Assistant Head Coach/ Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (12.18.25)
Can you explain the two touchbacks that went to the 20? How does that happen?
“Yeah, I mean, I would say credit to (Cairo) Santos. I mean, there’s wind in the game, obviously, and when the ball’s low like that, you know…”
So, just chalk it up to a good kickoff?
“Yeah, I would. The one that, it was more of like a line drive. It didn’t hit the ground, I think it just kind of rose up on him a little bit, so.”
What makes this (Buffalo) Bills kickoff return unit so difficult? It looked like they had a big impact on that game last week.
“Yeah, those guys do a really good job. Tabes (Chris Tabor) has done a nice job with that unit. Obviously, familiar with him. He was my coach here for two years. The returner (Ray Davis) is really good. I think he’s got good vision, he’s got good contact balance, he does an excellent job of attacking coverage downhill. Like I just said, good vision. And they got a good core unit. They got (Joe) Andreessen, (Dorian) Williams, (Sam) Franklin (Jr.). Those guys are really good blockers and have done a nice job for that group.”
Bubba, we’ve talked…I mean, since this new rule has come in about running backs being effective in returning. Ray Davis is obviously a running back. As you look across the league, has that borne out that the best return guys have been running backs?
“Yeah, I think you’re definitely seeing some of that, for sure. Guys with vision, I feel like, are the guys that have been most effective on that unit throughout the league. So, it plays similar to a run play, honestly, with some of the schematics that are happening.”
Bubba, we’ve been asking you about kick coverage all year. Is part of the issue you just have so many young, unproven guys on that unit, you’re forced to use those players?
“I mean, we’re playing with the best guys available. But I do think that it comes down to, when you’re covering punts, kickoffs – it really does come down to the fundamentals of the game. Leveraging blocks, block destruction, shedding blocks, tackling, all those things factor. And I feel like the times when we’ve had issues is when we’re not executing those necessary fundamentals of the game, we’re not leveraging the ball well enough. Specifically, like the last two weeks on our kicks, we haven’t done a great job of playing outside into the football. It’s pretty basic principles that we haven’t executed that well.”
And you were such a great special teams player.
“Thanks.”
But seriously, so how frustrating is that? Because, I mean, I’m sure these guys know what to do.
“Yeah, like what we’re coaching them to do? Yeah, I mean, it ultimately comes down to just the execution. Like, you got to be able to execute when the bullets are flying. I mean, look, it can be frustrating as a player and as a coach whenever you’re not getting the results you want, but just gotta keep working, keep trying to improve and getting better at those things. I mean, back to your point, yeah, we’ve had a good amount of younger players out there that haven’t had as much experience, so there’s times where we’ve had to learn the hard way, so.”
Grant (Delpit) always talks about how special teams is a lot of ‘want to’. Do you feel like there’s enough ‘want to’?
“Yeah, I think there’s ‘want to,’ I do. I think that our guys have…and I’ll say this, we haven’t played nearly to our standard. I mean, that’s clearly obvious. But I do think that the guys are trying.”
Is there one of those fundamentals that you talked about that you think is hampering this team the most on the teams unit?
“I would honestly probably say, like, the two that I mentioned, just leveraging the ball and getting off the blocks. So, I think we need to be able to shed more violently to be able to get off of blocks. That happened in the Tennessee game, it happened last week. And then playing outside into the ball, not taking the easiest release. Tabes used to actually say, ‘don’t take the river release.’ The release of least resistance.We’re trying to coach that.”
So, you’ve given (Bill) Belichick a lot of credit. You played for him, coached for him. But where does Tabor rank in the special teams community?
“Me and Tabes had a good run at it here for two years. That was his first year as a coordinator in ‘11, and then at ‘12, obviously his second season. But we had a really good relationship. We don’t talk as often now, obviously, but we had a really good relationship. He trusted me quite a bit. I gave him a lot of input to what we did back then with calls and schemes and things like that, and I think he respected me for that. I think he’s a really good football coach. Does a nice job in the return game, obviously.”
He had (Josh) Cribbs those two years and then Travis Benjamin, who ended up being pretty good too. Are some special teams coaches noted for a certain part of special teams? Like ‘this guy’s always had good returners, this guy’s always had blockers’, or?
“Yeah, well, so he was an assistant in Chicago before he came to us. So, he was with Dave Toub who’s in Kansas City. Toub’s obviously been known for his return game. Obviously, he had (Devin) Hester in Chicago, he’s had a number of really good returners in Kansas City. So, I guess you could say that he’s kind of from that, like, Toub tree.”
That 50-yarder that Andre (Szmyt) hit on Sunday. Considering how cold it was, how hard of a kick is that? And then just also too considering what happened in week one, what have you seen from him throughout the season, how he’s bounced back from that?
“Yeah, I mean we were, like, nearly at our max, as far as like distance that we were able to hit from. So, I mean, credit him for the execution on the kick. Obviously, we get the hold down well, we protect, and just really good execution on the play in really cold temperatures. The ball definitely was not flying like it had been in previous weeks. And then for him to just be able to bounce back after that first game, kind of reset, he has had really good practice weeks. I feel like he has done a good job throughout the season.”
Going back to the touchbacks. Is that how you coach that? If it’s a line drive type kick that’s going to be harder to handle, are you just telling guys, ‘let it go in the endzone, we’ll take it at the 20’?
“No, not necessarily. I mean, we want to try to field every single ball possible. I will say that there are times where if the ball doesn’t take…like say the ball does hit the ground and you don’t field it clean and it does end up rolling into the end zone, don’t make a bad play worse, because then you can still get the touchback at the 20. But ideally, we want to field every ball if possible and then obviously return it. It does affect the return when the ball gets to the ground, there’s more time that you have to sustain a block, there’s more space for the coverage player to be able to run around. So, the timing of the return doesn’t really match up if the ball is on the ground and you don’t get it clean. Now, if it hits the ground, you get it on, like, one hop, that’s just less time that it’s taking for the return, so everything impacts it. Now, the other thing that hurts, too, is like, when the ball does hit the ground, as a blocker, you don’t really know how long the ball’s on the ground for because you’re not watching the returner pick the ball up. So, as you go back, as you’re seeing the returner, ‘okay, the ball’s on the ground, my eyes go back to my guy – does he field it clean? Does he not?’ So, there’s some gray area there as a blocker, you don’t know how long. So, we give our guys some things that they use in their technique, so.”
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