Darren Rizzi Talks Saints Special Teams
Saints special teams coach Darren Rizzi speaks with the media following Wednesday's practice, talking about Blake Grupe, Lou Hedley, and much more.
Transcript
00:00 How we doing everybody?
00:04 Yeah, listen, I've been doing this now 31 years, 16 college, 15 pro. And I'll
00:28 tell you what, I don't know if I ever had this unique situation that we had this
00:31 this this offseason with four really, really good specialists. Obviously not
00:37 including Zach Wood, I feel about him too, but no, just the kickers and
00:40 punters. So it was a really unique situation to have a bat. I've had, I've
00:45 been involved with battles for one. I don't know if I've ever had a year like
00:49 this where we had kind of the competition that we had. And I want to
00:53 start off by saying I got really the utmost respect for for Will Lutz and
00:58 Blake Gilligan, not only as players, but as people. And I think kind of what gets
01:02 caught, you know, lost in a moment sometimes is the human element of the
01:06 game. And I've been around here out now going on my fifth season here with the
01:09 Saints and obviously have a tremendous relationship with Will. I've known Blake
01:13 for a long, long time. And so those are the, that's the part of it that's
01:16 really difficult. And as I told both of them, you know, Will and Blake, you know,
01:22 they're one of the 32 best at what they do. And they're going to be kicking and
01:25 punting, um, you know, for years to come. It was just a unique situation where we
01:30 had, you know, two rookies that really performed well. We had a battle in both
01:35 in both ways. And so, um, listen, you know, starting with the kicker
01:39 specifically, you know, both those guys were 90 plus percent, you know, from
01:44 from the day that, you know, we started off season. Uh, and I don't know if
01:48 I've ever seen that either with two kickers in the same place. So, you know,
01:51 we chart every competitive kick.
01:54 I've seen some of your numbers, by the way, guys, you were way off. But no, we
01:59 chart every competitive kick and really those guys were, they truly made each
02:03 other better. I know Blake would be the first one to tell you that he learned a
02:07 lot from Will. Um, you know, I know Will is going to continue to have a great
02:11 career. And so, you know, again, those are difficult decisions. It's, uh, it
02:16 made my job over the course, you know, whenever the off season started, uh,
02:20 enjoyable at the same time. It's a really tough when you come down to this
02:24 week and have to make those final decisions.
02:26 The chemistry
02:37 Yeah.
02:41 You feel like
02:43 willing
02:46 rebuild that chemistry? Yeah, you know, it's the human element I talked about
02:51 earlier. You know, Zach and Blake and will have a very, very tight bond. And
02:56 that's gonna, you know, it is like a brotherhood. Those guys are really close
02:59 friends. Um, you know, you got, you got guys are in each other's weddings and
03:03 things like that. So, you know, there's a personal side of that's involved. And
03:05 so, you know, I think, you know, Zach certainly understands this is a
03:10 business and understands the situation at the same time. He's losing two
03:13 friends that are leaving the building that he's been with on a daily basis.
03:16 And so, you know, we spend so much time in what we do on the specialist, as you
03:22 guys noticed, probably spend more time together than any other group because
03:25 they're not kicking or putting every single day. And there's a lot of
03:28 personal time. There's some downtime between offensive defensive meetings.
03:31 And so, you know, that truly is a battery. It's kind of like a pitcher
03:33 and a catcher in baseball. You know, those guys develop a bond. Um, you
03:37 know, they really understood to understand each other, the ins and outs
03:41 and they make each other better. You know, it's very unique to this game
03:45 because without each other, they can't have success. There's really, you know,
03:49 I guess you can liken it to a quarterback thrown to a receiver, if
03:52 you will. But, you know, there is a there is a type on there and there's
03:55 really a uniqueness to the specialist. And so, yeah, I mean, listen, that
03:59 battery got broke up, if you will. But also, obviously, Zach is working, you
04:04 know, worked with Lou and and with Blake Groupie, you know, this whole
04:08 offseason and he's handled it very, very well. And he's been a professional
04:11 about it. No doubt there was a disappointment involved on the personal
04:14 side, though. And that's that's natural.
04:16 He said both guys are over 90%. What were some of the determining factors
04:20 on between both? Yeah, you know, it's a great question. I mean, literally,
04:24 when when you have a competition, it's this close. You look, you're really
04:27 looking at everything. It's all encompassing. Um, and so you're breaking,
04:31 you know, they were very, very similar in their field goal percentage. And
04:34 you start looking at things like operation time, elevation on the ball,
04:37 hang time on kickoffs. Um, you know, you look at it, you know, you're looking
04:41 at Blake Groupie. The one thing you worry about, you know, I've been
04:43 involved with this before. When I was with the Dolphins, we got a couple of
04:45 rookie kickers. Um, you're always worried about a personality with that
04:50 young guy. You guys, you guys have talked to Blake Groupie a number of
04:53 times. You can see he's got a really good personality for for the position.
