Jim Schwartz spoke to the media on Tuesday. As is often the case, he was asked about a struggling defense, some of his decisions on failed third-down stops, and Nate Gerry and the rest of the lackluster linebacker group.
Usually, Schwartz works from a template that mostly includes defending his players and taking all of the blame (which, to be fair, is largely deserved most of the time). This week, though, there was a little wrinkle in that template.
Early in Tuesday’s press conference, Schwartz was asked by ESPN’s Tim McManus about the lack of resources dedicated to the linebacker position. This is included in the full transcript below, but here is a preview:
Q. You guys have the least amount of resources in the NFL committed to the linebacker position this year. You’ve seen guys like Jordan Hicks, Kamu Grugier-Hill, L.J. Fort come and go during your time. Why is the linebacker position not a priority? Is that an organizational thing? Is that part of your philosophy? What’s behind that? (Tim McManus)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Every position is a priority for us. I mean, every position is important on the field. And I disagree that we haven’t spent resources on it. I mean, you mentioned some of those guys we’ve had. We pay free agent money to guys like Nigel [Bradham]. This year, we put some draft picks in there. We have the guys that we have. We’re going to work hard to put those guys in good position.
But I don’t think from anyone’s standpoint it’s not a priority for us.
Obviously, Schwartz is just toeing the company line here because that response is BS. Back-and-forth is very limited in these press conferences, especially since they are done via Zoom for the time being, but McManus was able to provide a retort on Twitter:
Late in the press conference, Schwartz was pressed on this topic and his response. Again, this exchange is included in the full transcript below, but here is Jeff McLane’s question and Schwartz’s very interesting response (red emphasis is mine):
Q. You mentioned about the resources devoted to linebacker. The Nigel Bradham extension was two off-seasons ago, and the two draft picks are not playing pretty much at all on defense this season. Why wasn’t there enough resources allocated to linebackers who are actually playing this year? (Jeff McLane)
JIM SCHWARTZ: I’ll leave team building stuff and roster management to [Head Coach] Doug [Pederson] and [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman], so I really can’t answer your question right there. I’m confident in the guys we have. We’re getting the young guys up to speed. I think our emphasis on 11 guys playing better, not any one position.
There is a lot to unpack in this small quote. First off, no one should believe that Schwartz has no say in the construction of the roster, especially as it pertains to the players brought in for his defense. Just this past November, McLane himself penned a piece detailing Jim Schwartz’s unparalleled power within the Eagles.
And everyone knows that Schwartz brings in “his guys” on a regular basis. So, feel free to take that part of the quote with a grain of salt. No one should believe that Schwartz shows up to the facility each week and asks Roseman who is on the roster that day. The only move in recent memory that jumps out as one that Schwartz probably didn’t sign off on is the team trading for Genard Avery at last season’s trade deadline. Avery didn’t play after arriving in Philadelphia, which was odd.
The other aspect of this quote is that Schwartz seems to throw at least a little shade at Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson. Again, no one believes that Schwartz doesn’t have a say in roster management. But why would he deflect this question and point it in the direction of Roseman and Pederson unless he’s frustrated?
This is probably reading too many tea leaves and connecting too many dots, but this sounds like a guy who knows he is on the hot seat and is looking around the room. Don’t be surprised if this isn’t the last time we hear about this, and Doug Pederson will likely be asked about it today in his press conference.
Here is the full Jim Schwartz press conference transcript from Tuesday.
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM SCHWARTZ
Press Conference Transcript
October 13, 2020
Q. I’m sure you’ve looked at that third and eight play quite a few times since Sunday night. Head coach Doug Pederson has praised Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger for his recognition skills, at noticing the mismatch and checking to it, but from your standpoint, should a timeout have been called? Should S Rodney McLeod have shaded closer to that side? Should LB Nate Gerry have backed up more? What should have happened on that play? (Paul Domowitch)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Well, backing up isn’t in our lexicon when it comes to that situation. We’re trying to hold them out of field goal range. It’s a two-point game. We had just missed that field goal and we got a chance to get the ball to midfield, get them stopped, maybe force them to do a long field goal of their own. We are trying to stop the first down there. We had injury at corner, trying to protect the corners a little bit more at that point, and we put the stress on the inside players, which was different than what we had been doing in that situation.
