Matt Daniels on Early Impressions of New Kickoff Rule, Will Reichard's Week 1 Performance and More

one and know obviously going on the road tough environment but you know we kind of had the perfect formula in terms of they say you want to win on the road you take a great defense with you and bring a great fan base along and skull Nation definitely showed up especially getting to the fourth quarter and you're getting skull chance across the entire stadium and even some Giants fans kind of joined in that so that was encouraging to see uh but unbelievable fan base that we do have and you know we're going to lean on them a lot going coming home uh it's good to get the first win build some confidence kind of get things going a little bit and now we kind of turn be able to come on come on back home to US Bank Stadium where our fans played a huge role in the 2023 game that we had in San Francisco just kind of causing a lot of communication issues with the offense defense and special tenue standpoint so excited to get back in front of our fans see if we can continue to stack some wins obviously the kickoff in in this game was not a big game changer but around the league there were a few big plays I guess when you looked back at all the kickoffs what was your kind of assessment yeah I think the biggest thing is is that everyone's still really trying to figure out the best way to Personnel it what type of kick to hit um even kind of dealing with the weather too you know the Buffalo game Arizona ended up taking one back uh to the house Chicago ended up having a huge explosive uh both of those are windy very you know the atmosphere plays a huge role in what type of kicks you want to hit and how far the ball actually does travel where it's getting caught at and so I think again it's it's week in and week out you're going to see different schematics you're going to see different personnel and it won't be until about week three week four to where you kind of get a good idea of what it's going to look like and how you want to be able to execute and also defend against the play Matt how do you guys view the the Touchback shift from the 25 to the 30 is that five yards enough of a disincentive to Kick It In The End Zone man you know I think the biggest thing is is that when you look at the average return of where the ball is being returned to versus kicking out of the end zone it's really about the same right now so you know you you kick it and they bring it out it gets returned it's going to end up at the 30 yard line whether if you boot it out automatic goes to the 30 so it's kind of a rich reward and now you kind of got to turn more towards okay what are the odds of me drawing a penalty of holding holding call possibly here where the eyes of me being able to possibly jar the football loose um and so you try to weigh a you know a little cost benefit analysis in terms of how much do we really want to put this thing in play who's a returner back there how good do we feel about the Personnel in terms of the blockers that's blocking for him um and so it's kind of a game by game basis uh I do see the positives in putting in play but also do see positives in you know kicking it out too so it's really more so U game by game really even in within the game situationally you know we get up 20 plus points on the Giants and you know probably want to just boot it out because you want to eliminate any type of explosive uh play that can end up happening or giving them any shift and momentum so it's you know you kind of got to play it really this might be wishful thinking but do you think that some kickers will get better over the course of the Season at placing it want to give the coaches confidence to absolutely absolutely you know and that's even going back during the offseason Kevin you know obviously there's guys are working on multiple you know variety of kicks and obviously it's a much different than when you know you finally actually do have 21 guys in front of you your sight line becomes a little bit more different you know how you want to hit it becomes different you know weather starts getting involved uh but I do think as kickers gain more experience doing it they'll get better with placing it they'll get better with what type of ball they want to hit but again there always that risk rewarding and W to hit those kind of those squid kicks to where you just want to make sure you get inside the Atlanta Zone you know cuz we ended up in one and it landed right at the 19 yd line you know otherwise you kind of holding your breath as that ball in the air hoping and praying and wishing that it does land Atlant cuz the last thing you want is that ball to end up you know hitting at the 21 and that balls out to the 40 yard line so you going more air underneath that ball uh no I think it was a perfect kick yeah perfect kick good kick by Will what did you see from will in this first game uh I thought I saw a quieted mind uh very confident from start to finish uh even kind of going out warm up just watching him go through his process is uh pregame he's looking at his lines really getting a good be for what the stadium how where the wind is blowing you know where his lines at you know where's the spot um you know throughout the game it was just very quiet very confident a lot of interactions going on with his teammates he wasn't always in the net wasn't always to himself very involved encouraging um you know kind of hype man at times and so you know that's kind of good to see we've got him involved in some of the pressure turn things that we doing turns and being able to line up BP setting the yardage in terms of you know how far we wanted to be when uh for the punt when the punt is being kicked you know what yard line we want BP to be 45 40 50 and so he's kind of helping BP with that and you know we want to just find ways to keep will involved in the game so it doesn't feel like he's just off to his side always just kicking into the net and you know next thing know he comes out when his name get called but uh I love what will did you know obviously it would have been nice to try to get a end the half maybe possi long field goal there at the end of the half or possibly something at the end of the game or the field goal in general but you know the Pats are hard enough within the so it was good to see them go 4 for four when it comes to just part returning in general it feels like penalties in any game are a major factor in those you had a couple here I I guess how how do you try to practice that to avoid taking those penalties because it seems like those can be such a big negative on the power return yeah for sure you know I think the biggest thing is is that you try not to over Coach you not necessarily to hold him because I'll never get I'll never get upset or or or down on the guy because he's being aggressive with his hands you know obviously you got to make sure you're staying within the the frame the framework of your feet you're playing with good hands you're playing with Good Feet you're well balanced uh you know and we always talk about you know if a guy ends up leaving outside of your frame you got to let him go um you know to call on Jay Ward I thought he was doing a great job of working his techniques it looks like you know he kind of knocked the guy's arm down as he was kind of leveraged against and and he fa but it's tough for the ref's um you know view perspective when you know you're looking at a play from 20 30 yards away you see a guy going the ground um you know quite frankly you're going to just assume that this you know super athlete didn't just fall on his own like obviously he had to be kind of tugged pulled or something something for that matter um but we try not to over Coach you know the aggressive you know I'm I I get more upset for pre- SNAP penalties false Stars off sides then a will for a guy being aggressive trying to sustain a block for 40 50 yards working down the field you know that's something that we can correct um but what we can't correct is pre- snap penalties that that's just something that can't happen in our game man what's the challenge of Defending a a rookie returner such as Jacob coing and is it tougher to prepare for a new guy versus someone you maybe seen Tendencies from yeah for sure um you know going back I did a lot of studying on C coming out of Arizona uh he's very fast very Twitchy uh very aggressive in terms of his decision decision making even if Gunners are in his face he's looking to return it if he can uh he can stretch you he can cut you he's got he's got he's very versatile in what he's able to do and so we really lean a lot on obviously the collegate tape there's a little bit of preseason tape to kind of get a good beat on what his profile is and how they want to be able to set up returns for him and so you know we we lean a little bit more on the on the collegate tape just because that's really all that we have and kind of Blended just in terms of what's the history says of what that coordinator what Schneider likes to do from a return standpoint kind of build that build the portfolio in that matter you have a nickname for will yet oh yeah I did a week later I did um yeah you know we do I was actually talking with DG about it I haven't officially actually told the team or will this but I was thinking I was thinking I was talking with DG that possibly we could call him will Striker Striker Striker that's what I'm thinking he's going to be Striker strikes the ball well and I don't know if anyone has ever seen the movie Shooter but Mark W Mark wallberg name in the movie was Striker so think of will almost like a sniper for that matter H yeah like it will Striker Striker rker airplane oh yeah no no yeah so yeah let's go with Striker will Striker we'll put it out there yeah put it out there right now yeah let's put it out there yeah cool yeah consistently strikes the ball well yeah like that cool appreciate y'all