Drew Petzing, Nick Rallis, Jeff Rodgers – Coordinators Press Conference – 9.30.25 | AZ Cardinals

Drew Petzing, Nick Rallis, Jeff Rodgers – Coordinators Press Conference – 9.30.25 | AZ Cardinals

Drew JG was talking about how with this mini buy, the coaches are still going to be in the building. What do you feel like you guys accomplished in this quote unquote mini buy? I think the benefit of having some extra time after a short week is it gives you a chance to go back and watch your tape, spend a little extra time on maybe the next opponent or two, but also evaluate where you’re at, what you need to do better, what you’ve done at a really high level, um, in a way that maybe you wouldn’t get to spend quite as much time during a standard week when you’re game plan. watching the film and having some extra days to think back to Thursday’s game. What were the differences efficiency wise from the first three quarters to the last one for your offense? Yeah, you know, one of the big things got going there in the fourth quarter was really excited with how the guys stayed resilient and kept playing at a high level and playing hard. I think you saw that in the way we were able to claw back in that game. You know, Seattle’s certainly a really talented defense just based on how they played and the players they have, the scheme. Um, you know, I think a number of things, you know, I think it, you know, some of the penalties hurt us early in some tough situations. You know, some of it was execution. It’s going to take all of us to operate at that level like we did in the fourth quarter, but certainly that’s the goal and I think now we kind of saw it and we need to find a way to maintain it. You guys ran out of 11 personnel, maybe more than you ever have. How did you feel like that progressed throughout the game and how do you feel about maybe having to use that going forward? Great question. Definitely something we, you know, kind of had a feel for going into the game and I think that when we talk about it in here too, it’s every game is going to be so different based on the matchup, based on who we have available in the game. So that was just kind of the plan in that game and kind of how the game played out based on the score and the flow of the game. Uh it may be that way coming up. It may be completely different. What do you do in a game where you know Marvin started as rough as he did and then finished as strong as he did? Like in the moment like how do you deal with a player like that? And are there emotions involved? I think there’s always emotions involved in football. Good, bad, all of the above, right? throughout the course of a game, the highs and lows, you know, the ups and downs. That’s a big part of football. And my thing and my message to him was right after the play, like, I’m not treating you different. I’m not calling it different. Like, he’s as good a player as there is in this league in my opinion. And we’re going to need him to make big plays. And I said that to him. I looked him right in the eye. I said, “Look, you know, we’re going to be good. You’re going to be good. We’re going to need you if we’re getting back in this game.” And I was really excited to see him push through that and go out and make those plays down the stretch and get us back in that game. It was uh, you know, that’s not an easy thing to And I thought he showed a ton of resilience uh throughout that game and obviously the ability there at the end to to make those plays. Those contested catches, do you do you kind of see that as his standout skill? I I think it’s one of the many things he does really well. You know, certainly his size, his length, his ball skills, the ability to go up and get the ball in some of those situations is really a great asset for us. What would you see as his other elite traits? You know, I think the movement skills at that size, the way he can get in and out of breaks, the way he can get off the line of scrimmage. you know, he does get pressed a lot and get cloud and I think he’s able to get into his routes and win at the top of his routes and go attack the football. So, was pleased to see that. How natural of a move is it to get Amari back in that kind of third down role and just how has he progressed, I guess, moving forward in that. Yeah, it’s something he does at a really high level, you know, that he does a number of things as you’ve seen him run the ball with some big plays even there down the stretch in some of those two-minute drives. Had a big run there on first and 10, I think, uh, kind of got us rolling there the second drive. Um, but just the trust that we have in him, his ability to step up and win the one-on- ones in pass protection is a real comforting for the quarterback and certainly a play caller as well. Michael Carter was signed the active roster. What are his coordin? Uh, he he’s a really well-rounded player. You’ve seen him, you know, I think back to what he came here towards the end of the 23 season and played some pretty significant time there towards the end of the