Jim Leonhard Interview Transcript 8/30/11
New York Jets safety Jim Leonhard addressed the media on Tuesday. Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.
On if being 2-1 in the preseason gives the team any momentum heading into the regular season…
I don’t necessarily think so. You want to, as a first unit, to put the backups in position to win games. I think if anything, it shows our depth. It shows how these young guys have been closing the games out and have been able to make plays and win games. That is promising just knowing that you have got competitive guys that if we need them and when we need them in the regular season, they will be there to help close games out.
On Rex (Ryan’s) confidence in the defense…
Obviously Rex is a decent coach and he knows that’s where his staff is going to be and he wants to be known as having a great defense year in and year out. Just with the talent that we have been able to keep on this defense, and the guys we were able to bring back through free agency, we feel very confident that we are going to have a successful year. There are some areas where we felt we took a step back and that our focus this offseason and once we got back into camp was correcting that. I think we have done a great job here in the preseason. We are really looking forward to kicking it off against Dallas and making that march back to where we want to get.
On the secondary coming back for another year…
It’s huge. When you look to your left and right and you see the same people, you are more comfortable with the fact that guys aren’t learning this stuff. It’s their second, third year in the system now. The communication is that much better. We know their strengths and weaknesses from day one so we are able to play off each other a lot better than we were in the past, and I think we have been that in the preseason. We haven’t had a whole lot of botched (plays), we haven’t had a whole lot of mental errors and I think that has a lot to do with having the same guys and having a better understanding of the defense.
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