The Ravens LoungeZach Orr Talks About His Year 1 Takeaways, Defensive Changes, What He Hopes to Add & More
Welcome into the lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Men here with Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit down with defensive coordinator zach Or. Zach, it was about a year ago that you sat down with us, fresh off getting hired to the job. So you know, just what was the past year like for you? Man?
It was a whirlwind. It was a whirlwind. It was fun, it was exciting. It had up and downs, obviously, but it was good.
Man.
It was a good, real, good learning experience as a man, as a coach, and I'm just excited for this next year. But it definitely was from the last time I sat in here and talked to you guys to this point now, a lot a lot of transpire.
Yeah, it was the worst part of the job, having to answer questions from us every Thursday during the season.
No, definitely was a lot more job, right, That was one of the best parts. It was a lot more difficult things to handle besides that, So.
Was the biggest takeaway for you? Like when you look back at what you learned the highs and lows, Like, what's the biggest thing you're taking away from your first years of DC?
My biggest thing is is just keep on staying with the process, man, Keep staying with the process, and you know, stick to what you know, stick to what you do, whether it's you know, it's on the field or off the field. But you know, obviously you can make changes to it. But I think that's the thing that we did, especially where we started out on defense to where we finished, we stuck to the process.
May we stuck to who we were.
We made changes when they need to be made, whether it was scheme, personnel, but we never are principles that we stand on never changed. I think that's what ultimately helped us get to get.
On the right track of things.
I'm curious you talk about those changes that were made, and obviously the personnel changes made a big difference. You know, you finished the year down the stretch, you were the best defense in the league, right And you talk about scheme also, and I know at mid season you were kind of talking about simplifying things a little bit. Can you just take us a little bit more into what those changes were, how they impact the defense, and then any lessons learned from that that now you carry forward to this year.
Yeah, I mean, I think it start offs a little bit with just eliminating as much communication as possible, whether that's me to row Kwan and then from the players to the players, just getting to a lot of the same things, but just eliminating words and just let the guys have one or two words they say. Everybody knows what front, what coverage, what adjustments we're in, and then go from there. And then I think also as well as Man got we got great players and we were able to play man and play some spot drop, let guys play fast, and the players took ownership in that and did that. So I think that's the main things that took took place from a scheme standpoint, is allowing our guys to go out there and communicate fast, and then just calling more defenses where they can go out there and just play fast and let their talent just truly show.
Like fewer zone coverages and disguises and those kind of things.
Was actually still able to get to our disguises. We just still disguise. The disguises never changed, but just as far as what type of coverages.
We were playing behind the disguise is just a little simpler.
This is technical, but when you're calling a play in to Roquan and this is maybe where it was shortened up. I mean, did you literally just shorten up what you're calling to him and then he is then communicating that out to the rest of the defense.
Yeah.
Yeah, just shortening up the callee to say this is one word means all these different things.
Now, you know, you appreciate the players because it put maybe.
More learning on them on the front end during the week, but at least on game they allowed them to go out there and communicate faster.
Interesting, I'm curious what last year, especially when you go back to middle of the season, it was. It was a struggle a little bit. And the defense, it's your first year is defensive coordinator and you're a young guy that's in this job, and like, of course you feel the pressure and know like the stakes of it, and the defense wasn't playing as well as you knew that they could and the players knew that they could. How did you personally handle that challenge at that time?
Man, it was I handled like I think I handled everything else in my life, and just always preach and talk about it. We talk about that all the time here and in our defensive room. Is just adversity's gonna You're gonna face adversity, whether it's in football or it's gonna be in life. And we always talk about the true testament of a man or human being is how do you handle adversity when it strikes? Are you gonna are you gonna fold? Or are you gonna make something of it and come out on the other side of it? And you know, obviously nobody wants to face adversity. We didn't want to face diversity that we faced, but we did, and I think that was opportunity. We flipped the It's all about the mindset. You can be like why is this happening, or how we're gonna make this a great story? And I think the players, the coaches, everybody in the building we took that approach of like, let's make something special about the situation that we're in. Let's come out and let's finish strong, let's finish in the top ten, let's be one of the top defenses in the league down the stretch, and let everybody talk about what a great story it was instead of just you know, feel us r for ourselves and letting this thing go downhill.