season. He finished the year last year in the San Francisco game, I thought, on a really high note with the ball in his hand. I think he’s gotten a lot better in pass protection uh throughout his career over the last three or four years. And I, you know, I’m thinking back to maybe the Pittsburgh game where he was called into duty and some big third down step where he had to step up in protection, did a really nice job. So, anytime you get a guy who can really do all of those things at a pretty high level, I think it helps us as a team. After that self scout that you mentioned, how do you kind of assess what the offense has done through four weeks? Yeah, I I mean, you know, ultimately the assessment to me is did we score more points than the other team? Two times we did, two times we didn’t. So, there’s always going to be room for improvement. I I think one of the things and that we the word we’ve used is consistency. Like, you’ve seen it happen, you’ve seen it get rolling, you’ve seen when we’re operating a high level, and we need to be able to maintain that for a longer period of time. I think it’s really important. You guys have always wanted to kind of establish the run, but James going down, you guys facing some injuries, maybe not finding the run game as much as you’d like. Does it kind of force you to maybe look to the pass a little bit more? Maybe you’re set up for more success that way. It’s a good qu. It’s different week to week based on who we’re playing and kind of the matchup. Um, you know, and I think you saw that last week in the game in terms of how things played out. I never want to go into a game saying it has to be this or it has to be that. It’s more of, hey, who’s available? What do they do at a high level? And how does that attack who we’re playing against? We’ve uh continued to see those miscommunications between Kyle and Marv. I know the one this week was a tempo situation, but how do you explain that that is still happening fairly regularly now 21 games? Yeah, I mean and again I can only speak from my experience, but just deal, you know, coaching wide outs being in that room, it’s something that happens pretty regularly if you look across the league in my opinion, you’re always trying to get people to be on the same page in terms of exactly how we see certain coverages or how we’re coming out of routes and things like that. I think that’s been a work in progress just about every building I’ve been in and I know those two guys are working tirelessly at it. So, it’s not something I’m overly concerned with. He had heard in the offseason of you guys working on some scrambell drills maybe a little bit more and I know that interception it looked like Kyler was starting to scramble and so Marv was breaking his route. I mean are is that an instance where you guys can practice something like that or is that kind of just one of the unfortunate instances of poor timing in a game? I think the latter, you know, if you look at through the course of four games, I think we actually have made some really big plays off schedule. Like I think the PI we got in the Carolina game, the PI we got in the San Francisco game. I mean, those are 35 40 yard chunks there that they don’t go down as completions, but we’re moving the plays or moving the yards. Um, so I do think it was kind of an unfortunate occurrence with uh with Trey Benson being injured right now. If he’s missing the game, do you see Amari as the type of guy who can take on a three down workload or or would it likely be more of a split with him and some other half. I feel really good about just about everybody we have in that room. If you look at what they’ve done throughout preseason, throughout their time in this building, you know, I think all of them can handle the rock. I think they can protect on third down. I think they’re dynamic out of the back field. So, uh, it could be any combination of those three. Can I ask one more? Sorry. We’ve talked in here about um, you know, some of the unblock pressures and how that’s not always on the offensive line. Sometimes those things just happen in games. It seems fairly rare for you guys when you do have those that you guys are throwing over them into that kind of space that they’re not occupying um with the blitz. Why do you think that’s the case in this offense and and what else goes into those plays that makes it maybe more complicated than hey just throw over the blitz? Yeah, I mean you have to have somebody running a route there which would be the first thing and again without you know going through the every look and every pressure that we’re talking about it’s you know I’d be lying if I told you this is what happened here that’s what happened there. You know I think there can be a number of factors. Certainly, there might be other things in coverage that we’re trying to take advantage of when we get those pressures. It could have been a miscommunication on our end. It could have been something they did to make us hot. I think all those different things can play into where the