Transcript: DB Logan Ryan

DB Logan Ryan

October 7, 2020

Q: What’s been your impression of Patrick Graham since you signed with the Giants? What do you think about him as a coach? How would you describe his style and what has it been like playing for him?

A: It’s been great. He’s really intellectual. He moves his players around, he moves me around a lot to help the defense to the best of my abilities and my skill set. I think last week was, although not a win, I think it was the players executing his vision a little bit. It was very creative in our game plan and very different than what we’ve done to stop the Rams. I believe that he’s a coordinator that’s not afraid to change from week to week in order to take away the opponent’s strengths. I think a good example of that was the Rams game and I think it’s up to the players to execute it. I think last week was our best job for the most part, all but two drives, of executing his vision. I love playing for him.

Q: Do you find yourself knocking on the offensive coordinator’s door maybe a little more this week because of the knowledge he has of the opponent?

A: Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ll be talking to Jason a little bit more and will continue to do that. They have a new offense, coordinator, new head coach over there, a little bit of a different system. We’ll just learn the tendencies of Dak. We have to do something, he’s playing extremely well, as well as any quarterback in the league right now. The best offense in football in terms of explosive plays, points and all that stuff. Obviously 500 yards passing, I have to ask a couple questions to figure out how to slow that up. I have my work cut out for me. Any hint and tip I can get, I’m one known to take it and see if it applies. I definitely will be asking him, buy him some lunch this week. Maybe dinner, we’ll be staying late.

Q: What are the challenges of a “game plan specific” defense. I don’t know if you have played in different ones. I think it was that way in New England, I don’t know about Tennessee.

A: Pat Graham is a huge reason I’m here. I talked to him before signing and I just loved the vision he had for me and this defense. It takes smart players, it takes good players and I think we are becoming better every week. You definitely need some intellectual players back there to manage it. It takes players without too big of an ego. ‘Oh, I’m only a 4-3 guy, I’m only a 3-4 guy, I’m only a strong safety, I only like to tackle, I don’t cover, I don’t cover tight ends.’ You have to take the ‘me’ guys out of it. You have to be a team first guy. Some game plans, your numbers might be called to blitz. I love to blitz. Some games, I blitz 30 times. Other games, I don’t blitz once. I don’t know if I blitzed last week and I love to blitz, but it was the best game plan to get our defense to stop what the Rams did and it worked for most of the game. I think you have to be selfless, I think you have to be pretty smart and I think you have to put the team first in order to play in it. I think we have a bunch of guys that are like that here, that like working hard and like playing gritty, hard-nosed defense.

Q: What’s it going to be like or do you have any feeling about playing in front of fans?

A: I’m excited. Even though I do not like the Cowboys personally. Growing up in New Jersey, no matter what team you root for, you root against the Cowboys. I love the energy the fans bring, the good and bad. Nothing is (better) than quieting a road stadium. I think it will be fun. I wish we had fans here in New Jersey, they bring a lot of energy to the game. I’m excited for it, but we have to do something to quiet those fans. We have to play well and that’s the best thing we have to do. I’m focused on playing, first and foremost. I never mind the crowd, the bigger the better. I feel like that’s when I perform my best.

Q: Do you guys feel like you’re any closer after last week?

A: Yeah, I think so, but ‘close but no cigar’, right? I feel like we’re getting closer. Like I said, I feel like we’re executing the vision, we just have to find a way to pull it out. I told you this time last week, no better challenge than McVay and the best offensive coordinator in football. This week we have the best passer in football, the most explosive offense. Three great receivers, maybe the best running back in football with Saquon down. We have a tall task at hand. I think there’s nothing better to see how we stack up than a division opponent, a rival with an explosive offense. I think that puts a lot on our plate, but I think we’ll perform to the best of our abilities. Our preparation is really high, and I think it has to continue to be that.

Q: I know it’s a little bit of a repeat to keep going down this road of the Patrick Graham system and game plan week to week. One thing I thought of as you were talking about this. When you have young players, I think Pat talked about it last week. The idea that you look at them and you try to convince them just listen to us, trust us. When you have a game that played out almost exactly how it was laid out for you guys defensively on Sunday, how much different is it in the meetings this morning when you guys get together and you start rolling out that game plan? Are guys more bought in than they were? Is there more validation for the guys? Maybe not for you because you knew what you were getting into? For guys to look at it and say you know what, maybe they’re onto something here? Maybe this is ready to work.

