Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley

On fifth-round pick Collin Oliver‘s possible role:

It’s about taking the skill set and putting it to use rather than saying, ‘This is our defense. Where is he going to play?’ So we’ve got to get creative and figure out what he can do, what he can do well, and how much (he can) handle in his first year. Right? How much can we teach him? He’s a sharp guy, but we don’t want to overload him so then he gets on the field and he’s thinking, because then he’s not going to be playing fast and he’s not going to be ready to play. It’s our job, though, to get him ready to see what he CAN do, to help us win football games. But I don’t just see him as a DPR and a special-teamer. I’ve watched him closely, and I see a skill set that we have to figure out how to put it to use. And that excites me. That’s the fun thing about coaching.

He’s had a lot of success inside, and I thought his tape outside was equally as good. He is competitive, he’s tough, he is physical, he plays the game fast, you can tell he loves it. It just jumps off the tape. I don’t know if you guys watched any of it, but it certainly jumps off the tape the way the guy plays. And he’s been a great addition and he does give you that versatility where you can move him around and again, I’m a big fan of that.

On reviewing Year 1 and expectations for Year 2:

This offseason, looking at what we did well, looking at really how we evolved in where we started and where we ended, really to pick up in where we’re going, there’s a lot that goes into that. First I would say, I’m proud of the way the guys played in Year 1. The thing that I’m most proud of, I do believe we got better, and I think we played our best football late in the season, and that was the most important thing to me. We were playing really hard at the end of the year. Like we were really physical, we were really running to the ball, guys were playing confident, guys were communicating and I just felt like we came alive and … throw out the numbers, the statistics and where we were … I think we played harder than our opponents at the end of the year and we were more physical.

Expectations? In a perfect world you want to get back to where you left off as fast as possible and build from there, so how fast can we do that? We have guys who have played in the system, we have some new pieces we need to add, we need to evolve, we can’t just do the same thing and say here’s the playbook and this is what we’re running. No. We’re a different team. It’s a different year. Offenses are going to evolve, we have to evolve. I would say I would like us to be more consistent. There’s a lot of things we did do well, but I think the consistency needs to improve. Certainly, I need to improve. Looking at myself personally, how I called games, what I called when I called it, how I got to certain things, can I get there faster. My relationship with the players in Year 2, I feel like there’s kind of a trust built so the relationship I think can get even better. But to me, it’s how fast can we get to where we finished the season and then build from there and evolve and be more consistent?

On DeMarcus Covington as new D-line coach:

We interviewed a bunch of really good coaches. The style of DeMarcus, how he has taught in a lot of different systems and a lot of different schemes – they’ve done a lot over there with coach Belichick in New England. I like the fact that he can coach a bunch of different techniques. He’s been involved in a lot of different fronts. I love his demeanor, I love the way he coaches, I love the relationship he has with his players. We did our homework on him. I kinda knew him when I was at BC. They came to practices, I went to practices so I had a chance to watch him a little bit. Very, very smart big-picture guy, has been a coordinator so he can bring some new ideas, some fresh ideas. I’m big on trying to stay ahead of things.

On Year 2 for Edgerrin Cooper:

Consistency. We talked and sometimes joked about he might’ve had that gap, but he made the play over there, right? Like there was a toss run over there that instead of going over the top of the blocker, somehow he ran underneath the blocker and still made a TFL. Now it’s getting the details down. Now it’s lining up exactly where he needs to line up and doing it over and over and over again because then he’s gonna show up faster and he’s going to make more plays and he’s going to become a more consistent player. When you see him now, he looks different. I mean, he’s bigger now. He’s gotta be close to 240 pounds and this Year 2 for him, he knows what it’s going to take. He knows what he has to do now to stay healthy. You can tell he’s dedicated that time into caring for his body and changed his body and now when you sit with him in that room it’s, I mean, he’s locked in and he’s focused. Now he knows what he’s doing. You’re first rookie year you’re kind of in survival mode a little bit, too.