ball goes and why you want it to go there. U we’ve heard a lot about the self scout that the offensive coaches did over this mini buy. What about your self scout? What did you learn about this defense through four weeks? Yeah. Um, you know, a couple like details, schematic things we definitely want to um, incorporate, but I think the biggest thing, and it just goes into our philosophy as a team is we need to do a better job of winning the explosive play and the takeaway battle. Um, and you know, that’s what I talked to the players about. You know, I’d say the last two games there was too many explosives. Um, you know, and that’s not a a formula to win games. And then we got to continue to try to take that ball away. Um I will say it’s on their mind and there’s been some good attempts at the ball, but you know, you got to keep taking those those shots on goal and hopefully it comes to fruition. So those to me are the biggest things right there. It’s the square root of who we are. You talked a lot, the players talked a lot about the importance of takeaways, especially interceptions over the offseason. Why do you think it hasn’t quite manifested itself so far? Um you know, I’m not sure uh exactly. It’s hard to say. I know this though, you just got to keep attacking it. You got to keep working it. You got to keep practicing an individual and then it’s got to show up in the team periods and then on game day, you got to let it rip. Um, and you got to celebrate when you when you get those on Sunday. So, we’re just going to keep punching with what we know is um to put it on their mind and improve the technique and let it rip on Sundays. With uh some of the tweaks or things that you talk about, I mean, obviously if you gave up explosive. People are going to notice if you take away the ball, people will notice. But just in general, when we talk about little things that you want to fix or Drew might want to fix or JG might want to fix, I would assume to most fans, it’s not stuff that we’re necessarily going to notice. It’s stuff It’s probably more nuanced than that. Correct. Yeah, I would say that’s that’s probably accurate. Um, you know, our style in general could, you know, to the naked eye could appear like week-toeek adaptability of that this looked a lot different this week. Um, and that’s not necessarily a reflection of Cell Scout. It could be, but that could just be, oh, hey, this this is how they want to play, you know, this opponent this week. Trail is a guy that’s kind of low on the depth chart coming into this season, but with some injuries, he got some opportunity. Whenever Will comes back, has Krell kind of carved out a role going forward with his play? I mean, I I would say we’re something we’re going to work through every single week, but yes, he has done a really good job. Um, stepping in and winning at the point of attack. Um, and he he deserves to be on that field. So, you know, when it’s right and where we can get him a role, uh, we will. Another impact play that you obviously talk about a lot is getting in quarterback sacks and pressures. How do you feel like you guys have been at that aspect for four weeks? Um, you know, it’s good and bad. Um, you know, we did some good stuff in terms of like normal down. You know, Sweaty had a a strip sack. We didn’t get on like, you know, those normal down rushes are huge. Um, you could argue they’re more important than getting a sack on third down because it’s setting them behind the chains for, you know, second or third down. Um, but it’s there’s things that we can improve on. Um, you know, there’s there’s some things that I thought we have improved on and um, we’re able to affect the quarterback. So, week to week, we just got to keep getting better. um in terms of our plan and just our our technique of winning our one-on- ones. Um you know, I felt like inside we’ve we’ve won some rushes. Um and we’ve finished on the quarterback or drew some penalties. Um you know, I feel like our execution of pressures right now is is we’re hitting at a really good rate. Um and you know, we just got to keep keep punching. I I like the way some of the edge guys have rushed specifically with, you know, chippers. You know, I think chippers are a big thing right now across the league. and how do you combat those chippers? Um whether it shows up on the stat sheet or not, but it’s little nuance things that I feel like we’re we’re continuing to get better at and um you know, keep keep punching at it and you know, it’s going to come to fruition. What stood out with a guy like Jordan Burch through four games? Um improved um an asset for us on first, second down, and third down. Um you know, he can collapse a run game. He’s reliable. you know, I’d trust him be able to do anything in there. Um, can wear multiple hats, so he’s a good player for us. Um, important role. Talk about explosive plays, but your defense is one of the best in stopping the run. Is there any sort of positive that you are forcing teams and quarterbacks to be mostly one-dimensional in the passing game