04:57 He's kind of like a water off a duck's butt kind of guy. And, you know, just
05:00 move on to the next thing. And but that helps in that position. You know, you
05:04 guys know you've talked to you before. Kicking is very much like golfing and
05:08 you've got to be able to hit one in the woods. You're gonna be able to drop it
05:11 and hit the next one on the green. And so that's what kicking is very, very
05:13 similar. And so he's got a really good personality. So all all encompassing
05:17 there really wasn't one determining factor. Uh, certainly will has more
05:20 experience. Um, and he's been under the spotlight. At the same time, there was
05:25 really nothing about Blake that gave us the impression that he wouldn't be able
05:28 to handle the situation naturally.
05:30 Yeah.
05:32 Yeah, this is this is gonna sound. This is gonna sound a little bit shocking,
05:40 but it's one of the I've been doing this for a long time, and one of the last
05:44 things we look at is his field goal percentage for a college kicker. You
05:47 look at, you know, we drafted Jason Sanders and with the Dolphins, you go
05:51 back and look his senior year. I think he was like 64%. If you looked at the
05:55 32 kickers in the NFL, you'd be shocked at what some what some of their field
06:00 goal percentages were. The game is much different. I don't get too technical on
06:03 you, but the hashes in college are different. The football is different.
06:06 The operation is different. Some guys are at seven yards, not eight. There's
06:10 a lot of little things that go into the into it. And so ever since Blake
06:14 started working from an NFL standpoint, meaning operation time, footballs,
06:19 hashes, all that he's he's done very, very well with that. So, um, I think the
06:24 general fan would look and look at a kicker's body of work and immediately
06:28 just go to field goal percentage. Some guys have really bad operations. And
06:32 when I say that snapper holder, you know, Blake's a guy that switched
06:35 schools, worked with different guys. And so, um, for me and for us, you know,
06:40 one of the key things was getting him with Zach would every day getting with
06:44 our holders every day, and he's handled that very, very well. So I know people
06:48 immediately go back and Wikipedia and look up field percentage, and I get
06:51 that. I understand it. But it really is a different game. The special teams,
06:55 college games and special teams. NFL games are really, really different.
07:03 Yeah, you know, with kickers, what happens is kickers and punters. What
07:07 they do is is once the combine process starts in the draft process starts, you
07:11 know, they switched NFL footballs. They switched the hashes. They switch all
07:15 those things. And so they go to these different showcases. Well, whether it
07:18 be the NFL combine, there's other special team showcases. So groupie and
07:21 heavily, neither of those guys got invited to the combine. So I went down.
07:25 We have their pro days or at these different, you know, different
07:29 showcases. We have to evaluate that film a little bit closer than you are
07:33 really their game from Lou Headley didn't kick an NFL style punt one time
07:37 in college. He was a rugby punter solely in college, and I don't blame
07:41 anybody. He should have been. The rules are different on DSO. That's why you
07:45 don't see the rugby kicks in the NFL. And so the biggest transition for him
07:50 was making that switch over from rugby to traditional. And although he brings
07:55 a little bit different element to the game with his Australian background and
07:58 the rugby style kicks at the same time, he had to make a big transition. So
08:02 there's a lot of nuances that go into it. It's not just how far can I kick
08:05 the ball and you know, there's operation time. There's all those different
08:09 things, and both those guys have handled that very, very well.
08:11 Yeah, listen, it was. It was a concern. I went and worked him out of his pro
08:19 day. I thought he handled that really, really well down in Miami. I was there.
08:22 He had a really good day that day. That's so he kind of made our short
08:25 list for the draft of potential free agents. The thing that was a concern
08:29 naturally is when you have a rugby guy like that or an Australian kicker like
08:33 that to make the transition to kick regular punts. There's a number of guys
08:36 in the NFL, Michael Dixon, Mitch Wachnowski, a couple guys that pop into
08:41 my head that are that are Aussie type guys that had to make that transition
08:44 and have done very, very well. So he falls more and more in the lines of one
08:48 of those guys. And so he brings a different style. He's not your
08:52 traditional end over, you know, turn over the ball kind of guy. He has a
08:57 different style approach. But the bottom line in punting is at the end of the
09:00 day, there's one number that matters, and that's net punting. You can get
09:03 there a lot of different ways. You can kick the ball 70 yards and have a 30
09:06 yard return, get a 40 yard net, or you can kick the ball 40 yards on the paint.
