Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / O-Zone Podcast: Defensive coordinator Joe Cullen

Transcript

O-Zone Podcast: Defensive coordinator Joe Cullen · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast presented by by Star Credit
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Junior with Jaguars senior writer John Osan. All right, welcome
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: into this week's Ozone podcast pretended by by Star And
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: we are working on a little bit of a schedule today,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: so I'm not going to delay the intro to a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: coach that I consider a friend. I've known him for
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: about a decade, Jaguars defensive coordinator Joe Colin. And Joe,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, I still love saying Jaguars defensive
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: coordinator Joe Colin because I've been waiting for you for
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a long time to get this shot. Uh first, welcome, Well,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: it's it's great to be on John, and I consider
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: your friend as well. And I'm just a little disappointed
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I was the last one to get an invite on
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the Ozone. Well you weren't the last one to get
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: an invite, just kidding, but you're the last one that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I cut you all the red tape and get so
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: but it's mainly because you're high demand. I don't know
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: about that. I've already gotten Charlie Strong and Darrow Bebble,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: but from Joe Cole and I had to wait so um,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: tell me about the off season. Well, I tell you
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: we've had We've had a great offseason. I mean starting
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: you know when when coach Meyer was hired and and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and Trent Bulky putting together the staff, and then the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: players coming back. You know, it was a different, you know,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: different year last year, so there wasn't an off season,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: but the players really bought into everything that we're pushing
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and coaches pushing in terms of what we want to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: do and how we want to do it, how we
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: want to practice. And really we've you know, I don't
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: know the total numbers, but it's been close to the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: whole way through and the players, the leaders and and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the new players we brought in and really just practiced
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: their tails off and we're really excited about going into camp. Now.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: You're an old defensive line guy. That's where your heart is.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Urban has talked several times this offseason about the importance
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of having a great defensive line. First, tell me about
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: your defensive line that you've been able to build, reinforce
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and some of the guys coming back. Well, first of all,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Tosh law Point and Starling Lucas are doing a great
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: job there. You'll see Zach Gordon down there as well.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: He's he's outside backer coach. But really, the the uh,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the players that we had here, it was really important
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: to keep smooth, you know, you know, and he's an
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: excellent player and and that was important. And then the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: ability to to go out and attract some real, real
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: high free agents. You know, Malcolm Brown in the trade.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: He's been a five year starter on two really top
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: teams in this league for a long time, been in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a couple of Super Bowls, won a Super Bowl. Um,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you know Roy Robertson Harris, you know, he's a guy
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: who had our eye on for a long time. Being
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: able to attract him. Uh, Jihad Ward coming from Baltimore
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: was a guy. He's a lunch pill guy, just gonna
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: give you everything he has. Then, you know, really excited
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: about all the guys really you know, Tavin and guys
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that have been here. Uh, the guys we drafted, you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Jake de Felli out there moving around really well, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and uh Jordan Smith from U A. B. So we're
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: really excited about about the front. There's a much of
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: GUYSHO want to talk about, and we'll do that over
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the course of the season. But why uh how much
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: better do you feel now about the potential for this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: run defense? And why is it so important for you
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to get more solid up front? Well, I mean, you know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: it's a passing league and everybody always says that, John,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you know from where you've been in your career, but
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: you gotta stop and run at some point, you gotta
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: grab grass and be able to honker down and stop
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the run. And I feel like we have the ability
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to do that with the guys that we have, not
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: only on the on the on the front, but also
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the linebacker level and the additions there. So uh, you know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: we we're really excited about about being able to put
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: pads on and actually see it, you know, come into place.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I've read a couple of times I saw season. I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: thought the key addition was Malcolm Brown just because the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: importance of that stoutness at that position. How do you
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: feel about him? How key is he to what you
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: guys are gonna do? Well? Malcolm is a guy that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you know falling his footsteps, and he played for Coach
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Strong at Texas. I remember him coming out and when
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I was in Baltimore really liked him. Um, you know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: he's a guy that is a stout nose tackle but
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: also plays the undertackle the three technique. You can move
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: him around and you know with Von Hamilton's haven't you know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: being a being a second year veteran. Now we feel
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: like we have some ability with with our big ends,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: with Roy Taban and Adam that you know, we we
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: have we have a good group of core guys, but
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Malcolm will be a key figure and we'll be able
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to move him around up front. I haven't even asked
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: you about rushing the past there. I know that's your
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that's your passion because it's so important to stop the run.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: But how do you feel about the past rush? Uh?
