BY NICK ST. DENIS
Buffalo Bills new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz sounds a lot like Mike Pettine did in taking over the job last year, using words like "attack," "physical" and "adapting."
It's not all the same, though.
"First of all, Mike and I are different guys," Schwartz said Monday, via BuffaloBills.com. "Even though I think continuity is important and there is something to be said for that, we’re going to look very hard at ways over the next few months to keep continuity as much as we can."
Last offseason, Pettine made it clear that he was there to adjust his system to the players, not the other way around. Schwartz echoed his sentiments.
"From a coaching standpoint, I think a lot of times it’s coaches adapting to players," Schwartz said. ". . . Whether that’s carry over from last year’s scheme, whether that’s new
things that we bring. I think that’s what coaching is all about, we put
players in position to make plays and that’s a pretty easy group to do
it."
The former Detroit Lions head coach, who has coached up some pretty stellar defensive fronts in recent years, is inheriting a very good group led by Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Mario Williams. Pettine got the most out of them from a pass-rushing standpoint, and Schwartz will be tasked with maintaining that output while improving the run defense.
"There’s some talent up front and it’s on these coaches to put those guys in good position to make plays," he said. ". . . We’ll be fast, we’ll be physical, and we’ll attack. We are not going to be a reading defense. There’s going to be a lot of defensive lineman that will be real happy to play in a system like that."
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