Transcript of new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano's conference call with Jets reporters on Monday afternoon:
On working with Mark Sanchez…
Obviously, I have some experience with him. First of all, hello. I have some experience because I was on the other sideline against the Jets here, playing and having to prepare against Mark Sanchez. I haven't had a lot of time right now here to study a whole lot of that tape. As Rex [Ryan] mentioned and Mike [Tannenbaum] mentioned, we've had a lot of coaches in and out. We've spent a lot of hours talking to some good people. All that being said, having to prepare for Mark Sanchez was always difficult. He has a lot of good qualities. First of all, he's athletic, a good release, can make all the throws, and he is a guy that can get out of trouble. I think, when you have that combination in a quarterback, it becomes dangerous in that he can get out of trouble and extend plays. Playing against him on the other sideline, that was a handful in having to prepare for him. I'm just happy to be with him.
On his offensive philosophy…
My overall offensive philosophy, first of all, is that when you look at offense, you have to make sure that the system fits the players that you have. This is a physical football team and it's one of the reasons that I think Rex and I have come together here and he gave me this great opportunity to come here. This is a physical football team. I like playing a physical style of offense. I think anybody that knows me knows that I want to be physical.
Being physical doesn't mean that you're going to run the football 55 times a game, OK? Being physical means that you're going to protect the quarterback, it comes in that way, it becomes an attitude in the receivers and how they go about what they're doing and their approach, whether it's running the route, blocking somebody or any of those things. It comes also from the quarterback position. I like a physical mentality. This year, in Miami and in the past, in Dallas, certainly, my first year in Miami we were up in the tops in the league in plus-20-yard plays. This year, it was no different. We were up in the tops of the league in plus-20-yard plays, and my time with Dallas, as well. We'll be explosive, we'll be able to get it down the field and we'll be able to do all those things, but I learned a lesson a long time ago about how you win and lose in this league. I believe that you have to have some element of running the football.
On how he is going to help Sanchez…
First of all, I think that you can help Mark in a lot of different ways. I think, from my end, I've been involved in different quarterback movements. When Tony Romo took over for Drew Bledsoe, I was involved in that situation there. I was involved in the situation where we had Chad Henne taking over for Chad Pennington in Miami, those types of scenarios. You see how different quarterbacks grow and how to develop different quarterbacks. I've been around a lot of great quarterback people, outstanding quarterback coaches in my time, and had the ability to coach for a lot of great offensive minds.
I think all that being said, we'll be able to help Mark in a lot of ways, but once he gets in here, we want to start with some of the basic philosophies and fundamentals I think of the position and then go from there. The list is long in how a quarterback gets developed and continues to get developed, and it doesn't just mean Mark Sanchez. I think any of the good quarterbacks in our league certainly work on all of those things, i.e., taking care of the football, clock management and all the things that come with the nature of the position. It's something I've had to do as a head coach before, something I've had to do as a play caller before and something I look forward to doing here.
On the situation he is coming into with possible issues in the locker room…
Obviously, I'm not here to be part of or take part in any of that. Contrary to popular belief, I don't really read a whole lot about what is said or hear a lot about what's said. I'm kind of a show-me guy. I think that any player that has played for me knows that I've used that phrase an awful lot. This is a show-me business. This is a show-me game. Once these players get here, it will be a blank piece of paper, as far as I'm concerned.
I think that's positive in that sometimes change is good. In this situation here, it will be a blank piece of paper, we'll go from there and we'll get a chance to learn each other a little bit. They'll clearly know where I'm coming from. I think anybody who has been around me would know that is pretty true. I'm looking forward to working with these players. I've played against these players several times and really feel like there are a lot of good pieces in place and a lot of weapons here.
On what he believes Sanchez needs to work on the most after watching video of him…
I won't dive into a whole lot of that right now, because I like to keep that between Mark and I and our offensive coaches early on in this process. Obviously, I think one of the things every offseason that I think you need to do with the quarterbacks, certainly, is get them back to square one and break them back from a fundamental standpoint. As the season goes on, the games crawl on your really fast. And you really don't have the amount of time that you think you have. So get a chance to break him back fundamentally, do some of those things, I think will be good, and obviously, stress some of the different scenarios that go on in a ballgame like game management, clock management, taking care of the football, all those things.