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Josh Allen sort of the guy people think about with that,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But is there the ability with these guys to get
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: to the quarterback? Andreak Havoc if you will, well, I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: think if you go back to like you know, you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: you you really look at our edge, you know with
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: smooth being a guy that can play on the edge
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and move inside. Johad Ward as well, that there are
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: hybrid guys that big guys out there when they got
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to stop the run that you move inside and third
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: down situation asians, and then you look at Josh Allen
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: when he did his rookie year. I know last year
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: was hampered with some injuries and then the whole COVID
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: deal and then Caleb Chase on. I mean, he's a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: guy that they looked the part and they're there are
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: two guys that are that. What we're gonna try to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: try to do is feature guys like that and feature
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys. But there's some guys that we
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: feel like they can get off the football and and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we havoc on the edge, and then we got a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: bunch of guys inside that I feel like by committee,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: we'll we'll have a really good rotation and guys that
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: will be able to get after the quarterback and half
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: in this league. Talking about Roy, I'm talking about Jahad,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: talking about Malcolm. I'm excited to work with Tavin. So
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: we're excited about the group we have. And it was
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: a coach you're instinctly to talk about everybody as a group.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinating how Josh Allen's gonna look in this defense.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I would think you're excited about him. I mean, this
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: is a top ten pick guy with premium talent. Yeah,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: he you know when you when you carve out of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: edge Russia. He's what he's what you want to carve out.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I mean he he's a guy that has the height,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: he's got the weight, he's got the speed eat, he's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: got the length, and he's got the ability to bend.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: He's get the ability to win on the edge when
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: when er an inside move, when a tackle oversets, you
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: win with power. You can drop him into carverage. You
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: can do a lot of things. And I feel the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: same way about Caleban and I feel the same way
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: about Jordan's Smith. You know, guys like that body type. Now,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Laurenta McCray is another guy that's had a really good offseason.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: When people talk about this defense, they they tend to
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: talk about the edge because that's where people think the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: pass frush comes from. Um, I'm intrigued by how you're
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: going to use Miles Jack. I know you're not gonna
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tell me how you're gonna use Myles Jack, But how
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: key is he to what you're doing? His skill sets
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: pretty unlimited. I guess well, you know, when you look back,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: like when we we we came in as his staff,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you know, coach Strong, Coach Sutton, coach Gilbert, coach or
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you know, looking at the linebacker position. I mean, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: every every time you turn around, Miles is making a
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: plane in space. And he's explosive, he's sudden, he can run,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and he's and and you think, okay, what's see about
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: two thirty? No, he's too fifth that. So I mean,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: he's a guy that's explosively sudden, and um, he's a
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: guy you could blitz. He's a guy that can cover
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: backs man and man. You know, tight ends man to man,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: So you can do a lot of different things with him.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just clear. I get a lot of
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: questions for people saying, well, does he fit this scheme?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And I thought, is why wouldn't he? No, absolutely he
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: fits in the scheme, and he really does. I mean,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you talk about a will linebacker, dinebacker, three four four
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: three hybrid, whatever you want to call it. He could,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: he could plan an he's that guy. Tell me about
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: your secondary I know that's key. There was a lot
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of rebuilding there. How do you feel about the package
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: you're putting together? You know, I tell you they've done
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: a great job all throughout the off season. I coaches
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: all our defensive coach has done a great job. I
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: mean I mentioned Tosh Stirling, Josh, I mean Zach, I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: mentioned Charlie, Bob Tony have all done a great job
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: our back end guys. You know Tim Walton, a guy
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: worked with twenty years ago. He's done a great job.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Joe Dana who was here, Uh, done a great job
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: coaching on Nicholas and Chris Ash He's done a great
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: job with a safety. So you look at the free
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: agent acquisitions that we brought in, you know, I mean