there? Yeah, I mean, you you love to make an offense um onedimensional. I think this past week was probably our worst performance in the run game and it actually just came down to some fundamental things of, you know, winning our primary gap before getting in our secondary gap or keeping a cup on the football or tackling. And it’s it’s things that we’ve we’ve done well and then we took a step back and we got to get back to the basics on um you know killing that run game so that we can put people like you’re talking about is if you can get people to played one-dimensional it should it should play into your hand. Last season you guys played against the top three picks in the draft which were all quarterbacks. Has there been a common theme or trend when when evaluating rookie quarterbacks when you’re trying to go up against them that could possibly help you as you get to face the first pick in this year’s draft? Um, no. I think you you look at every player as their own player. Um, you know, some rookies can be pretty far along in their development. Um, some might need some time still. So, to me, I don’t really if he’s a rookie or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to go off of what I see on the tape. So, through the four weeks, what have you seen from Cam W? I mean, despite the fact that they haven’t won a game yet. Yeah. Um, I think it’s only a matter of time before it it clicks. Um, you know, hopefully it doesn’t click for him this week, but you can see the talent. Um, and you can see that he he runs the show like that there is a a calmness and a leadership and he’s able to get get him in the right calls. Um, often it’s he’s dangerous because he’s got arm talent. um and he can throw it at some really, you know, cool trajectories. Um and then when it’s not there to me, he can move to push the ball down the field. So, um I’m a fan. I think he he’s going to be a good player. Um and we got our our work cut out for us this week. I know it’s to be determined on whenever Bal is ready to play, but obviously you got to coach him for a few games last year. What kind of player is he and what does he bring to the table when he is available? Um, he is a guy that can play multiple roles. I think he’s a really good run defender. Um, so when he wins, you know, when he gets his one-on- ones in the point of attack, he’s going to win those. Um, and then he’s a guy to me that can that can push a pocket, you know, whether he’s out there on first, second down, or third down. So, I think the biggest thing with Bal is just it’s exciting to have him back out there knowing how hard he’s worked to push through um his injury and whenever that time comes on Sundays, I know he’s going to go out there and help us win. There was a practice last week where he was kind of out there and he was just standing on the side, but he was seemed like he was yelling a lot of encouragement. He he was just being encouraging to his teammates. And I’m just wondering, is that an important part of what he brings to the team? It is. He’s he has been a leader since he stepped on the scene. And you know, I think he has done probably as good of a job of staying locked in even when like going back to last year when he wasn’t able to play. Um staying a leader, staying a really good teammate, um being mentally prepared even though he knew he couldn’t go at that moment. And so like the work he’s put in has set him up to be ready whenever that time is to go out there and and have success. So I mean he means a lot to the locker room. He means a lot to the Dline room. Um I’m thrilled that he’s that he’s back out there. There were a couple plays on on Thursday where it seemed like um guys were maybe looking in the wrong spot or thought a play was going one way when it was going another. How do you explain those kinds of moments where guys were thought a play was going one way and thought it was going the other just on the touchdown? Yeah. Um you know the touchdown I know wants that play back. Um you know I think they’re probably trying to attack quarters. He just kind of got l a little bit. Um and then you know Denzel is it gets into a cracker place technique of just trusting that once you see the block to you know burst flat and and try to keep a cup on the ball. So um you know those are just some fundamental things. I wouldn’t say there’s like an issue of uh we’re not seeing things per se but yeah those a couple of those did did show up. You just got to get back to, you know, when you’re when you’re coaching guys, you always got to coach them through, you know, their shoes and what are their what is their eye progression, what are they seeing, alignment, assignment, key technique. And so it’s just it’s some fundamental things there you can improve. But overall, you’re not saying that. No, I don’t think that we’re like seeing too much or or not seeing enough or, you know, seeing the wrong things. Not worried about that. Ka seemed kind of hung up on the run defense last week. Have you noticed maybe the D line room or just defense in total