Transcript of Jets head coach Eric Mangini's news conference before Wednesday's midday practice:
Today we are working on third down, again following the normal progression. We'll also go through and clean up the things that we did yesterday that still aren't where they're supposed to be.
The guys will have a block of time where they are off, which I think is equally important during the bye week. It gives them a chance to recharge their batteries and come back fresh this next part of the season. We'll get our third day really of the bye week on Monday, where we'll focus on the red area, goal line and things like that. We cover all three phases in terms of installation and all three areas — offense, defense and special teams.
Just on a side note, Oscar de la Hoya is supposed to stop by today. He's going to be busy here [in New York] this afternoon with a press conference, but he's supposed to come out. I appreciate that. I know the guys are excited to talk to him. I've always admired him, so hopefully that will be able to happen.
On if Teddy Atlas had anything to do with the possible de la Hoya visit…
No, we had reached out to him last year and he wasn't able to do it at that point. Then he happened to be in New York today, so they called and he had mentioned that he would like to stop by. We're trying to piece it together and hopefully it will all work out.
On what kind of message de la Hoya would give the team…
It's not necessarily going to be him specifically addressing the team, but anytime you have a chance to talk to a great champion, a great athlete and someone who has been as successful as he has been for as long as he's been, in terms of his discipline and his training habits, I think regardless of what sport you're in, there are common themes and common threads. Just those conversations I hope have value. I don't know what each guy will ask him or how those conversations will go, but whenever you get a chance to bring someone in like that it's a good opportunity.
On if the bye week comes at a good time…
It's always good to have a bye. It's always good to have a chance to go back and do a self-assessment, ideally, take that information and give it to the players. We do a study initially and a handout of what the weaknesses have been, how we are going to correct them, and then we enforce it during practice. Usually, whatever has been a weakness is repeated throughout the rest of the season until you show that you can handle those things and correct those things. That's always good.
Giving the guys a chance to get away from football for a little while is really positive and it has fallen at different times each year, but we have been going pretty hard now for four games with training camp prior to that. It's been quite a bit of time spent together, so it's nice to go back, reload and come back in.
On if he'd like to have the bye week later in the season…
It has kind of been on both ends of the spectrum. I think that there's natural wear and tear, even though the injuries may not be as dramatic — the constant pounding, the games, the training camp and all that stuff. It's really never a bad time.
On if he has any special plans for the weekend…
It depends on whether we have our baby, because that would be a special plan. It seems like he's pushing to get out, so we'll see here. It could be any day.
On when his wife, Julie, is due…
The 10th [of October] is when we're supposed to go, but both kids have come early. Jake was six weeks, Luke was four weeks. I'm assuming this one can't wait, either.
On the good timing of having a baby during the bye week…
He's doing a good job already. He's a good boy [smiles]. Then if not, we'll probably take the kids to the movies, some movie about dogs that we're supposed to hit. [Beverly Hills Chihuahua] Is that a new kids movie? They are all great. They are all fantastic [laughter]. Then we'll see what else we get up to, maybe some apple-picking. I heard that was on the agenda.
On if it is difficult to balance being a head coach and an expectant father…
Yes, it's new for me. Both my other kids were born on Feb. 26, two years apart. So we're pretty consistent there. This one sort of just happened a little differently this time.
On if it has been difficult to manage his time…
Julie is really good about handling pretty much everything in our lives. She's been great. She makes it about as easy as it could possibly be from my perspective. I don't know how she does it. She's a lot busier than I am.
On what he's going to do about the 4 a.m. wakeup calls with a newborn…
I'll probably just be getting home, so it will be perfect. I'll have a bottle, watch a little bad TV — kind of what I normally do. I just don't have a bottle [laughter].
On what has both impressed and concerned him about the first four games…
The thing that is most important to me is consistency. What I mean by that is preparation and practice day in and day out. I think that whatever your habits are, whatever you do on a day-to-day basis, that's who you become. If we practice good habits, if we are consistent as a group, then that's always going to carry over. There have been times in games where we've had self-inflicted wounds in all three phases. There have been times where we have not been as productive late in games. Those are things that I want to get a lot better at.
I like the way that the guys, coming from a lot of different places, whether it's the draft, free agency, whatever the case may be, the way that they have seemed to form a closeness. We want to see that continue on. I think it's different when you play on a team, and then you play for a team with guys that you really like. I think it's a different level of performance that usually follows that.
On his degree of concern about the amount of points allowed by the Jets…
I don't like giving up points. I don't like giving up points early or late. What I have liked, defensively, is there have been a lot of times where our defense has started in our own territory. Even the Arizona game, those first two drives, twice we were able to hold them to no points, once with a blocked field goal and once with a turnover. That's what you want to see on those momentum shifts is being able to come out and do a good job there, but that has to carry over. It has to be consistent. That's really been a focal point.
On what he has done over the last two years to create success after the bye week…
I wish I knew exactly what it was. We've gone through the same process the last two years. We'll go through the same process this year. You're asking for brutal honesty. You're asking for each guy to be brutally honest with himself, the coaches to do that, to go through and look at the stuff and look at it as critically as you possibly can. Not to the point of overanalysis but just an objective, honest assessment of where we are.
