Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (10.17.24)
Is it nice that you’re starting to see a couple safeties back with Grant (Delpit) coming back in there and Juan (Thornhill) being back at practice?
“Yeah, I mean, both of them returned to practice. Grant still has another hurdle to go to be clear for the game and I think same thing with Juan. We just need to see how he looks in practice and things like that, make sure we’re not rushing him back. But certainly, it’d be nice to have those guys back on the field. Our depth was really tested at that position. I thought coming into this year, we had a lot of really good players, but also a lot of depth and guys that had sort of played a lot of football for us, whether it be Ronnie Hickman, or D’Anthony Bell or Rodney McLeod in those substitution and reserve roles. But that was certainly tested over these last couple games. So, yeah, any players you can get back is good. I’d say this, that Rodney’s played at a really high level for us. It’s probably not ideal from just the number of years he’s been in the league for him to be out there playing every single snap for a long period of time, but he certainly has made a lot of plays for us and tackled really well for us. Had that one miss against Vegas, but rest of the time has really been a reliable player for us, and it’s given us stability, which you would expect from a veteran player like that.”
On that long catch and run for touchdown by (DeVonta) Smith last week, what do you guys, I guess it was a good play calling against man, but what do you guys have to do better on that play than that last one?
“Yeah, I mean, anytime you get traffic in man, they’re trying to pick and rub and things like that, you have a decision to make. You either undercut it or you go over top. If you go over the top, you’re basically giving them six, seven, eight yards, but you’re in good position to be able to stop the play. After that, if you try to undercut it, there’s a chance you can make the play and hold it to an incompletion, but also there’s a chance it can go for farther. We chose none of the above. And that was disappointing because our awareness on that play wasn’t very good. They had a man indicator, there was traffic on the other side, and we didn’t anticipate that play, and we got that play earlier in the game, so that was disappointing. I expect more from our corners. We challenged our corners to improve their play for us. I’ve been very strong in saying that I think our corners are the best group in the NFL. We haven’t played that way so far this year. We played that way in spots, but that’s not the game of football. You have to be consistent. You look at some of the plays, Denzel (Ward) made a great play on a deep ball to break it up and MJ (Martin Emerson Jr.) made a really good play breaking up a pass and stuff like that. But then we just give up those three plays. Now Greg Newsome’s at the end was, I mean, it’s a little bit of the situation. It’s four-minute, you got your safeties close to the line of scrimmage, you’re daring them to throw the ball because an incomplete pass for the offense there could be catastrophic. And I thought Greg’s coverage was good. It was just great players sometimes come down with plays. But the other two, either our technique was bad, thought Martin lost at the line of scrimmage, and then it was too much to catch up late on that touchdown. And then the other one, we just didn’t have very good awareness of what goes on in that situation. Anytime you’re a man team, people are going to try to double move, people are going to try to isolate, and then people are going to try to traffic you. And you got to have answers for all of those and just the awareness of where the traffic is, was sort of my greatest disappointment. But we expect a bounce back game from our corners. Like I said, I think that’s a really, really good group that hasn’t been playing really well. A little bit like us on defense, that’s the way we’ve been playing. We’ve been playing really good at times and not so good at times. Our corners lead us, and for us to get where we want to go defensively, they need to get back to playing consistent football the way that they have in the past.”
Do you have an answer for why it’s been like that?
“Everyone’s been a little bit different. Like that play, some of those plays might be a technique. Some of them might just be life in the NFL; great player, great throw, great catch, good coverage, all that. And then some, like I said, technique and awareness and just different things like that. But it’s not just coverage. I think we have to tackle better on the perimeter, also. And I’m not saying anything to you guys that I haven’t already said to them, and that’s a prideful group and I expect them to bounce back.”
Joe Burrow just hasn’t had much luck against the Browns. But what do you see from him since his wrist surgery a year ago?
“Yeah, I mean, the tape looks really good. And it’s interesting when you watch the tape, offensively, it doesn’t look like a 2-4 team. I mean, the opener they had a couple turnovers in the red zone and that sort of kept their points down. But you see a lot of points on the board, you see a lot of playmakers. I think that the biggest thing for him is in the past, every play was to play the game, and he was holding the ball, and he was taking sacks, and taking hits and those things. You watch the film now and the ball is coming out super-fast. It reminds me a lot of guys like Eli Manning or Peyton Manning. He has just really good command, knows where his answers are. He’s not afraid. It’s the old adage, ‘You never go broke taking a profit.’ He’s taking the checkdowns, he’s working through his progressions real fast, and then he’s picking and choosing his times to run, which is mainly third down and red zone. You saw last week he had a big 50-yard run. It was the opportunity that came up because of the coverage aspect, what they were doing to (Tee) Higgins and (Ja’Marr) Chase. So, I think he’s playing at a really high level, looks healthy and you can just see the maturity as a player where he has command. He’s not afraid to take three or four yards on second and 10. Instead of waiting for that dig to come open that he might be able to fit in, might be able to go, but he’s going to take a hit, possibly take a sack. We got a real challenge for our coverage and our pass rush because the ball does come out so quick particularly on first and second down. So, I’m trying to get him off the spot, trying to ruin the timing, that’s a big challenge this week. In addition to covering guys like Chase, and Higgins and all their guys.”