And you did that. I mean we wrote those stories, We talked about that story. Yeah, I'm curious. You know it's a tough spot also to have to make those personnel changes, right, Like, that's that's not easy, especially for our first year coordinator. Can you talk about that process and then the players having your back in that process? I think how much that meant to you.
I think just the processes every single every single week.
Man, It's funny.
Like we tell the guys and they know this, we evaluate the team every single day, honestly, and then every single week we look at the big picture, and with those personnel changes, we just really had to look at what was going to help us get this thing turned around. And we felt like those changes we made were changes we had to make to get us to where we needed to go. And I think the second part of your question is with the players. I mean it feel good, man, because ultimately we talk about it being a brotherhood, right with a partnership however you want to call it, between coaches and players. And I tell those guys, man, I got your guys back, Like, I'm not gonna sell you guys out. I'm gonna try to do everything I can in my power to help you guys out in any type of way.
That's how all our coaches are.
We're here to serve the players, and just for the players to have the coaches back. They didn't have to do that, but for them to have our back. It felt good. Man, It really felt us connected. And I think that when you're connected as a group, anything you're trying to do, whether it's a football team or whether it's a group project, if everybody on the same page, you're connected, you have that bond, you can do some special things.
And I think we were able to do that.
It's got to be cool to see in that whole scenario, guy like Gardarius Washington and he finally gets his shot and then to see him really run with it and play as well as he did, that had to be a special feeling for you.
It definitely a special feeling because Ad is a perfect example of what we tell guys. Man, stay ready so he don't have to get ready. Stay ready so he don't have to get ready. And Ad has always made plays whenever he had his opportunity to play, even a couple years ago, he's done well. And you watch him in practice. You asked any of the coaches, any of the players even on the offensive side. Who makes a lot of players on defense in practice are Darius Washington, number twenty nine eighty. So he always stayed ready. So whenever his opportunity came, he made the most of it. And we tell guys all the time, you never know when your opportunity is gonna come, and you never know if it's gonna be your last opportunity. So when it happens, you have to make the most of it. So he's the perfect example for that. He's gonna be that's gonna be example a situation that we're gonna talk about for years to come.
I'm curious for you. You obviously have the experience of a player not that long ago. But something I've said about you, I've told you this, I've said this to other people like you made the transition to coach. When you became a coach, like you were a coach, like you weren't. You weren't necessarily sit at the same table at the lunch room anymore with the same guys. Like you became a coach. You were sitting with the coaches, not the players, right, And so when you go through the experience last year being a coordinator, and having it to have some real conversations with players. I'm curious how the experience of a player and knowing what it's like to have those conversations from a player standpoint fit in. And then also, as you're a coordinator, does that transition continue even more from like, I'm not a position coach anymore, I'm the coordinator now, I'm kind of rising up the ladder, and then I that even changes my relationship even more with players compared to what it was, you know previously.
Yeah, I think for the first part of your question, I think the benefit of me being a player, I kind of know what the conversations were like in the locker room of what was what players were good feedback from players was bad feedback from from a player's standpoint. So I try to use those situations and incorporate it to like having those conversations with guys. So ultimately comes down to dudes want you to be honest with them. You know, they just want you to be honest. And it might not like what's happened or what the situation is, but as long as you let them know, let them know what's going on. And I think at the end of the day, they'll respect you, So always try to do that. And then the second part of it is the relationship has you know, I wouldn't say it's changed for me as a coordinator to the players, I have to be more intentional with my relationship because I'm not in the position rooms. I'm not around them as much as I was when I was a position coach. When I was a position coach, you kind of around the players more because you're in you're in the meeting rooms with those guys. They're more willing to kind of talk to you, you know more as a position coach, as a coordinator, especially the people who don't really know you. Young guys come in and guys come from different teams that kind of shy away a little bit. So now in this position, have to be a little bit more intentional. Love or I see a guy walking in the hallway, you know, grab may how you doing, you know, whether it's whether it's about football or not about football. So I don't think my relationship has really changed because ultimately, like I said, it's it's a it's a it's a partnership, it's a brotherhood. Uh, you know, they're there's a player coach relationship, and I think to get the best out of the out of the relationship, you have to know these guys on a on another level than just the jersey number or the or the name on the back of the jersey.
I'm curious. You know Chuck Bagano is coming back. You have two former Ravens defensive coordinators on your staff and a former head coach now and Chuck. Just what do you anticipate that Chuck will bring to the mix?
