Landon Collins Redskins Presser: Communication is the biggest key within the defense

Landon Collins was the Redskins big money free agency pick up this year, and he is expected to be a leader on defense for a long time. He talked about picking up this defense, gelling with the DBs, and his relationship with Josh Norman. Collins also talked about the current Redskins quarterbacks, and who is standing out on offense.

Communication:

"We breaking it down part by part, piece by piece. We’re taking our time with it. We are not trying to rush through it. We are breaking down each individual person that we have to have. We have the seam, we have the flats, we have the man-to-man. How we are playing it game plan wise, how we are playing it camp wise. It’s just breaking down the components just to make sure we all on the same page. We talk more than anything. Communication is the biggest key within the defense. On that part we just stay on the same page, making sure what we got to do, and how we got to play it.”

Dwayne Haskins:

"He’s doing a great job out there – making his plays, making his drills, reading his reads. He’s being a rookie. Honestly, all rookies are going to make them mistakes. I am glad he is making them now in camp, so he can know what he can and cannot do; what he cannot throw, and what he can throw, just how to read the defense. The more you go against a good defense, the more you go against, and get his reps, the better he’s going to become.”

Differences between the 3 QBs:

"You never – honestly as a DB or as a defensive player – you don’t know who is back there when you got three different quarterbacks throwing the ball. I don’t realize until after the play. I couldn’t even tell you who threw the ball when I caught that interception. From that standpoint, you just get to know the defense, and you get keen in all positions – knowing our technique, knowing our job is supposed to do. From that standpoint, we go from there. Now when I get to be on the sideline and watch these guys and watch their reads, I can see that Colt [McCoy] is definitely going through his reads, his steps, his progressions and getting the ball out there as quick as possible. Same thing with Case [Keenum] and Dwayne [Haskins Jr.]. It goes hand-in-hand. Then, going against other quarterbacks, that is more of a study habit. I’m watching more film on other quarterbacks. I get to watch them and watch their reads, what’s their keys, their concepts; offensive coordinator, what they like to do, down the distance it goes. It goes way farther into the film work than going against them on the field.”

Redskins defense:

"Man, this defense, we could ride it all the way, honestly. We have a great deep front that’s going to put pressure on quarterback faces. They’re going to have maybe two seconds to have that read down field and get the ball out. If they don’t, it’s either a sack or it’s going to be a tipped fumble or it’s going to be a tipped ball in the air and it’s going to give the DBs an opportunity to make plays. I go to Jonathan Allen, Matt [Ioannidis], Daron Payne – I go to all those guys, Ryan Kerrigan – make sure to say, ‘Hey, get pressure on this quarterback,’ because we got guys back here that can force turnovers and get the ball back to our offense.”

Interception in practice:

“I’ll go through the progression. Honestly, I was on a three-to-two read. My three didn’t come up the field so my next read was to my two. Both of my two’s went outside, so I didn’t have any reads. All I had was space and opportunity and I just knew looking at the quarterback, he was drifting my way. So from that standpoint I knew the ball was coming in that area, I just didn’t know where it was going at. I broke on the ball and played with instincts from there. But with big plays like that, it shows the team that we got talent on our back end that’s going to make plays, that’s going to be playmakers, game changers, get an opportunity to win a game, and try to make a run for the big dance. With that being said, that’s what we have to continue to do. We have guys all over the field to do that, and it’s very special and I can see it on this team.”

Standouts on offense:

"I would say Jordan Reed and Terry McLaurin, definitely those two. Reed is just one of those guys that has the options to do whatever he wants and he gets open. He’s going to catch the ball and go get any ball. Same thing with Terry [McLaurin]. He has the ability to just run past anybody. His speed, we haven’t had a speed receiver out there in a minute. From that standpoint, he can beat anybody deep and he’s showing his versatility by going to get any ball that’s in the air.”

Games vs New York Giants:

"For me? Or for the team? For me, it’s going to be a lot of aggression. When I go to those types of games, I go to my college times. I was from Louisiana and I was playing LSU. So just being able to keep my composure as much as possible, keep my emotions in tack and play within my defense. When you go against a time that you have some aggression against, you want to let some self-esteem out. You want to pick your times and pick your moments to do that. You got to be able to control it at the end of the day because it could hurt the team more than it could help. From that standpoint, I just got to keep the emotions under control.”

Josh Norman:

"“We have known each other since my third year in the league. It’s been good. It’s just understanding each other and what he is looking at. We go over a lot of film so we kind of work on that as much as possible, understanding what he likes to do when he likes to go after and go get something. If I see something I just give him a key concept. I mean as a corner they can attack more, then at safety we have to be the last line of defense so I can’t really do much attacking, but I can tell him, ‘hey this might be coming, go get it,’ so things like that.”

Safety blitz:

Spending time with the DB group during the offseason:

"We hung out a lot during OTA’s for sure. Before OTAs, a lot of us were doing different things, but during OTAs, when everybody got here, everyone was kind of doing spades night, getting together. For us it’s more of a bonding and understanding each other, making sure we’re on the same page and making sure we can talk to each other. When you can’t talk to somebody, they go off into their own world and into their own space and they don’t care to listen. They don’t want to listen. So we made sure we stayed on top of each other with our group chat. This offseason, most of us went to Scottsdale [Arizona](for two week) and trained out there so we got along with a lot of the guys out there. We did a lot of things and did a lot of team bonding, so it was good.”