Q. First time talking to you since you joined the organization. How did last year come about, you joining as senior defensive assistant and what went into the process of the job change and how did Jim approach you about becoming the defensive line coach/running coordinator?
MATT BURKE: Yeah, first of all, I know it's a weird set up, I don't know you guys very well so hopefully we can look forward to meeting each other in a real situation at some point, so I appreciate your time.
Last year, when I was let go with Miami and Jim just reached out to me, and obviously I have a long history with him and a relationship going back to 2004 with him, so he just reached out saying, hey, I'd love for you to come in and kind of put a new set of eyes. We had been together for the first ten years of my career and then we were apart.
I went to Cincy and Miami and so I think for him, just sort of kind of putting a new set of eyes and taking some of my experiences from those situations and kind of coming back together the two of us and being able to look, again, obviously having a similar philosophy and similar scheme, but now having sort of some tweaks and some different things from my experiences outside of being with him, so I think that was last year.
Again, just sort of bringing in and putting some eyes, big picture on some things that he had evolved to from when we had left and things that I had evolved from when I had kind of left coaching with him, and just kind of giving him some of my input or some of my experiences.
It was a great opportunity. I really appreciated him and Doug giving me that opportunity to kind of be around the team and still look at things kind of from a big picture standpoint.
And then just this off-season, I was -- my contract was up and wasn't really sure what was going on what lot of things. Again, both Jim and Doug, in that window right after the season ended, just approached me about what their thoughts were on handling and what their vision was for me in this job, and it kind of sounded like something I was excited to do, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Q. I have a non-football question for you. Curious with your perspective of coaching a room that is the majority of guys are men of color and everything that's been going on this summer, I wonder what your perspective on that is and what are the conversations you guys have had in the virtual rooms, I guess?
MATT BURKE: Yeah, obviously I think you guys know from sort of the stuff the organization has put out, that it's been a very supportive and very open conversation, you know, from Jeffrey to Doug all the way down. I think the guys were grateful that Doug made it a point to sort of have it as a very open conversation and have those discussions and those meeting rooms and make it a very open thing. I think being around here last year and able to build some personal relationships with some of the guys in the room helps that you have those connections as a starting point, so yeah, it's been good. A guy like Malik Jackson, for example, who is a highly conscientious guy and very out spoken, it's been great. Like I have a lot of kind of off-the-field conversations with him about his approach and things he's seeing and just have those discussions.
Honestly it's been wonderful for me to have the support of the organization and of Doug to be able to allow those conversations to happen freely and naturally, and I feel like we've been in a really good spot in that room. I feel comfortable coaching those guys and having those conversations with those guys, so it's been -- obviously it's not been -- the reasoning behind it has been somewhat dark but I think it's been a positive for me to really open up and have those conversations with those guys. It's been a good experience for me personally, I can say.
Q. Genard Avery is an explosive athlete. Is he a guy you can line up on any down or do you sort of have to get creative in the way that you use him? What kind of role do you envision for him this season?
MATT BURKE: We haven't got to obviously specific roles at this point. All those guys are in the mix and a guy like Genard, yeah, who does have a certain skill-set, I mean, he's playing defensive end for us right now in the rotation.
Yeah, I think that's part of evaluation of all these guys of, okay, what's their level of capability of fitting in some of the scheme things we are asking them to do, and if not, or you know, whatever that answer; then again, our job as coaches, I always believe is to take the skill-sets of your players and maximize them and get the best out of them, and put them in positions to be successful.
So I wouldn't say, I think one of the things that we always just talk about for our ends and playing on the edge is, you know, building power with speed, and he is an explosive player. He is an explosive lower body athlete and he's powerful in a different way than some other guys are powerful.
So I think one of the things we've gone through this off-season, actually, been kind of showing different types of players in our scheme. Like guys that have success that are different body types. If you just look across our whole D-line room, they all look different and that's the thing we emphasize, that, hey, there's a lot of different types of players that can play in the style we are asking them to play as long as you operate under these parameters.
Genard has done a good job, I think it was hard coming halfway through the season last year, trying to find that world to fit into, but he's done a really good job this off-season. He's in really good shape. So looking forward, really, to obviously starting the next few days to getting on the field, really getting on the field and getting in pads and seeing how all that translates.
Q. As a new position coach here, obviously you're not really new but you're new to the job, is it harder, is it much harder to implement things you want to do in this restricted situation that you had all spring and summer? What has been a hindrance there, and are you in a much better situation than, say -- not seeing them on the field, are you a leg ahead of guys like Marquand and Moorehead?
