Safeties Coach Ephraim Banda (11.3.23)
The guys talked about this week needing to be sure of the run defense. So, for your group, though, specifically, what do you see in that role that they can do better moving forward?
“If you ask any of our safeties, our corners, really anyone on our defense, if you ask them when we do our job, their response will be, we win. We have to do our job, essentially, and we don’t need to do anyone else’s, and we need to do it early, efficient, and clean. Kind of equate it to playing golf. I’m not the best golf player in the world, but when you step on the T box at hole one, you don’t want to put a snowman up. You want to start clean now. Doesn’t mean you’re going to birdie it, but you don’t want to mess it up to where your scorecard is just obliterated early and you got to play catch up. So, for us in our room, we got to put our eyes where they need to be. We need to set edges, we need to play blocks based off how they’re attacking our defensive ends, and we need to attack based off the offense and what they do. That’s what run defense is in the safety room. It’s put your eyes where they need to be and do what the offense tells you to do based off what their play is.”
Your guys are getting asked to play nickel a lot and do a bunch of different things. How have you seen guys sort of embrace all of that different stuff, sort of outside of what a normal safety role would be?
A really good question. We have played a lot of quarter, as we call it, Coach (Jim) Schwartz calls it, and it’s been awesome to see Rod (Rodney McLeod) get in there. I sleep better at night when Rod’s on the field. I really do because he’s a great executor. He really attacks the game not just on the field, but off the field in terms of mental preparation at a level I’ve never really seen. He’s done a great job in that area. He gives us great flexibility in terms of our sub packages. And I’ll be honest with you, he’s been a blessing to Coach. Coach Schwartz talks about his experiences with the player. I think it was Keith Bulluck when he was a position coach at Tennessee, and how every day he had to bring it in meetings as a coach because he had that type of player in that room. And Rod has done that for me personally. Rod makes me a better coach because I know I have to attack that meeting and be ready every single day because he’s going to ask tough questions and he’s going to be prepared. So, when you have a guy like that, you feel good if you’re coach Schwartz to put him in the game in those situations because you know he’ll execute at a high level. So, I thank the whole – Andrew Berry and Kevin (Stefanski), all the guys bringing him in. Definitely get an extra hour or two of sleep knowing that he’s in there playing.”
How you’ve been able to kind of expand what you guys have been able to do in terms of packages, sub packages, those sorts of things as the season have gone along, as guys have sort of picked the system up?
“It’s a good question, and Coach (Schwartz) talked about that this week. Being able to do multiple things, I think that goes back to us at the beginning of freaking phase one and OTAs and forcing our safeties to learn multiple positions, not just being strong, not just being free. You’re expanding the learning. You’re getting guys to know multiple positions. You’re also teaching them the issues and the things that make that position hard. So, if they’re playing another one, they get it, and then you’re exposing them to other positions that they would not necessarily be close to, like a corner, nickel or quarter, a linebacker. They’re doing different things. I think it’s also a testament to the room. Those guys work hard. Juan (Thornhill), Grant (Delpit), Rod (McLeod), all of them. D Bell (D’Anthony) has grown at just understanding and picking up what Coach (Jim) Schwartz wants us to be. He wants us to be multiple, but not only that, but in a sense of fronts and coverages, but also as personnel. And as that’s grown, as our knowledge has grown, our ability to do more things with the safeties has grown. And I think that’s a great asset for us. And if our guys keep attacking it mentally, it gives Coach Schwartz a lot of options to attack offensively.”
He’s in a tough spot. But Juan (Thornhill), on that last touchdown, are there coaching points on that?
“Absolutely. Biggest thing for really any DB, but in Juan in that situation, I’ll say this, with the way that the game has changed in terms of preparation leading into seasons and the lack of contact, that is not allowed. This happened in college. I noticed it started happening. My question was how’s it going to be in the NFL? And I’m seeing the same things when you’re not able to truly make contact until really preseason and you have limited reps for guys who like starters, they don’t get those opportunities to really tackle as much as you’d like early. So, I think what you see in the NFL and even in college, you see tackling get better as the season goes on because you’re stacking reps, you’re getting more chances. Now, to answer your question in a more fine-tuned in that play situation, the biggest thing that you see when you don’t tackle a whole lot leading into the season or you’re trying to stack reps is guys don’t close the ground as much as they need to. And that situation of closing ground and actually making contact and getting a human on the ground is something you got to rep a lot in practice without actually hitting anybody. So that’s why you see us always on the bags. You always see us on crash pads and tackling dummies, because you still have to train a human to close that ground as much as possible and get near toe forward and get a man on the ground. What Juan, he and I talked about this, and he’s doing better at this is closing the ground. You got to take the air out of it. What Coach says, don’t shoo the chickens. Don’t sit there and shoo the chickens. You got to really close ground, take near toe forward and take your shot. And sometimes in this position at safety, that’s the hardest thing to do, period. It’s the hardest thing to do in our position, close ground, make an on-field tackle, because if you don’t, it’s seven points. So that’s really what it is, the technique of closing the ground. We can set a hard edge. So, guys and really it doesn’t matter if you’re playing safety and it’s a defensive end or a corner playing safety, you guys setting hard edges and running through that and closing the ground, no matter if you’re in the box or out of the box is really what it comes down to, which is a collective thing, and that we got to really keep working at doing a good job of at.”
They have high expectations for themselves, obviously right. And talk about wanting to be, like, the best defense in the world. So, after that game on Sunday, it sounded like some of them were pretty hard on themselves for letting that scoring drive happen. Just how have you guys seen them respond as a coaching staff?
“It’s a really good question. Here’s what I told the room yesterday. You can say things, we all can. We can use words. You can put stuff on your chest and wear a T-shirt, but it really doesn’t mean anything. You got to go out there and do it consistently, down after down, day after day, over and over. It’s like what Coach (Jim) Schwartz said. They don’t pay us for Sundays. Coach Schwartz said it best, that’s for free. We all do that in this profession, play, coach for free. They pay us for the other days, the hard days in between the Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays. And that’s what being the best defense really is. And we got to do that better and more consistently in the times that you guys get to see for a little bit. But what we live in for the majority of a prep. So, for us, I feel like we’ve been okay. We’ve been great, and then we’ve not been great. And it’s the true consistency of not just putting a T-shirt and saying those things, or it’s the true consistency of living that every day, which I think we’re still learning.”
Guys like Ronnie Hickman, he took the first step. He made the roster. How do you kind of bring him along while he has to be patient, sort of wait his turn?
“Ronnie has to field every question. If something comes up that Rod (Rodney McLeod) is doing or Grant (Delpit) is doing on film, I don’t talk to Rod or Grant, I actually talk to Ronnie as if he’s in the game. So, I got to keep him mentally engaged all the time, you know. I got to make sure he’s paying attention, and he’s just not drifting in those meetings, because that is when you lose those guys. Same with, you know, TMac (Tanner McCallister) and even DBell (D’Anthony Bell). So, for me, maybe Grant does something on the tape, but I’ll look at Ronnie and I’ll say, ‘Hey, Ronnie, this is what you need to do.’ And it just kind of keeps those guys engaged mentally off the field. When we’re in practice, I keep cards on me, and I force them to look at the card, know the play, and then watch it. So, I’m trying to imprint in their brain as many times as possible so that when he does get the opportunity, he can execute as well as he can with limited reps.”
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