Chargers
When asked about what he was most proud of during his time at Michigan, new Chargers DC Jesse Minter responded he’s proud of how their defensive system established an identity.
“Most proud I would say of just how the players took ownership of what we thought it was going to take to play really good defense,” Minter said, via Eric Smith of the team’s site. “I like to think of it as like there’s 50/50 of importance to play good defense. I think it’s 50 percent what you play and 50 percent how you play. What you play is, you’re always trying to evolve, you’re always trying to find better ways to do things. But I think you have to really create an identity of how you play to where when the other team gets off the bus or the plane to play against you, they know from watching you what they’re in for. I think those guys really took to that identity this year, even a lot more so than the previous season there in Michigan. What I’m most proud of is just the consistency and the identity that we created that really, really showed for 15 straight weeks this year.”
Harbaugh reiterated it’s important to have a strong defense so they can be effective against multiple systems. To do that, players must understand different concepts.
“I think it’s a prerequisite to play good defense these days. Offensively, when you really look at it, there’s probably across like five or six main plates across the NFL that coordinators eat off of. A lot of them are predicated on the run game, some on the pass game, some on obviously both. Some on play action, some on quick game. And so, I think you have to have a defense that’s capable of lining up against all those different styles, figuring out what can slow those teams down. Whatever their identity is, you certainly want to try to take away what they do best and make them do other things against you. I think having a really flexible, learnable defense is really important. We will really try to conceptually teach guys what we’re trying to do. We don’t want guys to memorize play calls. We want to understand concepts of how we’re trying to play people. That allows you as you go to create the versatility, to move a guy around. Once they understand exactly what we’re trying to do, then you can create all this stuff that looks a lot more multiple — hopefully to other people than it actually is to our guys.”
Chiefs
After over a year of haggling, the Chiefs and DT Chris Jones finally agreed to a new deal that accomplished the biggest goals for both sides. Kansas City held on to their best defensive player, while Jones got paid and got to stay where he wanted to be.
“For me, that was the plan from the beginning,” Jones said via NFL Media’s Kevin Patra. “You know, since you guys drafted me, I never planned to play for another organization — better yet, end the year with another organization after coming off of a Super Bowl win. Deep down, I felt like I was never leaving and (I’m) super appreciative for the Hunt family and the Chiefs organization for making sure I retire a Chief.”
Jones landed a monstrous $158.75 million deal that includes $60 million guaranteed at signing and $95 million in practical guarantees. Sometimes teams worry about that level of money changing players, but in Jones’ case, this is the second huge deal of his career. He downplayed any concerns that he would be phoning it in.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
