JONATHAN GANNON:
Q. What are some of the differences you see from the Lions last year and as you prepare for them week 1?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, completely different football team. You know, I feel like the last half of the year they kind of came into their own with their identity and how they wanted to play offense, and big-time challenge for us.
They've got a really good O-line, quarterback is a good player, and they've got some skill guys. We've got it cut out for us. We've got to play good football to give our team a chance to win.
Q. How have they changed the defense?
JONATHAN GANNON: Not much. It was good to add them to the unit, to that entire room, and really like his skill set and the player that he is, and looking forward to seeing him mesh with our defense and hopefully make some plays for us.
Q. How do you go about acclimating him to the defense and getting him ready?
JONATHAN GANNON: Good question. Like we talked about, everybody is a little bit different with that. DK and D-Will are obviously spending a little more time with him to try to get him caught up.
But he's very smart. He's intelligent. His skill set fits to what we want to do, and when he's ready to play, he'll play.
Q. When it comes to self-improvement from year one to year two, what was the primary focus for us?
JONATHAN GANNON: For me, just I think -- a lot of things. It would take us too long to go over.
But just trusting the players a little bit more and say, hey, this is how we're going to do things and this is the job description. It's very clear: here's the standard that we want to do.
From my standpoint, it's being comfortable with our guys and letting them go play fast.
Q. What was it about CGJ that made you think that he could play --
JONATHAN GANNON: What is it? I don't know even what it is. He hasn't even told me. Just looking at his tape, the skill set that he brings, he basically played a lot in the slot, but he has played safety before.
We've talked about a modern day safety is doing it all, coverage ability, being able to play in the post, having range, playing post closed, post open, covering, tackling, communicating, being smart.
I feel like he's going to integrate well into the defense.
Q. T.J. Hockenson is back. He had a pretty good game against you last year, and I guess a lot of tight ends did. Do you feel like you shored up that guarding or defending tight ends in space this year with the new linebackers?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, a lot of that is predicated on call, where certain times people that are on him have help and certain times when people are on him they don't have help.
I think it's just executing the call when guys know when they're matched up on him how to defend him, where to be strong, where they're strong, and use their help accordingly.
Q. You talk so much about the secondary, how much of it was trust and communication. You have just one starting D-back back from last year, so there's a lot of new pieces. They didn't play together a lot in the preseason games. Is that going to be a process until they get to the point they need to be at?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, good question. That typically takes some time, but the NFL there's not a lot of time.
I feel good about where that room is at. When you add new pieces but they can think and process and they're smart, once they understand the why, then they just need some time on task to plan with each other.
But going through camp, OTAs and camp, I like where that room is at.
And then the addition of Chauncey, they're getting him caught up to speed, as well, and I think it'll be pretty seamless.
Q. (Indiscernible) are you more discerning at that position because of your background?
JONATHAN GANNON: I'm discerning at all of them, but I think we've got excellent coaches here, and I trust those guys fully to get done what we need to get done with all the players.
When I have to interject a little bit, I do. That is my baby. But I feel really comfortable about not touching that room because of the two coaches that we have.
Q. As far as Chauncey integrating into the defense, learning the new defense, how quickly can he learn something like this coming from a totally different system in such a short amount of time?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, it's a little bit of a case-by-case basis, but it's just like with all of our new guys. These guys have all played football before. It's not rocket science. You hear me say that a lot.
Really the newest thing for those guys is just the verbiage. Like hey, you've played this a million times, but this is the verbiage that we use, this is the calls you have to make, this is your body positioning, where you need to be.
It's just really from a verbiage standpoint, communication standpoint within the scheme and the defense, and then understanding how he fits into all the calls.
Q. Earlier you mentioned when he's ready he'll play. Is there a chance he's not ready, and is there a chance you'll have to limit his role based on --
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, we'll just see how the week goes. That's like with all our players. We just kind of figure out as the week goes on, hey, this guy is ready to play or this guy is not, and we kind of go from there.
But that's kind of a daily check-in for all of our guys, for all of us to say, hey, let's put him in or let's hold him.
Q. It's a little different with him, though, right? Do you have benchmarks he has to hit to know those things?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, execution benchmarks in practice. Like I said, when he's ready to play, we'll put him in there.
Q. In your experience, JG, I'm sure you've had other players you've had to ramp up pretty quickly. Is there sort of a limit to how much you can teach somebody in a 10-day span? I know you say each player is different, but you can't have everything.
