Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (9.18.25)
Jim (Schwartz), when you look at a guy like (Josh) Jacobs, first of all, what are you seeing? Do you appreciate the fact that he feels like one of the workhorse kind of guys in the league where a bunch of guys are splitting carries?
“Yeah, that’s very accurate. A lot of people use different kinds of backs for different situations, and they use all their backs, generally in pass protection and some lead blocker type roles. But Jacobs is their lead ball carrier and sort of an old school, full-time running back. Breaks a lot of tackles. Really strong, great contact balance and really, really good vision. He presses the hole as good as any running back, if not better than any running back in the league. And we got to be really physical at the line, and we can’t peek out of gaps because he can find those holes and find creases that way.”
Do you think it’s unique the way Green Bay is so aggressive from the first drive on, pushing the ball downfield? It seems they’re very aggressive.
“I mean, that’s just built into what they do. I mean, when it’s all said and done, on first and second down they’re a run play action team. And when they play action, they want to take shots. And you look at (Jordan) Love and look at his completion percentage, and it’s not eye popping the way some guys are. A lot of guys, 75%, 70%. And it’s not that he’s an inaccurate passer, it’s reflective of how many deep shots he takes. And they’re very surgical with those. They use their run to set up that stuff. It doesn’t work if you’re not a good running offense, and it goes back to Jacobs. Their run creates their opportunities to push the ball down the field on those first and second downs. And that’s just sort of built into the way they do things.”
Jim, Cam Mitchell had to step in for Denzel (Ward) and the (Baltimore) Ravens kind of got him on a couple of those touchdowns. What are some points, if any, for a lot of those scores?
“Well, when we don’t have Denzel, obviously it’s a difference for us. But our guys that step in the game have to be trusted to execute the scheme. He had a rough day. He’s played good football for us in the past. He had a rough day in this game and needs to bounce back from that.”
And a quick follow up. We know that Myles (Harden) has been in the nickel a lot, but when you guys go base, why have you elected to go Cam over Myles?
“Well, Myles is first year player and he’s just concentrated on the nickel position. He’s a second-year player, but he’s first year starter, playing. So, we’ve chosen to concentrate him on that nickel position.”
How do you get Cam Mitchell to bounce back after a game like that?
“You know, a lot of DBs, it’s technique, awareness and confidence. And I think that there were a couple plays that he was behind and could have recognized a little bit quicker. So, I think that’s part of it. And that confidence means an awful lot. The thing is that it’s life in the big city for a corner, right? If a corner makes a mistake, everybody in the stadium knows, everybody watching the TV knows. And that’s something you have to live with. If a defensive tackle makes those same three mistakes, whether it’s technique, awareness, anything else, it might go unnoticed, and nobody really knows. But those guys live with that every day. They’re out on an island, everybody can see. I mean, like, you’re a kicker, everybody knows if you missed a kick or not. You’re a corner, everybody knows if you accomplished your coverage or not. Cornerbacks live in that spotlight, so we got to keep our confidence. We can’t let one bad day roll into two, roll into three, and he needs to bounce back from that.”
Jim, it’s real early, I know that. Looking back to last year, are you at all concerned that the heavy lifting your defense is doing now will take its toll?
“No, I mean, that’s what we’re expected to do. You know, we’re expected to go out, and get stops, and keep the score down and set the offense up. And last week for three quarters, I was pretty happy with that. We finished horribly, and to quote Myles Garrett, the end of that game was embarrassing for us. But up until then, I mean, Derrick Henry is a tough out and we took that part of the game away. We took Lamar’s (Jackson) legs away for the most part. We had a really good day on third down, we gave up three third downs in the game. One was, first one shallow, just made the first down. Another one was quarterback sneak or tight end, quarterback sneak. And then the other one was the play that Lamar scrambled around, was sort of getting hit when he threw and found that guy down the field and made that play. And there’s going to be some game, some plays in there that you got to tip your hat to the opponent, and Lamar Jackson is one of those guys. You tip your hat to him, go onto the next play. But accomplishing those things, I thought we did a good job. We were generating pressure, keeping the quarterback from scrambling for yards, and we didn’t hold up on some of the shots down the field. What was probably a little bit the most disappointing in that game is our opportunities for turnovers. Had one ball in our hands, tipped it, wasn’t able to come down with that. Had a ball on the ground, didn’t come up with that. We got to concentrate on playing hard, playing physical, and doing our jobs and we can come back with those. We had a couple good stops backed up, set our offense up. But we need those game changing plays, and we don’t need to search those game changing plays. We need to make plays that come to us. Doing it with effort, doing it with physicality, and doing it sound.”
How is Mason (Graham) coming along and what is the next step that you would like to see him take?
