Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo
November 30, 2017
Opening Statement: The weather has been great. I mean, we’re pretty fortunate here in November. I only say that because I enjoyed being out there today. It was nice. It was good to be coaching football and on the field and outside. Having said that, I’ll just open it up and let you all fire away.
Q: Where does Eli Apple stand, was he benched and is he going to play?
A: Eli is back in the fold and depending on what package we’re in, you’ll see him out there. So, that’s a good thing. That’ll help us.
Q: Do you need him to be a starter at this point since you lost Janoris Jenkins?
A: We got a lot of guys - yeah. There’s a lot of faces out there. I was going through the meeting – I think it was yesterday – I kept doing one of these, I thought I was in rookie mini-camp, you know, with learning the names. That’s normally when we have a sheet of paper with everybody’s face on it, but we got to work through that. There’s been some moving pieces. I’m praying that Jackrabbit (Janoris Jenkins) is OK. I know yesterday he had the surgery and ‘Double D’ (Donte Deayon) had surgery. I don’t know if you all know that, but I’m praying for all those guys. We’re going to miss them. We’re going to miss their presence, but the guys that are here are going to have to step in. Our guys that have been here that know what we’re doing, some guys that are new are going to have to learn real quickly. You know, who knows what’s going to happen in the game. We might get another shoulder, an ankle or something. Somebody’s got to go in there. So, we fight through that like every other team does.
Q: Was Eli out because he missed practice time or has he been a disciplinary issue for you?
A: I know Ben (McAdoo) has addressed a lot of that and I think that’s a head coach’s subject, so I’m going to stand on Ben’s remarks. I’m just glad that we got him back in the fold and we’re just ready to go play a game.
Q: Did you ever think you would be here when Eli Manning was benched?
A: I never thought that way. Look it, goes without saying, I love Eli Manning and this is tough, but all I have is love for him and let the rest work itself out.
Q: Are you impressed with Eli Manning giving it his all on the scout team.
A: Yeah, I mean, Eli has always impressed me. I haven’t had a chance to really see Eli since that particular announcement, but look it, just right here for Eli in my regards because we’ve been together through a lot of good things and I respect him a great deal. I really do. Anything about defense?
Q: You made a joke that it’s like a rookie mini-camp in the meeting room. Do you know everybody?
A: Well, obviously, I know who they are. There are some guys I haven’t seen a lot, but hopefully there are guys that we brought – the scouting department did a great job getting some guys in here and hopefully we can fit some pieces where we need. It’s always hard when you talk about corners and being an inside guy and an outside guy and where they play. So, we’re trying to figure that out a little bit. But, we’ve got guys right now. Hopefully if we keep everybody healthy, knock on wood, that have played a little bit for us. I mean, a little bit has been dictated by what (the Raiders) do, what they put out there. They are a team in the past that has had a lot of four wide receiver sets. I don’t know what it will be like now, but we have to prepare for everything.
Q: What do you expect from LB B.J. Goodson at this point?
A: Well, interesting. You guys would probably know better than me how long it’s been. It seems like an awfully long time since we’ve had B.J. An awfully long time since you go back to Dallas when he had 18 tackles. We really miss that. I think it’s hard, you know, to think that somebody can step in, especially at the linebacker position, and play 70 plays. That’s going to be tough. Just physically, it’s hard. We found that out when Kelvin Sheppard had to go in, but we’re going to try and keep him healthy and rotate some guys in there. It’s good to have him back. Love the voice out there. He’s running real well, keep our fingers crossed he stays healthy. He’ll be OK.
Q: What can B.J. Goodson bring to you guys?
A: Yeah, you know, he runs real well. He’s a sideline to sideline guy. We’ve seen that ever since we moved him to Mike linebacker. I thought he did a great job of that in the Dallas game with all the tackles he got. Then he got slowed down by the injury. I forget what it was after going into the Detroit game, but we lost him there. But, I think he runs real well. He’s a physical guy. We need all that with this particular run game we’re going to face.
Q: Is Marshawn Lynch still a dangerous running back?
A: Yeah. Mean runner. I went on YouTube. I don’t know why I did this. I went on YouTube and I just – I don’t even know how to do that real well, but there was a lot of Marshawn Lynch’s videos. He scares me, you know, but I got a lot of respect for him as a football player. Loves playing ball. The way he runs. We’ve been talking about it all week. That’s going to be target No. 1 because he’s a good football player. We can’t let them get the run game going. I mean, it always begins there and this is the same with this football team.
Q: They’re missing Michael Crabtree this week. With Derek Carr, how dangerous does that make the Raiders’ offense?
A: You know, really all of their wide outs are really fast speed guys and when you put the tape on, they don’t always get it there. They have a number of times. They’ll take shots at them, but there’s guys running downfield that are open with some speed. That concerns us. We talk a lot about that. We can’t allow that explosive deep play. But, I got a lot of respect for all of their wide outs because of the speed that they possess. I think they’re a really fast offensive team. I think they were purposefully built that way and I know they’ll miss Crabtree because he’s a really good football player, but I think they have other guys in there that can do a nice job, too.
Q: It seems like Landon Collins has returned to form a bit.
A: I’m glad you brought that up. I just think he feels healthier. I asked him the other day. I think you all know that he’s been battling that high ankle sprain from way back and didn’t miss anything. He takes a lot of pride in that. That’s how those Alabama guys are. They just fight through it and now I think he’s finally running the way he wants. I know he feels that way, so keep our fingers crossed he can stay like that.