What we had called was good against what they had called, but Ben recognized it. It’s probably inside of the 15 seconds for being able to change the call. I think that it just turns into every defense has a strength and they also have spots that aren’t as strong. Ben went to the spot right there, they made the play.
But as far as being aggressive, we’re trying to stop the first down right there, and that’s what Nate is trying to do. So he sits down on that route because that’s where the sticks are and he goes over the top. It’s similar to a corner giving up a double move. There are probably different things we can do, but what that does is that puts the stress on other people on the defense.
You know, you blitz, you put the pressure on the corners, you play man, you have pick problems and you put the pressure on those guys. There’s no magic answer for any of those situations, but I think the bottom line is, we’re playing aggressive. We’re trying to keep them out of field goal range right there. They made us pay for that aggressiveness.
Q. You guys have the least amount of resources in the NFL committed to the linebacker position this year. You’ve seen guys like Jordan Hicks, Kamu Grugier-Hill, L.J. Fort come and go during your time. Why is the linebacker position not a priority? Is that an organizational thing? Is that part of your philosophy? What’s behind that? (Tim McManus)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Every position is a priority for us. I mean, every position is important on the field. And I disagree that we haven’t spent resources on it. I mean, you mentioned some of those guys we’ve had. We pay free agent money to guys like Nigel [Bradham]. This year, we put some draft picks in there. We have the guys that we have. We’re going to work hard to put those guys in good position.
But I don’t think from anyone’s standpoint it’s not a priority for us.
Q. As far as those misdirection runs, wide receivers have the most rushing yards, rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns against your defense in the league. Why do you think that is and what needs to be done to fix that? (Zach Berman)
JIM SCHWARTZ: The misdirection stuff was more a problem going back to the Rams game. Since then, I think our guys have really done a good job of focusing on — of narrowing our focus. You look at this game, you can’t take any one play away. I’d love to take that last third and seven away and you can’t do it. I’d love to take the 58-yard reverse away. Can’t do it. But if you do, you’re talking about holding the team to about 2.7 yards a carry and that’s a good running team, running backs that are averaging 5.7, 5.8 yards a carry.
So I thought our guys did a good job of those misdirection things and those distraction things. Really turned into one play. We’ve got to get that play tackled for eight, ten-yard gain, and then live to fight the next down, as opposed to giving up sort of the back breaker in that situation when you give up that long play.
We’re known as a team that stops the run. Teams are attacking the run a little bit different, trying to get on the perimeter. But I think a lot of that stuff really came from the Rams game really getting on the edge. This game, and again, you can’t take one play away, but if you make that 58-yarder, whatever, eight yards or ten yards, the other plays really weren’t backbreakers. They were gaining first down and two yards to gain or a play in the red zone where they gained, you know, two yards and you’re contesting it.
It’s sort of life in the NFL right now. Everybody is doing the same kind of things. A couple years ago, it was maybe only one or two teams that were using a lot of the jet motions and jet sweeps and things like that. It puts more pressure on your corners to tackle. It puts more pressure on your nickels to tackle, and you know, it turns it into sort of responsibility, option-type game because everybody has to do their job. They hand the ball inside, everybody needs to be in nose gap. You can’t overplay for a jet sweep. If you do, you’re going to get gashed inside. If you over play inside, and nobody takes the outside, you can give up plays out there.
So it just puts more emphasis on 11 guys doing their job and making the tackles that come to them.
Q. You mentioned about the resources devoted to linebacker. The Nigel Bradham extension was two off-seasons ago, and the two draft picks are not playing pretty much at all on defense this season. Why wasn’t there enough resources allocated to linebackers who are actually playing this year? (Jeff McLane)
JIM SCHWARTZ: I’ll leave team building stuff and roster management to [Head Coach] Doug [Pederson] and [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman], so I really can’t answer your question right there. I’m confident in the guys we have. We’re getting the young guys up to speed. I think our emphasis on 11 guys playing better, not any one position.
