Secondary Coach /Safeties Dave Merritt
October 21, 2014
Q: What have you seen from Quintin Demps?
A: He is doing well. Quintin is doing everything we ask of him to do. He is controlling the coverages. He is very loud and boisterous in his communication with the other guys on the field, so he is doing well.
Q: What does Stevie Brown need to do to get back to where he was a couple years ago?
A: Coming off of the knee injury, Stevie is in a situation right now where he had a couple of things that didn’t go his way early in the season and so I think he is back. I don’t see any problem with the knee. He just needs to continue to gain confidence.
Q: With Antrel [Rolle], there is always the chance that he can move back to nickel… Is that not a possibility anymore?
A: Antrel has actually been able to play either position, just as you said. He has played nickel before. He has played safety. It is always a possibility when you have injuries. He is ready to do whatever is needed to do for his team to be successful.
Q: He doesn’t hesitate to tell us what his preference is?
A: No question.
Q: What is the major difference between [being a safety and playing the nickel cornerback]?
A: When you are in the slot [playing the nickel], you have more field to cover, especially when you are dealing with man-to-man, two to three yards off of a receiver versus being a safety who is 10-12 yards off of a guy. The major difference is the quickness and the speed that happens. Just as the defensive lineman, it happens so quick whenever their runs schemes are going right or left. Same thing as a nickel back, you are so close to the receiver, so everything happens so quickly. That is the major difference.
Q: How do you evaluate Jayron [Hosley]?
A: We are happy to have him, I will tell you that. The thing is we asked him to go in and do a couple of things last week and Hosley was able to perform the tasks that we asked him to do. The situation for him right now is that he is a starter and he sees himself as a starter. If you are a nickel back, you have to see yourself as a starter because in this league we play so much ‘11’ personnel or three wide receivers on the field. He is doing well. I think his ceiling is unlimited, so hopefully he will continue to grow for us.
Q: Is it a matter of confidence with him because he had a tough preseason?
A: No question. When you haven’t played and you are going out and playing against number ones every week, it has to be a matter of confidence. What he did last week in the situation we put him in, he performed it well.
Q: Talk about Prince Amukamara… He has had a pretty solid year so far. What do you see differently in him this year compared to years past?
A: Prince is competing. He pressed Dez Bryant last week. There were a couple of things we talked to him about that he could have done differently, such as not trying to be so aggressive against a receiver who is very aggressive. Maybe play him off from time to time. Prince, in my opinion, has grown tremendously from his first few years here. He started it last year and he is continuing with it this year. Hopefully he will continue to work well for us and play well versus the big receivers.
Q: Is it a matter of more film study, better technique?
A: Yes, that is what every NFL player goes with. Your technique needs to be sharp each week. With Prince, he is in a situation where he is facing the top receivers of the other teams. When you are talking different techniques versus different wide receivers because every wide receiver runs their routes different than others. When you come back to it, his ability to go up and press and be aggressive has been a plus for us.
Q: Can you talk about the development of Nat Berhe?
A: He is developing well. He had an opportunity to go in and play earlier in the year. One of the reasons why he went in that game was because he was the backup safety. Quintin, at that time, was the backup nickel. I didn’t feel like it would be fair to Quintin to throw him in the game when he hadn’t been practicing safety the entire week. Nat is growing. One of the things I said a little earlier was that in the meeting rooms, while we are going over our install meetings, I make sure to call on him. Even yesterday when we were going through our correction meetings, I called and made corrections through my safeties and directed them right at Nat and made sure he understood exactly the correction and what we need to do differently. He is able to understand it and be able to spit it back to me, which has definitely been a breath of fresh air for a rookie to be able to do that.
Q: Understanding in the classroom is one thing, but being able to do it on the field is another… Do you see the two areas closing the gap a little bit?
A: Yes. He is going to be a good football player for the New York Football Giants for a long time.
Q: How did Stevie Brown react to the move of Quintin Demps starting?
A: He was fine. No one wants to be demoted, but at the same time, he is a pro and understood the situation. He was fine.
