Q. Julian so much is the same on defense, coaches, players as last year. What do you feel like might be different?
JULIAN LOVE: I think this is a launching point. I think last year there's so much to figure out, and it takes a while. We just started on a whole different level.
And we just know how each other works. I think the camaraderie, the chemistry is just heightened. So now the kind of standard is high from the jump.
Q. How is Emmanwori fitting in with you guys? You seem to be putting him --
JULIAN LOVE: Right in the mix. He's been doing pretty well. As a rookie it's tough, especially as a higher-profile rookie, that's tough. He has humility to go and get it and take on the coaching, take on kind of whatever the players are saying to him, and he's doing a good job.
So I know it's a lot on his plate right now. We're going to need him to be in a role in this defense because he's so talented. Yeah, I think he's doing a great job early.
Q. He's so easy to razz.
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah. I mean, a rookie in the DB room, you have to get some thick skin for sure. We all kind of go at it pretty heavy.
He's doing a great job. I mean, he's getting quick-witted coming back at us a little bit more, but he fits in so natural. I think you can tell they're intentional about the personality types, and he fits in the personality of our DB room.
Q. I know it's really early with him, and you've only been practicing with him for a few weeks, but how do you see his skill set complementing what you and Coby bring to the table?
JULIAN LOVE: I think the one word you'll hear is "versatility." He can do a lot. He did a lot in college. Coby and I pride ourselves on doing a lot. I think for us to be successful as a safety room, you have to.
We can be really good if we can come down the slot and play deep in the field, play in the box. I think we all do that well. Obviously Nick, just his physical traits can make him really excel, but I think all of us really complement each other as well in that room.
Q. Going back to Coby, it seems like he's having a very effective -- what we've seen of him. Is that a fair assessment how he's going through the practices?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah. Coby has a chip on his shoulder, and that's why we all love him so much. It's kind of like Jordan "In the Last Dance." He takes everything personal. That's the type of person he is.
He competes in everything he does, and when he's quiet, he's locked in and in the zone. If you look at kind of the DB room of who you guys see the most, we're very different, all of us. I think that's what is special about us is we don't have to try to be like each other. We can let Coby be Coby, let Spoon be Spoon, and let Riq be Riq, and they let me be me. So I think we just love Coby for who he is, and he works his ass off.
Q. How does a new offense test the defense differently than last year, as you're trying to come together and now you have something new?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, I mean, from schematics, from personnel, when you play against each other so much, you tend to just kind of play the person and kind of who you are going against. Right now we play free and true to kind of the scheme and just kind of read everything true.
There's not really a lot of anticipation because you're seeing different looks every other play. They're doing a great job and keeping us guessing for sure.
Yeah, Sam is doing a great job, and the skill players are making some plays out there. We love it because we're going to compete no matter what.
Q. What are you saying for this defense in terms of how you think it's going to try to attack -- or sorry, the offense?
JULIAN LOVE: Trying to attack us? I think just keep us guessing, not let us get comfortable. I think when you see teams that pressure or are effective pressuring, you see a lot of no-huddle, screen action, a lot of misdirection. I feel like most teams are going to try to do that to us, just not let us settle into anything.
I think when our feet are set, our cleats are set, I think we're one of the best defenses in the league. So if I was somebody else, I wouldn't let us try to get comfortable where.
Q. I meant Kubiak's offense and what they want to do, like how they're going to attack.
JULIAN LOVE: Oh, just in general?
Q. Yeah.
JULIAN LOVE: I think we have the personnel. We have some talented people on offense, but then it's just understanding, okay, we're going to be tight in our run fits -- not fits -- run scheme, run the ball predominantly, but then just pull off of it.
Understand what kind of what our defenses are playing and then have build-offs off of it. We've seen a little glimpse of the first progression, the second level to it, the third level to it, and it's just so many layers to our offense. It's pretty special to see.
It's cool because right now say they hit a player or something, we're, like, Man, that was a good one. You can tell. You see where it's taking shape.
It's some high-level stuff going on over there.
Q. What are you learning going against Cooper Kupp every day?
JULIAN LOVE: He has every tool of the trade. He's strong. Obviously great hands. Such an effective route runner. He is one of the best receivers in the league. He's showing it.
Obviously guarded him in games, so I know firsthand kind of what he brings to the table, but it's consistent work every day. He's coming in every day, and he's locked in. He's in the zone.
He has some shit to him, excuse my language, but he does. It's cool, and it's giving our DBs some great looks, giving something that we weren't able to show really last year.
Q. How have you seen Riq handle this offseason especially about free agency coming up?
JULIAN LOVE: He's been locked in. This part of the year everybody is fresh off the offseason. Everyone is pretty dialed in, kind of setting goals for what you want out of the year. Now it's just sustaining them.
We all do it. We are all like, This season I'm going says to do this, this, and this. For the most part he's been crushing this offseason program. He's been here. He's been getting after it.
His numbers are always crazy. He's just a freak athlete, and I think our chemistry is really close, me and him. We work in tandem a lot out there.
I love what I've been seeing, so now it's just sustaining.
Q. You play against DeMarcus Lawrence in the NFC East. You've gotten all those matchups. What does he bring to the equation for the defense having most of you guys back, adding him to the mix here?
JULIAN LOVE: Let's not mention my Giant-Cowboys matchups from those days. We lost a lot of games.
He's been around, and he knows how to win football games. So you can just tell that when things are going right for us, he's vibing. When things aren't up to standard, he has a look to him like, This isn't good enough. I think he brings a standard to the defensive room.
