Fewell to keep Giants' defensive staff intact
Perry Fewell said his first job as Giants defensive coordinator is getting the coaching staff to speak the same language. Apparently in this new dialect, the words "You're fired" don't exist.
In his first public remarks since being named defensive coordinator earlier this month, Fewell spoke to "The Opening Drive" on Sirius NFL Radio Tuesday morning and said he plans to make no further changes to the defensive coaching staff. Besides dumping Bill Sheridan as coordinator to open the position for Fewell, the Giants also dismissed defensive line coach Mike Waufle in the week after their season ended. Those appear to be the only changes that will take place.
"I have a lot of confidence in the staff that's presently here," Fewell said. "Both secondary coaches [Peter Giunta and Dave Merritt] have a Super Bowl ring. One guy [Giunta] has two Super Bowl rings. Our linebacker coach [Jim Herrmann] is well known and an excellent linebacker coach. So we just want to fill that defensive line position with another knowledgeable person that can help us get over the top."
Fewell, who joined the Giants after serving as interim head coach of the Buffalo Bills, said he and Tom Coughlin have been interviewing coaches for the defensive line job. In the meantime, Fewell said he's been trying to get the staff on the same verbal page so they can "talk Giant football language."
As for his philosophy, Fewell said: "I like to run a defense that's multiple," he said. "Multiple in that it's fundamentally sound, has good tacklers, and [is] aggressive. Coveragewise, 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."
He said he'll have to analyze the Giants' roster before deciding how specifically to use the players. But so far, he likes what he's seen.
"I'm just going to try to bring some excitement, some energy, and some ideas that I think are important to a championship defense," he said. "I think we'll take advantage of what our talent level does. And if it is more of an attacking style, a blitz-style defense, then that's what we'll do."