SHANE BOWEN: Long time no see. (Laughter.) How ya'll doing? Good to see you.
Q. You feel like the most lucky guy in the organization after they spend 150 million on defense and the No. 3 pick in the draft?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I'm excited about the additions. I am. They've all come in here, they're pros, working hard. All the free agents we brought in, they've had a significant impact here early I think just in terms of being a pro, showing some of the young guys what it takes to be a pro. You feel their leadership out there on the field, in the meeting room.
And then of course the young guys we drafted, very excited about those guys as well.
Q. The upgrades you made in the secondary, how does that change maybe what you guys can do?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, obviously Debo helps. Got a proven corner in this league. Obviously coming off the leg, but he's been great in terms of that.
So just gives us another piece, right? So between him, Tae, Flott, Drew, those other guys battling it out, obviously safety, Dane has been really good for us here early. Like he's had a really good spring. Finding ways to get him on the field, what he can do for us to help us.
But really encouraged about that group. I think M and Jeff have done a really good job with them, and Pops. They've done a really good job working with those guys and I'm encouraged where we are at right now.
Q. How do you walk the line between what you have learned as a coach through the years and what you like to do, what you have seen more with your philosophy versus bringing in a group of players and every year the personnel may shift.
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah.
Q. To the idea of, okay, how do I get further maybe away from what I'm most comfortable with in order to take advantage of the people that we have in the room?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a big part of coaching. We got to make sure we're doing everything we can to put these guys individually in positions they're most successful at, right, to make sure we're comfortable.
Obviously there is going to be different things within the scheme that you can't always do certain things every single play, right? But doing our best to maximize their skillsets to what they're most comfortable at, putting them in positions to do things.
I think obviously just learning from other coaches, whether it was Rome last year or Mike, obviously bringing M, bringing Jeff in, their experience with what they've done.
I am always trying to evolve. Never want to stay the same. If you stay the same you're not improving, so always trying to evolve what we do from the ground level all the way up through.
Q. Shane, I don't know if taking No. 3 was an incredibly difficult decision, but during the process did they really want to know from you, okay, we take him, we have Kayvon, Brian Burns, how are you going to make it work with those three guys? It's not just a plug-and-play kind of thing.
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I mean, you got three guys for two spots when you look at it from the outside in. It's a really good problem to have. Got three really good players, three really talented players. Two of them that have done it in this league at a high level.
Again, I think that's something from a staff standpoint that we're working through trying to find a way. Ultimately want to get our best 11 on the field, whatever way we got to maneuver to do that. We got to find ways to get the guys that can impact the game on the field.
So there is some versatility there. With Abdul he did a little bit of that stuff off the ball in college early in his career, so there is some versatility there and some with what we could do with Burns potentially as well.
Again, making sure in Abdul's case that we understand what it takes to be an edge player in this league and all the development that comes with that. But at the same time, making sure we find ways to get guys that can potentially impact the game for us on the field.
Q. What stood out to you about Abdul during the draft process?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I think he's all ball. You can tell he perks up when you start talking football with him. I think just his demeanor, how he carries himself. There is an edginess to him that we have seen translate out here in these few practices that we've had.
But you're always looking for guys that love football. It's a hard job, and if you don't have the love for the game, this game chews you up and spits you out. Especially with the level of talent that he has and everything that comes with the expectations of where he was drafted, you better have a love of the game and be able to hopefully use that as fuel throughout your career, whether it's the good times or the bad times.
So probably most encouraged about that. Just from our time meeting with him, talking football, he was all in.
Q. Shane, what do you like about your defensive line? Have a mix of veterans, the young kid, Darius Alexander. How does that change?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, we got good depth. We got really good depth. Again, we'll see how these young guys go as we start going. It's still early. This is practice No. 5 for us I think, so as we get through the spring and into training camp we'll see where they're at and what we're going to be able to ask of them.
We added a couple free agents with Roy and Ledbetter as well, some veteran guys that have played. We got Dex, Nacho, some of those other guys that have been here.
So really encouraged about the group. I think there is a lot of versatility within the group, and you combine that with the outside linebackers as well. Between those two groups there is a lot of versatility that we're exploring what we're going to be able to do and what we can ask of them.
That's a big part of it too as it relates to all the guys. Like the versatility is great, but let's make sure we don't overload them to the point where we take away their ability out there to go play as well.