Now, you can turn the ball over a lot of ways in your league and I think a lot of people can get the blame for it. It's like saying the offensive line gave up five sacks, but you in your heart know that the offensive line really gave up one and there might've been a couple of other things missed by different positional players, but it just goes on one guy. We'll look at the turnovers, we'll look at all those things and spend a lot of time with Mark that way as we get going forward, when we can spend time with him.
On how many times the word "Wildcat" was said when he and Ryan first spoke about the job…
Actually, we had a little bit of a discussion, only in the sense that you talk about how you use players and how you use different people. My first year in Miami when we started out there with Chad Pennington, some of our weapons at that time were a couple of running backs named Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. So those two players happened to be really good players for us at the time and we had to figure out a way to get both of them on the field at the same time. I think that in the conversation those things come up just because how you utilize players to their abilities and I think that's where it came up in our conversation.
On how his hard-nosed style has worked for him in the past…
I feel like it's worked pretty good. I don't know that necessarily. I think that the players on those teams, if you talked about me, they would say that "He's no nonsense and he'll tell you the truth. He's going to shoot you straight." I think that's the way they would say it. But I also would think that they would tell you that "This guy is a fun guy to be around and we can have a good time with Coach Sparano that way." Listen, you can go back a couple of weeks and take a look at some of the things that were written coming out of Miami and I think that would kind of speak for itself from that. I enjoy coaching young men and seeing these guys get better and what it is they do and have success. That's part of my job is to make them a whole lot better here and that's what we're going to try to do.
On if he called plays in Miami or if the offensive coordinator called them…
I called plays in Dallas obviously, during that period of time working with Coach Parcells. Coach Parcells wasn't a big title guy so there really wasn't a title, per se, at that time. That's what we did and we worked as a group there offensively. I was around good people, Chris Palmer, Todd Haley, we had a really good coaching staff there at that time. We did some really good things together in that room.
As far as Miami goes, I hired a couple of coordinators. I hired Dan Henning my first year that I came into that situation. Dan was really good for me because of his head coaching background, helped me as a young head coach. But I think I may have been able to help Dan there a bunch there, too, offensively, so we shared a lot of the same philosophies and I was always involved in the offensive meetings. It's not different than what Rex just talked about. His area of expertise is defensive and my area of expertise is offensive. Although I had to spend time in other areas on the football team, the majority of my time was spent there and during the course of games, and game-planning obviously I had a big part of that.
On changes he foresees making to the overall offensive system…
Certainly I come in with a little different system and its a little different style than maybe Brian [Schottenheimer] had. Brian and I had spent some time together working for Marty Schottenheimer in Washington, so we were together and I am familiar some with that system, but this will be different, it will be different for the players that way from my end. I am a guy that believes that you have to form an identity and I want to have an identity here offensively. I want our players to be able to walk into the meeting room and not be surprised at some of the things that are going to be in the game plan each week, because they believe that we're going to do them really well. I think that that is going to be important for us as we go forward.
I do believe in getting the ball down the field and advancing in chunks. If you can't get 20 yard plays in our league it makes it hard to advance the football. Again, it's something that in Miami we've been able to do a pretty good job of that each year there and certainly we were able to in Dallas. That's important for us, but there are a lot of elements that go into it.
On what his relationship is like with Haley and how the Jets are considering him…
How we're considering him, I certainly won't get into a whole lot of that right now, but I would tell you this, my time with Todd Haley was outstanding. He's an outstanding football coach, I really enjoyed spending time with Todd in Dallas. He gets an awful lot out of his players and at the same time, with Todd being a head coach in Kansas City and myself, we've gotten a chance to stay in touch that way as well through the last several years and we've bounced some things around so it's been really good, we've had a good relationship and it was fun to meet with him.
On when he started to consider the position with the Jets…
Really honestly, from the time it ended in Miami, obviously I made a statement there and said that I was just looking forward to getting back into coaching as soon as I possibly could, but I took a bunch of time there and got a chance to spend some time with my family away from football for a little while there for a couple weeks. You'll get to know me, but it is awful hard for me to watch it if I'm not participating in it, I couldn't really do that a whole lot.
That being said, once the season ended and the season was complete, all of a sudden, the phone started to ring and I was able to entertain some of these things. When this opportunity came about to meet with Mike Tannenbaum, to meet with Rex and get a chance to meet with Mr. Johnson, and to speak to them and to see just how passionate they are about this organization and what's happening here right now, once I got through all of that there was no question for me. I share a lot of the same things and the same philosophies Rex shares and I'm just excited as heck to be a part of his team and the New York Jets and looking forward to it, this is home for me so I'm looking forward to it.
