MIKE CALDWELL: I really just want to say how grateful I am to have this opportunity. I want to thank Doug and the organization for entrusting me with this, and the floor is yours.
Q. You and Doug's relationship goes back to when you were both players in Philadelphia; did he make an impression on you back then when he was in the locker room that you knew, okay, he's a head coach and wants to work with me, we can make this work?
MIKE CALDWELL: Well, you know, anytime you're dealing with a quarterback they're going to make an impression on you. So he was the guy and we were going through that transition period, and he did a great job, and you can see the knowledge as a player, and it just transitioned to him being a coach.
Q. You've worked with a lot of great coaches, including Todd Bowles recently in New York as well as Tampa. If you have the personnel that you want, what is the perfect defensive scheme that you would like to run in Jacksonville?
MIKE CALDWELL: Really that question in Jacksonville, what the Jaguar players do well, we'll let them do that. It's really not going to be we're going to be this type of defense. That one, I'm going to look at the personnel, understand what they do well, let them go out there and do it well, and that's where success comes from.
Q. Do you see yourself as an aggressive coach? That's what Doug said. Do you like the blitzes? In Tampa you blitzed a lot. Do you like that aspect of the game?
MIKE CALDWELL: My history and my influences have been Todd Bowles, Jim Johnson, John Harbaugh, just to name a few, and that's just my nature. I believe as a coach when you're on the defense you have to affect the quarterback, you have to affect the offense, and that enables you to go out there and be successful.
Q. How much did you learn moving from New York to Tampa with Todd? Maybe some things didn't change at all, but did you as a staff change your scheme, especially enhancing the secondary, making them more primary blitzers perhaps?
MIKE CALDWELL: The thing I know, just like I was saying, once you see what you have, then you're able to utilize those pieces and get the best out of them, so if you're in New York, we were strong outside, we got to Tampa we were a little bit young in the back end, so you kind of tweak what you're doing to take advantage of their strengths and kind of hide their weaknesses.
Q. What do you see in the talent currently in this building?
MIKE CALDWELL: In this building the one thing when I turn on the film watching them is they play hard. They really do, from the front guys to the linebackers to the secondary, they play hard. That's right there, that's one thing that if you're a football player and you're a true football player, that's something you're going to do, you're going to play hard, and now it's just this coaching staff's job to get them to play hard and play the right way, play the Jags' way, and that's our job to get it done.
Q. What did you notice when you watched the defense from last year, their ups, like holding Buffalo to six points, but then the lows of last in the league in takeaways by a good margin. In terms of what positives and negatives did you see when you went back and reviewed it?
MIKE CALDWELL: Just going back, the thing that stands out is the way they came -- now, certain games in the NFL you're going to have ups and downs throughout the season, but if you have the effort and way they played hard, that's something you can take and you can build on and you can run with.
Q. What do you think about some of the young guys in the secondary, especially Andre Cisco, Tyson Campbell?
MIKE CALDWELL: I think there's a good mix back there with Shaq Griffin. There's guys that have played, they have young guys with talent, and I think there's an opportunity for a lot of growth back there with the veteran guys being able to grow, learn this system, and keep honing their skills and teaching the young guys how to do it.
When you do that and you build that accountability in a room, then that's when the defense takes off.
Q. Given your past and what you just came from in Tampa with the linebacker play, how excited should Myles Jack be that you're on the staff and how excited are you about Myles Jack?
MIKE CALDWELL: I'm excited. I spoke with him yesterday, and the thing, it was on the phone, so just I could see it through the phone. That sounds kind of funny. I could see it through the phone that he's eager and ready to go. He was like, Coach, can I come over -- I'm doing a little bit today, take your time, if you want to swing by tomorrow, I'm fine, but he was ready to go. You could see the passion in the voice, and one thing he said, I want to win, and that's what we're about here. I know Doug said it; I'm about it. We're trying to get guys in the best position so we can go out there and win games.
Q. How did working with Jim Johnson, Todd Bowles, how did that kind of shape how you see football?
MIKE CALDWELL: Just the philosophy. If you're attacking on defense, you're going to make the offense adjust to what you're doing, and if you affect them the right way, show a look this way and come from somewhere else, affect them the right way, now it disrupts their timing, and advantage defense.
Q. Do you feel like just seeing firsthand Todd Bowles' coordinating defenses for as long as he has, do you feel like you've been able to see a lot of the insight as far as being a defensive coordinator?
MIKE CALDWELL: That's the thing sitting in that -- I think we were together 10 years, sitting in the meeting rooms together 10 years and understand when you're watching film what you're looking for, breaking it down, understanding, developing a game plan to attack the offense. You sit in there for 10 years, something is bound to rub off.
Q. How long will it take you to figure out what's here, and how much can you get done from the tape and how much will you need mini-camp and OTAs to really hone in on how you're going to play defense with these guys?
MIKE CALDWELL: That's going to be important. When you look at it on tape, their technique last year was going to be different than what we play here, so now you have to teach them your technique, get them out on the field and see do I need to tweak my technique, do I need to tweak this to benefit the player, or can they do that technique, then we can go on to something else.
Mini-camps, OTAs, they're going to be important because one of the teaching aspects of it and then finding out what players do well and let them go out there and do it.
Q. What kind of coach is Cody Grimm? Obviously he's coming with you from Tampa to coach the safeties.
MIKE CALDWELL: Cody is a coach that when you're in that quality control role, if guys from other positions go to you to get an answer, and when I was a linebacker coach down there, I saw that. When guys do that, that's someone that they know has knowledge, understands the game and can relay the message, and that's what Cody does.
