Jaguars Coordinators on Strategy Leading up to Chiefs Matchup | Jacksonville Jaguars
Um you uh that’s that’s great that’s a great question. Um yeah definitely you know not easy to prepare for um have done that a few times in the past but um just an exceptional player you know what I mean uh as as good as there has ever been I think at the position. Super talented, super smart, tough guys. So um it’s a lot of work preparing for him. That’s probably the best way to say it. How much strength can he put on a defense? I mean, he can get outside the pocket and then throw it. I mean, 100 yards down the field. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, he has every attribute. Um, you know, is top tier. So, um, he can put a ton of strain on you. You know, obviously everybody has to do a great job plastering down the field. Um, because he’s just kind of kept so many plays alive in his career and been able, like you said, to get the ball down the field. Um, but, you know, not only that, he really does a great job of throwing on time. Um, you know, the rhythm pass game is as good as there is in the league, too. Um, so he’s just, yeah, I you can’t say enough good things about him because he really is an incredible player. What’s been the key for you guys on defense during fifth? Yeah, I I think um really the guys, their communication, their ability to settle down and um you know, just keep playing through the rhythm of the down, you know, knowing that uh understanding where you are on the field. Um, and in some ways it’s it can be advantage defense, you know, um, in terms of the field being often times three times as wide as it is along. Um, just understanding how to play, what type of routes you’re going to get and, uh, anchoring down in the run game was something I thought we did a good job of last week in San Fran, especially early. Um, you know, they did a good job in their opening script and moved the ball down the field and the guys really locked in and did a good job in our three red zone snaps down there. Jack Kaiser in lane stepping in last week. How impressed were you by just their readiness for that moment? Yeah, I I was very impressed by both of those guys because um you know, football’s a game like that as you know, you know, you may just your number may get called uh and you’re up there, you’re ready to go and they were prepared. Um credit to them and then really a credit to their coaches, you know, like Anthony Perkins, I think, has done a great job with Ray uh laying up to this point. And then, you know, same thing with Tim Luca, who’s done a great job with uh Jack Kaiser all throughout the spring, summer, and everything. Jack’s been been ready to go. So, straps under um I think like everybody I was just having this conversation with our guys. We just need to be we need to be more detailed as a whole defensively and I think that’s something you would say I probably would say that every season I’ve been coaching um you know and I think most coaches would say that but that’s really it. I could say that about us as a unit and you’re working through that. I talked about this in the past too, how it’s a long season and every week you’re kind of finding out what you do well and you start to gravitate toward those toward towards those things uh that your players do well and I think that there’s there’s a bunch for all of us to improve on. Mahomes is running the ball a lot more this year than he has in the past at sometimes. So, does that change kind of the equation with how you prepare for him this year? Yeah, I I feel like he’s always been, you know, pretty active as a runner. I know he is running the ball a little bit more. Um but you know in past games he’s done a good job of that against us. You know when I was in Miami we have played him a bunch of times and I thought he always did a good job keeping plays alive and you know trying to get through the middle of the defense or getting an escape hatch in the uh you know in the pass rush finding a way out of there. So it really does add uh another difficult element to a defense for sure. The speed as well that they have at the receiver core this year with Xavier Worthy back is that different challenge than maybe you’ve faced so far? Yeah, I think he’s he’s got elite speed, you know, he’s a special player as well. Um really I think he’s a good route runner and I know he got banged up early in the year, so he adds a whole another dimension to them, you know, when he came back and uh he obviously makes it difficult, you know, years back when they had Tyreek Hill, you know, another guy that could really, really, really go. Um he kind of brings that element to their offense. Yeah, you guys lead the league in uh takeaways. How much do you credit that to the intentionality out on the practice field? Like if you watch every position group is focusing on punching, focusing on getting the ball out. How much do you credit that? I credit the the players and the coaches with that because uh it’s something that the players take very seriously. Um you know, and even just culturally in the room, that’s something that, you know, they want to be about and they put a lot of emphasis and effort into that um every day. I talked about that when I first got here. um that we want every drill to end with a tackle or a takeaway, you know, or else by definition, we don’t feel like there’s a finish to the drill. It’s not a good enough drill. So, um they’ve spent a lot of time emphasizing uh entry level on the tackles, finishing on the tackles, leg drive, you know, um same foot, same shoulder mechanics, all that stuff. And then when we’re not doing that, there should be a violent finish to the play. Whether that’s, you know, ball in the air as a defensive back or back seven guy competing uh in the pass game or attacking the ball at the end of a run or catch. Yeah, that’s something I would credit the players wholeheartedly with that. Trayvon go. How do you replace what you get from him on the field? Um I mean I we expect Trey to, you know, he’s a tough kid, so if he’s available, I know he’ll do everything he can to play. Um, but you know, like we did the other day, the guys that went in there, I thought did a good job, you know, and uh didn’t let go of the rope and they produced for us. So, that whole room is uh that’s a great room and we feel like we got a bunch of good guys in there and they did a good job stepping up for him last week when he had to exit the game. So, what have you seen that maybe others didn’t? Um, I don’t know so much what I saw. I just think that he is a great fit for what we do. Um to me he’s just like a he’s a true threeown linebacker. Um there’s just not that many three down linebackers in football and some guys are three down linebackers in a certain way and some are three down linebackers in another way. Meaning that um some guys may be out there and hey they do a bunch of stuff in the coverage. You know they’re kind of a lighter guy and they’re off the ball off the ball all the time. But, you know, he’s a guy, I’ve said this about him in the past, is that he has a very unique skill set in that he could play on the edge, you know, early down, if you lined him up, you know, outside as a open five technique on a tackle or a nine technique on a tight end, he can do a really good job there setting the edge, zone drop and all that stuff. He can play off the ball early down because he sees it pretty good. He can run and hit. Um, he does a good job in the pass coverage. And then if you want to use him as a pass rusher, um, he has the ability to do that. So, I don’t think there’s that many guys that have that unique skill set where they’re a three down guy. Like I said, he’s able to cover, he’s able to rush, blitz, um, and he’s able to set the edge, you know, early down, play off the ball. So, that’s a multiple skill set. And I I’ve said that in the past year, too, is that like that’s what we really value, uh, in players. and he definitely has that and he’s worked his he’s worked so hard that guy. I mean just everything that he does fundamentally um every day is showing up in the games and he really has done a great job uh building up a lot of that in his skill set over the course of the last few months. How much harder will it be for Josh and Trayvon not able to go? Do you expect the Chiefs to kind of concentrate on Yeah, I think I think Josh gets a lot of attention every week. um you know, he’s used to that if that does happen. Um and he’s just he’s done a great job for us because he’s really been relentless in the rush and he’s done a great job in the run game. So, um I think he kind of just goes about everything as business as usual, you know, and I think he’ll give us great effort there on Monday, too. You mentioned cleaning up some of the details this defense that maybe have been messed up at times during the first couple of weeks. I mean, the production’s been there. It’s looked good. How much I guess room for growth is there still in this group. I think there’s a ton of room for growth with us. Um I think the players feel that too. You know, there’s there’s stuff there uh that can be better. You know, we can be uh more detailed. You know, as a coach in my position, I can be better. Um and that’s all we’re you know, we’re all fixated on that every day. Just how can we be better? How can we get it better uh today from now to the end of the season? That’s the that’s the goal. And as a coach, that’s basically how you’re evaluated. You know, how much uh can your players improve in comparison to the competition over the course of the season? That’s how we should be evaluated and that’s how we we’re trying to approach it. How do you evaluate the play of the outside cornerbacks so far this year specifically? Yeah, I think they’ve been super competitive uh on everything. They made some great plays for us. Um you know, I think Tyson has made some great plays for us down the field. You know, some of those plays are I I say this all the time in our room that, you know, there’s five or six plays in every game, right, that are going to dictate the outcome of the game in the pass game because there’s going to be two guys at the point of attack five or six times in a game, right? And who wins those one-on-one matchups, you know what I mean? those 50/50 balls or who violently finishes at the point of attack, whether they’re going to snatch the ball out of the air as a receiver or us violently finishing, separating the man from the football. Um, that’s going to dictate the outcome of the game and I think our guys have been really, really competitive with that. Uh, have we won every one of them? No. But, uh, we’re working to do that every day and I think they given us great effort that way. I think Jordan’s done a great job with that as well. And, uh, you know, good to have Montterk back. I think he’s a great competitor, too. Travis has given us some great reps that way and Jarian. So, um, yeah, really pleased with all those guys to this point. Thanks. Appreciate. That was the ribbon cutting. Sounds like I missed a big event. Come over. We’ll take you over and show you this grand stair. I feel like you guys got it covered. I don’t know if I need to go over there. All right. Monday Night Football. How big of a stage is this I mean, for this offense and the team to kind of be on. I think you approach it the same way you approach every week. the environment will be different. Hopefully it’s a phenomenal environment. Great opportunity for our fans to see us in Monday night prime time. So hopefully we get to experience that and the guys feel that. But really the way you approach it is just like every other game. You kind of have to have that same processoriented mindset where you’re taking every day as its own day, every week as its own week. And if you treat this game any different than the previous couple of games or the future couple of games, then that’s really not doing justice to the games that we play at 1:00 on, you know, at home, away, on the road, on all those different time slots. So, we approach it the same way. It’s another game for us in that mindset, but we’re obviously excited to see the the environment, the fans. Four games in, Trevor Lawrence, I know has four regular season games and this new offense under his belt. What sort of track do you feel like he’s on? I mean, is he ahead of schedule where you kind of wanted him to be? kind of right where he needs to be. Sometimes putting it on a schedule or a definitive schedule is tough because there’s so much gray and there’s so many conditional things that happen out there on the field or the guys he’s playing with or certain things will happen on certain plays that you don’t anticipate or that you don’t prepare for exactly in that situation. And there’s so many different ways you can handle all those different situations. So you don’t necessarily have a schedule saying he has to be here with this exact number of yards or this exact number of completions by this week. and then by the next week has to be that. But I think you see the progress from an overall perspective when you kind of zoom out and see where we started in the spring, where he was in training camp and where he is. You see bits of progress show up. It’s not going to be linear where everything’s going to be perfect in a straight line going from where we started to what we’re going to. There’s going to be ups and downs. He knows that. We know that. But you see the progress show up in bits and pieces. The goal is to continue to build on that progress and hopefully January, February, we’re saying the same thing about where we are there relative to now that we say now relative to the spring. So if we continue to keep building the way we’re building, I’m confident that that improvement will continue to come. Grant um third and short probably less than average right now for you guys. What has sort of been why have defenses made it so tough for you to run on third to one to three? There’s been a number of different things kind of similar to we talk about evaluating the quarterback. Each one of those is its own instance and each one of those kind of has its own breakdown. So you go back and evaluate the whole picture. What are we doing holistically that we can improve on as an offensive unit and then how does each play break down? And when you look at it, each one kind of fails for its own unique reason. Now we still have to address what’s the best way of mitigating those risks and preventing that from happening overall because we know we would like to be at a much higher percentage on those down in distances. But I think the variation of fronts and the variations of coverages and pressures that we’ve seen is something that we need to do a better job of handling and building a plan to put guys in a better place to attack those different variations. I think the combination of that, having cleaner plans for those things and the guys having some more experience in those situations where there are looks you might not see or more challenging looks or something that doesn’t show up the entire game except for that one play. They’re more prepared and they can handle that better moving forward. Liam said it takes a village to, you know, kind of prepare for Chris Jones. Just what kind of challenge does he present just considering his versatility? He might be inside, might be outside. I would echo Liam’s exact thoughts. The fact that he can line up inside, outside, he can rush with a variety of moves, speed, power, get to the quarterback in a bunch of different ways, affect the run game in a bunch of different ways. makes it challenging as coaches, but it also puts stress on the players that they have to identify him, know where he’s at, know the different techniques and moves and different change ups that he has and how they want to approach blocking him or approach attacking him. So, it’s an every single time he’s on the field type thing where you have to be aware of where he is and what your plan is for him, whether it’s red zone, open field, third down, it’s every single down. and seeing Chuma and Cole step in last week, the offensive line, you know, kind of stay the course, how how much confidence did that give you just seeing in actuality, the depth kind of play out? I would say it confirmed the confidence. It’s something we probably saw in training camp a little bit that we talked about with those groups. There was a lot of questions on why the lineup is changing so much and why guys are playing at different spots, why guys are going with the