And he's gonna bring everything.
I mean, he's gonna bring from a standpoint of first of all, with our with our with our DBS and secondary. You know, he has wealth of knowledge in that, so he's gonna bring. He's gonna bring great knowledge, great teaching of of the game of the dB position, safety, corner, nickel, whatever you want to you know, all those positions in the back end we had those god to play.
He's gonna bring wealth knowledge of that. He's gonna bring energy. Man.
I know you guys probably seen him on the Pat McAfee show. I told him, I've seen you on the Pat McAfee show, so I know you still got a lot of energy left.
And he definitely does.
He definitely does He's gonna bring great energy, great positive energy.
To to the to the whole organization.
I think I'll bring to the whole whole team, not just on in the dB room, not just on a defense. I think it gonna bring to everybody. And then you know, for me, he's he's been a coordinator. He's been successful coordinating this league, right, So he's seen a lot of He's seen a lot of situations. He can he understands kind of some of the things that I have to manage and go through. So he's gonna be able to help me out and that in that aspect as well. So I'm fired up about about Chuck Bagano being back here.
It's gonna be great.
Man.
I know a lot of people here with him before speak speak highly of them. Just me getting a chance to work with him this past couple of months already, it's been phenomenal, even even with the with the other coaches that we brought in. So, man, I'm really excited about the coaching staff this year and what we're gonna be able to bring to our players. I think they're gonna be really excited about the guys that we have in.
I'm also curious about Tyler Santucci another higher and you know you went to the college ranks. He was an up and coming kind of college coach. Can you take me? I want to hear about what Tyler's gonna bring. But also, like it seems like turn over every rock. You know, it's not just like all right, let's look at the NFL level, but hey, the college ranks, see who's up and coming. Like it seemed like you guys poured a lot into that process.
Definitely, man and that's that's literally led by coach Harbaugh and Eric DaCosta man like, and I think that comes probably from the top with uh with Steve Bushatti, from a sense of we want to find the best people in coaches. So that doesn't necessarily mean they always in the National Football League. It might be a great college coach who's looking to get in.
So it might be somebody on the Pat McAfee show, might be.
Dofter Pat McAfee show that was on ESPN, just doing doing the gritty and everything. So you know, leave leave no stone unturned, like you say that, and that's really approached.
So you know, we we do that.
We talk to people, figure it out, and Tyler Santucci was a name that that popped up, and we do some people that have worked with him. Man, you know, we talked to him, talk to those people saying he's great, phenomenal. He did a heck of a job on his interview, and he's gonna bring a great like I said, wealth of knowledge, energy to the linebacker room. And then he's been he's been a coordinator, been successful as a coordinate at the college level. So he's gonna bring great ideas to our defensive staff as well. So as I'm fired up about Santucci being here.
So you have some new coaches like Tyler and Chuck that that we just talked about. What is the focus right now is these new coaches are in place here, you're working on things throughout the off season. Of course you're getting ready for the draft, But what is the overall focus right now for the defensive staff.
So right now the focus for us is it's like we're doing triple duty, quadruple duty, however you want to say it. But the first thing is we always go through the self scout. We look, we look at ourselves from last year. What did we do well, what can we do better? What we need to improve on? So we take a part of the day to do that. Right, how can we put our best players in the best position to really play to their strengths. How can we play the strengths of our players right, we're looking at that. Then we're also we're teaching them the system because you know, a lot of new coaches are here, so it's always good to go back through the system. But now we're taking it through every like a fine tooth comb, going through every detail of it. And this is how, this is how we taught it is how we've done it. How have you guys done it? And you know, sometimes there's no changes made.
Sometimes it's like, man, that's a better way to do that.
Let's see how it fits and we come up with new schemes, new plays like that. Then you have the talent evaluation that you have to do so free agency the draft, so we spend the afternoons looking at draft prospects, grade those people, seeing how they fit in our system. Same with free agency, so we're doing a lot. We're pretty busy. Man, I'm pleased where we're at, how we're working, But that's what a full day looks at.
And then we're getting workouts in as.
Well from a schematic standpoint, how much different do you think things? How much do things evolve from year one to year two? And do you feel like you're much further ahead than where you were last year when you're you're really trying to figure out, all right, what's my stamp gonna be? How am I going to change this from what Mike get done and whatnot?
Yeah, I think that the good thing is about here is the system is the system, but it does evolve from year to year.
