On Thursday New York Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer addressed the media. Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.
On his relationship with Brett Favre…
“Brett and I had a lot of fun together. When he came in, I think that we were both a little uneasy. I knew there would be a lot of changes. He knew there would be a lot of things he’d have to learn, but we really hit it off. I thought that we did a lot of really good things. We stay in contact through text messages and stuff, but we had a lot of fun together. I really enjoyed my time with Brett.”
On if he ever felt that Favre tried to take over the offense…
“I never did. I think the one thing about Brett (was) that I felt he was very honest. I remember when we first got him, we were about six to seven installations into training camp, so we were a ways in. We probably had 100 and something passes in. When we got him here and we came back from Cleveland, that’s where I first met him and saw him, we laid out all these passes. I said to him, ‘Hey, look at these passes. Let’s go through them one by one. What do you like? Do you know these plays and do you like them?’ He kind of went right down the line and said, “Yeah, I like this play. I’ve never run that play. No, I don’t like that play.” I think he was very honest. I never felt like he ever tried to take control in any way, shape or form. He and I always had a great ability to talk and react to one another, and say, ‘What about this?’ (It was) very open. He knows what he likes. One of the things that we learned was if you give Brett plays that he likes, he’s going to make good things happen.”
On if he’s ever had a player with a personality like Favre’s…
“Outside the building, he was bigger than life, but in the room, he’s (Favre) one of the guys. He really was. He’s a big ham. He’s always joking, he always keeps it light. He always made it fun. I think when you first meet him, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s Brett Favre,’ but he’s very easy to be around and very easy to talk to. I don’t think anybody saw him that way.”
On having to make offensive changes for Favre…
“It’s hard for everybody. You realize you’re only going to do things your quarterback likes, so we obviously knew we weren’t going to force him to do things he didn’t like. I give the other players a lot of credit because there were a number of things we had to change. There were code words and things. We had to change our cadence because he did things a certain way and those are all things (where) we found a happy medium, where we said, ‘Look, hey guys, we’re going to have to change this because it just doesn’t hit his brain.’ They never blinked. They realized usually it would be easier for one guy to learn it, but in Brett’s case, he’s been doing it so long. It wasn’t that he said, “I will not do that.” It was just (me saying), ‘Hey, look, I’ll get those guys to learn it. Hey guys, here’s why we’re calling it this.’ I was surprised that we were able to get off to the start we got off to because there were some growing pains. The stories after games were funny. There would be times where players would be like, “Yeah, you wouldn’t believe what play he called there.” He’d go in the huddle, call a play, and Nick (Mangold) would be like, “What’s the protection?” Brett would say, “What do you want?” Nick would call the protection, and that’s just Brett being Brett. He doesn’t care. Then, he’d call a play and something would be wrong, so he’d look out at somebody and give them a signal, and solve a problem. To go off and win the game against Miami and have things go successfully, was quite a tribute to the team and Brett, and we’re awfully proud of what we did starting the year.”
On if he has any second thoughts on what happened at the end of Favre’s season with the Jets…
“I really don’t. Brett was one of those guys that you always knew you were going to get everything from him. You always did. He’s such a competitor. I watch some of their games, highlights and stuff and you just see the way the guy competes. He’s a legend. I really don’t (know what happened at the end). We were 8-3 because of him. It’s been a while since we talked about it, but when we hit that slump, it wasn’t just because of Brett. I’ve said that quite a bit. It was not just him. It was me, it was the inability to make third-down conversions. No, looking back, there are no regrets.”
On getting Santonio Holmes involved in the offense…
“I think what we’re going to try to do is have a number of tags. He’s not getting everything right away. He’s getting plenty of things. We’re mindful of the fact that he’s been out for a couple of weeks. There’s some timing things that he and Mark (Sanchez) are still trying to work through. In terms of the playbook and knowing the stuff, he’s pretty comfortable with that. There’s the timing aspect of he and Mark working together, so we have a plan. We have a progression. There will be certain groups where he’s in there, groups where he’s not, but you’ll see him mixed in there with different people. We’re going to move him around, so he’ll be hard to find, which is good. A lot of it’s going to come down to him. He’s had a good couple of days of practice and we’re excited to get him out there.”
On Holmes only playing the X receiver position for Pittsburgh…
“If you ask Tone (Santonio Holmes), that’s one of the things that he was excited about coming here (for). He doesn’t like to be left in one spot because it is easier to double a guy when he’s playing the X. You can roll coverage that way. It’s a little harder to roll coverage to the strong side. He wanted to move a little bit. He always joked a little bit, “Nobody can get in the slot except Hines (Ward).” Hines was the only guy they would let in the slot. We definitely want to move him around, like we do all our guys.”
On how Holmes’ return changes Jerricho Cotchery’s role…
“It’s a little bit like the running back situation. When you have good players, it doesn’t change your role. You’re going to roll them in. We were talking the other day. We will have the three freshest receivers going into the latter part of games. You will see us roll all these guys through. Where some guys are playing 50-70 snaps, I’m not going to put a pitch count on them, but we’re going to have three guys that are pretty fresh from rolling them through. Again, you’ll see we’re cognizant of knowing that they all need to get in there, so we’re trying to use different personel groupings to tie them all together and have them all in there at different times with each other. Quite honestly, that’ll be the hardest part. The playing part will be easy. Just making sure we have the right personnel groupings in the game.”
On if he looks at the offense like he has three starters at wide receiver…
“Absolutely.”