ones, why guys are going with the twos. And it was really for that instance we referenced that it’s very rare for an offensive line the same five guys to play the entire year in the exact positions that they started the game and finished the season in those exact positions. So you saw that come to life in that San Fran game and that was a little bit of the fruits of those guys labor and their flexibility and versatility to play guard, play tackle, play some tight end at different times, rotate in at different positions. So, it’s a testament to their work and all the work they put in really not just in the week preparing for the game, but the whole training camp spring, everything leading up to that. When you’re going through the process of figuring out what you want to do with Travis Hunter every week, do you find yourself going, “Ah, we’ve given him too much.” And then maybe other moments going, “Ah, we haven’t given him enough or we haven’t used him enough or we want to use him more or maybe we should use him less.” How do you Does that go through your head? It’s certainly like anything in the game plan where you’re evaluating it every single week. you’re evaluating it and then even during the week you’re evaluating it as you’re building the game plan. There’s absolutely a push and pull of saying what’s too much, what’s enough because we want to try to maximize and at the same time optimize his time on the field. We know there’s a lot being asked of him mentally and physically with offense, defense. So, we want to try to keep things as efficient as possible while still capitalizing on those talents. You see it on that third down. You see it in different situations when he gets to catch and run. So, we’re always exploring what’s the best way we can find, you know, what’s the best way we can get him on the field and let him go play fast, go play free without detracting from all the other things he has to do. When you look at a lot of the holding calls offensively, do you feel like that’s an issue right now or it’s more of just kind of circumstantial or fluky? So far, I don’t think we can ever approach anything like that as circumstantial or fluky just from our mindset. We have to stick with that mindset of controlling what we can control and what’s the way that we can improve the situation. So, how can we improve it? We can improve it by trying to be better with our technique, our fundamentals, maybe as coaches, putting the guys in better positions and doing a better job of teaching and emphasizing those techniques and fundamentals so those holds and all of those penalties really don’t show up. So, we have to approach it really with how can we improve that as opposed to brushing it off as fluke even if something were to be a one-off here or there. We try to take accountability for all that stuff that happens on the field and always evaluate what’s a way we can improve it. What’s a way we can find a way to fix those issues. What do you what did you miss most about not having Dami and what does he give you guys? Dami provides a lot in terms of run game and pass game. I think his toughness and his effort shows up in the run game that you might not always see on TV, but you know from the sideline or from a coach’s perspective, you see him doing a lot of work inserting on blocks, digging out safeties, blocking corners. Sometimes he ends up on a linebacker every now and then. His toughness is felt in the run game and it’s felt when another guy’s getting a catch and he’s transitioning the block. You’ll see someone else take a catch and run down the field and he’s down there blocking for the guy. And we love that effort. That effort is infectious for the entire team, the entire offense really. So you see that in the run game. Then you see in the pass game his ability to run really a wide variety of routes. When he’s outside, he’s lined up inside. He’s another guy that over the course of time as he become more and more comfortable with the offense has really improved his versatility to run a bigger route tree, get the ball in hand that he’s done in previous years, but adding that layer gets him each kind of level of the field where he’s been deep, he’s been short, ball in hand, and now he’s got the intermediate layer over the middle outbreakers. So that continued growth has been encouraging and you know when we have him out there, I think the guys feel that feel that energy that he brings. Grant, when you’re watching a play from the sideline at the game, the ball is snapped. Do you watch the ball or is your responsibility? You want to watch the front, the coverage? It it can depend on play a little bit based on what we’re doing. But most of the time I’m watching essentially through the defense into the offense. You know, if you’ve practiced that play all week and you’ve gone through it, you know where guys are supposed to be lined up. You know what they’re supposed to be doing. You know who they’re supposed to be blocking or what routes they’re supposed to be running. So assuming that they’re in the right position at the right time and we get that executed correctly, you know what that’s going to look like from our 11 standpoint. So you’re really trying to see how’s the defense reacting to what our 11 are doing. Awesome. Thanks guys.
Jaguars OC Grant Udinski and DC Anthony Campanile meet with the media before practice on Friday ahead of the matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5 of the 2025 NFL season.
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