys who talked about he's being an upgrade, UM, I'm very comfortable. You know, when you got guys on the outside that holding their own and you don't mind leaving them on an island. Um. And then you put Walter Thurman next to me, who's who's making plays and it's instinctual and it's played a lot of football. Um. It takes a little bit of, um, the burden off
of me being the quarterback of the secondary. When you got guys that, um, you know, put into work and know what they're doing and you can hold them accountable. So this this spring and then the first couple of practices we have so far, um have been really good. I think we're starting to jail a little bit as a as a unit, um, getting some new guys in that are some young guys too that are getting some
reps and are fitting in well. Um, you know, and everybody's everybody's willing to compete day in and day out. And I think that's a good um mentality to have when we're trying to be the best unit uh in this league. And you know, every day we come out here, um, and lay it on the line. Is better off in your opinion today with this new look secondary than you were when you guys last played again, I mean I
think so. I think if you take the guys that we have right now, with the work that we put in, UM, I think I think we're better than we were the
last few games last year. And you know, whether that be with upgrades or just the understanding of the defense, I just think where we are one step ahead of where we were last year, especially even this time last year, is what is it the young players got a lot of obviously the secondary, the young players, what is it that they have to learn and to kind of get to where they happen for me to be able to get on the field. Well, the biggest thing is just
it's just really two things. Just building up the confidence in themselves to go out and perform. Believe that you know, they're here for a reason, they're talented enough, and that they can go out and compete against whoever we line up against. And then the second part is just the
nuances of their particular role in the deference. You know, some of these guys have been you know the number one corners or safeties wherever they've been at in school, but we might actually come play the nickel role and they got to be the best nickel on the team for us, and UM, you know, that's what we're going to demand out of them, and that's what we expect
them to understand. And so the fact that they can wrap their minds around their role, the better we are, you know, because you know, I, you know, I play safety in this in this thing, as much as I would like to play corners. Sometimes, you know, they don't need me to be a corner in this in this scheme. They need me to be the best safety out here. And so, UM, I think we've got guys that understand
how they're gonna fit it in this defense. And the better we are individually, um, at our own positions, the better we are as a unit. About playing more press if that happens to be the case. What kind of mentality is that kind of break the defense? Does a change anything to make you feel more aggressive? Does it? I mean they're in that kind of approach. Well, you know, we try to play a lot. Well, we played a lot of press last year, and that's always been really
what we wanted to do. Um, I just think we're better at it right now. Um. And you know, offense is all about spacing and timing, and press throws off spacing and timing. And when we have the front like we do, I think from a secondary standpoint, we know we don't have to cover long, you know, and and we have faith in the guys, you know, through technique and ability, that we can line up and press against
whoever we play against. And you know, it's it's definitely a more aggressive style of defense, but when you have the talent, you have the technique, it's really not that much of the risk that that's that's all we talk about. Yeah, it's you know, if we're gonna get up and press, we don't want to be imposters where we go to the line of scrimmage and then let you have a
free run. If we're gonna move up, you know, we want to put our hands on you and disrupt you at the line of scrimmage and get some hands on And that's something that we didn't do well last year. We try to play a lot of press, but with bad technique, we just had guys running down the sideline and that's what those big plays come from. Some of these, you know, I think, um, I think a lot of the guys have really stepped up and they've been they've
been competing. UM. I think Shepherd has probably been the one that's stood out the most. You know, he's the last two days gotten reps with the with the ones at the nickel position, UM, and hadn't missed a beat. He knows what he's doing, and that's the most encouraging thing, especially from a rookie this early in camp. Usually you have a lot of mental errors. Haven't been in it yet. UM. Now it's just about kind of teaching them that the tricks of the trade, how to use your leverage, how
to use your help, um, the different tools and different coverages. UM. But you know, all of them have really been out there competing. UM. Eric Rose played well. UM. We've had a bunch of the guys really just come out and play hard. And so you know, each day they're gonna have to compete because we don't have a certain amount of spots and as much talent as we have with these veterans and the younger players, we can't keep everybody.
So you every day we're competing against our offense and against ourselves essentially, Well, I think it's just been um, you know, in all phases of his preparation has been outstanding. And we talk about the weight room, the film room, the what he's doing as far as his technique, he's you know, he's being coachable. So you know, in the weight room, he's probably had the best offseason out of
all the dbs. You know, we're competing every day and he's probably one of our strongest, most explosive dbs we have. Then we come out here and he's taking the coach and he's changed his entire technique as far as pressing, he's doing what Corey Underland is asking them do. He's been very, very disciplined in that technique. He's competing every day. Um, you know, he's in the film room, he's participating, he knows what he's doing. And it showed up on the tape.
You know, it's yesterday. He had an awesome day and um, you know it's continuing today and we you know, we expect big things out of them. So coming into the year, we knew that there was gonna be some competition for that other corner spot. Um, and I think he saw his opportunity and he's taking full advantage of them when
the pads go on as they work tomorrow. So what changes, uh, I mean, you know, obviously the intensity goes up a little bit, and tomorrow we'll have some fans out there, so you know, guys won't want to get embarrassed and want to show out a little bit. But you know, at the end of the day, it's still all about technique. It's not like we're gonna go live and be taking each other to the ground. It's um, you know, it's
for for a defensive back. You don't want to put the pads on it and all of a sudden change something. It's still all about your technique. You're finished, you're competing, um, you know. But it's real football. You get to put the pads on for the first time since the season ended. Um, you know you want to feel that that um you know, those collisions and in some of those live reps. But it just makes it fun, just you know what football
is back. Some of the new personal personal allows to play press word, whether Maxwell or the three rookie dvs as opposed to say Bradley or Carrie last season. H Well, I think we're gonna play press just as much. I think we're just gonna be better at it, and I think with the personnel we add it and um, you know, our technique that we're focusing on with our new coach,
um has met. Yeah, that's all we saw we're working on, you know, because we had tight coverage last year, we were really good and uh completion percentage, but we're was obviously we gave up too many big plays and when you go back and look at the tape, it's really most of the time just bad technique. And so our press technique is what we're gonna emphasize because we're gonna play just as much press as we did last year. That's how saw this defense is. And that's why we
brought in guys like Maxwell. That's why I know when Carols in there, because these guys can play press and we're very confident in their ability. No problem