Vic Fangio

Q. Did you have any inkling that OLB Za’Darius Smith was thinking about stepping away, and what was your reaction and how do you feel those snaps? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: No, I didn’t. I was surprised when [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] came in and told me yesterday, I guess it was. But you always respect the guy’s decisions, personal decisions, and the guy had a great career, did fine when he was here with us. He was good to be around and wish him the best. Had to take strength to do that and I respect it.

Q. How concerned are you with what you have there? I mean he was playing about I guess 20 to 25 snaps. (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: Yeah. We’ll have to absorb those snaps up with the rest of the guys and we’ll make it work.

Q. Is that a position where you think you need more? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Well, I think you always want more in any position. We have guys in the building that could fulfill it.

Q. Has former Eagles DE Brandon Graham been discussed as a possibility to come back? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Vic Fangio: Not to my knowledge.

Q. OLB Patrick Johnson came in and played 20 something snaps and had a sack. I mean, could he be one of those guys? How does he look? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, yeah, he definitely would be one of those guys for sure.

Q. I know you have been asked this question about seven times already, but now your hand might be a little forced. Is it possible LB Jihaad Campbell could get some edge snaps? (Jeff Neiburg)

Vic Fangio: It’s possible. He’s been getting edge snaps in certain ways we align.

Q. LB Nakobe Dean as far as potentially, if he’s healthy, if he’s ready to go, does that make it a little bit easier to give LB Jihaad Campbell and even LB Zack Baun snaps on the edge? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: It does.

Q. Do you look at that as you want your best eleven players on the field at all time, and that LB Nakobe Dean, obviously, was one of those best eleven last year. Does that come into play at all when you’re looking at that? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: It does and it doesn’t. Really what you want is your best combination. It’s kind of like when you’re talking about the offensive line. If your six best offensive lineman is a guard, then your center goes down and he can’t play center, or your tackle goes down and he can’t play tackle. Do you go with the ‘I want my five best out there’ or your best combination, so it’s both.

Q. When you drafted LB Jihaad Campbell, did that combination, obviously you knew at the time that LB Nakobe Dean had a ways to go, but did that combination intrigue you a lot? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: Obviously, we know he has the versatility to potentially be out there. All of his work has been at inside other than the packages where we move them up. At that time, not really because we knew Nakobe was going to miss a good part of the season.

Q. What happened against the Giants? (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: I didn’t coach them up well enough. My calls weren’t good enough and we had trouble with them.

Q. One thing a few players said was that they felt like the Giants were the more physical team. How do you get the physicality back in the defense? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Well, most physicality, I don’t know if that was true. It certainly was on the last drive, but we just didn’t rush well enough. We had a hard time with the quarterback, obviously. We had a hard time covering and my calls weren’t good enough to cover up those.

Q. When did you find out that DT Jalen Carter wasn’t playing? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: About when you guys did.

Q. How did that affect the game plan? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Well, I mean we knew it was a possibility he wouldn’t play, so it doesn’t affect the game plan a whole lot. It’s just got to be the next guy who goes.

Q. What’s your concern level over the cornerback spot right now? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: Well, we’ve got to settle in and find somebody out there that we can rely on. I think we have the guys that can do that, we just got to get them playing better.

Q. Why do you think CB Kelee Ringo struggled against the Giants? What did you see? (Cayden Steele)

Vic Fangio: He just got beat down the field.

Q. With that in game change, either of them. Which are you going with at this point? CB Adoree Jackson or CB Kelee Ringo? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Right now, probably would be Adoree. The way we were going to do it in the game and then when [CB] Q[Quinyon Mithcell] went down, we played them both.

Q. As far as the run defense goes, not just in New York, but it’s been kind of an issue I think the last couple of weeks. What do you see in there that is making it so problematic to stop the run? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, we’ve had a hard time with the quarterback scrambling and running. That’s made the stats worse than they are. We just have to play better. I got to call better defenses.

Q. How do you go about potentially preparing for two different quarterbacks this weekend? (Olivia Reiner)

Vic Fangio: They are similar. They’re both athletic. They both do a good job running this offense. This is a good offense we’re going against. It’s a good scheme. It’s packaged well together. They do a good job of calling plays. It’s a tough offense.

Q. The CB Adoree Jackson play by the goal line. How do you normally go about sort of correcting that and make sure that- (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: Which play was that?

Q. That was the Giants RB Cameron Skattebo run where looked like he didn’t attempt to wrap. (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, at the goal line you’ve got to sell out because you’re not trying to let them fall forward. Every inch is valuable down there, so he’s just got to sell out and try and go get the guy down.

Q. How do you think S Andrew Mukuba sort of handled things and is that just part of the learning process when you have maybe a couple hiccups tackling on the back end? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, he’s just got clean up his operation, be sharp, know that every play could be the most important play in the game and I’m confident he’ll be able to do that.

Q. DT Ty Robinson, he got nineteen snaps, I think it was, his first reps on defense. How do you think he did? I know he had the block pass at the line. (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, for his first meaningful snaps. I thought he did fine.

Q. Are you expecting CB Quinyon Mitchell to play this week? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: That remains to be seen.

Q. If CB Quinyon Mitchell will miss extended time. What’s the approach there at that position? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: You guys know who we got, it will be like it was the other night.

Q. Is OLB Antwaun Powell-Ryland showing you anything in practice to make you think maybe he could be in the mix? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: He has been in and out of here on the practice squad. He’s been doing a good job on scout team. Right now, we would go with the other guys first.

Q. The amount of snaps that you guys have been playing on defense, are you seeing a cumulative effect of that? (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: No.

Q. Where do you think CB Mac McWilliams is as potentially if CB Quinyon Mitchell has missed some time as potentially somebody who could get involved? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, potentially could get involved. We’ve been trying to focus him at one point on learning the nickel spot to be the backup nickel. Then we shifted our focus to try and get him to learn corner and be a viable option if we had issues out there. So he’s kind of been going back and forth.

Q. How’s CB Mac McWilliams doing outside? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: He’s doing okay.

Q. How is OLB Jalyx Hunt looking through these six games? (Johnny McGonigal)

Vic Fangio: Good. I think he’s a good young player who’s improving all the time and we’re happy to have him. I think he’s playing good overall.