Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (12.4.25)
Well Jim (Schwartz), for starters, you have two award winners this week in Myles (Garrett) and Carson (Schwesinger). So how does it feel to have those guys get recognized for their big months?
“Yeah, I’ll go three. Grant Delpit, Cleveland Browns Walter Payton Man of the Year, which is an extremely prestigious honor also, so congratulations to him. Carson, Defensive Rookie of the Month – I think he’s still got a lot more in front of him. And then Myles, he can only get ignored so many times on Player of the Week that he has to be Player of the Month. I mean, I think I can speak for all those guys, maybe other than Grant, because Grant’s award is really not on the field, but those other guys would swap those awards for wins, and that’s where we are right now.”
In that sack that Myles had last week against the (San Francisco) 49ers, that move he made to the left, just what do you think when you see him do that?
“Yeah, big guys like that shouldn’t be able to make moves like that. It’s crazy that way. You know, some of his best…I mean, that was a great rush. Some of his best rushes didn’t result in sacks. I mean, he had some early in the game where, I mean, like I had said last week, that’s Hall of Famer versus Hall of Famer, and impressive, impressive stuff out of both of those guys.”
Jim, losing Maliek (Collins) for the rest of the season. How much does that hurt and who has to step up in his absence now on that line for you guys?
“Yeah, Maliek was playing great football for us, probably the best football of his career. Was an inside presence for us, was the guy that could win one-on-ones. So, it just really falls to everybody. I don’t know that anybody has to, like, whatever, do more – they all just have to be themselves and they’ll get more opportunities. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing is, you have to make the most of those opportunities. You know, whether you’re Mason (Graham), whether you’re Shelby (Harris), whether you’re Sam (Kamara), whether you’re Mike (Hall Jr.). Maybe Adin (Huntington), when Adin’s able to come back. It just provides opportunity for those guys, and they have to do something with that opportunity. I would say this, I mean, we lost Maliek in that game. I was very, very impressed by Mason in that game. You know, like, played super, super hard, was all over the field. I think every week we’re saying we’re seeing better from him, and I think that was another big set. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing that the level of play start equaling the production, stat sheet kind of stuff for Mason.”
Jim, what is the mood of the defensive line room when you’re preparing for a team that’s given up the most sacks?
“I don’t know that it really changes from a weekly basis. You look at individual matchups; you look at scheme. So, I think that stuff is…when the focus is on, not necessarily the number of sacks that they’ve given up, and when we look at film, a lot of times you’re looking at games that you think are similar or closer to where you’re playing, so maybe you don’t even see all those things. I’d say this, like, when our D-line creates pressure, tackles for losses, just wreaks havoc – we’re at our best, and we need those guys to do that for us, not just in the pass game, but in the run game here also. We’ve had a high percentage of tackles for losses. We have a high percentage of sacks, we don’t necessarily have an absolute number because we don’t have as many attempts, but we’re going to need that from those guys in this game.”
When you see Cam Ward on film study, does he share that sack number with his lineman?
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to go into their coaching and things like that, but I just say philosophically or just generally, just a little bit like when you give up play on defense and everybody says, ‘well, that corner gave up a play’ and you’re like, ‘yeah, but we didn’t get any pressure or he was expecting help here’. It’s very rarely a one-person thing. So, I just say in general, like anytime an offense takes sacks, there’s a lot of different places. It’s scheme, it’s execution of scheme, it’s individual, whatever technique up front, it’s receivers getting open, it’s the quarterback knowing where to go and things like that. If one of those things breaks out – all those things can be perfect and one of those things break down, then you’ll get a sack. You know, everything can be perfect, and if an offensive lineman gets beat quick, you’re going to get a sack. Or if a quarterback’s expecting a receiver in a certain spot, it’s not there, or the quarterback isn’t prepared to throw quick because he didn’t see the overload or whatever it is. I think it’s very rare that you can, attribute anything to one individual player, whether it’s offense, defense, or even special teams.”
Myles being four sacks away from that NFL record, how does his individual accolades and the things that he’s able to do as one player, effort-wise, impact the rest of your defense?