“Yeah, I think he could take a step as a pass rusher. He played really well against the run for us. He was very disruptive, made some tackles in the backfield, and that’s sort of the strength of his game. And his pass rush has been sort of, I’d say 50-50 so far. Has had some good reps in there. I mean, it’s tough business. You look at guards in the NFL; there’s no weak links. Those guys are tough to beat. You got to battle a lot of center slides, short sets, a lot of different things in there. And he’s working to improve in that area, and he’s flashed in that area. Just need a little bit more consistency from him. I’m really happy with our defensive tackles. I think Maliek (Collins) is playing at a really, really high level. I think he’s much improved over last year. Like we were watching San Fran (49ers) against Green Bay last year. He looks like a different guy right now. He’s pressuring the passer, he’s playing the run well for us, he’s penetrating, Mason is the same way. So, we’ve got good contributions out of those guys. We can get a little bit more.”
You mentioned Mason in the run defense, and the defensive tackles. Is their production this season a big key to the turnaround from maybe the things we saw last season or is it beyond that?
“I mean, it’s hard to talk about turnarounds when we’re 0-2, so let’s just leave that there. But I do think we’re improved up front, and I think that adding those guys to it, and getting more penetrating, and guys that can flatten out (Ja’Marr) Chase and things like that have been important to us. I don’t want to gloss over how hard it is to stop Derrick Henry, right? I mean, the week before when he rushed for 170 with gashes all over the place, and Buffalo (Bills) knew he was wearing 22. You know, it wasn’t like they weren’t trying to stop him. It’s hard to do in our defensive tackles and our defensive ends, our defensive ends have been played very physical. Devin Bush is playing a high level, the rooks are playing at a high level in there, and our run defense has been solid so far. It has to be in this game too. It’s a different kind of challenge with, with Jacobs as opposed to Derrick Henry. But both offenses rely on the run to set up their play actions and things like that, and we’ll need all those guys up front to accomplish that.”
To go back to the creating takeaways aspect of it, like you mentioned the two that you almost have, like having those examples to show players, like, “Hey, these opportunities are there, we just have to capitalize.” Does that make it easier in terms of the messaging of guys not irresponsibly gambling on certain plays to try to create those?
“Yeah, I mean that’s always been our mantra, I guess. It’s always been our rallying call is you don’t need to cheat to make plays. Play within the scheme, play tough, play physical and swarm the ball and then that kind of stuff will come. I mean, that being said, like, you know, you’re not going to make all those plays. You know, ball goes on the ground, you know, they’re going to recover some of them. You’re not going to catch everyone. Wide receivers don’t catch everyone. But those will go a long way to setting us up for scoring and, you know, setting ourselves up a little bit better in the game. You know, have to make those.”
I think it’s supposed to be 85 degrees on Sunday, if I’m not mistaken. But my question is, do you have to be concerned again about Denzel (Ward) and him cramping again. And if so, what can you guys even do during the week to try to avoid that?
“Hopefully that’s a one off. Our nutrition staff and our trainers and things like that generally handle those kind of things. But, you know, it’s a little bit, I’m going to speak out of my lane here, but in my experience in the NFL, like cramping and stuff like that is a little bit like seasickness. Like you can go out nine times and not cramp and not get seasick. And all of a sudden, the 10th time. I mean, I’ve been on some fishing trips where the first mate who does it for a living all of a sudden gets seasick. And it’s not because for any other reason. I don’t know how to describe it, but, you know, things happen in the game. It’s football, right? Whether it’s cramping, whether it’s injuries, you know, there’s a million different things that can happen. I just think it puts a stronger spotlight on our backup players, our reserves being relied on to come in and make those plays when somebody goes out. It’s not if somebody goes out, it’s when they come out. But I’ll leave that to our guys that handle those kind of things. I’ll worry about, you know, run defense, pass defense and third down and things like that. Let those people handle it. Let our people who are experts in that stuff handle that.”
The way they use the tight ends, I mean, (Tucker) Kraft’s obviously a huge target in their passing. Is there anything unique to the way they use it or what, you know, what separates him?
“A few years ago, I think some of the way the tight ends were used was a little bit more unique. We played San Francisco (49ers) a couple years ago, and the way they were using (George) Kittle with some of those motions were at the time was a little bit unique. You see it across the league now; a lot of people have run it. You know our offense does a little bit of it, so it’s not new to us. The uniqueness of it is they got good players there, and whether it’s run after the catch, whether it’s blocking or whether it’s tight ends down in the vertical passing game – a lot of people don’t use tight ends in the vertical passing game as much. You’ll see them on short routes, drag routes, stick routes, you know, things like that. Green Bay put pushes those guys down the field, and they threaten the middle of the field, and they make a lot of plays down there. So, we got to know where those guys are. They’re big bodies. Quarterback trusts those guys, throwing into traffic to those guys. It’s a big part of what they do offensively. And neutralizing their best players is important for us. And he’s one of their best players.”
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