Q: We saw a lot of three-safety looks from you this past week… Is that something you would expect moving forward to continue?
A: I would think so. I can’t speak for [Defensive Coordinator Perry] Fewell or the rest of the staff, but the game plan last week was to have Stevie Brown in the game with the three-safety package versus certain personnel groupings, which worked out for us because Stevie went in and did his job and did what we asked him to do. The fact that we used to play the three-safety package a ton back in the days was because of the fact we had three veterans who were able to play. I am talking about Kenny [Phillips], Antrel and you had Deon Grant. Right now we feel like we tested the waters and we have the same right now in our camp here with the Giants. Hopefully with Stevie Brown going down, or Antrel going down in the slot position, it would benefit us.
Q: Is the reason you are able to do that now is that teams are running more out of those looks?
A: No, I wouldn’t say that. It is more of the matchups. You want to match up with [the opposing teams] personnel with the best guys that are available for that particular week. That is what we decided to do this week. [Against] the Eagles we decided to play a nickel package. Each week we try to put the best personnel on the field to stop what they do.
Q: How much of it is personnel driven… You signed Walter [Thurmond] to play the nickel and he and Trumaine [McBride] both got hurt… You are stuck having to adjust personnel?
A: Yes. You can’t compensate for a guy like a Walter Thurmond, who went down. At the same time, you have to adjust. The adjustment that we are making now will have to be in a position where it is going to benefit the entire defense and team. With Jayron Hosley coming back to us, that was huge and it was the right timing because he is a starter and we treat him like a starter. He knows that and understands that. At the same time, we have to make sure we put him in a position to be successful. With our personnel and with injuries and Coach Coughlin will speak on injuries, but with things of that nature happening to us, we have to adjust as a defense and that is what we are doing.
Q: You have given up more big plays than you would have liked to this year in the back end… What do you attribute that to?
A: Those are things we just have to correct. As far as trying to point a finger to what happened in those particular situations, those are just plays we are going to have to correct.
Secondary/Cornerbacks Coach Peter Giunta
October 21, 2014
Re: Play of Prince Amukamara
A: He has been very good, he has been tight in coverage. It allows him, when a guy does catch the football, it’s tackled. There is not a lot of space between he and the receiver, which makes it easier and he will make the tackle. He has been very, very, good tackling this year and even in the run support stuff he has done a great job coming up, setting the edge when we needed him to, fill in the run gaps, he has done great job tackling.
Q: He said he was expecting to be left one on one with DeMarco Murray this week. Do you see more of an understanding of the game, more of an understanding of the scouting reports that he is getting.
A: He has a great understanding of the scheme right now and the system. He has been healthy the last couple of years. He has been able to go through OTA’s, been able to go through the mini-camps, the training camp, every rep in practice. He has been able to take all of those things, and he has done a great job of accumulating all of that knowledge and assimilating it through what he needs do on the practice field, and on the game field on Sunday. He is taking great strides forward in the last couple of years. Last year I think he missed a little bit of time in the Dallas game when he was friendly fired, knocked out for a little bit, but again he hasn’t missed a snap this year due to injury. He has done a great job learning and maturing, and getting better, and better.
Q: Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie, he has been dealing with the leg problem. I remember seeing him catch up to one play with the leg problem. Still looks like he is just as fast.
A: He is very fast. It is just a question of when it kicks in, when it starts to bother him, when he starts to have spasms, then he can’t go, he’s got to get that straightened out, then he can come back in and play. That is what he did, he toughed through the game against Dallas, and got reps when we needed him during the course of the football game. He has done a great job of trying to fight through it. The training staff is doing a great job, they have been trying to get him back as healthy as they can this bye week so the second half of the season he will be ready to go hopefully without any issues.
Q: How is the nickel situation? Jayron Hosley was in there this past weekend.