On the versatility of the offense…
“Again, we’re not discounting him, but we’re not even talking about Dustin (Keller). There’s another guy that is just having a monster year, doing a great job. It’s hard. It’s difficult. That’s why we like to move people around and put them in different spots. I think Braylon (Edwards) has been in so many different spots, it’s been hard for defenses to find him. The double move last week was something that we had worked with just a little. We called it earlier in the game. They played it, then we changed the formation around it (to) a different motion to kind of disguise it. It ended up working for the big play, but we actually called it on the first drive. Mark threw it down the boundary, incomplete. When you have guys like that, it’s just hard. You just kind of have to pick your poison, if you will.”
On how Sanchez has turned around his turnover problems…
“Again, I think you have to give him a lot of credit, just in terms of growing up and maturing and understanding the importance of ball security. I think knowing the system, quite honestly, has been a huge benefit of that just because he knows where people are now. When you play quarterback, I never played it very well, but I played it (laughter), so much of it is reaction and instincts of feeling a guy coming open. Last year when Mark wasn’t exactly sure of what everybody was doing, he would tend to just blindly trust his instincts and say, “Ok, I think I know where this guy is going to (so he would) throw it.” This year, he’s like, “Ok, here’s my check down. Here’s this. Here’s that. I know where my outlet receiver is.” I think it’s a culmination of all those things, him understanding the situation better, pass protection has been outstanding. I can’t remember a time in a long time where we’ve had better pass protection than we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. That’s a big part of it. (There are) so many things to it, and then him just growing. He’s maturing.”
On the sudden change in the offense…
“When we had success late last year and he hit the streak what you noticed was we didn’t do what? Turn the ball over. He didn’t turn the ball over. I think you can look back and point to that and say, ‘Hey, it’s a great way to learn your lesson.’ We get into the playoffs. We start doing really, really well. We get hot at the right time. ‘Hey Mark, why is that?’ (He said), “Well, it’s because I’m not turning the ball over.” Quarterbacks throw interceptions in this league. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen. The other thing that got him last year was the multiple interception games. That’s what you can’t overcome. You can’t overcome the five against Buffalo and things like that. I think he’s making much better decisions now.”
On if he had a meeting with Sanchez after the Falcons’ game last season…
“No. He had the multiple (interception) games against New England before that. I can’t remember all of them. I’ve pushed them out of my mind. In reality, I think Mark woke up. I remember having a vague conversation about it, and he said, “I’m used to being the reason why teams win, not the reason they lose.” I remember him telling me that around the time that it turned. I think that might have had something to do with it. He kind of sat back and said, “I’m the reason we’re losing some of these games. I’m used to being the thing that helps win games,” so I think that was a big part of it.”
On D’Brickashaw Ferguson matching up with Jared Allen…
“This whole front four is probably the best front four in football. You have the Williams (Pat and Kevin) brothers inside. Jared Allen is terrific. (Ray) Edwards doesn’t get nearly enough credit. They’re outstanding. Brick’s a guy that’s really matured in terms of understanding his technique, understanding sets, understanding how to get his hands on people. I go back to last year. He’s kind of learned a routine, and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to (Alan) Faneca and (Nick) Mangold, about how to study film and learn guys’ moves. I go back to the game against Julius Peppers last year. We had a great game. He tends to always step up and do a great job in these situations. It will be a good match-up. We have some things protectionally where we recognize what a good front four they are. We have a lot of confidence in all those guys and Brick is a guy that we expect to play really well.”
On if Ferguson had a slow start…
“I think we all came out of the gates slow going back to Baltimore. I don’t think it’s fair just to put it on him. There were some things we were doing early in the season in that first game where everybody was playing slow because there was a lot of thinking going on. He’s playing at a high level now.”
On where Matt Slauson is in his development…
“He’s getting better. The more you play, the better off you’re going to get. Obviously, this is a terrific challenge for him. On LT’s (LaDainian Tomlinson) long touchdown run last week, he had a huge block. He came off a combination and got to the second level on one of the linebackers. He got to him, sustained the block and turned him out. LT cut back behind him. He’s really getting better. I think he’s playing with more confidence now because he’s been out there some. (The offensive line) has played together 185 snaps, so they’re starting to get a better sense of each other.”
On if they will still try to run the ball knowing how good the Viking’s front four are…
“I think we recognize what a good run defense they are. They’ve got the big guys inside. The linebackers are really good players. They’re all underrated. They’re fast. We recognize that. There (are) some things we think we can do to take advantage of some of those things they do. We don’t change our game plan. They’re not going to stop playing Cover Two because we’re a good run offense. They’re going to play their seven man box and dare us to run and we’re going to run and then we’ll mix in the play action passes. This is one of the best defenses we’ll play all year and we recognize that. We’re awfully fortunate that we get them at home. It’s hard to play them up there because it’s so loud. With the bright lights of Monday night, we expect to get their best effort and they’re a really good unit.”
On if he’ll have Sanchez throw the ball 30-35 times…
“If that’s what it takes. We’re not opposed to that, for sure.”
On Tony Richardson and John Conner making big blocks against Buffalo…
“We knew, 21 personnel is what we call it, is one of the things we really liked against Buffalo. Like we’re doing with all the receivers, we’re trying to tag plays for John. T. Rich is obviously the starter. (They had) some huge lead blocks and big misdirection blocks. I think Coach (Bill) Callahan and Anthony Lynn did a great job of coming up with some misdirection runs that took advantage of Buffalo’s fast, flow defense. Those guys, if you watch them, a lot of times were at the point of attack, but it was a misdirection action where they were going back. We hadn’t really shown that before. It caught Buffalo by surprise. Those guys were put on defensive ends quite a bit. They did a great job of using their technique and leverage and peeling open the holes so Shonn (Greene) and LT could get back there on a number of runs that we hit that went for pretty big plays. It was a really good effort.”