Same “D”, Different Day
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- April
- 28
The Giants’ new defensive coordinator and formerly their linebackers coach, Bill Sheridan, said not to expect any sweeping changes with Steve Spagnuolo’s schemes. They worked for Spags, the players liked them, and that’s good enough for Sheridan.
In other words, they’re going to rush the passer a lot. The biggest change might be that the linebackers and defensive linemen won’t be asked to cover as much as the last couple of years.
“We are going to definitely try to have the pass rushers rushing as much as we can,” Sheridan said. 
“As you know, when you get into zone dogs you have down guys dropping out. And you are never going to get away from that. But as much as we can, we are going to try to orchestrate it where we have the pass rushers rushing, as much as we possibly can. Because that is our strength, and we recognize that and everybody knows that.”
He’s also excited about the defense’s only high-round pick over the weekend, 255-pound linebacker Clint Sintim. He’s a pass rusher who will go to work on the strong side, mostly in a situational pass rush role. The Giants figure they can do that kind of platooning on the strong side because free agent pickup Michael Boley is considered a three-down linebacker because of his pass rush speed and ability to fall into coverage. That’s one position they needn’t worry about. If Sintim can master his side, he could be a third-down upgrade over Danny Clark.
Other than an increased pass rush—and it had better get there, otherwise the Giants defensive backs will be in for some long afternoons of chasing hot reads down the field—Sheridan said the major change will be his own coaching style. He’ll spend gamedays in the press box rather than the field, the better to call his defenses in a “calmer” environment.
“It is like an office atmosphere,” Sheridan said. “You are sitting up there, you have your charts, you can chart your own calls and the opponent. And you have a chance to look, where if you are standing on the sideline, whatever you can’t hold in your hand, you can’t really refer to. I have always thought it would be a much better situation.”
EP
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 3:06 pm by Ernie Palladino. 
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Ernie Palladino
In watching the games, it seemed that one of Spagnuolo’s strenghts was in motivating the players on the sidelines. Even if it’s easier to work the X’s and O’s from the booth, I wonder if the defense loses something if the coordinator is not on the field urging them on.