GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On Skyy Moore's long punt return:
He did a great job getting vertical and the guys did a great job finishing their blocks and competing down the field. I think it always goes back to the strain, and finishing the play. You never know what play's going to happen, when you're going to get a big one, when you're not. It goes back to the guys just every single play showing up. It's all 11 guys out there. You look at it and watch and all 11 guys are doing their job. That's good to see. But there's still a lot we can clean up, for sure, too.
On the guys blocking for him:
They all take ownership on it and I truly mean that. When you do have a guy that has ability back there, then all 10 take more pride in it up there. I think he talks to them and they talk to each other. They understand the value of it. When a guy has ability back there, whether it's catching it, getting 10, getting 12, we talked about that. We want to steal the first down. Guys are just competing. That's why it is all 11. Because they know if we can block our guys for just three seconds and give him space and room, then he can make something happen.
On what Kamal Hadden brings to the units:
Excitement, for sure. Man of my own heart. He does a great job for us. He brings some energy and some juice, and he's a physical football player. He does a good job understanding when to go, when not to go, how he has to play. It was good to see him get out there, you know. Obviously last year, he had an injury and everything, but he's responding and continues to get better. Hopefully he just keeps trending that way.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On Evan Williams' deep pass breakup late vs. Jets:
Yeah, huge play. I actually thought run there, closed the middle of the field and they threw a shot. That wasn't great to see the ball go up in the air like that. Shame on me; good call by Frank (Reich). Yeah, both safeties that we have and Bull include that, all our guys that are out there, I think they're very multi-dimensional skill-set players and that's why they're good players because they can deploy in different ways and you don't feel like it's a mismatch, whatever they're doing. As much as I love X in the middle, I'm good with X going down and Evan being in the middle, or whatever the case may be. They're playing well right now and they're playing well as a group, which is good to see.
On those guys disguising coverages and looks:
Everyone talks about affecting the quarterback as a defensive philosophy, I think 95% of people their brain when you hear that goes to post-snap. I live in that 5% that thinks pre-snap. And you've seen that happen a couple times, our guys are doing a good job where the quarterback might think it's one thing and it's something else. It can stress – and I understand the stress of sometimes where we align those guys to get to what they need to do is not all the time an advantageous position – but I think it does help the entire defense. I think they're all interchangeable and disguise a huge thing to me. Offenses are too good, quarterbacks are too good. If they know what you're in, I say you're playing left-handed before the ball is snapped.
On Javon Bullard's play:
I've been fortunate of being around some really good nickels and he's up there. He definitely is. I think he's going to find another level. He can find another gear. That's pretty rare. Truthfully. It really is. We feel good about him in the run game, in the pass game, in zone, in deep zones, and underneath zones, playing man-to-man. Not just slots, but receivers on the perimeter. Blitzing. Doing it all. And what goes unnoticed with him because we talk about the safeties all the time and Zaire (Franklin), is the mental capacity that he has right now and he's doing a really good job of handling everything that we put on his plate because it's a lot.
On Lukas Van Ness:
He's violent and disruptive. He's a big man. He's physical. He plays with really good pad level and technique and he's got instincts to find the ball and that goes overlooked sometimes. So that's been cool. We give those guys a little bit of freedom and he's taken to that. You can't abuse it because you can't hurt the defense, but we want those guys to be able to play free and try to make plays, so I think all those edge guys are doing a really good job right now, but he definitely had a big-time game.
On the overall play through two games:
We've got to play better in the red zone, play better on third down and keep the score down. That's where my mind's at right now, and keep doing the positive things that we're doing. I'm just kind of a cog in the wheel that got put into this thing. We've got really good players, man. And not just skillset wise. We got really good dudes and I do think that that wins, when you have good guys, so I'm enjoying it. We got a long way to go, but I'm happy where we're trending.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On figuring out left guard:
We'll see how it plays out this week. If Banks can go, great. If not, we'll work those other guys in. For me, I just want to see whoever's in there just go make it hard for us to make a decision, you know what I mean? Like, go out there, compete, be productive, be clean, eliminate penalties and just make it really hard on us to take you off the field if you're one of those backup guys. That's really what I want to see.
On Kaleb Johnson providing a spark in the run game:
Yeah, he did. He did a nice job. He came in there, ran hard. I told him, 'I just want to see angry runs. Go in there and just run hard, run angry,' and I thought he did a nice job with that.
On the third-down struggles:
We need to be more productive on first and second down to give us a chance. If you look at like, third-and-7 and under, we're around 50 percent. But we've just been third-and-8-plus it seems like every time, so we need to do a better job on first and second down in order to take care of third down. That's the biggest problem, in my opinion.
