Mike Zimmer’s 35-minute press conference was filled with important insights into his coaching style from connecting to young players to his initial thoughts on coaching Micah Parsons as he takes over as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
But one of the biggest highlights of the press conference was his response to questions about whether or not turnovers would be as huge of an emphasis as they were under Dan Quinn, whose defense in Dallas led the NFL in takeaways twice.
In Zimmer’s view, football doesn’t work like Madden where you set your settings to being an aggressive/balanced/conservative defense. It’s about little things leading to bigger ones. In other words, you can’t eat your takeaways dessert without eating your fundamental veggies.
“If you look at turnovers, typically they come from quarterback hits, overthrows, you know, things like that, where quarterbacks make the wrong reads,” Zimmer explained. “You knock the ball out of somebody’s hands because you’re physical. I think all those things kind of incorporate all of those things.”