Q. About those young linebackers, we haven’t seen them obviously much since training camp. LB Shaun Bradley got a few snaps on Sunday. How have they played and how close are they to having a role in the defense? (Dave Zangaro)
JIM SCHWARTZ: They are all making progress. They are physically talented. When we can work them in, we’ll work them in when it makes sense to the 11 guys on defense. We’re in the business of trying to do whatever we can to win games, and doing what we think is best to win games. When it’s time for those guys that we think it’s best for us to win games with them on the field, we’ll do it.
Q. Third downs, obviously you came in Top-10 in the league, I think sixth overall. Not a lot of success against the Steelers. I think Ben Roethlisberger didn’t have an incompletion on third downs. Was there any theme to that? (John McMullen)
JIM SCHWARTZ: He was on fire. You run against quarterbacks like that — I think it was a game last year, [Saints QB Drew] Brees went like 29 for 30 or something, I think it was Indianapolis. There’s sometimes where a quarterback gets hot, and it just puts more emphasis on you have to take advantage of the times that you have. We missed a tackle on a third down and five. We got a chance to get off the field. We jump offsides on the third and nine and it makes it a third and five, which is really, really hard to stop.
He was going to the right spots. He was making accurate throws. When that happens, when you get a guy — we blitzed, he wasn’t letting the blitz get him. He was going to throw to the shallow cross and pick up a first down on that.
When that happens, it puts more emphasis on you as a defense that you’ve got to play mistake-free football and whether it’s a call by me or whether it’s a penalty, we didn’t have any like mental errors in this game, but whether it’s a physical error like a missed tackle, or a penalty, a mental lapse when it comes to jumping offsides, or physical mistake like a DPI, all of those give a hot quarterback a second opportunity.
Sometimes you can go out and hold a quarterback to 20 percent on third down and things like that. When he’s hot like that, you have to scrap to get 50 percent and when you don’t scrap, if you make mistakes, it’s going to be 75 percent or whatever it was in that game.
It puts more of an emphasis on us and playing mistake-free football, and I think that there were too many opportunities for him to make another play.
Q. Going back to the linebacking core for a second, in past years, we’ve seen Nigel Bradham be the vocal leader for that group. Through five weeks, who have you seen step up and fill that needed leadership role? (Kristen Rodgers)
JIM SCHWARTZ: We’ve had a lot of different people take vocal roles, and it’s changed as it went. I hate to go too much into our past, but when Nigel came, Jordan Hicks was sort of that guy for us and then Jordan got hurt and Nigel took over that role when Jordan was out.
We’ve had a lot of different players at a lot of different positions take leadership and take roles. I think that if you asked the guys on the defense, I think we’re getting good leadership out of that position.
Q. If I can ask you about the Ravens, what kind of challenges does Ravens QB Lamar Jackson present? They seem to be another team that goes strongly with their tight ends, wonder if you can talk about that, as well? (Martin Frank)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Lamar Jackson is probably the most dangerous player in the league because there are times you can do everything right on defense and can’t catch him, or he can throw a ball side-arm underneath of a free rusher and complete a pass. I think that you’ve got to have a resilient attitude when you play him, and you know that a playmaker like him is going to make some plays. You just have to limit his big plays, and you have to stay resilient. You can’t hang your hat if he ends up making a play. They are a strong running team, not just with Lamar Jackson but with [Ravens RB] Mark Ingram, with the rookie that’s back [Ravens RB J.K. Dobbins].
All their running backs are good, powerful running backs. They are a power running team. Strong offensive line, and it’s not just the tight ends. They have got wide receivers that make big plays for them. Again, it’s another offense, [if] you try too hard to take one thing away, you devote too many resources to stopping Lamar Jackson’s feet, there’s plenty of opportunities in the pass game, or there’s plenty of opportunities to hand the ball to someone else. You see teams over play option and get gashed up the middle, or you see teams play too tough up the middle and they are vulnerable to option.
A little bit like some of the things we just talked about with Pittsburgh with the jet motions and things like that, option football, stuff that they do with quarterback runs, just puts emphasis on all 11 guys. You have to play responsibility football. You have to make the plays that come to you and you have to get guys on the ground tackling. It puts emphasis on all of those things.
Q. When it comes to using a spy on Lamar Jackson, how do you balance that versus using the resources that you have on your defense and how do you limit him making big plays? (Chris Franklin)
JIM SCHWARTZ: That’s something a lot of people do. We’ve done it in the past against different quarterbacks. We’ll see what we get to with Sunday with different schemes. There’s a lot of ways to try to battle scrambling quarterbacks or guys with legs. You can blitz. You can play visual zone where you have a lot of eyes on him. You can play man with spies. There’s a lot of different ways to be able to handle that. I don’t want to give too much of what we would do personnel-wise when it comes to Sunday, but that’s certainly a thing is his run keepers on first and second down and then scrambling to keep plays alive.
I think that’s a little bit underestimated with Lamar Jackson. Everybody talks about him scrambling. A lot of times on third down, he’s more just buying time. He’s using his arm. He’s finding guys that are wide open because of the stress it puts on the defense with him buying time back there. He certainly can run and gain yards and gain first downs, but I think you’re seeing a little bit more of him sort of buying time in the pocket, buying some time and it puts — it really says, look, you’ve got to get those guys covered; before anything else, you’ve got to get guys covered, and then you can take care of the quarterback.
Q. It looks like rub routes are giving you guys a lot of trouble. Is this a function of guys not having played a lot of man for this year or how do you see it? What’s going on there? (Les Bowen)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Well, we have been playing a lot more man than we have played pretty much at any point in five years that I’ve been here and having a guy like [CB Darius] Slay leads to a lot of that stuff.
That’s one of the things that teams want to try to do is they want to try to get pick situations and rubs and little underneath screens and stuff like that and try to work away from them.
It’s just stuff that you have to deal with. You go and look at any team that played a lot of man in the league, that’s what they have to deal with. I think that some of the pick, getting guys free stuff, like matching up bunches and things like that, really haven’t been as much as some of the stuff that like we saw in this game. It really wasn’t picks as much as it was getting guys underneath and blocking ahead of the ball and catching those. Again, you overplay that, and then you get real vulnerable to the bunch routes that come into it.
So it’s a balance of both, and it just puts a stronger emphasis on execution.
Q. Seem like you’re playing more man this year. I guess that has something to do with having CB Darius Slay, but is that kind of transitioning complicated by not having an off-season? (Nick Fierro)
JIM SCHWARTZ: That’s no excuse. We have plenty of time to get ready. It adds different layers of, I don’t want to say complexity, because that’s really not a good word. But you know, just different — I don’t really know the best way to put it, but different things for us to have to combat and different things, if you’re a zone team, you’re not worried at all about picks. You’re just leveraging off.
If you’re a man team, picks are a big problem. If you’re a zone team, there’s different things in there with trying to conflict zone defenders, giving them high lows, giving them horizontal stretches, giving vertical stretches. It is what it is, what you play on defense. Like I said, there’s really no defense that has — that stops everything. There’s a little bit of give and take when it comes to — if you want to play a tight coverage, if you want to get up in guys faces and challenge guys a little bit more, which is something that we’ve done this year, then all of a sudden, it comes with some other things that you’re going to have to battle.
Q. Just to get back to that third and eight with Nate Gerry covering Steelers WR Chase Claypool, when you see Claypool kind of motion into the slot there and you see Nate on him, do you think about calling a timeout in that situation, or is that a process where you have to go to Doug Pederson and say, we need a timeout here to get into a different type of defense? (Ed Kracz)
JIM SCHWARTZ: Timeouts have never — that’s always been the head coach’s responsibility here. There’s been a couple times over the years that we’ve had ten guys on the field and that’s up to Doug. Doug has to weigh that with saving timeouts for if we get them stopped and we’re trying to go down and kick a game-winning field goal. You look at the end of our first half, boy, what a difference one timeout would have made for us in kicking a field goal at the end of the first half. That really never enters our thought process on defense. It’s just executing what’s called and trying to balance.
Again, in that situation, we were in zone defense, and in zone defense, there’s a lot of times you can end up with linebackers and safeties on wide receivers. It just depends on who is in your zone. That’s what happened in that situation.
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