09:10 And so it's the same results a different way.
09:12 Well, I think, yeah, listen, I think they're two different style guys. You
09:18 know, Blake and Lou, they're getting there a different way. I think Lou has
09:22 a couple more, you know, maybe tools in the box, if you will.
09:25 So for each situation, like if you wanted to hang, if you wanted to be to
09:29 the side of the corner, he was like, that's correct. He's just got it. He's
09:33 just got it. You have a couple. Yeah, just a little more variety of kids.
09:35 Yeah, honestly, that's you know, if you look, if you look throughout the league,
09:44 there's the Australians that have come into our league and done very, very
09:47 well. I mentioned Michael Dixon. I mentioned Mitch Wisnowski. Those guys
09:50 are used to playing Australian rules football or rugby, and they're more
09:54 rugby style kickers where the balls has a different rotation on it, where a
09:57 traditional guy like Morstead or Gilligan is more of a hit the ball,
10:01 trying to get to turn over. These guys have a different rotation to the ball.
10:04 So, but there's a number of guys kind of that have come through the last 5
10:08 to 10 years in the NFL that are that kind of style, the Australian style.
10:12 Yeah, and that's something he did. That's something he did in Miami. And
10:19 so he had that background. He did it in junior college. You know, he's
10:23 obviously taking a different road than most guys, a 30 year old rookie. But he
10:27 did it in. He did it in Juco. We did it in Miami. Um, I actually it's probably
10:32 the thing that he's improved on the most since the day he walked in here
10:35 because we do it a little bit different than he did in college. But he's done a
10:39 good job with that.
10:40 Well, you see what he looks like. I have short hair and zero tattoos, and he's
10:49 got long hair and about 7 million. Now I'm just kidding. Um, listen, he's a
10:54 he's a he's a fantastic person. Getting to know him is, you know, I know the
10:59 special teams coach at the Miami Hurricanes really well. He worked, we
11:02 worked together, and so I kind of knew his personality a little bit from from
11:07 my good friend there. And, uh, and so he is treated. The thing else, the
11:13 biggest feather I could put in loose cap is he has treated himself like any
11:17 other rookie. He's not treating himself like a 30 year old. He's treating
11:19 himself like a 21 or 22 year old. He's gone through this rookie process with a
11:23 really good attitude. You would think sometimes maybe an older guy is kind of
11:27 like and have a different feel to it. But he's really approaching a really,
11:31 really professional way. I've got a lot of respect for the way he's handled
11:34 that.
11:34 Yeah,
11:45 I do. I actually do think he's got a pretty he's got a higher ceiling. I
11:49 think he's got room for improvement. There's some nuances we're working on
11:52 in his game. I do think there's some improvement there. You know, he's he's
11:55 hit some really good balls in practice and things like that that I think
11:58 there's some room for growth there. And again, he is still learn both guys like
12:02 any rookie. There's both still learning the nuances of the NFL game.
12:05 Sure.
12:07 After
12:11 in that
12:15 review,
12:15 he had to really good outings. Two good appearances. He had a he had a really
12:23 good pro day at Notre Dame. He had a really good day that day that kind of
12:27 jumped off the screen when we watched that and another showcase that I didn't
12:32 attend because we weren't allowed by the rules. But I watched the video. It was
12:35 a it was a It was a special team showcase. The college team showcase
12:38 had to really good, you know, outings at those two particular and that kind of
12:43 that's how we kind of got into our, you know, into under our radar, if you will.
12:46 And then we kind of get more background from there.
12:48 And it's kind of like, I don't know how to exactly explain it, but there's
12:54 something about the way he kicks the ball.
12:56 Yeah.
12:59 Yeah, he generates tremendous power. He's got, you know, again, if you want
13:05 to get real technical, I will. I love I love talking about it. You can tell.