A: We split the time with Stevie Brown and Jayron Hosley to bring both of those guys along gradually because you need more than one. As you will find out, we are on our third or fourth guy right now. It is just the nature of the business, you are going to have injuries, and we are doing what we can to bring guys along, and get them ready to play. It is a difficult spot to play, sometimes you are a linebacker in run support, sometimes you are in man to man coverage, sometimes you are a zone linebacker cover guy. That is a position that needs some experience and Jayron Hosley has played the positon before for us and has done well in there, so hopefully he will continue to improve and get better. Missing the four weeks really hurt him and now he’s back trying to get his football legs back underneath him. Guys come back and they think they are in great shape, they run around with the trainers, or the strength staff, and lifting all that stuff, and then they get back on the field and they are dead after the first couple of days. He is starting to get his football legs back underneath him. He’s got some game reps, Sunday against Dallas, he’s starting hopefully to come on.
Q: If Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie gets healthy again would Zack Bowman be a guy you would consider in there, or is he just an outside guy?
A: Possibly. Right now we need him on the outside and he has done a great job outside. That is where he has played primarily his whole career. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie has had some experience inside so he is a possibility to go in there. You have two big physical guys on the edge, and him as a possibility inside with Jayron Hosley. It depends on the coverage, what we want to play, and who we have to match up against in the slot.
Q: One of the things that has been different this year is the number of big plays. Is it just simple mental mistakes?
A: No, it is a combination of things. We have been studying other teams and ourselves. What it is sometimes, it is a technique issue. I will give you an example, Prince Amukamara is playing Dez Bryant one on one, he caught a 24-yard pass on him, set up a touchdown. Prince Amukamara in press coverage had an interception against him. Sometimes you’ve got a great receiver and quarterback and it is one on one out there, sometimes they are going to win some battles, but you try to play the best technique and leverage you can. Monday, you critique what you did, what you could’ve done better to improve on that play. Sometimes it is technique, sometimes it is missed assignments, sometimes it missed tackles, sometimes it is avoiding the zone between the underneath coverage and the deep coverage. You try to address those problems every Monday, correct them and move on, but it is an issue that you continually address and try to minimize the number of big plays that we allowed.
Q: For Prince Amukamara, has everything just sunk in for him this year? He looks like he is really playing well.
A: It has. It has been accumulation of him working hard the past few years and staying healthy. He has been healthy the last two seasons, and hasn’t missed any time. When you don’t miss any time and you are able to go out and practice and get better every week, that is what happens. As a tribute to him, he has worked very, very hard in the offseason, in the classroom, on the practice field, to get better. We said, “Hey Prince, you’ve got to improve your hands, try juggling in the offseason” and he did. He learned how to juggle, he is doing everything he can to make himself a better football player to become one of the top corners in the league.
Q:……
A: All of our guys can play, we will put them out there. We talked earlier about putting Prince Amukamara…..”say hey listen you guys have got to go make plays.” We are going to put our best. We made a couple, they made a couple more than we did unfortunately. He competed, he was right there every snap with Dez Bryant, and the catches were contested, challenged throws, and that is what we want. We don’t want a guy wide open, he was all over him, he catches the ball, he’s trying to rip the ball out. That is what we want to do.
Q: Is Prince Amukamara really owning that role of the guy who covers the top receiver every game?
A: No, we will match him up based on how they are and what their skill set is compared to ours. We sometimes will match Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie on guys. I will give you an example, last year we played the Eagles, we put Trumaine McBride on DeSean Jackson, we put Prince Amukamara on Riley Cooper because Trumaine McBride is smaller, quicker, Prince Amukamara is bigger, stronger, more physical. If Trumaine McBride goes out on Riley Cooper, Riley Cooper will push him around because of his size and the quickness. You’ve got to match them up, not only because he’s their number one. What is their physical talent, what do they have, how do we match up against their talent. That is what it comes down to, it’s not just he is the number one so we put our number one. It’ got to be based on the skill set.
Q: Is Prince better more from a confidence standpoint?
A: They do, most of them do, the really good ones, they want to get matched up. I want to take their best out the game, and they are like that. He has done a great job of coming to the point where he feels very confident in his ability this year.
Demps needs to be replaced ASAP.