It definitely does that.
And I think for me being in this position again and the players understanding who I am, me understanding who the players are and how we want to call the game, I think now we understand uh what our niche is and what we need to really truly focus on this offseason and continue to build on that to make the coverages, the pressures, the fronts all complement each other where offenses can't get a beat on this because now, especially the second half of the season, teams are gonna be scouting that looking looking to see how they can attack that. So now we have to be ahead of them in the curve and build on that.
You mentioned calling the game like last year when we had this conversation. We probably asked you five questions about playing calling plays from the first sign that was like the conversation, what did you think about calling players for the first time and what you learn about it.
I mean, it's fun, it's fun.
It's definitely fun, especially when the when the when the players make the players work. But I think that it's really just get a fast call in. You you've done, You've done.
The work throughout the week. So we have great players.
Man, they done a great job of acquiring players here, putting, putting this thing together.
Make a fast call.
Let the players go out there and go play like the players on the call sheet. For a reason, like we game plan. It's not like we just grabbed a random call sheet and said, hey, call the game with this call.
Sheeat, No, we have all the calls are good cause.
A bad call is when you get a call in late or your second guessing yourself.
So get the call in.
Fast to the guys, trust the preparation, let them go out there and go play.
And I think that I got.
Better at that, especially second half of the season. I felt more comfortable and the players. I think it helped the players out to really let them go out there and play fast and and go do their thing.
Well, you talk about great players. Someone who's a great player is Kyle Hamilton. Yeah, and this is somebody who you know, he's one of the rising stars in this game. And John Harball and Eric's Concept talked this offseason about adding oother safety to the mix in part that allows Kyle to do all the different things that he does. As you're building out the defense, you guys are sitting in those meetings and having conversations about how to use players in the best way. What does that look like for Kyle Hamilton?
Shoot, just make sure he out there. Make sure he's out there on the field.
I mean he honestly, he's impactful and can make plays from every part of the field. And you look at it, especially second half a season, we started playing them further back from line of scrimmage. Well, a lot of explosive plays went away because quarterbacks didn't want to throw the ball.
With him back there covers a lot of ground.
God has communicated communicated well, God has lined up right. So I think that what it looks for him is wherever you want to put and he can adjust to whoever else we have out there on the field with him, so you're always trying to figure out ways to get him close to lines scrimas to blitz him because he's a heck of a but he's one of our best blitzers, right he's effective doing that.
He's a great tackler in space.
But then you also want him to do stuff in the back end as well because he covers a lot of ground and he has real good ball skills. So, I mean, he's one of the easiest guys to figure out how to put him in the best position because he's never in a bad position.
Obnestly, he's really not.
So I think that us, you know, trying to find another safety to compliment Kyle, compliment Ad.
That's just what we like to do.
We like to play a lot with a lot of DBS and speed on the field, especially in spass and situations. We like to have a lot of guys can do a lot of different things. That helps in with the disguises. Like we talked about, that helps in with offenses confusing them.
They're not knowing where guys are going to be at.
So I think that's more of where we were looking at for the third safety is just to continue to add versatility to the defense.
Do you see cornerback in the same light, because Marlin is also like Kyle, so good playing near the line of scrimmage. You want to get him around the ball. He's a good blitzer, he's physical, all those things. Should you view that in the same light if you want another corner to help him be versatile?
Definitely, definitely, for sure that I think a third safety and the third corner is real valuable position, especially in our system, just from the standpoint that it allows our guys to move around freely and allows them to be able to move around based on an opponent that we're playing.
And like Marlin, he's a guy who can play.
If you need them to play in the slot and play at the nickel position, he can do that. He was All Pro at that position. If you need to play on the outside, depending on who you're playing, he can do that.
He's an all Pro at that position.
So just those different chess pieces allows us to do so much on defense, and it's the players that make happen. Like the two guys you named are two of the best player in the league, and I can name that. I can do that for Roquan Smith. I can say the same thing for Justin Matta b K. Really, all those guys up front, you see our guys up front, they line up over the tackle, over the guards, over the center, our interior guys, and our edge guys. So I think that's the beauty of how you know, Eric and those guys have built this team is we have a lot of versatile players, not guys who can only play one position, which which makes it great for us as coaches.
What did you see from Nate Wiggins in year one? When you go back and look at his season in totality, how much did he grow throughout the course.
