DENVER BRONCOS QUOTES (1/29/16)
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR WADE PHILLIPS
Opening statement
“They asked me if I had seen a quarterback like [Panthers QB] Cam Newton. There isn’t one like him. I haven’t seen one like him.
None of us have. He’s a tremendous talent. He’s put it all together. I’m sure he’s going to be MVP of the league this year. It’s
another big challenge for us. You go from [Pittsburgh QB Ben] Roethlisberger to [New England QB] Tom Brady, think it won’t get
any tougher and now you’re going against Cam Newton. We’re preparing all that you can prepare for a guy like that. He’s so
versatile that he just gives you so many problems that a regular drop-back quarterback—he is a top-notch drop-back
quarterback, but he can run with it better than the rest of them. It’s kind of a combination how [Pittsburgh QB] Michael Vick was
the leading passer in the league. It’s a real challenge, but we’re excited about it. We’re in it to win it so we’re going to give it our
best.”
On his father, Bum Phillips’, influence on his coaching
“My dad was my hero—not just my dad. He was also my high school coach and my college coach. I worked for him for 10 years
as a defensive coach and defensive coordinator. He was my head coach and the guy that I work for. It’s a whole gambit with him.
Everything that I learned about football and about people and how to work with people was from him. It’s a family tradition
now. My son [Washington Tight Ends Coach Wes Phillips] coaches for the Washington Redskins. We’re a three generation—I
think we’re the only three generation NFL family that way. It all ties together.”
On being flexible to the talent of players
“That’s what our coaching philosophy is, really. I don’t understand the people that say, ‘Hey, this is our scheme and that guy
can’t play in it. The guy can play. He’s a good player, but he can’t play in our scheme.’ Well, to me, there’s something wrong with
your scheme. You adapt the scheme to what the players can do, not what you can think of. We’ve always done it that way. We
started with [Hall of Fame DE] Elvin Bethea, who is in the Hall of Fame now. We played a lot of the same things that we play now,
but he was so quick and so fast that we stunted him all the time. He was our second-leading tackler on the team as a defensive
end. He was a great player, but we didn’t let him sit there all the time playing our technique that you have to play, two-gap or
whatever. I’ve had guys that play two-gap and played it well so we played two-gap with those guys. I’ve had all kinds of players.
You don’t hear all of these stories, but the nose guards that I’ve had—I’ve had four or five of them make the Pro Bowl. All of
them are different. [Former NT] Ted Washington was huge. We played more in the middle with him, but he controlled the gap.
[Former NT] Jamal Williams, he was a powerful guy, so we offset him on the nose and played the same gap, but he hard-charged.
We had [Former NT] Greg Kragen here, he was an undersized nose guard and we stunted him to that same gap. It’s the same
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defense, but it’s different players. That’s what you have to do. We played [CB] Quentin Jammer, who’s name was perfect
because he wasn’t great playing off, but he was great at jamming a guy on the line of scrimmage. In zone, man and everything
that we did, he jammed the guy on line of scrimmage and played well. That’s what you do. That’s a simple way of telling you how
you play with players you have and fit your scheme to what they can do. That’s the only way I can explain it, I guess.”
On the opportunity to participate in Super Bowl 50 after not being in the NFL last season
“I was out of it one other year after I was let go at Buffalo and I went to Atlanta that year, we beat Green Bay in Green Bay. It
was the first time that they’d ever lost at home in a playoff game. I’ve been out of it the year before. I knew I wanted to get back
and it was the same way this time.”
On OLB Von Miller being from Texas and coaching him
“Von is from Texas, yes. He was the second player picked in the draft so we obviously thought he was going to be a great player.
They don’t always pan out that way. When I got here and saw the talent that had, it was exciting to be able to work with him.
He’s actually gotten better and better as the year has gone along. I think he’s played, really the last two games, probably as good
as he’s played all year and he’s a really great player.”
On if playing Roethlisberger twice helps the preparation for Newton
“No. Ben’s not the runner. They’re not going to run the ball with Ben Roethlisberger on the three yard line on a power play with
him. It’s a lot different as far as—the drop back stuff and being able to throw the ball the way he can throw the ball is similar, but
him being able to run—and it’s called runs. It’s options and those kinds of things. It’s not just quarterback going back and running
with the football. A lot of their offense is him being able to run the football. They call plays where he’s going to run the ball. Most
team’s don’t do that. They can’t afford to lose their quarterback.”
On if Kansas City QB Alex Smith is an appropriate comparison to Newton
“No. Alex is more drop-back and just runs with the ball. He finds a seam if nothing’s there. Cam actually tries to stay in the pocket
a little bit more overall. You say he runs with it and he does. If there’s a lot of pressure on him, he’ll run with it out of the pocket
on drop back, but he’s more called run plays. Those are the plays that he makes yards on. He can, obviously, get out of the
pocket and make a big play, but he tries to throw it in the pocket. That’s what has made him a better quarterback all along. He’s
learned to be able to do that rather than just being a quarterback that runs with it.”