MATT BURKE: Have you talked to Marquand yet? I won't talk too much trash then. No, I can't answer for how he feels about it. Marquand and I go way back, as well, so he's a good coach. I think he's done a good job.
Honestly, this whole thing has been -- and something that we preach to our players, has just been -- everything we always do, you awe guys have all heard, everybody has a game plan until the first play of the game, or until you get punched in the mouth, Mike Tyson stuff.
For us the message has been, this is going to be the most adaptable year, right, like we have to be able to adapt to everything that's going on and things are changing minute by minute and day-to-day. Even with our off-season program, I was fortunate that I think -- I've spent some time with the D-Line last year in my role and again like I mentioned built some of those relationships and at least kind of had a feel for the personalities of guys. They had been around me a little bit so I do think that helped just from my perspective.
But the rest of the stuff, again it's one of those it is what it is and honestly I thought Doug did a great job building the off-season schedule out and allowing us the time to really get in these virtual rooms like they are meeting right now here and kind of just delving a little further into those relationships. I feel good. Honestly, having the guys back in the building now has been -- has been really cool to just kind of build off what we did, and so I enjoyed our off-season program. It really narrowed the focus a little bit. We were pretty much just meeting in these rooms. It wasn't as much big group stuff. We kind of got in our zoom meetings and were able to focus on stuff. We did a lot of stuff from a D-Line perspective, one-on-ones, setting up calls where it was one-on-ones to enhance is that building of relationships. I had a good time this off-season. It's been fun.
Q. Jim had mentioned that you guys were going to be looking at ways to put three defensive tackles on the field at the same time a lot this year. What's the benefit of doing that with the flexibility some of those guys bring and how excited are you about your potential interior pass rush with those three guys?
MATT BURKE: Those guys have been around Jim and know he values multi-dimensional players and versatile players. You know, to have guys like that that can kind of play different spots and move around and create matchups, I think that's obviously an exciting thing. We haven't got into in-depth a lot of scheming up stuff obviously. We're really just hitting the field for the first time the next couple days.
Excited about all those guys. To have the closest path to the quarterback, the A gap is the most direct. You can get interior pressure with those guys. That tends to affect quarterbacks a lot. To have three accomplished guys that have shown they can win in these interior rushes is going to be huge. I think the versatility is going allow us to hopefully like I said move guys around week-to-week even and create different matchups and put the right bodies on the field it. May look different week-to-week or even within the games in terms of like as we are making adjustments that the more pieces we have and the more pass rushes we have at all spots, I just think it allows us to hopefully, like I said, create matchups and create situations that are favorable for us on defense. You know, Jim, like I said, has been a guy that's always wanted to have versatile players that aren't locked into one spot and one position and so to have those three guys with different approaches and different rush abilities, but all with the ability to move around the line is hopefully going to in the long run play out for us.
Q. You have Shareef Miller coming into his second season. How does he look so far early on? What areas do you feel like he needs to improve upon coming into the season?
MATT BURKE: Yeah, again, it's hard for me to judge. I'm not trying to talk around you guys here. We haven't put pads on yet. I think for a D-Line coach, putting pads on is going to be one of the more telling situations. Maybe next time you can drill me down on that a little bit.
He's done a good job. I'll say this for Shareef. I thought he had a very strong off-season. He probably was one of the guys -- one of the things we trying to do, we obviously didn't have that contact with players but we spent a decent amount of one-on-ones with him and he probably sent us more clips of his workouts. He would have guys take his phone and film him doing some drills or working out and those sort of things. So he was probably the most involved of all the guys in that of saying, hey, here is a clip I'm doing or I did this or what do you think about this. He was very interactive with us on staff of trying to use that time to get better.
I think he's coming in pretty good shape. I think that's shown, that stuff he's done in the off-season, and so you know, he's got some length. He's got some explosive ability for us, which is nice and again I think it just going to be a matter of for him when we start practicing and putting pads on and how that shows up for him, but I'd say that he had a strong off-season in terms of what we did for him to come back in the building ready to show that he's ready to be a part of the group.
Q. Along the lines with Shareef, but you brought back Vinny any, so there's going to be a numbers crunch at defensive end when those decisions have to come down. What are you looking for in the last one or two ends to make the team and what can they do over the next two and a half weeks to separate themselves?