13:09 Um, he really generates a ton of power because he has a really, really big
13:13 backswing. I mean, when he when he if you watch him slowing down his his his
13:17 foot again, I like it. The golf, you know, big backswing. The one thing
13:21 that's really impressive about that is the power that he generates from the
13:25 backswing. A lot of times you have erratic
13:26 hits when you when you have a large backswing. But I think the fact that
13:31 he's a smaller guy, more compact is what the reason you can elevate the ball
13:34 really well. So he does a really good job with that. You know, he's got a
13:36 little bit different, different approach to it. But yeah, listen,
13:40 everyone has the same reaction. You guys have heard all the stories about about
13:44 the not getting let into the locker room. I don't know if you heard the one
13:47 that a couple of our coaches thought he was somebody's son the first day here,
13:50 um, you know, walk around the locker room and then everyone has the same
13:54 reaction. They seem kicked the ball. It's kind of like, okay, this guy
13:57 belongs. Um, and it was pretty cool moment to watch Alvin Camara and
14:01 Michael Thomas and those guys when the word came down yesterday, go over and
14:05 talk to him and congratulate him. And I think he's earned a lot of people's
14:08 respect in this. In fact, I know he has a lot of people's respect in this
14:11 building. So
14:12 well, you know, I think a lot of those you mentioned linebackers and DBS are
14:27 the guys that make up the majority of our course. So those guys that aren't
14:30 starters per se, you know, a lot of those guys had pretty good, had pretty
14:34 good off seasons here. You know, the Marco Jackson, the guy that hurt last
14:37 year early. And so there really wasn't a large sample size of evaluation. I
14:41 thought he had a really nice preseason in our department special teams, but
14:45 there's a number of DBS have played well. I thought how to play really
14:48 well in this last game. Lonnie Johnson's had some some good moments.
14:51 Hugo, Ike, Ike, yet. I mean, there's a bunch of those guys that are reserved
14:55 DBS and linebackers. You guys have already seen what Zach Bon has been
14:59 able to do. So there's a number of those guys that really did a solid job
15:03 for us and will probably be the guys that make up a large part of our core.
15:07 We know one of them. We know one of them. We have a J. T. Grant. I think
15:14 the one thing that our personal department did a great job of this
15:17 offseason. We added a bunch of options. You know, last year we were a little
15:20 bit limited in that area in terms of who's gonna do it if somebody got hurt.
15:24 But there's a number of guys, you know, I mentioned, I mentioned how Hugo,
15:28 Lonnie, Ike, all those guys have gotten a number of reps and have all done
15:31 well. So I feel like we have a little, we have some more options there. We're
15:34 gonna kind of, it might be situational. To be honest with you, we have a number
15:36 of guys we can roll through there.
15:37 No, not necessarily. You know, it just, it just ties into, you know, their
15:50 releases and things like that. But as far as the protection goes and the
15:54 coverage goes, we kind of have our base principles. But again, you know, if you
15:58 if you would call Blake Gilligan a more of a traditional style guy and Lou,
16:02 like I said, more of a more of an Australian rugby style guy, that's kind
16:05 of the best way to. But as far as the coverage goes and things like that,
16:08 just knowing, knowing where we aim in the locations and things like that is
16:11 important for the coverage guys.
16:13 Yeah. So there's, um, you know, we call them going in punts. Anytime we're over
16:23 the 50 yard line, you're trying to keep the ball out of the end zone. There's
16:25 some guys that are better than that and others, quite frankly, because
16:28 sometimes that guy's got to play the football and not the returner. And
16:31 maybe some guys that will handle you guys have seen us in the past use some
16:34 receivers in that department, whether it be Trey Quan or Callaway, there's guys
16:37 like that in the past have have done that role. So there's certain guys that
16:41 are better at that. And then if we're really backed up on, we know kind of if
16:45 we're gonna get doubled outside, we may want to use different guys there,
16:48 whether it be bigger or faster. So where we are on the field, uh, has a lot to
16:53 do with with the style gunners we want to use.
16:55 How much of the life?
16:56 Yeah, listen, the more tools, the more tools we have in the box, the better in
17:03 every department. And so it's like, like I said, I think we've done a great job
17:06 roster wise of adding a lot of more, a lot more pieces, you know, to that
17:10 puzzle. So I'm excited. I'm excited for the year. Listen, it's two rookie
17:15 kickers, and that's that's always for special teams. Coach, I've been through
17:19 it before. It's interesting. And, uh, but I'm really, really excited for the
17:23 start of the year.
17:24 Yeah.
17:24 Yeah. Well, I'm gonna say this. It was. I think I only counted one time in the
17:33 preseason where someone executed a fair catch. I think we're gonna see it maybe
17:37 show up a little bit more now in the regular season because in the preseason,
17:41 everyone's kind of trying to work on their blocking and they're tackling and
17:43 their coverage, things like that. So you really didn't see it come up. I think
17:48 you'll start to see it a little bit more, and I think it will be a little
17:50 bit more situational. There's a couple times there's some situational things,
17:54 um, and the games and things like that, where I think you'll see it, but I don't
17:58 know how much you'll see it in regular kickoff situations. I'm actually
18:02 curious myself to see how teams utilize that and then how teams counter attack
18:08 that. If you know you're playing a team that might fair catch it, they might
18:11 start to see different types of kicks and things like that. So I'm kind of
18:14 curious how it plays out.
18:15 Thank you for listening.