Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn
December 11, 2014
RE: Situation with Weatherford during the game last week.
A: It was an unfortunate incident that transpired obviously, that we both wish we could have back. We are fiery, we’re competitive, and it escalated way too far. I’ve got too much respect for the game and this organization and our head coach to have something like put out there. We apologized, we were good the next punt, just trying to communicate with him. He was frustrated with how he punted it, so that was it, just a miscommunication right there.
Q: What do you regret about it?
A: The fact that I put my hands on him. I let it get that way. When you coach special teams, your eyes are always on the field. So once he goes, he may not punt again for another ten, fifteen minutes, but I am going to have punt return, I could have field goal block, I could have kickoff return, so I was trying to get a point to him. It has happened before, it happened in the Super Bowl. He came off and he hit a punt and I got a correction to him.
RE: By “happened,” you mean just verbally?
A: Verbally, yeah. You try to catch him and get it done. It is unfortunate, but we are good. We communicate well with each other.
Q: You said you have too much respect for Tom Coughlin. Did you have to say anything to him?
A: No, we talked about it, he talked to me about it, and we’re good.
Q: What was it about exactly?
A: No, I was just going to make a coaching point.
Q: Is he frustrated with himself, or with something you were about to tell him?
A: I think we were both frustrated about the punt.
Q: Washington Redskins have a good punter [Tres Way]
A: He’s very strong, he’s got one of the highest hang times I ever recorded, which is like 5.5, 5.3, 5.6 on a 55-yard punt, which is tough to do.
Q: His net is close to 40.
A: You want a 40-yard net, and they have done a good job of him coming in his first year. He is tremendous, big challenge; they will get it started with that amount of hang time.
Q: What is normal?
A: Once it gets over 50 yards and you can get it around 4.7-4.8, I think that is pretty good.
Q: It is almost a full second even beyond that.
A: It’s looking up, looking up, looking up. He’s good; he is a strong one.
Q: They gave up a long return last week.
A: They did, yeah.
Q: Was that a miskick?
A: No, it was good kick. Just lost one of their gunners out of bounds, and a couple of other things happened.
Q: How close is Odell Beckham Jr. to breaking one?
A: I hope pretty close. We put a lot of work into it and have been waiting a long time for it. I think they are blocking better, and they are getting a sense of timing. Pretty close that last couple of weeks. You just have to keep swinging away.
Q: In San Diego’s game with the Patriots the other night, the punter got hurt. Do you guys have emergency guys?
A: Yeah, Josh Brown is there. It is not a big list. Josh Brown goes to punter and he had to work it a couple, probably two months ago now, when Steve Weatherford was ailing a little bit. Steve Weatherford is the backup kicker and Ryan Nassib is the backup holder. It becomes a little bit of circus when you lose one of these guys.
Q: Odell Beckham Jr. might be a decent option at kicker, too, now.
A: As long as he can catch it and spin it and kick, it will be good. He was a real good soccer player growing up. So he is a skilled athlete.