Of the year. They grew so much, man, he grew so much. Loved.
Like I just was talking at lunch today, I'm shocked that he went thirty. They dropped to thirty. And I remember he came on his visit. We told him, He's like, look, man, if you sitting there, I doubt you'll be there at thirty. But if you there, we might have to move some furniture to make sure that you were Baltimore. But everybody was on the same page and we got him and so we knew he was talented.
New you know the football, all cares. They love football.
Competitor, he was gonna be a heck of a player, but you saw its growth. It's always a learning curve man for a rookie when they come into the league, especially at that position. To me, he's out there at the outside corner position. You're on that island a lot of times, you're gonna end up being on a lot of top top receivers.
Yeah, a covering CD Lamb. Welcome to the NFL. And he understood, like the speed of the game.
He was able to adapt to the speed of the game and how important technique was, how important you have to play with technique every single play.
Like all of us you played college football.
If you make it to this level nine times and ten you were better than the man across from you. So you can get away with a lot of different things. And it's like every rookie he saw that, I can't slip on my technique because no matter how talented I am, the quarterbacks are too good, the receivers are too good that I'm either gonna get called for a flag, I'm gonna give up a play. And once he realized that, and he honed in on the technique. He got better and better every single week, and that started in practice. They're starting to practice in the classroom. He got better every single week and you really started to see it down the stretch man. He was really locked down for us. He's a big, big piece of our team, our defense going into year two, and we expect him to be one of the best corners in National Football League. We expect him to take that jump from year one to year two, a real big jump, and he has the ability and the talent to do it. So we got it along with him. We have to help him, get him get him there, and I'm confident we'll do that.
He's gonna be one hundred percent of the snaps kind of guy out there outside.
Yes, I definitely feel that. I definitely feel that he's going to be that guy.
It's exciting.
Yeah, So I'm curious also about the pass rushers. We're kind of working our way around the defense. There's a big conversation about the pass rusher. Do you add a pass rusher and you're always looking to add at that position. You on one hand, sure, it'd be great add more pass rushers. That's always exciting. On the other hand, it's like, well, the Ravens were second in the league in sacks last year. You had two guys who were double digits and sacks and van Ney and adafeo way, So how do you view that pass rush conversation?
I mean, first thing is past Russ is important. You definitely need you need guys who can go get the quarterback. That is that is very important, right, You need guys who can go get the quarterback.
You can never have too many of those guys. You never can. I think the most important.
Thing though, is is you have to have a group that can go get the quarterback.
It's it's not a guy who could win a one on one.
You could win, you could beat You could be an edge guy and beat the offensive tackle, but your three technique he doesn't middle push, he doesn't cover the B gap and a quarterback escape. So yeah, you won your rush, but the quarterback got the pocket. It's four guys rushing as one. And I think you look at the group of guys that we have and that we're going to look to continue to add. You know those guys preach that we preach that we all work together to go get the QB and it's it's beautiful to see that that group work together, man, that they're into it. Of course, those guys love going to get the quarterback, which we love. But you see the preparation in the meeting room, see the preparation in practice, and you see the rush plan that uh, you know, those guys go out there and execute that's helped put together by h Dennis Johnson, Matt Robinson, obviously Chuck Smith, and those guys go out there and go execute it.
And as it happened to be, is great.
Man, Like we got guys who can go get the quarterback one on one, like you line up fe Oway, Kyle van Noyd, Justin Mattabk, Travis Jones, Tavius Robinson. I can name the whole group, Progerck Washington. I line those guys up one on one, they could win. But it's how they work together, man, And I think that's what makes this beauty beautiful and special. And that's where you see the last couple of years we've been top of the league in sacks. So it's four guys working working together to get the QB. And then you know, obviously you add in the dbs. We've got dbs who can blit and we've got linebackers who can blitz as well, right right.
I think fans too often just put pass rushing sacks on the outside linebackers. It just it just feels that way. They're like, go get a pass rusher, and they're talking about an edge, right and and I like, you're saying, it's a holistic you have to take a holistic look at it. How much do you feel like another defensive lineman, you know, penetrating kind of style three tech or whatnot, could help Nomdi, you know, kind of get back to his previous numbers, his sack production and elevate this whole group.
Definitely.
I think all the edge guys, which you know, I know here they know football, but any edge guy who knows ball, they will tell you, I need a middle push presence. I need somebody in the middle that's gonna help me, because if you don't push the pocket from the inside, then the edge guys have so long to so so long a way to go.
