Monday Media Transcript: Defensive Line Coach Robert Nunn

Defensive Line Coach Robert Nunn

November 16, 2015

Q: Now that [JPP] is here you look back --- I know you communicated with him while he was in Miami. Did you ever realistically think he would be back and be able to be a presence?

A: As time went on, yeah, I did. At first, no one knew and he didn’t know and there was concern about a lot of things; his career, his life and everything from the very beginning the guy had --- the first thing he was wondering was if he was going to live when it first happened. As time went on, I felt comfortable that he was going to get back in here and we are back now and are started and we will keep adjusting to what is best for him.

Q: What can you do as a coach with techniques and things? Is this uncharted territory for you also to help him?

A: Yeah, this thing did not come with a set of instructions of how to do it and how to fight through it so, we are working each day. He is working with Ronnie Barnes each day trying to adjust his glove and get comfortable with it, so we are going through each practice by practice and keep trying to adjust to get him comfortable and he continues to get better.

Q: As far as techniques you can help him with, is it one handed techniques and how to use that in different ways?

A: Well yeah, how to use his hand as much as we can is the biggest thing we have tried to work on. It would have been nice to have training camp to work on those techniques --- you really don’t have a lot of time to work on technique with the way practices are structured during the season, so we [have been using] a little bit of trial and error but his attitude could not be better. He has come in here with the right frame of mind and he is working through everything we have put out, so he has done a good job with that.

Q: The pass rush has obviously looked better in the last five quarters. It seems like a lot of it has to do with his presence. Is that accurate or are their other factors?

A: Yes. When he is out there, they know he is out there and it helps everyone else, so he has had some really good pressures and he had the sack that was taken away yesterday on a tough call, but if he continues to do what he is doing right now, things are going to work out.

Q: If you look at the statistics, one of the things I’ve noticed is there haven’t been a lot of tackles. Is it that he is learning how to tackle [with the injury]?

A: I wouldn’t say that. He hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities. There have been a couple of plays in each game where it really was a factor of him not making the tackle, which he had an assist on one, but the old JPP would have shed the tight end and come off and made the play, but for the most part there have not been that many opportunities. He just needs to continue to work, using that thing and he does --- you see him every once in a while shy away from it and I ask him if it hurts, and no it doesn’t hurt. It is just hard to get used to using. We just have to continue to work on blow delivery and things that we work on in practice until he gets more and more comfortable. There were a couple times yesterday where he used both hands and just shocked people at the line of scrimmage, but he was inconsistent.

Q: Since he has been on the field, you have been using Ayers in tandem with him at tackle and it seems like it has really ignited Ayers as well. Is that kind of the idea that his presence is not only helping himself but now you are able to do things off of that? Is that kind of thing just going to progress in your mind over the next couple of weeks?

A: We hope so. That is what we are trying to do. He does help everyone else, there is no doubt --- it opens some things up for Robert, Robert can move inside more, which is what he does best is rush inside, so having [JPP] back certainly opens up other opportunities for everybody else.

Q: You get JPP back about the same time you lose Johnathan Hankins off the line. How big a blow was that?

A: That was tough one. In our meeting room, Jonathan is such a big part of our group and he is such a solid player. He is one of those guys that is not going to show up every day on the stat sheet but he is another one that causes people to make plays and that was tough loss for us. Yesterday I thought Markus Kuhn had probably his best game as a Giant, Jay Bromley is doing some good things and then (Montori) Hughes came in and had some good reps for us. He probably had about a dozen reps, so they have some big shoes to fill with Hank.

Q: How is Bromley coming along?

A: Jay is coming along. He had a good game a couple weeks ago. I thought yesterday he could have played a little bit better, but I thought he had a couple opportunities to make a couple plays yesterday but he has got to continue to get better. We lost Hankins and it is a great opportunity for him and the guy works every day, does exactly what you ask him to do and I love coaching him and he has got to continue to improve.

Q: Did you run Kerry Wynn into the ground a little bit too much earlier in the year because it has seemed like he has slowed down a little bit?

A: I don’t know about that --- the thing Kerry needs to improve on is the pass rush and the last couple of games they have been winging the ball all over the yard and so --- no, I felt like yesterday when he was in there he did a good job. He is another one that in these next six games has to come through big for us and he does an outstanding job in the run game. He just has to continue to work on his pass rush technique and triggering the pass off play action pass and things like that and he is a solid young player.

Q: We talked about JPP before and you said you might have left him in a little too long yesterday. Going forward, do you think you have to limit him a little bit and be cautious with that?

A: No, I just have to keep an eye on it. Yesterday there were a couple times I wish I would have pulled him out and rested him just a minute and throughout his career, it has always been good to get him over and talk to him a little bit and when he goes back in, it just seems to clear up a little bit and he plays faster. Yesterday I thought at times he wasn’t playing as fast, not necessarily loafing, he just wasn’t playing fast mentally and when he is playing fast, he is hard to deal with.

Q: When JPP first came back nobody was really sure how much he was going to work in and once you got a look at him, did the expectation levels kind of shoot up a little bit?

A: Yeah, we went into the Tampa game and I told him that I was going to keep him about 15 reps the first half and at halftime he felt good and I felt his presence out there and he ended up playing probably a little more than I expected from him to in that first game, too, but the quarterback and the left tackle knew he was out there and when you feel that, it opens up opportunity for everyone else.

Q: Is he getting doubled as much as he used to?

A: He got a lot of chips yesterday and even in Tampa he was getting chipped and they were helping out there and once again that opened up some things for Robert and Cullen inside and when that happens, then they have to step up to the plate.

Q: He is about 10 pounds lighter. How has that affected him strength wise?

A: I like where his weight is. The thing that we have to do is keep working on his technique with his hand and he is going to keep --- Ronnie is going to keep altering his glove until he gets more and more comfortable, which will only help, and getting more comfortable of putting his hand in there and he does it at times and he doesn’t at times, so we just have to keep working through that.

Q: What is the end game with the equipment?

A: We are hoping to get to a softer glove where he can grip a little bit, but it is what he is comfortable with and we keep adjusting and like I said, this whole thing we are using a little bit of trial and error, we don’t have any instructions to go by, so we will keep letting him --- he and Ronnie are constantly working on it and what he likes and constantly working on it, so we will keep adjusting.