Defensive coordinator Burke keeping everyone on their toes
Dolphins equipment man Joe Cimino better start brushing up on the latest in helmet safety. Nutritionist Mary Ann Kelly, get your gluten-free menu in order. And security chief emeritus Stu Weinstein, recite the plan for fending off nosy reporters.
With defensive coordinator Matt Burke running the show, everything is fair game.
Burke has just adopted a technique from his mentor, Jim Schwartz, that keeps everybody honest about their job. He’ll call out someone to the front of the defensive meeting room and give them a five-question pop quiz.
No pressure, other than all those eyes upon you and all the heckling of an impromptu frat party. Right, rookie safety Maurice Smith?
Smith was the lucky first victim to go under the spotlight last week. Smith said Burke asked “like five” questions, “but it felt like it was about 10, you know?”
In Burke’s world, it’s not enough to know your job. You have to know everybody else’s, too. “The big picture,” Smith called it.
“Certain things related to the scheme for that week,” Smith said. “So he was asking me, ‘Why are we doing this to stop this route?’ and I had to tell him that. So it got into detail, that’s for sure.” A little jittery, rook?
“I was nervous,” Smith said. “Anytime you sit on a spot like that — it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been around.”
Smith was nervous, but prepared. He gave himself an A-minus, saying he started to fumble on two answers, but Burke threw him a lifeline, allowing him to correct himself, and he passed.
“Just specific stuff that those guys should know,” Burke said. “He nailed all five of them.”
Smith has absolutely no problem with it.
“If you mess up, and you get another chance at it, you don’t want to be that person who messes up again,” Smith said. “That’s not going to be a good look. It’s good when the coaches see that you’re prepared.”
Burke’s reasoning goes back to the opener, when undrafted free agent Chase Allen was called upon to start at linebacker the night before the game because Lawrence Timmons went AWOL.
“We said, ‘Bro, you’re starting tomorrow,’” Burke said. “And he went out there and performed. My point is that everybody in that room — that sits in our defensive room — is on call.
“... You may only get two reps in practice but you’ve got to be responsible and know this stuff because you’re one step away from going into the game and you owe it to the rest of this defense, the rest of the people in this room, to be prepared.”
Burke traced it to his time with Schwartz, the ex-Lions coach, when the entire team gathered on Fridays.
“He was like extreme. Anybody that was in the room was responsible to know what they had to know. So if there was an equipment guy in the room for the meeting, he’d call him down; or he’d call a security director down and ask him about gun-concealment laws, or he’d call a trainer down and ask about insertion points of this muscle. It was literally like ‘Hey man, we’re all counting on each other in this room, and so you have to be able to prove to the rest of these guys in this room that I’m doing my job, and I know what I’m supposed to know and be there for you guys when I’m called upon.’ I always took that message to heart.”
There was one time when Burke didn’t have a choice. Schwartz called on a young Matt Burke when he was serving as a quality-control guy.
“I’m working two weeks ahead sometimes trying to work on the next opponent,” Burke said, “getting my film broken down and stuff. I was like three opponents ahead and he called me up in front of the defense and I’m like ‘I don’t even remember who we’re playing week,’ and he put me on a spot. I remember that lesson, too. It was good. I just had to dial it back like ‘Who are we playing this week again? All right. This is what they’re doing.’”