To run around to get your quarterback.
So you want to kind of compress that pocket, so that having that in middle push another interior guy who can go get the QB, who can command respect is so important and we have those guys, but like I said, you could never have enough. And I think with the second part it will help out. It will help out mattabeeks for sure. But I think this year Mattabeak's actually helped out the other guys on the edge because he commanded more attention and he still did his thing. I think he played great and ours. The numbers weren't what they were a year ago, but look at the numbers of the people around you. They ate off of they ate as well now that they ate off of you as well. Now they had to go win rushes. But you were a part of that. So, like I said, it goes back to that deal of all.
These guys working together. Man.
But that interior push is so important. If you asked quarterbacks, the guys running around them on the edge.
Okay, that's cool.
The natural reaction is do what first thing I'm doing is try to step up right. Well, if I can't step up, now, I try to go backwards. That's where strip sacks happen. That's where the edge guys just collect their sacks. So that that middle push in the pocket is so important.
I'm curious. Michael Pierce announced his retirement. How much does does that hurt?
You know?
And I know I know a lot of us kind of felt like, all right, it could be coming. It wasn't a total shock. But how tough is he to replace? Travis Jones played a lot of snaps last year. Do you see him kind of stepping into that role? But he's also another one. I mean, he's so good. Yeah, you also want to turn them loose to get the passer too, because he's such a just beast that way. So how do you see that all kind of playing out?
Yeah, I mean it definitely, it definitely hurt for multiple reasons. Uh. First, thay Man Mike.
Mike's a great, great dude, great person, great guy in the locker room, in the building.
You can never have enough of.
Those people, right, Yeah, great player in his role what we ask him to do. He's a guy you can look at the stat box stat sheet. He ain't gonna show up in the stat sheet a lot, but he's gonna command double teams. He's been a he's been a major part of why we've been able to play real good run defense the last couple of years, because if you don't double him, he's gonna make the play or the line's gonna be in the backfield. And when you double and when you do double team, he's not getting pushed off the ball. He's gonna worst case scenario, he's gonna Stalemateschi and now the backers are going to be free. So that is very that is very tough to replace. Now we had we had Travis Jones, will so we was just rolling two guys. You know, you're tired, you need to breathe go out there. So that standpoint. Another reason why I hurts is Man, I've seen me personally. I seen Michael Michael appears when he first came in as a as a rookie Man in twenty sixteen.
Never forget the game he had New Orleans.
Never forget just touch down in the preseasons, Man epic.
We still talk about it to this day.
So it's like seeing his seeing the beginning of his career all the way through. Man, an undrafted guy making a mark in his league, you know, getting paid, coming back, helping helping row a new group, him from him being a young guy to him being an old head what we call in the football world, and and and leading a group of guys.
Man was great.
So he's gonna be he's gonna be tough to he's gonna be tough to replace.
Man, it's gonna be tough to replace. You know.
It's a lot of great guys out there, and phrase a lot of great guys on the draft we had. We love the guys we have on our roster right now, but you can never have enough big guys. Honestly, you really never can. And I think that's what makes this place unique. Like you know, coach Harball, Eric, those guys put an emphasis, man, we need to have some big guys in the middle of our defense that command double teams, that's gonna eat up blocks so we can play great run defense because that's where defense starts with.
You have to be able to stop the run.
Well, you're gonna need another ball hawking defensive tackles.
Got about that, definitely? That is true.
That is definitely true, because that what's crazy about that play, man. That play has been around for a long time, and we always tell those guys and people first see it, why you got these big guys out here? Why you got these big guys dropping It's a rhyme too, it's a reason for it.
But we always tell those guys to help sell it.
It's true, like, man, get to this landmark, snap your head back, the ball might hit you in your hands.
And at least my time here.
It might have happened, happened in practice maybe once or twice, but it's never happened in the game. And for it to happen in that moment, man, was was so great and so memorable. It was it was crazy, like I was. I was speechless. I was peaceless. Man, I was speech It was great. Now when we told him, got to work on that slide, now, that was that. That scared everybody, but it was it was great. Man, that was great.
We do need another ball hawk, and he set the standard.
Down when you're looking at when you're looking at film, and these guys reads the draft like the hands.