in totality kind of having the extra fire to remedy any that this week? I think they’ve been they’ve had fire all year. Um, you know, I I feel good with what those what those guys have done in the run game this year. I feel good. I think, you know, this past week it was it was some fundamental things that we just didn’t do a good job of and it led to big plays. You know, just losing a couple on the football. Um, letting a ball cross our face, you know, credit to them. Um, good two good running backs in Seattle. Um, but we got to do a better job of of the fundamentals. You talked about teaching turnovers, teaching interceptions, teaching those. Is run defense almost counterintuitively part of that because it forces them into known pass? Yes. Yes. Um, that’s part of it. You know, I think run defense also goes into the explosive play battle. Um, and I don’t just mean that with explosive runs. I mean that by, you know, if you can shut down the run game, you can call a game. based on what do you need to do to stop the pass game. Um and not just okay hey we have to load the box or whatever we we run blitz whatever that is because that can lead to explosives elsewhere whether that is in the run or pass game. So yeah I think run defense without it necessarily you know creating a takeaway it absolutely can lead to helping you win you know the takeaway battle and the explosive play battle. Speaking of calling a game or so Brian Callahan gave the play calling duties to the quarterback coach. What sort of wrinkle is that? What does that mean for you as a coordinator on the other side? Yeah, I mean you just you got to be able to um filter through information. There’s not a lot of data to go off of um per se with Bo, but um you take in what you got and you know things that you don’t know, you got to be able to adjust um out there during the game. Klay also spoke about getting more trusting the guys next to him a little bit more. How do you foster that? Yeah, we talked about that um when the players were we watched the film. You know, it’s it’s the important thing is, you know, we don’t have any guys that put themselves above the team, but you you can’t go out there and press to make plays and you got to trust that, you know, the guy next to you is going to do his job at a high level. Um because when you start to press, you start to give up some uncharacteristic things. So, they all know that. Um I think Clayas is just echoing that point and you got to just do your job at a high level. Obviously, the end of the game, I know JG was mentioning that he thought Chad mish hit that last one and it looked like the kick that Chad tried on the last kickoff looked a lot like what he was trying to do, the previous one that was very successful. Can you kind of take us through what happened on those last couple kickoffs and why it might have ended up short of the lane? Yeah, similar thought process. There was a couple other kicks in the game where um we’re attempting somewhere in that genre, right? Just to keep the ball from going into the end zone uh force them to return it. The you know the factor when there’s 20 something seconds left as opposed to the middle of the second quarter uh is there’s a time element to it which was um part of the decision-m there. Um but yeah, we’re we’re trying to keep the ball in play and um didn’t hit it as clean as what we wanted to. um you know if it travels another two feet you know it it’s a great kick but uh didn’t work out for us on that play. What’s your opinion Jeff on just the way some teams are handling this kickoff? I don’t want to say oh they are dirty kicks say are you in favor of of that implementation and would are you guys thinking about that as well really? Yeah. Well that’s a term that we use. We use dirty kicks. people have different uh terms for those alternate um kicks. You know, it there are some guys around the league who are um really really good at it. And what I’ve come to see is that I think to some degree uh most every team has attempted multiple so far this year. Sometimes it’s just taking the hang time out of it, you know, and being more of a line drive. Sometimes guys are getting the ball on the ground. Um, as you look at certain kickers, most of the kicks that have hit the ground are continuing on similar to a squib kick had in the past. Um, where the ball’s trajectory kind of stays online. Um, there’s not many um, two or three guys who are able to kick it in a way that the ball’s kind of shooting, you know, right or left, uh, making it harder to field. And that’s really the only advantage, you know. um that you can get on hang time doesn’t matter. So how do you create hang time, right? Like you used to kick the ball with extreme hang time to allow your cover guys to close the space to the returner before he catches the ball. Um the only way to create that scenario now is to get the ball on the ground before the returner catches it. So um that’s really what people are trying to create. um when this was being discussed in terms of okay the 40 yard line, the 