Vic Fangio

Q. Speaking of new adventures, what’s the adjustment process like when you lose DT Jalen Carter before first snapping? How challenging is that? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: Well, I think the first thing that happens is now you’re down to four D-Linemen and everybody’s rep count has to go up, so to me, that’s the biggest adjustment. You lose the player, which is no good on multiple fronts, but it’s a rep thing, too.

Q. How do you think those guys that had to step those reps up did with the increase? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, they did fine. [DT] Jordan [Davis] had a bunch of reps, probably more than he’s ever had in a game. Same thing with [DT Moro] Ojomo. [DT] B.Y. [Byron Young] had to play more than he thought we thought he would, so I thought they did fine. I mean, obviously it could be better. We didn’t shut down the running game by any means. We all could have been a little better.

Q. Linebackers on the edge with LB Jihaad Campbell in that role, most of the game or all the game. Why was LB Jihaad Campbell your best-suited for that role and not LB Zack Baun? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: In those particular times we’d do it, Zack would do a good job up there, and he was our preferred guy last year when we had [LB] Nakobe [Dean] to be up there. Then when Nakobe got hurt, in the playoffs, Baun stayed in the middle and [former Eagles LB] Oren [Burks] went up. Baun is more capable of handling the middle part of that job.

Q. Are you expecting to have DT Jalen Carter this week? There’s no word from the league yet. (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I haven’t heard.

Q. I asked you last week about the nastiness that he brings– (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Yeah. What did I tell you? I ended up being right on that. You were wrong.

Q. What happened with him ultimately? Is that what you were talking about? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, not to that degree, but yeah, that type of stuff.

Q. I meant in terms of him being focused. Is there a concern? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: You’ve got to be focused on the job at hand, and all extracurricular stuff needs to not have any importance to you.

Q. How are you approaching this week with the uncertainty of whether he’ll be available to you or not? (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: I think we’ll know something soon enough.

Q. CB Adoree’ Jackson struggled a little bit, started to make some plays. What did you see from him overall? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: He has to make sure he’s a master technician and not let his technique falter. They have good receivers, and if you don’t go about your job the right way from a technique standpoint, those good receivers become impossible to cover.

Q. How does OLB Za’Darius Smith fit in here, and over the course of his career, how much have you tracked him? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: I haven’t really tracked him that much. I knew he was a good player, and I don’t know how he’ll fit in yet. Haven’t seen him on the field, don’t know what kind of shape he’s in, don’t know how quickly he will pick up what we’re doing. So that’s a TBD right there.

Q. DT Jordan Davis, we talked all offseason about his conditioning. Did you see the benefits of that in those expanded snaps? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Very much so. I don’t think he could have played that amount of snaps as well as he did previously.

Q. Is the plan to have CB Adoree’ Jackson start this week against Kansas City? (Olivia Reiner)

Vic Fangio: Right now? Yes.

Q. What’s the teaching point that DT Jordan Davis was in on a sack, but he couldn’t finish that one. What’s the teaching point there? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, it’s hard. He’s a very hard guy to tackle, number one, he’s a big, strong guy, and when you’re coming off a block like he was, it makes it even more difficult. We just need to have more guys around him so when he is escaping, there’s other people there to clean it up.

Q. Would DB Cooper DeJean be someone you’d consider full-time on the outside? I know you said once before that it depends on if you have someone to replace him at nickel and everything. Is that still the issue? (Martin Frank)

Vic Fangio: Preferably, we want to keep him at nickel.

Q. I’m curious if you saw the Chiefs-Chargers game where Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was running towards the sideline, the corner kind of conceded, ‘Okay, he can go out of bounds,’ and then Mahomes ran him over. Then other times, you see Mahomes near the sideline, gets hit very lightly, acts like he got shot. So, what’s the teaching point there in terms of him riding the sideline like that? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: Always be aware when you’re near the sideline for all those points you just brought up. One, the quarterback flopping going out of bounds. Two, the quarterback lowering his shoulder and tries to get the last piece of business in there. You have to play with good bent knees and be ready for anything that happens. But Mahomes is the ultimate competitor and it doesn’t surprise me to see him do that.

Q. At safety, how did you land on the way you handled that rotation? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Well, the plan was that [S] Sydney [Brown] would play the base snaps and [S Andrew] Mukuba would play the nickel snaps. We thought going into the game, we would be in base more than we were, but they chose to pretty much make it a three wide receiver game. So, the reps got distorted that way.

Q. How do you think that S Andrew Mukuba handled that extra workload at safety? (EJ Smith)

Vic Fangio: He did okay. He had a couple major busts that hurt us and could have hurt us even more, so looking for him to improve this next week.

Q. It’s been a couple of years now where the Chiefs have kind of nickeled and dimed their way down the field with the number of big plays they’ve had. What they’ve produced, lately, over the last year or so, two years, isn’t what it once was under Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. How does that factor into preparation, even though you have a quarterback who’s that dynamic? (Mike Sielski)

Vic Fangio: I think they will continue to throw it deep some. I think they’ve made it a major emphasis this year and they did it in their first game. They did it in the preseason, so I expect to see more of that.

Q. CB Jakorian Bennett played a handful of snaps when CB Adoree’ Jackson was getting checked for the concussion. Did you see enough from him to draw any conclusions? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: Not really. I’m not sure the exact number of it. Seven? Yeah, that’s not enough.

Q. I imagine DT Byron Young played a little bit more than he expected because of DT Jalen Carter? How did he hold up? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: He did good. He gave us some energy, ran to the ball hard, almost had that pick on the deflection, was involved with the fumble. I don’t know who they ended up giving that to, but if it was a sack, I think they would’ve halved it. So, he did fine and hopefully that’s something for him to build on.

Q. The volume of flags that you drew, was that the byproduct of the emphasis from officials or do you think you guys need to clean yourselves up? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: We need to clean ourselves up.

Q. When LB Jihaad Campbell and LB Zack Baun, both of them made some pretty big plays in coverage it seemed like. What did you learn about that on an on-field in the regular season? What can happen when two guys like that unlock in terms of what you can do defensively? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Yeah. They both did a good job. Coincidentally, they both had one in practice during the week last week and didn’t cover it as well as they did in the game, which is why practice is important.

Q. You’ve been around DT Jalen Carter for over a year now. Behind the scenes, how have you seen him maybe step into a leadership role or just how have you seen him maybe mature over the past year since you’ve been around? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Vic Fangio: Well, to be considered a leader, actions speak louder than words and he’s got to lead through his actions.

Q. Do you speak to him, or do you leave that to Head Coach Nick Sirianni and Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: Pretty much Nick on that. When it gets to that extreme, pretty much that.

Q. At edge rusher, how do you feel about it right now? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: We’ll see. Like we said earlier, don’t really know what [OLB] Za’Darius [Smith] brings or doesn’t bring. [OLB Joshua] Uche got in there for a few snaps the other night and did some good stuff, so we’re feeling better about it.

Q. With his size, I mean 6’4, 270lb. Is that something that you like where you can shift inside and work there, too? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: It’s possible.