On QB Brock Osweiler playing Newton on scout team offense
“Both quarterbacks we’ve used. We told them kind of this is the way we want to do it. We set it up for each defense that we
have. We’ll tell them, ‘On this defense, it might be a little bit vulnerable to him running the ball.’ We’ll tell him to run around
with the ball to make sure everybody is watching the quarterback. We have some defenses where we don’t feel like he can run,
but he’s going to have to throw it. We make him throw it to certain receivers. That’s the process that you do as far as getting
ready for a guy like that.”
On if he enjoys the challenge of facing Newton
“Do I enjoy playing in Super Bowl 50 against whoever we play? Sure. Every week is different. [San Diego QB] Philip Rivers is
pretty darn tough. All of them—especially the really good ones and the great ones, like Tom Brady, Roethlisberger and on and
on—even from the first game of the year, we’ve played a lot of really good quarterbacks that present different things. It’s a
challenge for you every week in this league. You can see from our record all of them are close games. We expect those kinds of
game.”
On the Carolina’s one loss
“They played really well. Atlanta, they’re in the same division. They got beat 38 to nothing a couple of weeks before, Atlanta did,
but they played well in that game. It’s hard to win every game in this league and it’s hard to win as many as they’ve won already.
I don’t think that takes away from what they’ve done or how they’ve played. It wasn’t necessarily that team. Atlanta played
really well, but you’re not going to win every game. That’s been proven since 1972, right? You’re going to have those kinds of
games every once in a while where everything doesn’t go right for you, but it wasn’t necessarily because they didn’t let him run
with the football. He still threw the football in the game. It was one of those games where he didn’t get out and make the play
that won the game.”
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On Panthers RB Jonathan Stewart
“They had 142 yards rushing per game. That adds the quarterback in, which like I said, when I was in Atlanta and we had Michael
Vick, we were leading the league in rushing, but [Former Atlanta RB] Warrick Dunn was a really good runner. Michael Vick added
to that. This is the same way here. Stewart is a really good back, but then you add the quarterback for 600-and-some yards,
you’re the No.1 rushing team in the league. That’s what makes him—especially their offense now because they do run a lot of
read-options and college-type stuff. It’s a little different to prepare for.”
On the impact of Outside Linebackers Coach Fred Pagac
“What kind of influence? I don’t know. Somebody gave him Coach of the Year—Linebacker Coach of the Year. I’m for that. Those
two guys are certainly talented players, but to get them to play the way they’ve played, he’s done a great job as have the rest of
the coaches on defense. I said it before and I’ll say it again, those guys are doing a great job. They work with them. [Defensive
Line Coach] Bill [Kollar] with the defensive line, [Linebackers Coach] Reggie [Herring] and Pug [Pagac] with linebackers and
[Defensive Backs Coach] Joe Woods with the secondary. They did a great job. I’m riding the train, clanging the bell. That’s all I
do.”
On adapting the scheme to fit CB Aqib Talib
“Well, it’s easy when guys are really talented and they can do almost anything you want to do. They can fit in any scheme. You
could say, ‘Well, we’re going to play this,’ or ‘that.’ I think, even with him you want to play more man stuff because he can take
receivers away rather than say that you’ll play all Cover-2 and come up to force the run all the time. You want him covering
people. That’s how you utilize a guy like that. Utilize what they can do well and try to play the coverages that the players play
well. Not some Tampa-2 that I think is great or something like that.”
On if he’s trying to confuse teams with man and zone schemes
“Good thing they’re confused. That’s good. I’m pretty confusing usually. We play a matchup zone and people think it’s man-toman. Then we play man-to-man and we play some basic zone. We started a long time ago. Basketball started playing matchup
zone. They used to play zone, 3-2 zone and everybody stood there in their spot. All four guys went to one side so people started
moving them over there to play matchup zone. That’s what we came up with a long, long time ago. We say, ‘Hey, you’re playing
this zone, but when a guy comes over there, you match with him. You pass it off, just like in basketball. When another guy comes
there, you go there. That’s the simple way to tell you how we played matchup zone. We play a lot of match zone, but people
think we’re playing man-to-man. Hopefully that confuses them. It probably confused you already.”
©2016 Denver Broncos Football Club. All rights reserved. The individual quotes cited in this document may be used for the purpose of news reporting and other
fair uses as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Duplication or posting of this quote sheet, in its entirety, or any other use of this material which is not a
fair use as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Denver Broncos Football Club.