Everything Texans DC Matt Burke said following Day 9 of training camp
· Yahoo Sports
Here's everything Houston Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said following Saturday's evening practice, including his thoughts on the Texans' newest addition, Jadeveon Clowney.
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Question: On how he believes the defense performed in practice
Matt Burke: “It was okay. We made some plays. I wasn't happy with the way we started practice, to be honest with you. Some of those scripted periods, too much in that short yardage period. I thought when we got into the call-up periods, those guys started playing. Part of the intent for tonight was to kind of push them through this little bit longer drives, a little bit longer sessions than we kind of been going at a time. For those guys to push through when you’re really taxing mentally and when you're tired. It’s can you execute some of the stuff we're doing? We tried to put them in a lot of different spots and with a lot of different calls. I’m happy with the way that the execution really turned out.”
Q: On whether CB Derek Stingley Jr. had a rest day
Burke: “Yeah, he's fine. He's fine.”
Q: On the approach for staying ahead of opposing offenses who scheme for this defense
Burke: “I think you're always playing that game. Even within games, I know it's easy post-season; you have that whole bank of work to look at and study and you have a lot more time. But you're always trying to stay ahead of the curve. What we try to do is look at it like, ‘What would we would do? Where do we think the weaknesses are? Where would we attack?’ Let's get ahead of that. If someone else sees something similar, that we've already have answers for it. I think at the end of the day, I've said this a bunch, we’re not trying to out trick people necessarily. We're trying to out-execute people. At the end of the day, if we're doing our things right and we're executing, we feel pretty confident in how we're going to go out and play ball. It's important to be aware of things that teams are trying to do to you offensively. At the end of the day, if we're on top of our business, then we should be a pretty good defense.”
Q: On his reaction when the team signed DE Jadeveon Clowney and what he has seen from him
“Obviously happy. I think the last time I was in here, we talked about building depth in that room and obviously how we play. It's been cool to watch him. I've never been around him before. I’m really impressed with him. He's shown up, his ability to be disruptive. He's still growing and learning the system and the techniques and those sorts of things. Between the length and the get-off, he's played a lot of football in his time. You just see the savviness and wherewithal and stuff. He just knows ball. Once he puts it in our language, I think it's going to be really fun to watch.”
On whether any of the young linebackers have stood out to him
Burke: “A lot of those guys, again, that's another group we talked about last time…in terms of just Bill Davis does a really good job of just rolling groups. Obviously, we feel good with the Azeez [Al-Shaair] and [LB] Henry [To’oTo’o] and where they are. Then the rest of that group is like, we're just trying to put them all in a lot of different spots and see who can really show out. Wade [Woodaz] had some good reps today. We talked about ‘Te’ [Marte Mapu] last time. He made a really nice play in that two-minute drive towards the end there on that tackle. Jake Hummel, I've actually been really impressed. He missed a little bit of time early in camp, but since he's been back, he's been really solid and steady. There are a lot of guys that are just making plays. It's going to be, A, how much multi-positional flex they have and the volume they can handle. Then, when we get into games, what that looks like in terms of operational. They're still young, still some growth to be had.”
Q: On CB Collin Wright
Burke: “He's made a play on the ball every day he's been here from the spring until now. To be honest with you, he's just always around the ball. Very sharp kid, very intelligent, so kind of on his business in terms of where he needs to be. There are not a lot of mental errors. He's kind of where he's supposed to be and he's showing up around the ball. You do that, you're going to earn opportunities to keep showing us if you can do it. I’m very happy with where he's been so far.”
Q: On the interior of the defensive line
Burke: “Yeah, great. Having ‘Rank’ [Sheldon Rankins] and Tommy [Togiai] back, who are just system guys, getting ‘Rio’ [Mario Edwards Jr.] back in the fold again, building out that depth. Some of the newer guys, like Kayden [McDonald] and Logan [Hall], have a lot of potential, I would say; arrow up on both those guys. Those other three guys have been here, been in the techniques, been in the system. Those guys are kind of arrow up in terms of getting those reps. I feel really good about the trend that those guys are on. Honestly, even the rest of the crew. ‘Dom’ Bailey- I was asked about him last week, he’s showing out. We have a couple bigger guys in there and Kyonte [Hamilton] and Naquan [Jones]. Naquan was here at the end of the year. We got him at the end of the season and he didn't really have time to learn those techniques. Having him go through the whole offseason, that progress is starting to show. I actually feel pretty good. The depth's really starting to show out there in that defensive tackle room and I’m excited to see those guys keep going.”
Q: On the emphasis of communication on the defense
Burke: “We just the stress of that. I think DeMeco [Ryans] has been in here talking about how that's one area for us to really take the next growth. We talked about taking the next step, where this defense goes. The extra level of pre-snap awareness and communication. We had a really good snap of it today. They had a little boot that they've been getting us on a couple of times. ‘JP’ [Jalen Pitre] just alerted over to Reed [Blankenship], who just picked it up, slid through and picked up the backside. Things like that, the ability to execute, make it that much easier. For the most part, there are a lot of guys that have played together for a year or two or more that have that sort of rapport. Adding Reed in, who's a really good communicator. I always just say this, it's the cool thing to do. Some places, it’s like ‘Oh, I don't want to talk.’ Here, that's what we do. All the cool kids do it. Everyone does it. It's just kind of our standard of how we operate. It's been cool to see how it comes to fruition in plays and that they're actually making some more plays, because they're putting themselves in good spots from that.”
Q: On trying to be a better defense than last season
Burke: “I'm sure a lot of the guys have talked about it, we're chasing perfection. I know no one gets there, but we're chasing it. We want to be better than we were last year. The questions about people attacking us, we have high standards. It's not just me up here talking. It's every one of those players believes the same thing. It's easy to coach that way, because no one gets their feathers ruffled when you're calling them out like, ‘Hey man, this is not how we do it’ or ‘This is not our standard.’ Honestly, sometimes maybe the second group goes in and it's not how we do it. The guys in their position are already talking to those guys about, ‘No, that's not it. We've have to finish.’ The first play, the move of the ball, we have to run our butts off because we just didn't finish and stop the ball. Our standard is we stop the ball when we have pads on in a run defense. We don't just do that. We don't tag off. Those things are getting coached by the other players and that's how the standard gets raised like that. There has been a lot of talk about what we can be and maybes and this. If we're going to chase the dreams and the goals that we have, we have to have high standards and we have to hold ourselves to it.”
Q: On whether he has seen DE Will Anderson Jr. improve his get off this offseason
Burke: “He jumped offsides today, put that in your notes That will piss him off for Monday. Yeah, I mean a little bit. We're a ball-key team and we train to get off. He's had going on four years in the system of what he's looking at and how he's doing it. He's pretty fine-tuned to get on that. It's a razor-thin thing. He has a really good knack for it. I think that's just a bank in all those reps of get-offs. Rod [Wright] does get off drills every day in his individual drills all day long. Will's had four years of that, so I think it's showing out for sure.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans DC Matt Burke said following Day 9 of training camp