“Yeah, he’s obviously a unique player and a game changing player. So, I think players in general feed off each other, and I think it’s no different for somebody like Myles. When Myles is rushing well, it energizes the rest of the group, and when the rest of the group is rushing well, it energizes Myles. And I’d say that through all 11 guys on defense, we’re a team that, we try to play physical, we try to play with great effort and we try to show some personality. Well, that personality shows through a lot when guys are making plays, guys are celebrating on the field, that synergy is building and guys are feeding off of each other with that energy. So, we certainly do that with Myles. But I think he gets energized with some other players. I think it’s easy to see on the film – a lot of times you’ll see him congratulate some of the other players, and he comes over the sideline a lot of times, maybe he’ll take a triple team and somebody else will make a sack and he’s really happy for that guy. That gives us a lot of energy also.”
What do you see when you look at Cam Ward? His numbers aren’t great. What do you see when you look at him?
“Yeah, I mean, he’s a rookie quarterback, so, you know, going through. You know, it’s hard to evaluate them without 100% knowing exactly what their scheme is and things like that but has taken a bunch of sacks. And probably one of the biggest things for us is we really got to be disruptive in the middle of the pocket because he’s given up a lot of fumbles this year also. And you know, it’s one thing to take sacks, but you turn a sack into a fumble…I mean, sacks are game changing plays, forced fumbles in the pocket, huge plays. So, we’ll need stuff like that also.”
Do you think Bubba Baker’s 23 sacks in ‘78 should be the record?
“He has 23? Yeah, I think it was ‘78 that he put Bert Jones out for a separated shoulder. And I think it was the last preseason game back when we used to have six preseason games. I was a Baltimore Colts fan, grew up in Baltimore – Bert Jones was my favorite player. And I think it was the last preseason game, and he separated Bert Jones’ shoulder. The Colts had just come off a AFC championship appearance in ‘77, and it really just derailed them. They opened I think with, with the (Dallas) Cowboys that year, and they started a third quarterback. A guy names Mike Kirkland from Arkansas against the Cowboys on Monday night. Tough duty.”
Historians have gone back and given…
“I mean that’s why like I wish Dino Lucarelli were around to give us some perspective because he was such a historian and knew the history of the game and things like that. I can’t really speak for where stats were and things like that. I know this, like a lot of times in those 60s and 70s and stuff like that, guys threw the ball a lot less so there was less opportunity to make plays. But you turn around and look at some of the ways they had to pass protect. I mean, Bubba Baker got helped by offensive linemen and the quarterbacks dropped like 18 yards deep. I mean they were like doing 100-meter dash to try to get deep, stuff like that doesn’t exist. So, eras sort of stay the same. But I’d leave that up to the historians that know. I know Al Baker was a great player for the (Detroit) Lions. He was a feared player. You know, I’ve had a lot of great pass rushers over the years, and we’ve studied a lot of the guys, the Deacon Jones and Al Bakers and, you know, you name it, the Lawrence Taylors. So if Myles is able to cross that bridge, you know…we talk about club records and you talk about maybe, season-record leading the NFL, but when you talk about the all-time record, that says an awful lot, particularly when a lot of players that have played in the past.”
Hey, Jim, Myles, I know you talk about all the time when you get a short field, you got to try to keep it to three points. So how disappointed were you in that and it looked like they converted some third downs when you had a chance to get off the field.
“Yeah, that was probably the biggest thing in that game. We did a lot of really good things in that game. Like we held them to less than four yards, I think it was like 3.8 yards of play, which is really good. You know, (Christian) McCaffrey, the leading scrimmage yards, I think he had like 75 yards on a lot of touches. He was like 2.8 a touch, which is obviously what you got to do with those guys. I think really that that game, in, whatever the crucible, whatever you want to call it, was the third downs, particularly in the red zone. You know, like, get a chance to hold those to three and be able to get off the field, and you’re not going to make every one, I mean, that’s a talented group. That’s a group that can do a lot of things, but that was probably the tale of the tape in that game. We need to do 50% better job on third down. Half of those completions or half of those conversions, and none of them were like big plays. It was just, you know, you got a short field, and two yards means an awful lot or, you know, the ability to convert in some of those. So that’s the biggest thing I was disappointed in that game is it was frustrating in our ability to knock it off the field on some of those third downs, especially in the red zone. Again, that’s a good group. We think we’re a good group. We got to find a way to be in little bit better in there and then holding them to field goals there. You know, we can keep that game at least manageable within a score. It was two scores, I think, with about seven minutes left or something like that. But obviously that goes a long way. You know, that’s where we failed to get the job done on Sunday.”
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