He played in the league. He understands that if we draw it up on the board and we call it this, that play -- you look in that player's eyes and it doesn't click, then we have to get it to them another way, and he's able to do that.
Q. You sort of mentioned this staff is comprised of a lot of former NFL players. How do you think that helps you guys sort of relate to the guys on the field and coach the team?
MIKE CALDWELL: I think it helps, but also once you're a former player, you can't say I did it this way, I did it this way. You've got to be able to understand the limitations of that player, whether it's learning or physical, and go out there and help them become the best player they can be.
Now, sitting in that meeting room, understanding that -- I remember when the coach told me this, that it makes sense, and have them understand and be able to see in their eyes that they got it, and then once you see that, then be able to move on. If they don't get it, then you have to come back around and get it to them.
Q. You're going to be a lot of these guys' third coordinator in three years. How important is that making sure they play fast so they don't get caught up in am I supposed to be here or there? Is that hard when guys have had a lot of coordinators?
MIKE CALDWELL: It is, but again, when you're coaching, different terminology, it's key. So now you go there, if you teach the terminology in a way they can understand it and it means something to them, then you can put two and two together. As coaches that's what you hear. We're teachers; we have to teach them a system where they can understand it, not make it so difficult that you're running all over the place, make it simple where they can understand it, they can maximize their talent to get the job done.
Q. From what you've seen on tape, the lack of turnovers for this defense last year, sometimes turnovers are a little bit of luck, sometimes they're a little bit of not being aggressive enough. What do you see when you see a defense that just for whatever reason has such a dearth of turnovers like this team had last year?
MIKE CALDWELL: That's the thing, turnovers, it's such an important part of the game. Every defense is going to work it. But you have to work it a certain way. You work it and you have to stress getting the ball out, stress the different types of coverages you're going to play. Again, it goes back to attacking, affecting the quarterback. So when you affect the quarterback and speed his process up, that enables you to get a chance to break on a ball here and get a pick or break on a ball and knock it down or get a ball tipped up in the air and be able to get a turnover that way.
But speeding up the quarterback is key to doing that, and then flying around, understanding what you're supposed to do, getting there, getting there nasty, turnovers happen.
Q. Speaking of affecting the quarterback, what was your relationship previously with Brentson Buckner and why was it important for you to bring him and be a part of this staff?
MIKE CALDWELL: When we ended up going to Arizona, Brentson came and he was our defensive line coach. From there, first time coaching, he's played in the league, I knew him as a player, first time coaching, he came in and did an outstanding job there. We've always stayed in touch and have become friends and would lean on each other for that.
I understand what he does for a defensive line room. I understand how the techniques I want, he teaches them. It's a match that will gel together real nice.
Q. With that said, how much input did you have with Doug when he was hiring, when he was interviewing different guys for different positions on the defensive side of the ball?
MIKE CALDWELL: We talked about it, but at the end, it's Doug's decision. We talked about it, I sold the guys that I wanted, and he had guys that he wanted, and I think the staff is exceptional.
Q. How challenging is this for you, this transition, making the jump you are to calling plays and putting a staff together, everything kind of funneling through you and trying to acquire the talent that you want? Is your head spinning a little bit? Is it going to be a challenging time for you personally?
MIKE CALDWELL: No, the thing about it is I'm excited. I'm excited about it. Now I get a chance to put my stamp on it. I've said it in many a defensive staff rooms, and all the time every idea doesn't line up. Now I get input and now I have a chance to develop the ideas the way I see it. I'm excited about the opportunity and ready to roll.
Q. Back to Myles Jack and K'Lavon Chaisson, there have been times in their career that they've been asked to do a lot of different things and they have really been out of position or haven't done well at that position. I realize you've just been hired, but have you had a chance to go back and look at some film and wonder why they were in those situations and how much differently would you have put them in?
MIKE CALDWELL: Well, the thing, when you go back and you look at the film, you see the scheme they're playing, you don't have the details of what they were taught as far as the technique-wise, so I go back and I just look and I look at ability, someone that can make plays and someone that can process. I see those guys, and again, we talked about going back to keeping it simple. If you've got a guy that has this skill set that does this real well, let him do this. If he's better going forward, let him go forward. If he needs to go back, we'll let him go back with every blue moon. But if he's going forward, let him get after the quarterback and let him go.
Q. Was that part of your conversation with Myles, that it seems like every year his position was changing?
MIKE CALDWELL: With Myles he was just, Coach, I'm ready to go, whatever he wants to do. He's that type of -- talking to him, he's that type of guy that whatever the team asks him to do, he's a team-oriented guy. Whatever we want him to do, he's going to go out there and do it to the best of his ability. But as coaches, it's our job to let him go do what he does well, and that's what we plan on doing.
Q. What kind of a resource can Bob Sutton be for you?
MIKE CALDWELL: I think Bob will be a great resource. He has a bunch of knowledge. We're in there now piecing together how we're doing it, and he'll chime in here or there, and it's a great resource, something I can bang an idea off of or have him bring an idea to me, and we talk about it as a staff, but he's a guy that I'm going to lean on, and he's a great resource.
Q. Does it help that he's been here and he's familiar with these guys in terms of their abilities what they can and can't do?
MIKE CALDWELL: It does -- when I walk in the building, everybody has a clean slate, but also get a little knowledge from Tony, from Pat, from Bob that have been here, understand like the personalities and how to approach guys, and got a clean slate, but I'll learn you, but it's also good to have a little bit of pre-knowledge from someone has been here about the player.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports