Monday Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Shane Bowen

Defensive Coordinator Shane Bowen

Q. Shane Bowen defense, you know, we saw it in Tennessee obviously. What at the end of the day do you want the Shane Bowen New York Giants defense, when people say that, what are they going to see on the field?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I hope they see us flying around, playing with speed, playing with great effort. I think a physicality to our game, playing with violence. Attacking the line of scrimmage. Guys being fundamentally sound. Not beating ourselves. Making sure we are lined up, we are communicating, doing everything pre-snap that we need to do to put ourselves in position to make plays.

Ultimately if guys fly around and we play physical, I feel like that makes up for a lot of stuff.

Q. What's your sense of familiarity with this roster right now? Obviously it's day one with the players and how much work do you have to do to figure out these guys?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, spring is going to be huge for that. Just talking to them this morning. It's a clean slate for a lot of guys. Everybody is going to get opportunities. We are going to do some different things, put people in some different places than they might have been at times. I mean, I'm familiar. I've watched all the film from last season, so I have an idea, strengths, weaknesses, areas I think we need to improve, players need to improve specifically. But that will kind of continue throughout the spring.

Q. When you come in and take over as coordinator, how much of it -- of what you do is, this is my defense, compared to these guys do this well, I don't want to change them.

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, that's a good question. Ultimately as a coach in my opinion, you've got to put the players you have in the best situations for them to be successful, right.

So we have our scheme, our systematic thinking of what we want to do defensively. But at the same time, we've got to be able to adjust; I think great coaching staffs always do. You've got to be able to adjust to who you have. So you're putting those guys in positions that are favorable to them and not putting them in positions that they might struggle in.

Q. Just to sort of piggyback on that, they ran a pretty unique scheme for a couple years. For returning players, how much of an adjustment do you think it will be to transition into what you're going to run?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, there's some similarities. There are. Obviously Wink (Martindale) took over for Dean (Pees) in Baltimore. I took over for Dean in Tennessee. So there's some terminology aspects that are going to be similar.

I mean, you guys know the stats, just in terms of blitz rate, what it was here compared to what we were in Tennessee.

Ultimately we are going to do what we need to do to win. I think the biggest thing for me right now is getting a good handle on these guys and introducing from the ground -- ground level all the way up through making sure we are understanding the style of play we want to play with, first and foremost, and then as we get into X's and O's and kind of evolve, and I get a better feel for those guys, that will kind of take on a life of its own as we go.

Q. And then just kind of for my purposes, in the past, we knew what the prototypes were for certain positions. Curious at cornerback, what are you looking for? What are the traits, size, measurables that you are looking for at that position?

SHANE BOWEN: I want guys that can defend the deep part of the field, guys that can play man coverage and guys that are willing to tackle.

Obviously measurables are great, but if they are able to get their job done with being a little bit less than some of those measurables, then I'm okay with that. But those are the big three for me.

Q. First of all, just what was kind of your reaction to the Brian Burns trade and kind of the process as that played out?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I'm excited to have him here. I am. Just getting him in the building today. Obviously he's had success in this league. He's been an impact player in this league.

So I'm excited to get him here and we'll work kind of throughout the spring and see where he's at and just like all these other guys, we've got things for him that he can improve on and things that he's got to continue to do as a high level. But really excited to add him.

Q. How much do you expect the front, the defensive line and the front seven to be a strength and how important is that given the history of this franchise?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I hope. I hope it's a big strength for us. We've got guys up there. We've got resources up there. And those guys, I'm expecting big things from them and we are going to demand big things from them. Hopefully they can play off each other. I think they complement each other in terms of what they do well and in terms of rush coordination and things that come into play with that. But I'm going to have high standards for that group.

Q. I can't really ignore the elephant in the room; that it didn't end well here for your predecessor. What kind of work did you do -- investigation did you do into that into how you would be able to get along with Brian Daboll? Obviously I don't think you've worked with him but Vrabel has, right, and you probably have a lot of similar connections. What kind of research did you do before taking this job?

SHANE BOWEN: I met with Dabs throughout the interview process and got a feel for who he was and obviously everybody is pretty connected throughout this league. So you have an idea.

Everything has been great. It's been really, really encouraging being here these past two months, working with him and I'm excited for where this thing is going to go in the future.

Q. Obviously you kept a lot of the former position coaches. What went into that? Obviously like you know a lot of defensive coordinators want to pick their whole staff. Why were you okay with keeping some of the guys that were already here, did you interview them or was that kind of an understood process in taking the job?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I think all the guys that were retained are really good coaches. I think they are really great at connecting with their players. They have had those relationships and that's such a big piece in coaching. Probably the most important piece in coaching is the relationship side of this business.

I always say, these players don't care what you know until they know how much you care, right. So I think that was a big part of it for me is just their familiarity, their relationships already in place with these players. Got a great feel for all those guys. What we're trying to do, I feel like they are in line with. They are in sync. They have got great ideas.

So I'm really happy we were able to retain them. And I think it's going to be a benefit for me, not only early on getting a feel for these players and how things operate and how they operate from a day-to-day basis, but also moving forward, really, with all these relationships.

Q. What's it like to inherit a player like a Dexter Lawrence?

SHANE BOWEN: It's good. It's good. I'm excited. I'm excited to coach him. I am. He's a proven player in this league. I think the thing is just the continued leadership that comes with his success. Continue to push the envelope in terms of that. But in terms of the play, what he brings out there on Sunday, from what I understand from what he brings day-in and day-out here, I'm excited to have the opportunity to coach him and what he can bring to our defense.

Q. Will your players have to unlearn some of what they spent the last seasons doing under Wink because of the different concepts?

SHANE BOWEN: I don't know if I would say unlearn. They will take some of that, what they have learned. The biggest thing to me is probably terminology, right. Everybody does a lot of the same stuff, has a lot of the same scheme and system in their systems. It's really just a terminology -- and even me learning as I've kind of progressed through it. How can I relate to what we are calling this now so what we called it before, right.

So more or less, I think it's more so that. Because playing football is playing football. The technique, the fundamentals, all that is going to be pretty similar I think throughout schemes. Mainly the terminology.

Q. I'm wondering how you go about coaching the new hip drop tackle rules. Obviously you're not going to be able to do it live too much in practices and things like that. How do you attack that change?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, we are in the process of studying it now. I think just bringing awareness to it. Understand that the biggest thing for me is the situations guys find themselves in when they occur, right. Like if we have a good understanding of that, I think that will lead to hopefully us being able to avoid it. I don't know if it's going to be a hundred percent avoidable at times. I hope it is. But at times, you're going to be caught in some situations, and those guys, they are going to do whatever they can to get the guy down on the ground. It might happen.

But right now, we are studying them. We are trying to make cutups of them where we can show the guys just so they have a good understanding of in this situation when you're in this body position with the ball carrier, these are when these things are showing up, and then we have got to be able to teach from that to where we can eliminate getting ourselves in those situations.

Q. If I could follow up on a different angle. Isaiah Simmons is a guy that you guys brought back. Didn't have to, right. So obviously you have some kind of a vision for him. What is that vision? Where do you see him fitting in in your scheme?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I'm excited he decided to come back. I'm excited we were able to get him back here. He's a unique skillset and I think it's a fine line for coaches. You see all the different, I guess, things he's able to do but you can't overload him.

We are going to have to work through the spring. Right now, I couldn't give you a definite answer. I really couldn't. I think some of that is going to depend on some of these other positions and how things play out. He's played outside. He's played deep. He's played inside. I think the versatility to play man coverage is a big asset. The versatility to blitz. We are going to work through that this spring and hopefully get him in a spot he feels most comfortable where he can be most productive for us.

Q. I'm curious, when you went through the evaluation of what is on the roster, what stood out to you?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I think obviously now, I think the front. Probably the main thing that stood out to me throughout was the depth. I think we have really good depth here. I think there's a bunch of guys that have played a lot of football here. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those guys compete for possibly a bigger role here this spring as we kind of get through practice and get into OTAs.

But that would probably be the biggest thing. I think we've got good players at all levels. I think we have impact players at all levels. So I'm very encouraged with what we have right now.

Q. I think when people say, okay, what is Shane Bowen's defense, a lot of people are like, well, that's Vrabel's defense because I'm sure as a head coach he probably had some input. How different do you envision your defense being? You know, without Vrabel here, without his input, obviously I'm sure you'll bring a lot of the same things, but will it look different and how much?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I think we're kind of working through that right now as a staff. Just what we want it to look like. We have an idea. There's going to be some things that we did in Tennessee over the years that I feel strongly in schematically-wise, and then just really getting a feel for these players as we go with what my comfort level, with what they are able to handle, how much we are putting on them. The last thing I want to do is have so much scheme we can't focus on our style of play, the technique, the fundamentals and paralyzing ourselves before the snap.