JONATHAN GANNON: That's right. You're right. I think from the standpoint of once he gets something, like any player, once he gets a concept and gets a call, then you move on and you see there will always be sticking points of, well, there's a lot of adjustments in this call. Maybe we steer clear of that one. Or hey, we know we're going to need this call, we've got to learn this one.
Certain calls are a little bit easier than other ones, and it's just -- your kind of instincts of being a coach, hey, he's ready for this or he isn't ready for this, and then you make the decision and go.
Q. What's your comfort level with K'Von, with Avonte if he's got to play some safety, with Reid?
JONATHAN GANNON: Very comfortable. Very comfortable with that whole room, excited about that room, and anybody that's up on game day, I feel good about putting in the game.
Q. That said, with Anthony Harris, what happened there, and how tough is that to lose a pro's pro this late?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, you guys know I love Anthony and he's done great job for us and helped us a lot last year, but when we had the chance to add Chauncey, that's what we decided to do. That kind of went into the decision of letting him go.
I wish Anthony the best, but feel really good about that room.
Q. What you think about how Fletcher approached this off-season after getting cut and having returned?
JONATHAN GANNON: The only thing I know about Fletch is he comes in here and works and he's the standard of effort and how to practice and play. That's why he's one of our captains.
I love where Fletch's game is at right now, and he's going to be a huge part of this defense.
Q. Are you curious to learn about your team, getting to see them play?
JONATHAN GANNON: Just like we talked about, you're excited for week 1. They all count the same. All 17 games count the same, but I always tell guys week 1, you haven't played in a while when it counts.
I'm excited to see us go into the game, and like the head coach talks about, dog mentality and see us kind of make some plays, fly around, and when things aren't going our way, how we respond.
That's been a positive thing from our defense the entire training camp, and just excited to go see them play and have fun.
Q. What type of growth did you see from Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean this summer?
JONATHAN GANNON: A lot, just like all our rookies. It's a big-time learning curve for those guys, whether they played a similar way or didn't play a similar way.
But the things that we identify with Jordan, hey, you've got to get better at, he's gotten better at, the same thing with all our new guys. Excited where they are, and like I said, if they're up on game day, we feel comfortable with them going in there and executing everything that they need to execute to help us win.
Q. Are T.J. and Kyzir the clear top two or will Nakobe rotate in?
JONATHAN GANNON: I'm not going to get into who's starting and all that, but there's a very specific role for all those guys in that room, and we feel good about those guys in their roles right now.
Q. You were asked earlier about going into year two as the coordinator; what have you noticed about Nick going into year two as a head coach?
JONATHAN GANNON: You know, he's a good football coach, man. I think he's the epitome of whatever we do. There's always reasons behind it, and you can appreciate that. And whether you like it or not, there is a reasoning that he has behind how we practice, how we -- decisions we make with the roster with him and Howie, for how we structures practice, how he wants us to play on defense.
There's reasons for all that, and I love the detail that he has when he has a thought or makes a decision that there's always a why behind it and it's very thought out.
Q. Trusting your players more, what does that look like?
JONATHAN GANNON: We'll find out on Sunday, I guess, huh?
No, I'll answer that. I think letting them play a little bit more, and not to say that we didn't let them play last year, but I told those guys, we've got to problem solve and you guys got to think on your feet and get me out of trouble when a call is not ideal, and that's what I think that our defense, the guys that we have right now have shown that through camp, and I just honestly trust the whole room a little bit better.
Part of that is being second year in the system. They've seen a lot of the things that we talked about last year not seeing, and now they've seen some of that and they can function on the move in between the whistles, which I'm really excited about.
Q. You talked about guys having specific roles, and obviously you're going to be playing different types of stuff. How much do you think through like the mechanics of in-game getting guys on and off the field and how much do you practice that?
JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, we practice it daily, and that's a big discussion every week. When you play a lot of different guys and you're rotating guys and you're playing different packages, that's always a thing that we talk about, like is this feasible, does it help our players, can I do it, is it comfortable for me and our players.
That's always kind of a game by game case. Good question.
Q. What would you really like to see this defense better at than last season?
JONATHAN GANNON: Probably take the ball away a little bit more, affect the quarterback a little bit more, and be consistent, because you guys saw there's certain games where we played lights out and certain games where we didn't. I would like us to always on the defensive side of the ball, my responsibility is to make sure that the defense and the coaches, to make sure the defense is giving our team a chance to win the game. Excited about that opportunity and challenge.
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