35 yardd line, the 30 yard line, like what’s the touchback, what are all the things. Um I said that and I said it in a room full of uh the coordinators around the league that this is what this kick and this is what this play is going to be. Um because I felt like the riskreward in the past, the past meaning last year, um you’re talking about a 10 yard difference, right? You’re talking about a first down between kicking the ball at the back of the end zone and being short of the landing zone. And that that’s, you know, five yards versus 10 yards, you’re incentivizing people to do that. So, um, you know, we all play by the same rules, but yeah, I mean, I, um, there’s more things to consider this year from both a return and a coverage perspective than there was a year ago. Is Shannon capable of trying some knuckle ball kicks? Yeah, we’ve tried. We’re working on it. Um, you know, the one he hit in the game worked out great for us. Um, yeah. Um, and there’s been other kicks where, you know, you’re just trying to move the returner so he can’t, you know, catch the ball running downhill at you. Maybe if he catches it going sideways, that’s another way to create, you know, time for the coverage team to to close that gap. So, um, they’re all things we’re continuing to evaluate and we’re we have been working on stuff. We continue to work on stuff and, um, when we feel like the time is right to do some of those things, we will. Last one for me. Just one more up for me. I swear it’s been a couple weeks, so you loading them up. You have like a a jugger’s gun capable of shooting knuckle balls to your returns to have them practice for this when they face. Yes, I would. It’s hard to simulate all the different things that uh that you can see, but um yeah, we we have uh different mechanisms for trying to simulate that for the returners. Considering where the kickoff was maybe three, four years ago and the concerns of whether it would even be in the game and just everything with special teams, I’m just wondering about your your feeling. I mean, right now there’s a good portion of what people are talking about is this. It’s it’s how far out the field goal kickers are making kicks now. And hey, like like we’re almost talking all special teams about that last little part. Yeah, the Seahawks had to move the ball a little bit, but between knowing that the guy could be in field goal range pretty quickly and then the kickoff itself, that’s almost all special teams. Like I’m wondering how you feel about just where special teams has come in this short amount of time in terms of the importance of what it can play into in a game. The first thing I would say is that the importance has been there for me for a long time. Um, there’s a lot of stuff going on. I mean, there’s there is long field goals, there’s block kicks, there’s return touchdowns, there’s punt return touchdowns, kick return touchdowns. Um, the first thing that I felt last year when the kickoff changed, and it’s kind of the unintended consequence, is the ball gets to midfield a lot sooner now than what it used to. And you know the the domino effect of the field position aspect affects so much of your decision-m like everybody’s got an opinion in overtime. Should you take the ball? Should you kick? Um you know, how does that stuff play out? And I know what analytics say. I know what conventional thinking is like. Know what you have to do. Are you in four down? Do you need a touchdown? Do you need the field goal? versus if both teams score now you got the third possession and like you’re gonna win it versus what happened the other night where it’s an overtime and it’s a walk-off tie, right? Like all of those things play play into it. Um, and I do think some of the narrative because the kicking game becomes so important in some games and it’s to a lot of people when we or other teams play a game and there’s a bunch of touchbacks and fair catches and like dudes are making 30 yard field goals like you don’t even think about it. Um, where the rest of us are kind of on the edge of our seat because we know what every play matters. So, um I guess it’s a positive that more people can appreciate what we do as an organization. Um but I think it also says to various um in various ways like how you can allocate roster resources. There’s been a narrative about okay should starters be playing more on this phase or that phase and that’s not you know always the answer. should you be keeping more, you know, smaller guys or bigger guys or like all of that stuff. It’s constantly in the forefront of our mind. So, um, welcome to my world. When you’re trying to get those kickoffs on the ground like Chad was, what is the actual landing area? I know there’s like literally a 20 yard space, but in terms of where you can actually get it down before the guy can have a chance to return, like what is the how big is the area that he’s aiming at on a kick like that? It it really depends. I mean, I can appreciate your question, but is there two guys back there? Is there one guy back there? Is