Pettine: 'If we play good defense, why not us?'

[Cheesehead]

On Mason Crosby and the FG operation:


Talking to those guys, they were able to train consistently through in the spring and build through the summer to where they're peaking now. It's been a consistent build up for him through the summer. He's a great vet, knows what he needs to do, and he's got himself ready to go. He's picked up where he left off.


On how tackling will be early in the season:


It could be sloppy at times. We're trying to do as many things as we can in drills and fit up on guys. We're always talking about tackling and angles and keeping your shoulders square and coming to balance, those finer points. You can't afford to get guys hurt … we're trying to modify it as best we can do. You just never know. As coaches it's one of those things that's going to keep us up at night. We don't have the games to see things live. There could be some sloppy tackling early on, some sloppy fundamentals early on. Hopefully not.


On having so many special teamers back from last year:


I think each year it's an open competition. Ultimately we want to play the best players at each position and have them trained and ready to go. We know each other's personalities, so you build the chemistry in the room. We're building pride in special teams here, and trying to develop that leadership. Our job is to get everybody ready and prepare for everything and be prepared for as many scenarios as we can.


On reducing penalties last year:


It's our goal to be penalty free but still play fast and physical. We try to establish that every year and build on that as a base. Our job is to play with penalty-free aggression.


On where the units ranked:


We weren't good enough last year, we've established a better culture here. We were doing some good things at the end of last season, and guys are hungry. No matter what metric you look at we're trying to be the best we can be and help this team win, that's the bottom line.


Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine


On having most of defense back and expectations for them going into Year 3 in the system:


We return a lot of guys. Where it's most encouraging, you look at it first, is on the back end, having both starting corners back, the two safeties who were in Year 1 of the system who are now much more comfortable. I think our guys did a great job in the spring of kind of buying into what we were doing. We got a lot accomplished in the virtual meetings. I think Jerry Gray, Ryan Downard, Christian Parker, have just been doing such a great job of getting those guys prepared. That's a good group. They communicate well. The communication's much better. Up front, we're bringing the two edges back, Kenny Clark, well deserved contract, I think he's one of the elite nose guards in the National Football League. We have the pieces up front too. We're going to be a confident group. There's going to be high expectations. We were able to get to within a game of the Super Bowl. In this crazy year, you've got to feel like, you know what, if we play good defense, why not us? We're going to go out and play the games. It'll be unique circumstances, but hey they're keeping score, we want to be the best and feel like we can certainly get to that level.


On balancing how much defensive linemen play gaps vs. rushing:


I think you have to be a little bit of both. I think if you play it one way, teams can draw a bead on you pretty quick. Some of our stuff, we're going to anchor in and play gaps, and keep the linebackers clean. Other times, I think you gotta be the aggressor. You gotta put guys on the move, you want to penetrate. I think you have to have a couple different ways to do it. Offensive coordinators are too good. If you do it one way, you'll get dialed in on really quick. Every offseason, we look at it and make sure the scheme is up to date. At the beginning of camp here, all the changes we talked through we've been able to get a look at implementing here in training camp.


On Christian Kirksey and battle for No. 2 ILB spot:


Kirko has been great. He stepped in here, leadership role right away. He's a good communicator on the field, in the meeting room. He's a take-charge kind of guy. He's the new guy but he's the one who has to do a lot of the communication. It's important to him and he's really been putting in the time to get that right. He's what we expected when we signed him. As far as the other spot, there's open competition there. You have Oren Burks, Ty Summers, Kamal Martin. All those guys have their own particular skill sets. Unfortunately, Curtis Bolton isn't about to be out there yet coming off the injury.