A: I wouldn’t say more bought in. I think Joe Judge is going to make sure you are bought in or you’re not going to be here. I think everyone is bought in. I was a young player before, you need reps. When I was in New England my rookie year, led all defensive snaps played in the preseason. I played like 80 snaps a game every preseason game. They started me and kept me in every snap. I had so much reps going into the season. These guys are just getting done with their fourth NFL game and there’s no preseason. I think what they’re starting to see is their execution, see what it looks like when they do it well. They’re having some success in the games. Darnay Holmes is starting to have some success in the games. He’s like, ‘wow, okay, I can actually do it at this level.’ He’s got four games under his belt and unfortunately in a normal year, that’s just the preseason, those games don’t count. This year, they count. Every rookie I’m sure is going through the same thing, every young guy, every first-year-in-a-system guy is going through it. You don’t have practice reps that you normally would have. You don’t have the preseason reps that you would normally have. Those are live game reps against good offenses, good offensive coordinators who are looking to take advantage of young players. Looking to take advantage of new players. We’ve had a lot of turnover here, new players, some young players but, hey, there’s no excuses being made. We’re trying to learn and build. I think last week was a good building block for us. I’m excited to take on the Cowboys with the group I have, because we have a group of fighters. We have group of guys who are believing, a group of guys that will do whatever it takes. Whatever I say out there, I believe these guys are starting to do it and put it on for the team. I think we’re starting to see what good defense actually looks like, actually performing it. I think we believe it, but we’re starting to execute it.

Q: First off, you endeared yourself to Giants fans when you said you don’t like the Cowboys. Just to get away from football for a bit, you have an animal rescue foundation and if that’s true, can you talk about it a little bit? How you got into it and all that?

A: We can talk for hours about it. My wife and I started the Ryan Animal Rescue Foundation three years ago. My wife, who I met at Rutgers, softball player, she’s a stud, I got lucky. When I moved to New England and we were dating, she started working at an animal shelter. I saw her actually work, I saw her make minimum wage. I saw her sweep up kennels, I saw the issues in the shelter. I wanted to start to use my platform to start getting dogs adopted and kids adopted. Help out and take pictures, throw them on my Instagram seven, eight years ago. Fast forward to a great foundation. We’ve raised over $250,000 for animal welfare. I’ve donated over $100,000 of my own money, my own earnings, to education reform, actually income to fix up shelters, to pay for spade-neuter clinics, for vaccines. I’m partnering with My Pitbull is Family right now talking about the struggles of me looking for a rental with my Pitbull and any large breed dog. It’s been tough in this area, it’s been tough around the country to rent with a large breed dog. I’m partnering with them, they have the world’s largest database for rentals that allow pets of any size, that don’t discriminate against breeds. Started a campaign, Breed Restriction Is Wrong. You can follow that on my Instagram and all that information there. I’m always looking out for my four-legged friends, and I just love people. I love animal lovers, I grew up with animals. Usually people that have animals are good people. Usually people that don’t, I’m not saying they’re bad people, but serial killers are people that torture animals. I’m on the opposite side of that, I love animals. I love my animal community and it transcends my jersey color. I have fans from Tennessee, I have fans from New England because they know what I do with these animals. My wife, like I said, worked in the industry. She’s a licensed dog trainer, she runs the foundation with me. Ryan Animal Rescue Foundation, three years running, and we’ll continue to go for a long time.

Q: What’s a better feeling, an interception or saving a dog?

A: I can save dogs every day of my life. I can’t get an interception every day of my life. The interception is better at the moment, but I can’t pick one dog that I saved that’s the best, they all feel great. That is a tough one but, hey, the interceptions come few and far between, so I’m going with the interception at the moment to answer the question.

Q: What do you think of Daniel Jones as a young quarterback and as a leader? Even though you are playing on defense. As a veteran who sees the game as well as you do, do you ever go over to a guy who either he’s struggling or the unit is struggling and talk to him a little bit? Assure him of the process.

A: I’ve been on quote about this. I pride myself on learning from Tom Brady and being the first one to the building. Today, I beat Daniel, that’s on record. Maybe two days this entire season I beat Daniel Jones to the building. We’re the first two in here. We talk a lot, he asks me questions about defense, I ask him a lot of questions about offense. I’m trying to make it hard on the quarterback, I’m trying to make it hard on him every day. He makes it hard on me. We do talk a lot. I was a high school quarterback, I couldn’t even play in college. I don’t dip my toe in it too much. Anything he needs, he knows I’m an open book. Like I said, he’s a hard worker. He’s in the building well before anybody else, me and him are. I believe in him, I have full faith in him. However it’s going right now, it’s four games. However many starts he has in his career, it’s a young career. He has to keep his confidence and keep growing. He has no problem being a leader, he has no problem working hard. He has no problem putting the time in, I think the Giants have the right guy when it comes to that. What he does in the games, that’s on him, I’m just doing my best to be an open book to prepare him the best I can for every Sunday.