Vic Fangio

Q. DT Moro Ojomo, we’ve talked about him a lot. You said he impressed last year, but you would always bring up that he’s a lighter guy. How do you think he’s going to be able to hold up inside with additional snaps? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: I think he’ll hold up well. He did last year when he played in there. He’s a year older, a year of playing significant snaps under his belt, getting reps here in training camp. I think he’ll do good.

Q. With a CB Adoree’ Jackson and his experience, how much does that show up on the field and what about his game shows that experience? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: The first few days out here, he was kind of like he didn’t know he was out there. The ball wasn’t going his way at all, and then yesterday, he had a couple balls thrown his way and he did very well. He had a very good day yesterday. It’s too early to say what his experience is or isn’t right now. He’s played a good bit of ball, but I think this is the place where he’s got to show who he is and be the player hopefully that people have always thought he could be.

Q. What did he look like on film a year ago? And then he eventually gets benched, but did you chop that up more as a team wanting to look at younger players than anything he was doing? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: No, I didn’t watch a whole lot of tape on him. [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] wanted to sign him, and [Jokingly.] when Howie wants to sign somebody it doesn’t matter what I say. So we just took him in.

I didn’t really watch a lot of his tape last year, but I’ve seen him play over the years. Saw him when he was coming out of college.

Q. Why do you think that this is the place that CB Adoree’ Jackson can maybe show. You mentioned what he could be. Is it the scheme?

Vic Fangio: I don’t know if I think it’s the place. I think it’s time for him to show that. In Tennessee, when it came time to re-sign him after his contract was up, they didn’t. The Giants, his contract was up, they didn’t. It’s time to show who he is or who he isn’t.

Q. What are the little things you’re looking at when you’re deciding on who’s winning a job at corner that might not stand out obviously in practice? (Jeff Neiburg)

Vic Fangio: Just who’s playing better. I mean, a lot of the times it’s easy for you guys to see when a guy makes a good play, but there’s a lot of times where they’ve got a good play going and the ball doesn’t go there so you don’t really know it and vice versa. They might have a bad down going and the ball doesn’t go there so it doesn’t get exposed. So it’s just consistent overall good play. Just because the ball did or did not go his way, those plays are just as important in evaluating.

Q. What should S Andrew Mukuba do while he’s out and how long do you expect that from training camp? How much does that weigh into how much he’s able to do? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I mean he just has to pay attention to meetings to get mental reps, but there’s no replacing physical reps. Meetings and mental reps are good, but the value of them compared to physical reps is night and day.

Q. Along those lines, can you see any improvement in S Sydney Brown to where he was obviously a year ago? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, he’s finally getting to start in the OTAs, training camp to learn his way through the system and learn how we expect him to play, and he had no chance of that last year, so I see him getting better.

Q. From the standpoint of the entire defense, a week into camp, how well do you think your unit’s picking things up this year compared to last year? (Dave Uram)

Vic Fangio: I don’t know, I can’t– obviously, a lot of them are doing better even though we lost a lot of players on defense, there’s still a lot of players that were here, so we’re probably doing a little bit better in that mode.

Q. What has impressed you the most about LB Jihaad Campbell now that you’ve gotten a chance to see him in some of the team drills? (Martin Frank)

Vic Fangio: I do see him making small strides every day. Again, it may not be noticeable to the average eye, but he’s making good strides and if he can keep making those strides, I think he’ll be what we had hoped he would be.

Q. What have you noticed about CB Mac McWilliams the first week? (Jeff Kerr)

Vic Fangio: Mac’s got some good football instincts. He’s got to learn the finer points of what we’re doing all the time. He’s a little hit and miss with that right now, but that’s to be expected. But I do like the player. I think he’s got good skill and he’s got a little football savvy to him, which if you don’t have that, it’s hard to coach that.

Q. How far advanced is LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr.? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, he’s much more advanced. Obviously, he got to be a part of the team last year. Went through everything last year. Don’t believe he was ever hurt last year, never missed any time. Now second year through in the same system, he’s much better than he was last year at this time.

