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NY Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell relishes 'exciting opportunity' with NY Giants

By Mike Garafolo/The Star-Ledger
January 26, 2010, 3:07PM

Luc Lecerc/US PresswireNew Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said he will adapt the team's defense to his players' strengths.

MOBILE, Ala. -- Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell has yet to chat with the local media since being hired (probably, in part, because the Jets' playoff run kept going and going and the Giants wanted to wait for that to end) but took time Tuesday to do an interview with Sirius NFL Radio.

I have the highlights from that spot for you. But real quick: according to someone informed of the terms of Fewell's contract, the former Bills interim head coach signed a two-year deal. The person, who requested anonymity and did not provide financial terms, said the Giants prefer to sign their coordinators to two-year contracts instead of three-year deals (like the one Jim Haslett recently signed with the Redskins).

As for what drew Fewell to the Giants instead of rejoining Lovie Smith with the Bears, Fewell told Bob Papa and Randy Cross on Sirius, "Just being the New York Football Giants. Great offense. Good offenses have you help you have great defense. That's the key to having a great defense. The talent level that's here. Our front four -- really we have six, seven, eight guys up in the front that can play football and I've enjoyed watching them over the years play football. We have some talented linebackers as well as secondary guys. So it was an exciting opportunity to come work with a new group that knows how to win and that can win. And this NFC East is one of the toughest divisions in football. What an exciting opportunity to be involved in the NFC East."

Among the other interesting notes from the interview was when Papa asked Fewell what kind of defense he will run. Fewell, having worked with Smith who was a Tony Dungy disciple, has a reputation as a "Tampa 2" guy. But as Bills safety George Wilson told me after Fewell's hiring, the Giants' new coordinator will change it up.

"I like to run a defense that's multiple. Can I say that?" Fewell said. "Multiple, fundamentally sound, (with) good tacklers and aggressive. Coverage-wise, it can be flexible. It can be Tampa Cover-2, it can be a lot of different things. But I want to be very flexible and aggressive in what we do. I have to find out what the talent level allows me to do. I think we take advantage of what our talent level does. And if it's more of an attacking style, blitz style of defense, that's what we'll do."

Here's a transcript of the rest of Fewell's interview:

On joining the Giants: "Absolutely awesome. First class organization. Spirit of cooperation and a winning attitude."

On what he sees from his new defense: "I see a very talented Giant defense. I'm just going to try to bring some excitement, some energy and some ideas I think are important to championship defense."

On having an attacking defense: "It's something that comes and goes, but offenses are so aggressive now. It's a game that you must be aggressive on defense, you must take advantage of some of the things the offenses are doing. The players today like to be aggressive and attacking. That's our mindset now; we're going to attack the offense a lot more now."

On what he learned from being an interim head coach: "I realized how tough it is to field a 45-man roster on game day. Especially when you have injuries and players are going down. Just fielding a 45-man roster is really difficult on game day. The other thing is I was in control of the game as interim head coach. You know when you go into a ballgame, you can set a plan for your team and that you can dictate the course of what that game would be, or how that game would try to play out. Get it into the fourth quarter, try to make it close in the fourth quarter and win the football game with a strong mental attitude. And the attitude of your football team is very important. I gained that more than anything. The attitude of your football team, the mindset of your football team is very important in winning football games."

On if he believes the Jets demonstrated such a strong mindset this year: "That is really a great point. Belief, attitude is the key to victory."

On walking the fine line of correcting the players while also having their back: "Yes, I think it is a very fine line. We're in this thing together. Players, coaches, we're all in this thing together. And we're all professional in what we do and how we do it. We want to minimize the mistakes when we play. That is one of keys to victory also. if you can minimize the mistakes, cause turnovers and cause interceptions and score on defense and do some things to uplift your football team. We try to concentrate on that, not only in meeting but also in practice so it carries over to our football game. And if we can do that, we all buy in we all believe and we all have that attitude."

On what he's learned from Tom Coughlin: "Discipline, preparation, just staying on top of the game, staying with the trends of the game. Growing, evolving, studying and researching what you do and how you do and then studying other people -- what they do and how they do. This game of football evolves every day and every year. And so just keeping up with some of the different trends and just learning to grow as a professional."

On his first order of business: "My first order of business is to get our coaching staff on the same page so we can talk Giant football language. More so than diving in with the players, it's getting our coaching staff on the same page because the language of football is not always universal. And then, I'm evaluating the players -- seeing what they do and how they do it and what they do well. Trying to form a plan in my mind so when we go into OTAs and minicamps and whatever, we can construct our defense to take advantage of what our players do."

On what a Giants linebacker looks like: "Lawrence Taylor. (laughs) Let's get a couple more of those guys in here. That makes my job a lot easier. The personnel staff here has done a great job over the years of bringing in linebackers. This was like Penn State, Linebacker U. I have a lot of confidence our personnel staff will bring in linebackers that fit that mold, that fit the Giant mold."

On the defensive staff: "Right now, we're in the process of bringing in a defensive line coach and Coach Coughlin and I are looking at candidates for the defensive line position. But i have a lot of confidence in the staff that's presently here. Both secondary coaches have Super Bowl rings. One guy (Peter Guinta) has two Super Bowl rings. Our linebackers coach is a well-known and excellent linebackers coach. We just want to fill that defensive line position with another knowledgeable person that can help us get over the top."

Big_Pete wrote:
"I like to run a defense that's multiple. Can I say that?" Fewell said. "Multiple, fundamentally sound, (with) good tacklers and aggressive. Coverage-wise, it can be flexible. It can be Tampa Cover-2, it can be a lot of different things. But I want to be very flexible and aggressive in what we do. I have to find out what the talent level allows me to do. I think we take advantage of what our talent level does. And if it's more of an attacking style, blitz style of defense, that's what we'll do."

I like this a lot