Special Teams Coordinator Byron Storer (10.15.26)
Byron, just when you review the snap and Corey (Bojorquez) losing that ball in the punt, was simple as the ball was waterlogged, or what went wrong there, I guess, in the review of the film?
“Well, it started with the snap. We had a high snap. I talked to Rex (Sunahara), me and Rex watched the tape, and he brought his hips up, which brought the ball up, and then it slipped right through Corey’s hands. And so that was an unfortunate series of events on the one play. Usually those two guys, this was the eighth punt of the game, so they had done a pretty darn good job up to that point in the game. And for whatever reason, they both made a mistake on the same play. And usually when guys that handle the ball every single play that they’re out there, if both of those guys make a mistake, there’s going to be something bad that’s going to happen. That’s part of the job.”
Corey was talking about the number of kicking balls you guys have. But on days like that, where it’s heavy rain, just having an emergency kicking ball, would you be in favor of something like that? In situations where you have heavy precipitation or something like that?
“We used all the balls that were allotted to us for the game. And so, it’s hard to know when is it going to be okay to use this ball? You don’t know how many you’re going to get throughout the game. And so, it’s hard to be like, oh, we’re going to save this ball for this particular punt late in the game. It’s just really hard to foresee what’s going to happen in the game. But the guys did a good job of rotating the balls in there. But at that point in time, with the amount of punts that we had in the game, all the balls had been used at that point.”
What happened on the missed PAT?
“Andre’s (Szmyt’s) PAT? So, with Andre, it’s always about his tempo. And on that particular PAT, he was a little fast with his tempo, and he pushed the ball right. And so that’s something we’re always monitoring with Dre. It all starts with his tempo. And for that PAT, that miss, a contributing factor was his tempo.”
He’s always been so consistent these last two years. I mean, what do you as a coach do to stop it from snowballing, and kind of ensure that, oh, this is just a clear sort of one-off thing?
“Yeah, I think that Dre is a professional, he’s a pro, and I think he treats every ball like that. He misses in practice from time to time. And so, he’s got to go through that whole process as well during practice. He’s one of those guys; he does not like to miss at all. And so, any miss that he has in practice or in games, he’s going to evaluate. But then he does a really good job of moving forward. It’s the next play; it’s the next kick. And when I went up to him in the game after the missed PAT and we were talking about the next kickoff, he was totally calm, totally clear headed, communicating clearly. I mean, I think he understands that there’s going to be times when they miss kicks, but you just want to make sure you don’t miss in those critical moments of the game where we got to have those points. And so really, the timing of these mistakes was the biggest issue and the most critical moment of the game.”
How do you think Denzel (Boston) handled getting thrown out there in punt return?
“I think he handled it great. Really, really do. I think he made some really good decisions. He returned the first one, had a guy right in his face, caught it clean and made the one miss, and then had a 13-yard return. And then he went out there the second time, he made an early fair catch signal, which led to a fair catch interference call, which put the ball on the minus 46-yard line. So, in our experience with Denzel, he’s a very good decision maker. He’s a reliable punt catcher. And so, we feel very confident with him out there at punt returner, as well as KC (KC Concepcion Jr.).”
If KC clears protocol, do you still anticipate being in the punt return on Sunday?
“Yeah, we just see how the week goes and see how he’s feeling and then make the necessary decisions according to how he’s feeling and if he’s available. But as of right now, we’re preparing as if we don’t have him.”
Even though the PAT didn’t factor mathematically in the final score, does it seem to you that PAT misses are worse sometimes than field goal misses?
“Rich (Bisaccia) used to tell me that, and it stuck with me, is that it’s the most important point in football. If you miss a PAT somewhere, even if it’s in the first quarter, some way, shape or form, that missed PAT is going to factor into the game later in the game. So, it really is the most important point in football. And it’s always a little bit of a letdown when you see one missed, because you almost in your mind think it’s automatic, that’s an automatic kick, it’s a PAT, but it’s a 33-yard field goal now, so it’s not just an automatic made field goal anymore, I don’t think.”