Q. How have things come along with DB Cooper DeJean in that sort of dual role? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: I think it’s going fine. We just haven’t, to be honest, we haven’t had enough snaps of it for him. Our offense is primarily playing 11 personnel out there against us, so we haven’t had a ton of base snaps up to this point. I’d like to see him get some more and get him tested. I don’t know that he’s ever truly been tested yet with a hard play.

Q. Is that something you can coordinate with Head Coach Nick Sirianni? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I mean we’d like to be able to. Right now we haven’t been able to.

Q. In CB Quinyon Mitchell’s case, ball skills, does that improve with time? Does it improve with drills? How do you work on ball skills in particular? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I think it can improve obviously with work and I think the work he’s put in has made it. He has improved. He had a nice interception yesterday, which I don’t know if he [would have made it] last year, but ball skills are a natural thing, too, so the improvement you can make is incremental, but any improvement he can make, he’ll make because he’ll work at it.

Q. DT Jordan Davis has lost weight, he said 26 pounds, does that correlate to him naturally being able to get lower in his pass rush so he’s not too upright? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: It should because when you get tired, you don’t get low enough. If you’re tired, he should in theory not be as tired as quick as he used to be.

Q. What about in terms of adding more to your pass rush moves? Would that happen because of—(Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: I think so. Anytime you move better, particularly when you’re talking about pass rush, you open up a new world for yourself. With his length– he’s got to be able to use his length when it’s an advantage and then he’s got to make himself 6’2″ when he needs to by bending his knees.

Q. What’s your evaluation of the edge rush guys so far with OLB Josh Uche, OLB Azeez Ojulari. How do you feel about the entire edge rush group? (Cayden Steele)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I feel good about [OLB] Nolan [Smith], and [OLB] Jalyx [Hunt] is making good strides. After that, we have got some heavy competition going on and nobody’s really truly surfaced yet. Good or bad. Hopefully over the course of this camp and preseason games, that will play itself out.

Q. With LB Jihaad Campbell, there’s small strides. In coverage, how have you seen those strides from particularly working with him? In individual drills, with running backs, how can he progress there? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, those are all just teaching drills. For an inside linebacker, he needs to show his improvement 11-on-11. The most fundamental thing you have to do on defense is figure out if it’s a run or a pass, and that’s critical for an ILB and the more reps he can get that way, the better he’ll be.

Q. How do you weigh those one-on-ones in the evaluation process versus the team reps? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Me personally, I don’t weigh them a lot.

Q. Where are you with the install of the defense? C Cam Jurgens mentioned he thought it was completely installed. Is that the case? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: Totally installed? No, we’ve got some stuff for him.

Q. How do you assess CB Kelee Ringo so far? (Rob Kuestner)

Vic Fangio: He’s doing fine. He’s competing. He’s in great shape, and probably this is his first real opportunity and I think he’s trying to do his best to take advantage of it and he’s right there.

Q. What changes defensively when you’re evaluating when the pads come on? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: I think the action speeds up. The play action, the run game all speeds up and it’s better. Again, like I said, the most fundamental thing you have to do on defense is figure out if it’s a run or a pass, and that’s more realistically accomplished in a pad at practice.

Q. After all your years coaching, how much do you enjoy or not enjoy a hot day like this at training camp? (Dave Uram)

Vic Fangio: It’s not hot today. That’s a mindset. We’re going to play some hot games in September and if you cave to a hot day in training camp, we’re in trouble.

Q. Some of the players talked about the box drill as something that’s productive for them. What’s the background for that and why do you favor it so much? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: I just like the drill. It was a drill that I implemented, I don’t know, 10-15 years ago to get players ready for change of direction, reacting to the offense. Then I quickly found out it was a really good conditioner and it’s a great drill. We do it a lot in the Spring. [Senior Defensive Assistant/Defensive Line Coach] Clint [Hurtt]’s done it a little bit with the D-Line out here. It’s a tremendous drill and it’s kind of one of those few drills that I think is football-specific and gets guys ready and in shape for football, not just running wind sprints or gassers. Nobody runs a gasser on the football field.