he at the 10? Are both guys at the goal line? Are they playing kind of staggered? So, um there it depends on the game plan. And um some of it is are we are we just trying to take the hang time out of the play? Um the longer the ball’s in the air, the more the return team can react. And if the ball’s up there for 4 seconds from a processing standpoint, like some teams will say, “Hey, if the ball is kicked in this direction, we want want to run this return, but the ball’s kicked over here, we’re all going to convert to to something else.” Well, when that happens in two seconds as opposed to 4 seconds, that is that is it’s a lot. you know, it’s a lot to process in a short amount of time trying to get 11 guys on the same page. So, um, it’s not a good answer to your question, but there’s too many factors probably to describe. Around the league, it seems like there’s just more blocks happening at a higher rate. I mean, you had, like you mentioned, the tide happened with the extra point getting blocked and returned. Are you noticing that? And maybe what what are you seeing out of those? Yeah, I’m noticing that. Um, when something happens in this league, as coaches, you’re always trying to find ways to motivate your guys, show what a difference this play or that play can make uh in a certain phase. Um, you know, it brings the attention to detail um into every meeting that we have. Uh, you know, we were in a short week last week. There was obviously a block or two that happened this past week, but last weekend it was like seven or something like that. It’s a ton. And both from a protection aspect and the block aspect, you can get your guys’ attention like, hey, we can, you know, we can experience this and um here’s how it can affect winning or losing, which ultimately is the only reason we’re here. What is the uh the reason those are happening? Is it a schematic thing that I’m not asking you to say the exact schematic thing and give that away, but is it thing that that special teams coordinators are doing differently now or is it better athletes? Like why is that all of a sudden happening? Yeah, there’s not one common thread. It’s not like, hey, everybody’s doing this particular one. Um the team we’re playing this week is about as creative as it gets when it comes to field goal block. And um you know it’s I’ve been around long enough to have remembered when you could line up the snapper, line up over the snapper, have three 300lb guys attacking the snapper and three guys behind them pushing like putting over a,000 pounds of force in the back of the snapper’s leg or back of the snapper’s neck. Obviously they got that out there, but every time they take something away. So the the next step was you can’t line up over the snapper, but you could still hit him. And the next step after that was you couldn’t hit him. And the step after that was no longer pushing. So the field goal block um it didn’t occur frequently for a number of years, but as guys have gotten creative with how they’re blocking stuff, um you see some things. I mean, again, the coach we’re we’re playing this week in Tennessee, he was the first one I saw do it last year where you know, you have all this force coming down on a particular player and um you know, a lot of times on a field goal team, you’re going to keep your hand in the ground to try and keep yourself anchored. Well, what he decided to do, and it’s legal, um, is to literally swipe the guy’s hand out of the way, almost like a kickstand on a bike, you know, and that guy falls forward and there creates an overunder gap. So, um, there are some teams that tried to emulate it. Uh, last year, so they kind of had to say, okay, this would be illegal or this would be legal. Uh, everything Tennessee is doing is legal. I don’t want anybody misinterpret what I’m saying. Um, but like that alone creates some things that you may have to adjust on how you’re protecting stuff. Um, I read comments by a player on a block field goal that they had kind of a tell on a snapper, right? Like that’s going to help you from an edge perspective if you can jump that um jump the snap. You know, guys have elevated and jumped, you know, physically. Sometimes it’s um two 350 pounders, you know, getting leverage. So, um, it there’s not one technique people are using. They’re just getting good results, uh, in a variety of ways. Whose arm is getting offensive or defensive? No, the offensive player. So, a lot of times on field goal protection, you’ll keep your inside hand down. Um, stay Yeah. in a three-point stance, whether it’s the guard or the tackle. And defensive players are swiping guys arms to try to, you know, get them to lunge forward. Um, and so they can swim the gap to the outside.

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, defensive coordinator Nick Rallis, and assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers join the media ahead of Week 5 against the Tennessee Titans.

0:00 Drew Petzing
7:25 Nick Rallis
19:34 Jeff Rodgers

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