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Ray Sean and Shaquille. I mean they've just done a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: phenomenal job being able to keep the guys that we had.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: You know, it was big with Josh and keeping those guys,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and then excited about the rookies we drafted getting them
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: out there. When when when camp starts, you know, you
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: saw a little glimpse of Tyson the last couple of
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: days as a corner guys go inside or outside. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: then and then Andre is really moving well, So we're excited.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And then the guys that that have that have been here,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I mean I mean Andrew, I mean is is working
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: his tail off. I mean Dts working working great. I mean,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and then Rudy Ford got it. You know, people Oh,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: he's a special teams player. Well, he's he's doing a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: great job at the safety position. Is well, Trey Hernson
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: has done a great job, you know, playing Nicole being
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: able to play outside and that and Syney as well.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Both those guys have done Well. What's this defense gonna
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: look like? How? How would you describe it to somebody? Well,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like anything, you know when you when
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you look at um when you put the tape on,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I know, you know Coach Meyer's teams. And the way
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I was brought up in this profession is that there's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: one there's one key thing that I think you're gonna
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: see is and you're gonna see a plus two mentality
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and relentless mentality from every position, not just defensively. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if we can get that, you know, from every position
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: on defense, I mean just going plus two and relentless
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: effort part of our culture. Uh. And then and then
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: one that's going to be an attacking defense from all
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: three levels. Whether we're gonna you know, we're gonna blitz.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: There's no hiding that. I mean, we're gonna blitz. We're
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: gonna blitz a lot of different people. We're gonna we're
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: gonna rush with four so to me, to me, you're
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna a fast, physical and uh attacking defense.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: That's that's what if you put the tape on, what
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you want to say. When you look at the Jaguars,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: is it too simplistic? And you know how to lead works.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Everybody says, well, he's gonna do what he did at
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the last stop. So but I assume it's too simplistic.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: You say, look at the Ravens. This is what you
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: guys are gonna do. You've got to fit to what
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: you got here, right, Yeah, you gotta fit to the personnel.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And you know, I was under a great defensive coach,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Rod Marinelli when I first came in the league. Learned
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: so much from Rod. When I came here, Jack del
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Rio learned so much from Jack and love Smith as
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: a long time history in this league. So I took
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a lot from all of them. And obviously when I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: went to Baltimore, John Harbow and Link Martindale uh did
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: a great job the last three years and in danps
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: before him. So I mean, you're gonna see a lot
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of things and it's a collaborative effort. I mean we're
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: gonna have it. We've got some great defensive coaches that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you know, been been to some great places, and um,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Bob Sutton's legend and as a defensive coach, Charlie has
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: been a head coach, and Chris and all those guys.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: So I mean, you're gonna see, You're gonna see a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: blend of a lot of different things. Tell me about
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the toughest thing you had to experience going out there
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: on the field as a coordinator compared to line coach.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And I guess what I'm getting at. Is it hard?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Is it hard not to go over to that D line?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Or will it be particularly hard not to go over
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: during pass rush when pads go on? Well sometimes, I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: mean I maybe a little tougher on the front. But
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: now those guys strowing and tosh to a phenomenal job,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and obviously I'll gravitate there. But now as a coordinator,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you have to be equally around all positions, and uh,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and kind of putting the whole package together. What's Urban
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: been like so far? He's been great. You know, he's
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: he's all you know coaches. I've known him a long
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: time and and uh, he's the piston that drives the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: engine I mean so, I mean he's uh, he's the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: leader of the program and the leader of the organization
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and he's been great. Joey, thank you for joining us.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Hope to do, Hope to do again soon. I can't
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: wait to see on the field next year. Yeah, I'm
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: great to be back, John, and always pleasure the man