MATT BURKE: Yeah, honestly, we can't have enough. Give me them all, right. I think competition is really good for the room. You know, Howie can answer sort of the approach to bringing Vinny back. I'm excited. He's an energy guy. He's done a good job here for the Eagles and that's been the conversation with that whole group. I think there's an awful lot of depth there and I think it's just going to be, hey, we are all going to get opportunity. We're looking for guys that can be three down players. Obviously want guys that can rush the passer but there's also an element of guys that can set edges in the run game and play hard and do all those sort of things. The more, the merrier in terms of competition. I don't think any of those guys, that set of ends that are all kind of working against each other but with each other, I think there's a healthy level of competition. I think none of them are backing down from a challenge of saying, hey, I'm going to go earn this spot.
So I think as much as there's competition, there's spots to be had and there's playing time to be earned. We are looking for guys that come out and like I said, to be able to go play hard, to set edges in the run game and to be able to rush the passer. I mean, that's the foundation of what we do at defensive end here. That's going to be the starting point for everything we are asking those guys to do.
Q. If you think back to being a 26-year-old Dartmouth gr AD without NFL experience, how did you sell yourself to Jim Schwartz and how has he shaped your career thereafter?
MATT BURKE: I don't know if we have enough time for that answer. I'll try to give you the short version. I was only coaching in college for a fewer years and was at Harvard. At the time, this was 2004, you guys probably are all familiar now with a quality control coach and that sort of entry level guy and at the time this was a new position. It was an emerging concept. Jim, being sort of the forward thinker intellectual that he was, saw where that was going and yeah, he just -- I don't know, man, he called me down to interview for this job.
Like I said, I was 26 at the time and I don't know how I sold him on it. Again I think it was just my background. I had done a lot of film breakdown in college as a GA and you draw cards and stuff.
The interview process, the only thing I remember about the interview process is that he told me not to where a tie. I'm a young kid, and he's like -- so I'm calling the day before I fly down to Tennessee -- and I'm like, suiting up, I'm going to be ready to go and Jim is like, "Don't wear a tie. Do not wear a tie. Like that's not how we operate." And Jeff Fisher was the head coach and he was a pretty laid back dude.
I wore just like slacks and a button up and put a tie in my bag just in case, I kind of like had it. So he complimented me when I got down there, "At least I know you can follow directions. You dressed the way I told you to dress." They offered me the job before I left, and Jim was driving me back to the airport to fly out and I pulled my tie out of my bag, and I was like, actually I just hedged my bets a little bit. He's like, "All right, that's smart, good job." That's about the only thing I remember about selling myself on the interview.
I think for me it was more like when I got that job, I didn't -- I had no connections to him. It was basically a cold call it. Was a blind call. Into the NFL, I had no ties. For me, I think the sell job for me came more when I got there. My whole philosophy was like, this was my opportunity. Like I'm not letting it go. I slept in my office. I didn't even have an apartment in Nashville for like three or four months. I slept in my office. Especially my first couple years, I worked like 100-hour weeks, because I was like this is not -- I'm not going to get another chance. This is pure luck that Jim sort of tracked me down somehow and made that phone call initially.
For me the sell job was I'm going to make sure once I'm in, I'm not letting anyone take this way from me. My first two years I grinded out hard, sleeping in the office, doing the whole shtick people go through. I got the opportunity for whatever reason that was, and I wasn't going to let that go, so I'm eternally grateful for that chance, but I found the sell job for me, I found once I got my foot in the door, my sell job was the work I did for those couple years to him. Obviously enough for him to move forward to Detroit and bring me with him and kind of elevate me through the ranks there. I have a special, special appreciation for what he's done for me for sure.
Q. I'd like to get your thoughts on Derek Barnett. What's been your evaluation of him throughout his career to this point, and what are your expectations heading into this season?
MATT BURKE: You know, Derek is a great -- you guys have been around him. He's one of the toughest guys on the team. I think anyone would vouch for that. What we've seen from Derek I think has just been -- he's had a really sharp focus this off-season. Like really hyper-focused on, you know, getting everything done right.
I don't know how your guys time with him goes, he's quiet, a man of few words but he's a really intelligent guy. He's really great in the room. That's one thing for me that's been a revelation. He asks really pointed questions. He doesn't speak a lot but when he does it's a very sharp pointed question and I think again, seeing him from February up through now, I think he's hyper focused. He's had a great off-season. I think he's just like really locked in on wanting to be an elite player. So I'm really excited to again get us going on the field here and get this thing developing a little bit. He's a guy I'm really excited to get the chance to keep working with.
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