Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (9.5.24)

 

You’ve coached against Dak (Prescott), you’ve been getting ready for him for months. What do you see in him? 

“Yeah, I mean, he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. You know, all the stats across the board. High completion percentage and yards. He can make something out of nothing when it comes to plays breaking down, using his legs, doesn’t run quite as much as he used to, but he’s mainly running with a purpose now. Buying time to find plays down field and then running in high leverage situations, red zone, short yardage and those kinds of things. It’s a tough matchup right off the bat. One of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. So, we have to play our very best when you’re competing against a quarterback like Dak Prescott.”

 

JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) said he began watching film of the (Dallas) Cowboys soon after that schedule came out. Did you have your guys do that or what do you think of him doing that? 

“Yeah, I mean, a lot of our guys like to look ahead. We did that as a coaching staff. That was nothing that we sort of demanded from the players or put in front of the players. We’ve had sometimes in training camp, different times, I think even at the end of minicamp or OTAs (organized team activities), where we had a Dallas period. But, you know, most of the time through training camp, our focus was on us and our scheme and what we’re doing as opposed to what an opponent was doing. We’ve all had this earmarked for a long time, bookmarked whatever you want to call it. So it’s been on top of our mind for a long time, even when we’ve had other jobs in the moment.”

 

Last time we talked to you, you mentioned not having your starting guys out there because of injuries. Do you feel like in the last week or two, you’ve got guys back, you’ve been able to get enough reps to be ready for week one? 

“Well, I guess we’ll see. I mean, it is a concern of mine. You know, we have really good players and I have confidence in all of them, but we just haven’t been out there together a lot. Now they have in the past, but, you know, through no fault of any own person, we’ve had a lot of time missed in training camp. I can’t remember when it was… maybe it was Monday, it was Monday of this week, the days sort of run together, but we had like a walkthrough and we had, like all our dudes out there at the same time and you could just really feel the energy. You could feel those guys out there and and it was good to, it was good to feel that. You guys know as a defense, we feed off each other. We’re a team that brings a lot of excitement to each other and things like that, and that’s part of our DNA, that’s part of what we do, and it’s hard to replicate it unless the guys are out there. So, it is a concern. But we also have some veteran players and we’ve been able to work a lot of the communication and things like that. You know, nothing, there’s really no substitute for the real thing, but we’ll get enough of that as we go along.”

 

Is Greg (Newsome) back in, to the point where he could get a full game out of himself on Sunday?

“You know, we’re going to keep an eye on things with him. But, yeah, I mean, a couple months ago when I heard of his injury, you know, was like, ‘oh boy’, you know, I didn’t even think of Dallas. And then every step along the way, he has not only cleared the hurdles, but he’s cleared them with, you know, with a lot of room to spare. You know, just like we talked before, Greg (Newsome) is a guy that brings a lot of energy to us. And it’s not just his play on the field, whether he’s playing nickel or playing corner. We missed him when he wasn’t out there. We’ll have eyes on guys when it comes to long drives and number of snaps in the games. I don’t think anybody’s going to be on a quote ‘pitch count’, but a lot of times you do that in openers anyway. But, you know, we’ll have a few guys especially, you know, eyes on, just to make sure fatigue doesn’t end up being a factor, which could lead to an aggravation or a new injury.”

 

CeeDee Lamb, they throw it to him a ton. You know, it’s coming, so how do you stop it?

“Yeah, leader in receptions, leader in targets last year. Obviously the go-to guy in their offense. They move him around all over the place. You know, we have a really good key on where he’s going to be, though, because he wears number 88, so we’ll be able to find him. I like our matchups. This is going – this is NFL football, man. This is awesome. One of the best receivers in the NFL and what I consider the best corner group in the NFL. And you guys know, we play a lot of man-to-man, so, it’s going to be fun to watch those guys. You know, even if we’re man, it’s not always going to be no help. We’re going to have a little different way, whether we’re putting pressure on to try to help that way or we have leverage help or over the top help and things like that. It’s not going to be one person or a one-on-one most of the time, but it’s a great matchup and it’ll be exciting to watch.”

 

What are your feelings on attacking two rookie linemen in their first NFL game?

“Yeah, you know, we like our matchups usually on the offensive line and, you know, any, anytime we get a chance to play rookies. Now, I’d say this, Tony (Grossi), both of those guys looked really good in the preseason, right. But first game, you know, we can present some tough matchups. We talked about CeeDee Lamb presenting tough matchups, well, we got guys that can do that, too. And I’m sure they’ll have plans for it, just like we said, you know, it’s not going to be – it’s very rarely going to be one person with no help. I’m sure they’ll take the same approach, whether it’s with their center or with their left tackle. And you’ll see a lot of different alignments, a lot of different matchups from us along the way, which is sort of normal for us.”