I want to make sure that when that center has his hand on the ball, we are lined up. We've got our cleats in the ground and we are ready to roll and attack and play ball and we are not overthinking out there.

Q. Just wondering if you can talk a little about Kayvon Thibodeaux, I know you have not really started working with him yet. I'm sure you've studied him on tape. What did you see from him and what do you think his ceiling is?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, he had a productive year last year. Our goal is to build on last season. I think the addition of Burns, having those guys be able to compete day-in and day-out is going to be big for him.

With any young player, and I know he's a little bit further along, but with any of these guys that are still kind of figuring it out, it's just this time of year is huge for them. The development, the technique, the fundamentals. Like we are going to drive that home to them and hopefully we can continue to get that same level of production and with some more technique, fundamentals that we are going to be coaching, we can get a little more out of them.

But again, we'll see. We'll see how the spring goes. We'll see where we are at come training camp and obviously once the season gets going, where things are. But I'm excited to have him here. I think he's a talented player who hopefully he's going to be an impact player for us.

Q. And then if I could just follow up on the pass rush concept here. There's obviously different ways you can generate a pass rush. What's your philosophy as far as do you like to do it from the front seven? Do you like to throw in exotic blitzes? Do you do a little bit of everything?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I would say, I mean, if you go back and look at my time in Tennessee, it's been a lot of front pressure, right. Like the front four, being coordinated with their rush lanes, working together, finding ways to affect the quarterback and then being able to use that to be multiple on the back end, right, where you're not delegating a piece up front. But we have done the gamut. We have brought four; we have brought five; we have brought six. We've done some of the zone pressure stuff, overload stuff. So we have it all.

I think as we get a feel here into training camp andreally based on how we are feeling with the front and some of these other guys, how they can impact as rushers from the second level, all that stuff comes into play.

And really ultimately you're talking about how you want to delegate resources, right. Are you delegating them for the rush, or are you trying to delegate them for the back end and some of that comes into play how good you are in the back end with less or how good you are rushing the quarterback with a little bit less. That will evolve as we go but my history has been, if we've got four guys that can rush, we are going to let them go rush.

Q. Obviously you're going to be teaming something that's a little bit different than what these guys have learned in the past. How do you -- do you have to be aware of that and how do you go about building trust with these guys and building buy-in into what you're trying to teach?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think the approach is a little bit different. I don't think in terms of the teaching and the schematics, there's going to be a whole lot of difference. I think the approach day-to-day, week-to-week, in terms of our game plan, that might change a little bit.

But I don't think there's -- going back to the previous question, I don't think they are really going to have to unlearn anything. I think it's just going to be what we are emphasizing a little bit more, these guys understanding their piece in the defense, how it all works together, understanding concepts, being able to tie them in so we can do different things that are similar in a lot of ways, but there might be one or two variations here or there.

But the focus right now is on style of play, on fundamentals and as we get to scheme and we get going in that direction, I think they will be able to pull a lot from what they have done in the past and then if there's some new things here or there, we'll teach them, right. We'll teach them.

But ultimately for me I think it's more of a general approach from my standpoint than anything.

Q. You mentioned earlier the blitz percentages. We all know them and we all know what the Giants did last year but philosophically, it's almost like people wants to use those percentages and look at yours and say, well, we know Bowen is not going to blitz at all. I talked to people down in Tennessee and said that's not true. What do you say to that idea that you like to play passively on the back end and you're not going to bring guys on the blitz?

SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I'm going to do whatever we've got to do to affect the quarterback and make sure the ball don't get thrown over our head. Whatever that is, however many guys we've got to send. However, I guess, less guys you can send and still get the same result, I think all that comes into play.

And it takes all 11. It does. Like I mentioned earlier, if you're bringing more to affect the quarterback, you've got less back there to help, right. If you have more back there to help in coverage, you've got less going to affect the quarterback.

So it takes all 11. It all ties together, the rush, the coverage, however you want to piece it together, I think depends a little bit on personnel, how you're able to affect with less, how you're able to affect with more versus how you're able to hold up in the back end.

So it's going to be fluid. Like we've done it all. We really have. The percentages might not show up, but you go back and find the ones that we did, it's probably going to look a lot similar to what is was here, a little bit more on a higher percentage than what we did in Tennessee.