And I think just personality-wise people love to be around him. He's been around the block. He works hard, and he just is a great addition.
Q. Your head coach used that same phrase about Sam Darnold that you used about Kupp. He has some you know what. Are you starting to see that competitiveness in certain periods of practice?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, for sure. The first OTA, you guys weren't out there. The defense just picked up where we left off in terms of just chatter. The guys are talking shit every play, it seems like, the offense. Some of the new guys are probably looking like, okay. Kind of set the tone and knew what it was.
Sam just has some stuff to him. I changed my verbiage on that one. He has some stuff to him. Coop, he grinds. He's just a worker. He's a work horse. Sam has some of that swag to him, and he has ability. He's making us better?
Q. What does that sound like? Is he talking smack back to you?
JULIAN LOVE: It's like dad jokes. It's kind of those type of jabs. But you can tell, okay, he has some fire to him. He's used to being around the guys, around the boys. He's not a square type of guy. He's cool with dishing it back a bit.
Q. As good as the defense was last year, there were a couple of games that weren't up to your standards against the Packers that were kind of big games for the team. How do you change which that this year?
JULIAN LOVE: One, obviously stay healthy making sure we. And then just don't get bob bogged down with the detailed work. At that point of the season, whatever it was, November/December, you can just start to float a little bit.
So I think coming into this offseason, we identified some of those games where we feel like, man, it wasn't clean enough and just detail it, just detail out the work.
I know the DB coach, Jeff Howard, Karl Scott, they've been getting after it in terms of details. Those games are the games you see a lot more clips on because it wasn't up to kind of the standard that we were setting.
Now it's sustaining. That's the hard part. It's easy to do it for a few games, but the best defenses in the league over NFL history have been consistent from start to finish.
Q. Mike MacDonald communicating, how has that changed this year?
JULIAN LOVE: I think he's just more comfortable in how he wants to run our culture, run our scheme. You know, the verbiage of everything, I think he is just in tune. Everybody is talking the same talk.
He just seems more settled in, more cool, calm. When he talks ball, he's still at a high level. When he's talking ball, there's nobody better than Mike.
Q. He says he is clearer. Can you as a player sense that, or is it just the same?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah. So outside of talking ball -- talking ball he is top of the whatever. Just in terms of setting kind of what we want around here, setting the standard, kind of how we want to build, just the messaging is just super clear about what our goal is.
Kind of the main phrase you'll hear is "12 is one." Everything we're building is off of that. It's camaraderie. It's togetherness. It's looking after your brother next to you. That's kind of the clear messaging. He's been super dialed in with us.
Q. Your punter just got a new contract today. What is a good punter mean to a defense?
JULIAN LOVE: It's huge. Field position is the name of the game right now. You see the stats, the analytics or whatever about when the offense starts at the 15th compared to the 35. It's the details within the details of how we play.
It can get overlooked. No one is really saying, Oh, man, our punter is awesome. That's not really a kind of thing, but we realize in the building that our punter is actually awesome.
Mike, he just gets after it. He's super consistent with his work, I mean, with his body. He's a pro. He's a pro's pro. So I know we're all happy for him.
I mean, you don't often get a at that timed up punter going up wanting to work for you, and Dicko, he's the best, so we're happy for him. It's awesome.
Q. You and Spoon and the whole crew are looking at the replay board and saying whether it's a deep in or an over and all these kind of things. What's going on there? Are you trying to figure out the offense or how you guys play together?
JULIAN LOVE: It's a mixture. I think the accountability is so high that we're going to be clear-cut about, Where were you on this when receiver does this, This is what I need from you. It's just talking ball.
It might sound kind of crazy if you guys are hearing over there hearing us, if you are hearing Spoon ever, but we all speak differently, but are talking the same language, if that makes sense.
That's all it is. I love the boards out there because then you can see what happened in the previous play realtime because we're trying to be the best. It's quick when you get quick feedback out there. That's all it is. DBs do it at a high level. We really talk a lot out there.
Q. Those video boards are fairly new to the football sphere to be on the practice field with you. How much has that kind of changed things being able to have that -- being right there and not have to come in the building and see it later? What does that change for what you are able to accomplish?
JULIAN LOVE: It's cool. My first time seeing that was I think out here. It's cool because I like to get that instant feedback. It could be crippling if you made a bad play, and everyone is looking up at the board ready for you to make a mistake, for the young guys. It's kind of like you shake back.
We kind of callous ourselves to just getting better. If it's bad, you're still going to rep the next play. I love those boards out there. It's pretty good.
Q. Coach MacDonald mentioned this defense feels like it has ownership even more so this year just because in year two with you guys. He says it's not just his defense. You guys are here and taking over. Does it feel different for you in terms of what this defense can do this year? You mentioned a better launching point.
JULIAN LOVE: I think so. I think that shows itself in we're in the defensive room. It's not about being the best defense. Now we're competing about who can be the best position group in the defense.
So it's not like, defense, we're going to be the top whatever in the league. We want to be the best secondary in the league. Who was the tip of the spear for our practice that day? Every day we've been showing who the tip of the spear was, whether it's DBs, backers, or D-linemen. It's super competitive in there.
I think it's conducive to just growth. I think everyone is getting coached no matter if you are D-Law, Leo or the rooks we have. It's just a super accountable across all board, player to coach, player to player, coach to coach. It's just really, really dialed in.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports