Commanders
New Commanders HC Dan Quinn discussed the impact he expects veteran LB Bobby Wagner to have on the defense. Quinn cited his passion for the game as one of Wagner’s most notable qualities.
“He’s all that I love about football,” Quinn said, via SiriusXM NFL Radio. “He’s a tackler. He’s aggressive, he’s tough, he’s smart, he takes care of himself. So what I’m hopefully to see, and I’m certain it will happen, is he’s a multiplier. Because ‘This is how the standard is. This is how I operate. This is the process to go through.’ So if you’re a young linebacker being around somebody, this is the exact type of linebacker you’d want to be around.”
“Seeing that standard of how we operate, I thought that was really important, so that’s why I’m so lit up about getting him here. It’s been a long time since I’ve coached him. I coached against him a lot. I remember circling that number and said, ‘Do not let this person ruin this game, you know, with 15 tackles.’ It’s really good to get a chance to work with him and some of the other guys.”
Cowboys
Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy believes DC Mike Zimmer will have the team ready defensively and believes his approach will fit into what they want to do on that side of the ball.
“Football is still football,” McCarthy said, via Cowboys Wire. “We’re still going to line up with 11 players on defense, Mike’s going to still run some of the common concepts that our players are engaged with, but it’s really the utilization of how we get to them. It’s got to flow. And that will play to our strength, because Mike’s called a lot of games in this league. He has a lot of experience with his system, and to get it in properly, we definitely have the time to get that done.”
McCarthy admitted that defensively they will need to lock down communication to adjust to the new scheme but is expecting improvements.
“The biggest thing for the players will be communication; that will be the first thing that hits them,” McCarthy admitted. “But it always comes down to the nitty-gritty, and it’ll be techniques, alignment, stance, philosophy, utilization of the body types. So much has been made of our run defense. We need to take another step. Statistically, we have improved each year in that area, but it’s still not good enough. We’ve got to play the run first and be more situation-conscious with that. It can’t be all about sacks.”
Dallas has a prototypical type of player that they like but added that they will adjust their scheme to their talent.
“The most important thing about a system is to have the flexibility to accommodate all the players that you bring into your building,” McCarthy said. “I think you’ve got to watch on how stringent and structured you are, but I don’t think you can be big enough or have enough length, particularly in that defensive front. We’ll continue to work to that profile.”
Giants
Giants HC Brian Daboll is ready to do whatever it takes to improve after a tough season in 2023. With the addition of DE Brian Burns, the Giants’ front seven plans to wreak OC’s gameplans.
“You certainly want to have a better record than we had last year, so there’s no stone unturned,” Daboll said, via NFL.com’s Coral Smith. “Done a lot of research, met with a lot of different people, trying to grow and develop, do a lot of different things in terms of procedure, process, player evaluations, scheme evaluation, decision-making, leadership, those are all things you try to grow and develop with every year.”
“Yeah, give a lot of credit to (general manager) Joe (Schoen) and his staff for getting that done. [Burns is] a good player, a good acquisition, a good trade for us, happy to have him. He’s been a productive guy at Carolina and doing all the research on the player, and more importantly the person, he’s the right kind of guy and we’re excited to have him.”
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