Then some strategy, tangible strategy, to correct it and to improve it. Not "We need to play better." What does that mean? It's like telling a batter to hit the ball. How can we play better? What can we do? Is it hand placement, is it footwork, is it conditioning, is it the scheme or is it the protections? What specifically can we do as a staff and what specifically can each individual do?
I open my doors to anybody that wants to come in who is not satisfied with their play time or wants to know why they have the role that they have. Those meetings have been really productive in the past. You come in, you watch tape. Sometimes I watch their pro tape, maybe from games. Sometimes with a practice squad guy, we do a cutup of their practices. I go through that saying, "This is what the issue is."
Sometimes it's going back to college tape and saying, "Look, this is what you did in college, this is why we drafted you, these are the characteristics that defined who you were and why we liked you. Where is this? Why is this missing here?" Give them a chance to say "I think you're wrong on this" or "I've done this, this and this." When you leave that conversation, when you move from that meeting, both parties know exactly where they stand and they have heard it from me, not their position coach, not the coordinator. They know exactly how we feel and it gives them a chance to express how they feel. I think that's important.
On if these meetings happen during the bye week…
Usually during the bye week. I'm not opposed to doing it other times. It's better during the bye week because you do have a chance to take all their film, spend more time with each guy and really make sure that all of their questions are being answered. You're not under the same time constraints you have during a normal week where you are trying to get the next day's practice prepared or that day's practice watched. It's helpful from that perspective.
On Darrelle Revis…
I think he's done a good job. I like his work ethic. I think that there hasn't been a sense of "OK, I played a year, I've done some good things, I can kind of relax." He has looked at it as "OK, I played a year at one level, how can I play this year at a higher level?" That was really Darrelle's defining characteristic in college and it has carried over.
I don't see any effect of success or fame, money and any of that stuff. He has been a pretty consistent guy. He's competitive. He doesn't like to get beat at anything. You see it every day at practice — one-on-ones, seven-on-seven and even the show-team reps. He just doesn't like to get beat, and that's what you want.
On Mike Westhoff's return…
There really wasn't any starting point to the conversation until he was cleared medically. With Mike, he's been an asset. He was an asset to me. Obviously from a special teams perspective, I think he's one of the best in the game, if not the best. I think that historically, he's been like that.
He has great insight, too, to other things that I ask him about from a head coaching perspective. He spent years with Don Shula and Jimmy Johnson. He's been in a lot of different situations. Westhoff, he's not afraid to be brutally honest and you appreciate that honesty. It's never just flippant. There's a rationale, there's a thought process. He can refer back to something that was done historically. It's really a valuable tool.
On how the players respond to Westhoff's brutal honesty…
I think that everybody appreciates his personality because he coaches hard and he's not afraid to point out the things that are going wrong. He's not afraid of the hard conversation by any stretch. Also, there's an inherent respect. Players know that if they do what he's telling them to do, they will be successful and we'll be successful. That, to me, is the baseline and everything else builds off that.
Also, he's pretty funny. Sometimes you're not sure where it's going necessarily or how it's going to be delivered, but it's usually pretty funny. I like his type of sense of humor.
On the dynamic between QB coach Brian Daboll and QB Brett Favre and if Daboll has learned anything from Favre…
I think you are always learning from players. When you get a guy with a wealth of experience, there's a lot of stuff that you can pick up and subtleties you can pick up that maybe working with younger guys you couldn't. Where Brian has a real edge is his background defensively, and working with the receivers like he did, working in the system that he did with the quarterback that was there with Tom [Brady]. I think all of those things have helped him really excel in his role.
On Westhoff's "old school" approach to coaching…
He has broken a few canes out there [laughter]. We have a great clip of him throwing a cane a couple of years ago that we put to a music video. It's never a function of him yelling for the sake of yelling. He's not pushing guys because he wants to show that he's in charge. He's pushing guys because he wants them to do the right thing and he wants them to be successful.
There is a very clear distinction there, and guys appreciate that fact. I think anybody will accept hard coaching if you're telling them the right things and if you're trying to make them better. At the end of the day, discipline is something that you do for somebody, not to somebody. The results are hard to argue with.
On the defense…
I wish you could say it was just one area, one guy. To me, the coverage zone is very much like the protection element offensively. Everybody has to see it exactly the same way. Everybody needs to understand the concept of the defense of what you're trying to get done. That's something that we have been really emphasizing: "OK, this is what we are running, this is how we are running it and this is why we are running it. This is what we are trying to stop."
If you understand why we're calling what we call or why we're doing what we do, it's a different level of understanding than saying, "OK, we are playing Cover-5 and you have him man-to-man with inside leverage." That's great but it's such a superficial understanding of what the whole concept is. When things don't look right, when the people aren't in the same spots, it's hard to adjust to that stuff.
It is a younger secondary. I think they are making progress. The different parts are working together — Calvin [Pace] working in there, Vernon [Gholston] working in there, all of those things that have to be coordinated. And then once you get past that, it's the coordinated pass rush. In a 3-4, it's not always the same guy coming. It's the outside and it could be any of those four on the shell.
On the progress of the chemistry between Favre and Laveranues Coles...
I never had a concern about their relationship from the day that Brett got here. Laveranues had been working through an injury, and there's going to be a growth process with any new combination of people. Then the fact that he had that element, too. In terms of their personal relationship, their chemistry, I thought they have gotten along well since Brett arrived and I think they complement each other great.