Did familiarity help some of the struggles? Guys, because they know the opponent, they can focus, maybe more on technique, fundamentals, that sort of thing?
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s been an issue. Anytime you play division opponents, there’s not a whole lot of secrets. Even though it really seems like it’s been a long time since we played because the last game of the year last year, you guys know the circumstances with that, and then Burrow wasn’t playing. So, I mean, you can never throw a game out in the NFL, but, that game doesn’t give us a lot of perspective. So, it’s been over a calendar year since we’ve seen our matchups against their matchups and things like that. So, the familiarity with their skill players a little bit with their scheme, a little bit with the quarterback, they’ll have the same familiarity with us.”
They seem to think they have a better pair of running backs from the shotgun now. What makes a running back better in a shotgun?
“Well, they’ve been running a lot more under center this year and a lot more 12 personnel. You go back, they used to be an 11-team, three wides, one tight end, one running back, and that was like 90% of their stuff. And significant portion of it was shotgun with RPO throws built into it and just sort of let Burrow deal. When Joe Mixon was back there, it was mainly sort of inside zone, double team belly zone. It sort of fit him. But now, they’ve expanded their run game quite a bit; a lot more traps, and a lot more whams and a lot more scheme blocking. You see some San Fran influence in there with some of these tight ends moving. They even get into two-back sets and run two-back sets. So, you can see them using their tight ends, particularly 83 (Erick All Jr.), sort of the way that San Fran uses their fullback, 44 (Kyle Juszczyk). It’s been effective for them, and I think it’s probably kept them out of being a little bit so one-dimensional on offense. But, when it’s all said and done, you’re trying to tailor your schemes to your players. So Mixon was a really good inside zone runner, so it wasn’t a surprise that they ran a lot more of that last year. They’re definitely a lot more 12 personnel, a little bit of 13. Getting some extra offensive linemen. That’s something that you wouldn’t have said the last couple of years. They’re trying to establish a little more physicality with their offense.”
Michael Hall’s debut, and was that workload kind of what you expected from him?
“Yeah, I mean, it was his first game, so were trying conscious about some of the snaps and stuff. I thought he made a couple really good plays against run, particularly at the end of the game. And had a couple nice rushes in there. It was good to get his feet wet and get him back out there after a period of inactivity. We’re looking for anybody that can help in rushing the passer, and we think Mike can.”
Speaking off of that, have you been pleased with the overall amount of pressure you guys have been able to create through the first six games?
“Yeah, I mean, probably not. I mean, it’s hard to be pleased with anything when you’re 1-5, right? I mean, anything that you point out is hollow to say, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re pleased with that.’ No, you’re not. I mean, it’s a win game. Our pressure rate really needs to increase. This last game was a little different. We ran a lot of blitz in this last game. And when you blitz a lot of times, you sort of take the rush out of the defensive lineman because they’re running courses and a lot of it is just forcing the ball to come out quick or trying to take scrambles away and different things like that. So might not be as much pressure in those, but that’s no excuse. Our scheme and what we do is based on four-man pass rush and our pressure rate needs to go up. Last year, were really, really good there. Even when we didn’t get sacks, we were applying a lot of pressure. And a little bit like our corners, we need to up our game a little bit in the pass rush game. I have confidence that we can. We have good players up there. We need them to get back and play like we expect them to play.”
We talk about the defensive line being the engine of the unit. How does Dalvin Tomlinson kind of set the tone and how has he looked this season?
“Yeah, I mean, you guys know Dalvin’s personality. He’s an outstanding person, he’s a hard worker. The biggest thing with him is he’s been limited all training camp. Had no presence for us because he was in the training room the whole time. And he’s on our leadership council, he’s a very respected guy and he’s a physical player inside. We’re at our best when we play physical ball, and we play with enthusiasm and those kinds of things. Hopefully we’ll see the best from Dalvin as we move forward and he continues to improve. That was a tough situation, missing all of training camp and coming back and being spotty in that. This last game was a little bit different but just because perimeter type plays which, I mean, Dalvin’s good on those, but his forte is those inside runs and being physical in there and being that presence for us and allowing guys like Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah) to be able to run clean. So he’s an important part of it and we look forward to getting him 100% healthy and having him back out there looking like himself.”