 

Going back to the injuries, while you had guys out, I mean, was there a silver lining that you were able to develop some guys? Maybe feel better about the depth going into the opener than maybe, especially with some of the young guys?

“Yeah, maybe a little bit. I don’t, again, you know, you like having your guys out there and making that progress and, you know, I mean, it’s a stupid saying, but I always tell the guys ‘Our job in training camp is to make one plus one equal three’, right? The sum has to be greater than our individual parts. And that’s, Denzel Ward playing off of Myles Garrett and, you know, just everything else. And we just didn’t have time on task doing that. We’ll get it back. But our guys, other guys did get a lot of reps and I think in a perverse way, some of our injuries might have even got our guys, as long as we’re back from those injuries, might have even kept them fresh through training camp. So, you can look at it a lot of ways, but, you know, when it’s all said and done, the final score is going to be the final score. And there’s not going to be a curve of who practiced in training camp or who didn’t or who’s back and who’s hurt or whatever. Final score is final score.”

 

Going back to the rookie linemen, in preseason did you see flinches by them or…? They haven’t played in front of a big crowd? 

“Yeah. I mean, obviously we played better at home last year. I hope we play as good, if not better, at home this year. I hope we play a little bit better on the road. But part of us playing at home is our home crowd. Making it difficult, you know, making it difficult for guys to hear the quarterback signals. They put a lot on Dak Prescott to command the line of scrimmage. Their runs, almost all their runs have check with me, whether looking for down safeties, whether they’re looking for the bobble, different things like that. He has bailouts a lot, all over the passing game, and it makes it difficult when an opponent is at our place because our fans are so into it and so loud and they’ll be ready. I mean, we got a little time before the game. You know, they know what time it is and they’ll play a big part in this game. In some ways, Tony, it makes it a little more difficult for us because of the loud crowd. It puts more of an emphasis on our communication, and it’s harder for us to communicate. But I think that’s outweighed by making it harder for the offensive linemen to hear and the quarterback to be able to make those checks easily.”

 

Myles has managed to find another level every year, that’s what the great ones do. First of all, what does it say about him that he continues to strive for that, and what do you see as the next level for him?

“Yeah, it’s really, it’s been impressive to watch. I’ve mentioned a couple players that I’ve coached in the past that had a similar attitude and a similar trajectory. Ray Lewis and Calvin Johnson, and no matter how good they were, they were hungry for more. They were hungry. They didn’t really compare themselves to others. They were worried about their own performance and improvements that they could make. You know, Myles is no different in that way. He’s an impact player for us. He changes the whole scheme, you know. Sometimes it makes it hard for us to scout because what you see on tape, okay, the center slides this way versus this formation, or they use this kind of protection or they run this way in the run game. A lot of that goes out the window when you have a guy like Myles because they’ll have a Myles plan. And we’ve gotten better at recognizing those kind of things and try to play off. I mean, so when I was in Detroit, we had Calvin Johnson, and it was the same thing. It really didn’t matter what a team did the week before, they were going to cover Calvin a lot different than they did anybody else. And the great players have that. And I’d say this, and I think I might have even said this before, in my mind, the definition of a great player is when the opponent’s number one job is to try to take them out of the game plan and they still have success. Calvin Johnson. You know, everybody led their game plan, ‘Calvin Johnson’s not wrecking our game’, still was able to wreck games. You know, every single opponent we have, they start their game plan with, ‘How do we account for 95?’ So, you know, with the effectiveness that he had even with that target on his back. I said about CeeDee Lamb, we know he wears number 88, so he’s easy to find. Well, when you’re 6-4, 275 and wearing number 95, it’s pretty easy to find you, too. He’s still able to be successful. So that’s such an impressive thing to watch.”

 

Speaking about the home and away splits with the away games, bringing that energy and kind of making your own energy on that defensive side of the ball, how do you plan on getting that out of your defense?

“Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t consider it. When you say sound, it wasn’t like we were sound at home and unsound on the road, you know? But it was there, and it was something that we, that we talked about. And, you know, some of it, you know, again, you hate to put too much into a small sample size and say, ‘hey, this was a problem, this wasn’t.’ Maybe it was just the way a game worked out or, you know, getting up to an early lead and then, you know, emptying the bench and things like that. So, you know, it’s, it’s been an item for discussion. It’s been something we talked about, but it’s, it’s nothing that we’re spending a lot of time on right now. We’ll cross that bridge in Jacksonville next week.”

 

Guys who are coming back from injury, and they have some personal goals to achieve for themselves and we talked about it, like Juan (Thornhill), I’m thinking of specifically. For you as a coach, how much do you play into that and let them get excited about their individual efforts and goals in addition to what they want to do as a team? 

“Well, we always celebrate the individual, but our main goal is us as a team and us as a defense. So, we certainly want to celebrate the individual, and we want everybody to be successful. But we have a lot of unselfish players, and everybody knows that the team comes before them, and the team’s performance means more than individual performances in this business.”