Definitely definitely, because what's crazy. If you'd have dropped it, he would have got He would got greater than minus on the table. This opportunity, big play. So I'm glad he called it. Man that that was such a great play. Man, great, great hands, great athleticism. I mean, that's crazy. Man, that's gonna live forever.
I still wish you would have tried to take it.
Back.
I know it's a bit.
He got a stiff arm. Man been good.
He had the all time quote though, and he said the buses out of gas.
That's true definitely.
So uh, before you go, I got to ask you about this. So your your family, the family business is coaching. It's your family businesses. I've loved getting to know your family over the years, and your brother's played and our coaching. But but what's up? So the Chiefs just hired your brother as a.
Defensive This is kind of not cool.
Yes, and this is the first job in the NFL, right, yeah, this is his first jobs and ask fool.
So he calls you and he's like, hey, Zach, good news, I got a job and working in the in the NFL. But it's for the Chiefs. Like how did this conversation go?
Man? So, I it's crazy.
I had a I knew it was a possibility because he actually did it a summer internship with the Chiefs this past summer, and I was like, man, I was like, there's no other teams you can do. I'm okay, I'm like all right, so go ahead, I know that's what you want to do. So we went and did that, and you know, obviously we know some coaches over there. We know I know, I know Spags, I know Joe Culling. Got a chance to know a couple of other coaches over there, and they say he did that remarkable job, a heck of a job. And I was like, man, that's good man. I'm proud of proud of my brother.
He did a good job. So I'm happy for him. Happy for that. Okay.
So then you know, he goes he's coaching at Jackson State. They do a good job, win a national championship.
Happy for him.
And then he actually was on an interview with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was he was interviewing with UH for a position on their staff. I'm okay, cool, You're on Jacksonville new staff.
You know. I was sending them places, good places.
These are good places, good areas, you know, for for your family. And then he calls me later that day. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go to Kansas City. I'm like what, I'm like, you going to Kansas City. And I was like, let me say, Okay, I'm happy for you. I'm really happy for you.
I love you.
I know this is what you want to do.
Happy for you go into obviously a great organization with with some great coaches that we got great respect for. But then I was like, all right, man, you know, you know we talk all the time. I said, now during the season, man, we're gonna have to we got to just keep it just family.
I ain't don't talk about football.
Asked me no questions like, I don't know if I really can help you out, but I really I don't have it.
I can't do that like you. You are the competition.
And my whole family's on board with that, like they told him, besides his besides his wife, and my parents, my other brothers, my son, my nephews, my nieces.
They Raven fans, the Raven fans.
They said, he tried to are you gonna roof No, told him that sticking with the Raps. He understands that. And then we told him, we said, man, look man, you just got there. You know, this is a relationship that's been built built up over time. We'll talk to you, we love you and everything, but we're walking with the purple and black. It's definitely gonna be it's definitely gonna be interesting. Man, it's definitely gonna interested. But I'm happy for.
Him, but it's so funny.
All right.
My last question is, you know we've talked a lot about kind of takeaways from last season, lessons learned and whatnot. And when you went back and reviewed the tape and you look at the tape of the when you jumped on our Darius's back, the takeaway, what's the lesson learned that you're gonna apply for next year when it comes to celebrating with your players.
Man, the takeaway is, shoot, Honestly, I tell people this like, I didn't know. I really didn't know I did that. I really didn't I was so amped up and so fared up, Like I literally I blacked out. I didn't know that happened until after the game. My people showed me that we were down there in the family area. Was like, man, look at what you did. So, like my take I cannot guarantee that won't happen because I was just so excited.
I didn't know what happened.
Obviously, if I I didn't plant, I would like to celebrate a different way besides taking a hard fall on the ground and potentially injuring myself. But man, it was just a great moment, just the series events that led to it. Man, we were battling our butts off. We got thought we had a fourth down stop, got called for a flag that you know was debatable. So they get all the way down there and they go forward on fourth down and many a heck of a player ad made a heck of a play just running to the ball, physical tackle, big momentum shifter, and man, so I think that, uh, just let your emotions loose.
Man.
You know, I was smart. I didn't go I didn't run.
On the field, wait to cut to the sideline, so it wasn't gonna get us a flag. But I think, just man, all our team, man, we just feed off of that. Man, Like, just let you show emotions. Show We encourage our players that, man, and in the in the right way. You know, be passionate out here. Football is a passionate game.
