On the new players on the defensive line and how they're coming together:
"They're gelling in both phases and run in pass game. We brought pieces in to help in both areas and they're doing a nice job. [Defensive Line] Coach [Darryl] Tapp is doing a really nice job with the substitutions and putting people in spaces where their skill sets can come out. That's one big thing that we wanted to do this year is make sure that we use players the proper way as much as possible. You can't be a hundred percent, but the guys up front have done a nice job."
On CB Trey Amos' performance and CB Marshon Lattimore return from the off-season:
"Trey's had a good day every day. He's a young kid, that, he's a rookie. [Defensive Pass Game Coordinator] Jason Simmons has done a really nice job with not putting too much on him, putting him in the right situations. He's a patient kid. Marshon is healthy, so he's back to the guy that, that we're used to. I'm excited about the group on the back end and you can't start with those two guys. [CB Mike] Mikey [Sainristil] touches the ball every practice. [CB] Noah [Igbinoghene] touches the ball. He might not intercept it, but he's knocking it down. [CB] Jonathan [Jones] might not have shown up in a splashy way, but they don't, they know they caught one ball on him and that was a hell of a throw. Five could have handed it to, I think that it was [WR] Deebo [Samuel] that caught that ball over there. It was a hell of a throw. We just got back in the huddle on that. Then [CB Car'lin] Carl [Vigers] and he started a nice job of covering as well. I've been pleased with that group."
On whom he's most excited to see play against the New England Patriots:
"That's the whole defense. I mean, I want to see us just go compete against another group. I don't have one person that I'm most excited to see. I'm excited to see the play style come to life and can we continue to do what we're doing out here on a consistent basis against another opponent."
On LB Kain Medrano's skillset and how he fits:
"Kain is one of those multi-positional players that we're carving out a role for him. He's defining it himself. He's doing a better job of covering than he did in the spring on tight ends. He showed a level of physicality. Now can he consistently do it? That's one thing that we need to see when we go to New England because we know how they're going to try to be bully ball a little bit. He that, is he that slash between, like I said, [Las Vegas Raiders S] Jeremy Chinn or [LB] Frankie [Luvu]. We're still trying to figure that part out of it."
On Von Miller integrating himself on the field and in the classroom:
"In the classroom, let's start there. His first couple days were like, pass rush seminars and the guys were really being sponges to him. When you have a guy with a wealth of knowledge that he has the guys are going to listen to. Then when you get out there and we get into some of our known past situations and you see the looks that we have and Tapp again and [Head Coach] DQ [Dan Quinn] have done a nice job of putting some packages together that gives those guys a little bit more freedom. It's fun to watch those guy's rush. He can still get off the ball. He can bend the corner, he can bend, he can spin, and then you see [DE Dorance] DA [Armstrong] doing some really nice things in his rush. You see [DE] Jacob [Martin] doing some really nice things. It's been, it's been good to watch."
On what he sees from Lattimore that he wasn't able to see last year:
"Well, he is out there, that's the first thing. Okay. He's consistently out there. Last year he went and fought his off and he didn't, uh, practice very, very often. That's hard on the player, but he's a competitor, so he was willing to go do that and not be afraid of the result. He just wanted to go out there and compete and help us win. I think people lose that sometimes when the play might not be what you desire to be, but the dog as competitor you can never go away from. But to answer your question, he, he's a really good press player. That's who I am, who he wants to be. Nice feet, he still can hold the vertical control and he's very, very competitive. I've been pleased with where he is."
On what can be done to add to the defense:
"Right now, it's a combination and I talk to those guys about it. I don't want anybody to get lost in translation. When I talk about the run game, it's 11-man football. It wasn't the issues last year wasn't just the front, alright. We didn't, we didn't do a great job on all three levels in the pass game, it once again, it's 11-man football, the back end cover that gives the, the rush a chance to get to the second rush or if the second, if the rush can speed up the, the time clock of the quarterback, now you can play some more zone type coverages and confuse the quarterback. It's all 11-man football and we have to play as, as one."
On which defensive player has had the most improvement:
"Right now, just for, I've just seen the whole group get better. I was trying to think of somebody to really single out, but I talked to DQ yesterday about raising the floor and I just seen the entire group get better. That's what I want to see more than just in the visual if we can get better as a group. I'm not trying to dodge a question at all, but the entire group has raised the level of play."
On DT Johnny Newton's progression:
"I thought Johnny had a good day today, man. He had some really nice rushes. Some one-on-one wins. He's healthy, his feet are good. We're expecting the guy that we drafted to really show, you know, this year. He was behind the eight ball some because he was dealing with those injuries last year. Knock on wood that he could stay healthy, and we can get the best version of him."
On what makes a good or bad day for the defense:
"When we go to practice there's sometimes, I know I'm making calls that are going to put them in stressful situations. So alright, can we just execute the call? Can we send the ball where we want to send it? There's certain calls that they shouldn't be able to run the ball, so if they run the ball on that call, that's a negative there. Certain calls, if we have outside leverage in the past game, they can't catch outside breakers. As long as we're playing the defense and then when we get into our situations and our competitive compare, do we win? Just that simple, do we win those situations in those competitive periods? That's what we look for and when we go in there, we put it up on the board, alright, did we win, did we lose? And why did we win or lose?".
On the value of joint practices:
"It goes both ways. When you go against each other so much, they start to know your calls, you start to know their calls. You get used to the releases of the receivers, you get use to the sets of the blockers. It's just good to go against new bodies and now you can see, alright, 'is it, are we doing what we need to do or are we just used to playing a certain group of guys? Can we play our play style on the road? Can we travel with it?' I really enjoy joint practices and hopefully with DQ we can keep it clean. The league has had a couple fights the last couple years and we don't operate that way. We're a clean unit. Hopefully, we get up there and just get good work in, get quality work from both sides."
On what he wanted to improve on going into camp:
"There were a number of things. [Laugh] For myself, and this might sound silly, I, my motto and I have it on my board right now is 'let's do what's right, don't necessarily be right'. As coaches you think you have all the answers all the time. I'm being very cautious to listen to everybody and make sure I'm doing what's right, not necessarily trying to prove that I am right, if that makes sense. Allowing the coaches just to coach, getting out the way. Putting the scheme in, detailing it out from a schematic standpoint in the meeting rooms and allowing them to go do it and then, and focus on calling it in the right situations and then making sure that we are putting the players in the best situation utilizing them. I don't think I did a good enough job in certain spaces with Frankie and [S] Jeremy [Reaves], we did good jobs but the whole 11 I have to do a better job of using people's skillsets. Those were the three main things that I really focused on, on my growth."
On what traits he's emphasizing in camp to define the defense:
"We talk about mind speed. If we can think fast, we can play fast. We go hard. We don't practice necessarily for a long time, but we go really, really hard. Making sure we're chasing the ball, making sure we're being physical upfront, we're not letting the ball get through. You just have to practice that way and you have to live that way. You have to, this is an intense environment that [General Manager Adam] AP [Peters] and DQ have set a very competitive environment, and you have to get used to living that way. One thing I would say is everybody in that defensive room lives that way, for real. In the past there might've been some resistors that, there's nobody, I mean, everybody gets down the way that we want to get down right now. That's fun and that's fun to go. I'm excited about this, this next pocket of going and, and going against the Patriots and being where our feet are and seeing how the next couple of days go."
