GREEN BAY – The Packers' defensive coaches met with the media on Friday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On Lukas Van Ness:
Lukas has been having an excellent camp. He's very, a very versatile player, and he can win in a lot of different areas. The first play of the game, he made the play in the run game … and then he kind of wins on second down. That was good to see. But he's an intricate part of what we're going to do here, and he has to play well.
On CB Brandon Cisse:
He covered well. He was physical for the most part. His alignments, his technique was right, and he's kind of a football junkie in the sense that before you send him a text about a certain play and his technique, he's sending you the text first. He'll definitely learn a lot from this game and continue to improve.
On LB Zaire Franklin:
That's why it was an easy acquisition because we do have a lot of good guys here. Matt and Gutey have done a really good job of acquiring high football character guys. Part of being labeled as a high football character guy, in my opinion, is do you love to practice? And he definitely loves to practice. But we got a lot of guys that love to practice. So that's why it's competitive. That's why it's back and forth. That's why the defense gets (mad) when the offense gashes them. That's why the offense gets (mad) when we play well at certain times.
On what he's learned about QB Jordan Love that he didn't know when game-planning against him:
I didn't know this because I was never on his team how good of a leader and how emotionally stable he is. That's cool to see because it spreads through the whole team. Because you're going to hit adversity every series, every play is not going to be a success, and I do think there's a certain element that really good players respond the right way to that. He knows when he has to charge people up, and he knows when he has to put an arm around somebody. That's cool to see from one of your leaders.
Outside linebackers/run game coordinator/assistant head coach DeMarcus Covington
On Van Ness:
We can all agree when Lukas Van Ness is healthy, he's one of our best players. I always talk about practice execution becomes game reality. He does it in practice and I'm believing he'll do it in the game, so as long as he continues to stay on the field, stay healthy, he'll be one of our best players.
On Collin Oliver:
First of all, I'm excited to see him out there in training camp, out there for the first preseason game and be able to go out there, fly around, special teams, defensively and get the amount of snaps that he got. All those reps are a learning curve for him, which is good. He just needs (to) continue to get reps and reps and reps and learn from all those reps and be out there and stay healthy and be present every single day. So I'm proud of his first steps that he had out there. It was some ups and downs. It was some good, some bad and ones we can all learn from.
On Brenton Cox Jr.:
I think you have a physical player, a guy who loves football, a guy who wants to go out there and you're gonna feel his presence. In the run game, he can do a really good job setting the edge, getting off blocks. In the pass rush, power rush, he just needs an opportunity to go out there. He missed a lot of ball last year, so even though he's not a rookie, he hasn't had many snaps either and we all see it, what he can do.
Defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase
On DT Anthony Campbell:
AC, man, he's a guy that's going to maximize every opportunity you give him. In the spring, every technique, every alignment, every drill, he wants to do it to perfection. I think he's batted over 10-12 balls over the course of training camp, dating back to the spring. He's been playing lights out, playing fearless, playing confident, playing with a chip on his shoulder. He's come a long way as well. He's done an incredible job. That confidence piece is huge for defensive linemen. When you're confident, and you play fast you play free, things can happen for him.
On the depth and rotation with the interior guys:
Yeah, nobody can fall asleep. Like I said in the spring when we met about guys being hungry, I think the room's very hungry right now. A lot of competition. Nobody can take anything for granted. There's no give me's. You gotta earn everything that you get, and I believe we're building something special, especially being together as a unit, being close. That's very important to me. I don't think any great D-line has never not been close, and you've got to build for the future. It's a long season.
On DT Javon Hargrave still going strong at his age:
I would say that he's blessed. He's done things the right way throughout his career and been available for a lot of his career, learned the nuances of playing defensive line. He's been able to share some of those things with some of the younger guys. He learns fast. He has a good spirit to him, and I think he just loves ball. I don't know when he's going to retire, but I think he's got a lot of ball left ahead of him. He's always got a smile on his face. He's opening up more and more to the room. I think that's how he does it. You gotta have a certain love for the game, and gotta take care of your body, take care of your mind, and be a leader to the ones who look up to him.
Linebackers coach Sam Siefkes
On having a vet like Franklin:
It's been tremendous. When you have a guy who's played as long as he has and done a lot of the things that he has done in this league, it helps provide perspective for a lot of the guys who are younger than he is. He's been there and done that a lot of times.
By nature the linebacker position is aggressive, and I think he embodies that as a person and as a player. That helps when you have somebody who's willing to do that and be violent, which is one of our cornerstones of playstyle. It's a tone-setting thing for our group and our position and we want to be that style of play.
On LB Ty'Ron Hopper:
I love Hop's personality, first and foremost. I think early on he's a quiet guy but you start to see his personality blossom, which is a pretty cool thing. He's actually quite funny when you get to know him, which is awesome. In terms of how he plays, he's violent by nature. He's downhill. He does a good job with his hands at the point of contact. Him utilizing that skillset is important.
Secondary/pass game coordinator Bobby Babich
On Cisse:
For as young as Brandon is, he along the way, and credit to his coaches at South Carolina, NC State, places he's been, and credit to him, habit-wise he's ahead of the game when it comes to rookies. Guy's a film junkie. Wants to be really good. Puts in the work that it takes to be really good. It's really about the way he goes about his work. His wanting to be great, that's really when you sum it up -- there's a long way to go still with him. Certainly he's setting himself up to have a chance to be pretty successful.
On the rotations at cornerback:
We have a corner competition. That's what we have. There's competition in the safety room. There's competition all over. We're going to continue to move pieces around, all those types of things. We're not worried about when your reps come, we're worried about what you do on your reps.
On CB Benjamin St-Juste chasing down the long catch-and-run in Pittsburgh:
Those are the hidden things within a game that can go unnoticed but it shows the character of the player, all right? A lot of times no matter what you do, whether you're in a business, you're running an organization, it comes down to who you trust to do those type of things. When things are hard, how are people going to respond to that? That gave us a chance. You just talk about football character, that tells you a lot about Ben St-Juste.
Cornerbacks coach Daniel Bullocks
On St-Juste:
My impression's been good. (He has) everything that I saw on tape. The guy's got size. He's got length. He's good in coverage. He does a good job in press coverage using his hands, disrupting receivers at the line of scrimmage. One of his 'get betters' was tackling, which was more of a technique thing, watching his tape, and he showed that (Thursday) — that he will put his body on some guys. Been really impressed with Juice.
On Cisse:
He's very mature for his age. I know he just had his daughter, that helps out quite a bit. He's 21 years old. He's probably a little bit more mature than I was at 21. He kind of has that old soul, you know? And the thing about him is that he's all ball. Some guys come into the league young. They love ball, but they love to party too as well. With Cisse, he's not a party guy. He's an 'all ball' guy. Like, he texts me early in the mornings, late at nights, always talking ball, sending me clips of other corners around the league who play this game at a high level. He's always trying to get feedback on how he can improve as a player.