Man.
Celebrate those those small victories within the game and then lock back in. And I think just us being able to show that and demonstrate that is great, man, because I honestly believe the play that uh those guys made on that goal line stand. I felt like that really shifted the game right there. Like it was a good game going back and forth. But now after that moment, those guys were like, you guys aren't scoring.
You guys not scoring.
You guys pulled out everything you guys can do and you guys can't get it done against us. And I think that was that was a great change, great great moment. So my takeaway is make sure I continue to work out so I can at least try to brace myselves and limit the damage on the fallow that happens again. And then takeaway is, man, I would like to have more of those. That means we make a lot of players.
Yeah, there you go.
That would be great.
Well, we knew when you were hired last year that you'd bring the passion, so you delivered it. Definitely can't wait to see more of a family man.
Appreciate you, appreciate Welcome back into the Lunch podcast. We're coming to you from the seat Geek Studio. We also want to mention our partners with Draft Kings Sportsbook. They are an official sports betting partner or the Baltimore Ravens Draft King Sports Book. The Crown is yours. Well, thank you, Zach. He's always been one of my favorite interviews as a player and I as a coach, he's got one of.
My favorite dudes, not just an interview. Sure, he's a great dude.
He's a great dude, and I think that that comes across when you sit down and talk with him. Great energy. I think you can see why players like and respect him. Like he's authentic, he's on it, he's honest, he shoots you straight. But he also brings like a lot of positive energy and wants the best for players. And I think that that came across in his first year's coordinator. I think he's only gonna grow in that regard.
Yeah, I'm really excited about this defense coming up in twenty twenty five. I think, you know, it's also much of the focus so far personnel wise this offseason has been with the offense. Right, you resign Ronnie Stanley, you re sign Patrick Ricard, you know you bring in d Hop Right, the offense is.
Cooper Rush is a backup quarterback.
Cooper Rush is a backup quarterback, exactly like the offense has kind of gotten the love so far. But I really think that now it's kind of time for the defense. And I do think, particularly from a draft perspective, that that could be the avenue where this Ravens defense really gets an infusion of new talented youth.
So the Ravens have eleven draft picks. Yeah, how many, in your mind are on the defensive side. I'll put you on the spot right now.
I'm gonna say that.
You can't say if you say six.
I was gonna say seven.
I was gonna that was my number two. Yeah, everyone's gonna be seven.
You know so, I mean, and it could even be like eight. I mean, I think it could even be higher. Pretty that'd be pretty stacked. But I'll go with seven.
That's what I'm thinking too.
And I then you're gonna have multiple picks on defensive line. You're gonna have a safety, You're gonna have a corner that's four right there. You're gonna have an addresser that's five.
Right.
I mean, you.
Could you could double you could get inside linebackers six.
Yeah, you can double up on the defense line. You could double up in the secondary, you could.
Yeah, you could take two two corners. Certainly that's six right there that I think are almost a slam dunk.
Yeah.
So getting to eight or getting to seven is not challenging. Eight no surprising, I think. But I think seven probably is a sweet spot, assuming they have all eleven of those picks, and then that gives Zach and the staff a lot to work with. And I'm with you, I think the defense is gonna be really good. I think that they're gonna I think that they're going to pick up where they left off at the end of the year. The second half of last season, they were the best defense in the league. They have a lot of pieces that, of course there's some replacing, but you have your core players coming back. You have your pass rushers, you have your interior defensive lineman about a BK. You have your middle iebacker Roquand, you have Kyle Hamilton, you have Marlon hunt for you have Nate Wiggins, who he had great things to say about. So I think that, like from a core the foundational standpoint, your pieces are in place.
Yeah, it's almost these complimentary pieces like we were talking about, you know, he's talking about a third safety, Yeah, third corner, you know, the inside linebacker, depth, defensive line, Like they have a good defensive line. How can you bolster that? It's complimentary pieces that also allow your stars to really do what they do best to shine. Yep, right, and that's a good position to be in.
Like, those are important positions, but anytime you're talking about like the third of anything, you're in a pretty good start up, exactly, like exactly, So I think, yeah, I'm excited about this defense with Zach and I think that it's going to be a great group and he's going to continue to shine as a defensive coordinator. So, as always, you can send us your thoughts and your emails at the lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net. Thank you so much for watching, thank you for listening, and we will talk with you again.
So