So, you get that feeling in your stomach when you see that happen?
“It’s because I think you’re watching the kick, you’re thinking about, all right, we’re going on kickoff next. What’s my kickoff call going to be? You’re watching the kick and then the miss happens, and then you’re like, okay, I didn’t expect that to happen. And then you address it and you move forward. I mean, that’s what you do with any, I was thinking about it, there’s errors on every single play. But it’s just the ball carriers, the guys who touch the ball, the guys who score points. When those guys make an error, that’s when it costs you games.”
They didn’t obviously throw the flag on Malachi Corley when he slid, but is there still a teaching point on that play?
“Absolutely. He can’t put himself in jeopardy of sliding into him like he did. The officials were great with us. They came up to us on the sideline and said, ‘we felt like he was trying to avoid, but he just couldn’t stop because of the conditions.’ So, I really appreciate the officials communicating with us in that situation and then giving him a little bit of grace, because he was trying to slow down and stop, but he just couldn’t. But he’s got to have better awareness and come to balance a little bit sooner in that situation to avoid and not put us in harm’s way of having a costly penalty.”
It looks like later in the game the Jets broke off on some longer returns than they usually do, what can you all do to improve your coverage?
“Yeah, I think Coach Monk (Todd Monken) talked about the sequence of plays. You think about the sequence of plays, is that the PAT, the missed PAT, and then we go on kickoff and we had a 36-yard return to the minus 45-yard line. And so, on that play, we had our call and we did not execute it exactly the way that we intended. And then we had a couple of missed opportunities at tackles. And so, it was a disappointing play in the fact that we didn’t execute the play exactly the way that we had the entire week of practice.”
The number of injuries you guys have currently, how much does that sort of trickle down to your group in terms of contingencies, and the unknown of who might be available during the course of the week?
“Luckily, I have a pretty good amount of experience in special teams throughout my NFL career. So, I’ve kind of been down this road before with injuries, and it is part of the job. So, what you have to do is just make sure that you’re always constantly developing players on your practice squad, the bottom half of your roster, and you’re always having contingency plans for if somebody goes down, who’s the next man up, who’s the next man up? And that goes for during the week as well as in the game. So, you always have to have a plan, as if someone is going to be unavailable at some point in time.”
What has been the mindset of your guys heading into this game, kind of knowing that it didn’t end the way that they wanted to? What been the vibe of your talks this week?
“I think on Monday we got a chance to watch it, and I think the guys and us, we all own it. We own how we contributed to the loss. And I think on Monday, you get a chance to look at it, be honest with yourself, not making excuses, and say, we could have done better. We could have done better. And then when Wednesday hits, it’s on to the next one. It’s on to the next one. And my wife does a good job too. And she tells me, after the game, it’s hard not to feel down about special teams not coming through for the team. You feel like you let the team down, and so you have that feeling in your stomach. And my wife does a great job. She says, it’s the midnight rule. I think Marty Schottenheimer, I read his book, and that’s where we got it from. But once midnight hits and you go on to the next day, you got to let it go. You got to move on to the next thing, because that’s what my job is, to get these guys ready to go and play the Baltimore Ravens.”
You talked about teachable moments; the end of the Eagles game has been a big topic of conversation this week with how they kind of managed things. Did you use, or how often do you use, other situations from other teams or games when do you guys kind of game plan and have those conversations?
“We always watch all. I mean, Keith Tandy, my assistant, does a really good job of going through each and every special teams game throughout the week and pulling out situations or different plays that are interesting, big plays that happen. So, we take a look at everything, and anything that we can add to our arsenal, we feel like it’s just being smart. And so, we take a look at everything, and as long as we have time, we’ll always put it in a cut up, and towards the end of the week, usually I’ll be able to get to it and hopefully be able to show the guys on a Friday, Saturday night tape.”
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