So really encouraged D-line group. Dre does a really good job, B Cox with these guys. Hopefully we can continue to improve and get rolling.
Q. Shane, obviously all these resources into defense. (Plane interference.) Do you feel pressure to make this work?
SHANE BOWEN: I wouldn't say pressure. I'm driven by the guys. My job is to get these guys ready to go out there to execute at the highest level, to maximize their potential, and to perform and ultimately win.
So I'm driven by that. Come to work every day for them, doing everything I can to make them improve, to help them improve, our team improve.
That's really what fuels me. Don't really feel the pressure of it. We're working every day to improve right now. It's still early. There is a lot of moving parts still that we'll figure out and we're figuring out each day how we're going to make it work.
But I'm really excited about the group we got, the guys we brought in it, the additions, guys we got back obviously. Really excited where we are on the right now.
Q. What's your early impressions of Paulson Adebo?
SHANE BOWEN: Great, pro, comes to work every day, practices hard, makes plays on the football, he's long. We've seen that more than a few times out here, whether it's picking a pass off, getting a PBU, not afraid to challenge.
I think just for that room, relatively younger room, I think he's been an asset in there as well, just the experience, the knowledge.
Again, like coming in we have high expectations for him and part of that was the leadership role. Like we're expecting you to come in here and take on that role and thrive in that role and hopefully continue to help us to develop some of these younger guys.
Q. When you did a self-assessment, which I'm sure you did the first year, what did you say to yourself? What did you like, not like?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, you go back and look. I mean, the tale is the at tape, right? We got to be better on takeaways. Got to get the ball away. 12 of the 14 playoff teams were in the top half of the league taking the ball away.
We got to do better job of that, making sure we don't miss opportunities to catch them when they're there, don't miss opportunities to try to attack the ball when they're there, matching the hand, whatever that might be.
That's a big area of focus for us right now. The run game, eliminating explosive plays. A lot of good snaps in there in the run game.
And then we had way too many explosives. It's fine in a way and goes back to tackling, but it goes back -- it takes all 11 every snap. But making sure some of those runs that they might get through the line of scrimmage, let's see if we can limit those to 10 to 12 yards instead of the 40-yarders that showed up last year, right?
So that was another big part of it for me. What else here? There is a lot. Staying out of short yardage on third down. We had a lot of third and shorts. You go back and look at the ball, it was two to ten I thought we were pretty good; struggled in third and 11 plus which we have to get cleaned up. Then we got stay out of some of those third and ones.
And then, again, continue to enhance the things we did good. Felt like for the most part at times we were able to get pressure on the quarterback, able to do some good things there. Trying to enhance that with the guys we got now.
Q. Shane, what has Deonte Banks shown you this spring?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, he's come in, he goes to work every day. Like he's locked in in meetings. He locked in out here. Jeff is doing a really good job with him, spending time with him, talking to him, teaching him the game, just the approach. Like the approach, the professionalism, being locked into what we ask him to do.
You notice him asking questions, wanting to know more, be a little bit more detailed with what we're asking him to do. So I'm encouraged about the progress he's made from when he got back here to where we are right now.
Hopefully we can continue that trajectory throughout the rest of the spring and as we get into training camp.
Q. (Regarding Tae) a year ago, is it different with Tae than a year ago in terms of approach?
SHANE BOWEN: Yeah, I mean, I think any time you're dealing with these younger players, he's going into year three now, there is dramatic growth every year between year one and year two, year two and year three. I think that always comes into play. They all grow up a little bit as you're with them.
I think a big part, too, for us this year is there is familiarity, there is relationships. Like we were going through all that stuff last year. Now like that stuff is already established and we continue to work and build those things.
But now we can -- there is a little less focus on that, where we can focus more on something else. So I think that's going to benefit all our guys, not just Tae. But all the guys.
Q. (Regarding turnover chest.)
SHANE BOWEN: Oh, the chest. So my son, it's his first year of T Ball and he's on the Pirates. So we -- again main thing is emphasizing takeaways. We got to get better at takeaways. Somehow got the idea of piracy, violent, attacking to steal possessions or goods, right?
You'll hear our guys say it. I say it ad nauseum: Be a damn pirate. We got to find ways to get the ball. And, again, you get what you emphasize. We're making it a priority this year to make sure we find ways to get the ball.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports