DENVER BRONCOS QUOTES (9/6/21)



DENVER BRONCOS QUOTES (9/6/21)SAFETY JUSTIN SIMMONSOn what it means to him to be named a team captain?for the season“It’s honestly something that I’ve thought about for the past couple of years. It means everything. I think it means more because it comes from your peers—obviously, coaches and players. You would like to receive that honor from your peers, but I think it just means a great deal. Guys step into leadership roles and you can kind of feel like, ‘OK, I’m a leader on this team. I know what I have to do. I know what’s expected.’ To have it kind of written in stone just makes it a little bit more real, and it’s an honor. It’s truly an honor, and I’m excited for this year.”On being a named a team captain resonates more with him this season“Oh, for sure. Honestly, as?one of the leaders on this team, I want to be put in that position. That’s where greatness happens—when you’re put in a tough position and then you find ways—not individually, but as a team, as a collective team. You find ways to persevere and push through, and eventually make things happen. That’s all anyone cares about. No one really cares about the details of how it happens, but as long as it happens. I can speak for most of the guys on the team saying we want to be the team that turns this whole thing around and to get back to where the Broncos have always been.”On his impressions of Giants talent on offense“They have a great group. I know the talk of last year has been some of the things that have happened offensively to them, but they’re a great group. I think [Giants QB] Daniel Jones is a really good quarterback. I think he’s a good quarterback for this league, and they have a lot of weapons that he can utilize on the offensive side of the ball. As you said—[Giants RB Saquon] Barkley. They got [Giants WR Kenny] Golladay as an addition. They’ve got [Giants WR] Sterling Shephard, [Giants TE] Evan Ingram. They got [Giants TE] Kyle Rudolph in the offseason, and some great tight ends that they have over there. They’ve got a great running back room, receiver room. I mean, they’ve got it all. Defensively, we have our work cut out for us Week 1. All this offseason we talked about how we wanted to be the best and we’re going to have to go out there and prove it Week 1 against New York.”On if he expects there to be any surprises on Sunday against the Giants“Yeah, there are always surprises Week 1, especially when you’ve got so many different weapons. They’ve got Golladay. [Giants WR Darius] Slayton was a big guy that they went to last year a lot. You never know truly going into the game how things are going to go, what they’re looking for, and what the flow is going to look like. As a defensive unit, you’ve?got to be able to adjust. I mean, that’s the biggest thing. You may do well in the first half, and they’re going to have some things that they change in the second half. You got to be able to adjust to it. You don’t do as well in the first half, and you have to make adjustments at halftime and come out the second half and be able to execute your adjustments. That’s really what the first game is about. Going in with that solid game plan and adjusting from there.”On the differences of playing with the ‘No-Fly Zone’ versus the current secondary “[Former NFL CB] Aqib [Talib]—the whole ‘No-Fly Zone’ was kind of loud and boisterous. They let you know they make a play. My personal game style is not it’s not that way. Obviously in the moment, you get hyped up and you make plays, but you’re talking about [Former NFL CB] TJ [Ward], ‘Stew’ (Former NFL S Darian Stewart), Aqib, [Texans CB Bradley] Roby, [Chargers CB] Chris [Harris Jr.]. Those guys—always, no matter what—were going to let you know they made a play and that was their MO. That’s who they were, and they did it. I think this group carries that same type of confidence, but probably just isn’t as loud or as boisterous as that. It’s cool man—finding your own groove as a secondary. I think we’re jelling together really well, and the biggest thing that’s going to be important is making sure that shows up on Sundays when we’re out there trying to execute on the back end.”On how to prepare for Giants RB Saquon Barkley in practice“It’s definitely difficult, but you’ve got to lock into the details of practice. You’re not out here tackling and thudding and things like that in practice, so you’ve got to be able to hone in on the little things—making sure you have been at the point of attack, making sure you’re getting your mental reps in terms of how you’re approaching every tackle. All the way up until the actual hit, you got to prep as if you are playing that rep live, and you’ve just got to trust that process. When it gets over to the game, you’ve got to trust that throughout the week you’ve been doing the little things leading up to the week that are going to make you successful on Sundays. By no means is that an easy task, especially when you’re talking about someone as talented as Saquon.”On how he can benefit from putting four cornerbacks on the field with him at the same time“I think that allows both [S] Kareem [Jackson] and I to be a little bit more flexible. We’ve already been in the system now for three years, and we have a little bit of control of what’s expected, where are weak points are at on the defensive call, what we’d like to get in for those corners that are out there. What help do they need or what help do they not need—things like that. I think it’s going to make us just a little bit more flexible, and then, not to mention our rush and getting after the quarterback. Quarterbacks aren’t going to have that much time to be figuring out what we’re doing and what we’re taking away and what we’re not. We’re just excited.”On if the secondary is aware of the potential for takeaways on Sunday“Oh yeah, for sure. We made it a big emphasis this offseason. One of our weak points was not getting the ball as much as we should, and that’s just been a huge talking point all offseason. That’s all we hear about, that’s all we go over, that’s all we emphasize in practice. This is no better chance to put that on paper going into Week 1. I’m sure they’ve heard about it on their offensive side of the ball taking care of the football and things like that, but that’s something that we really need to make a point of emphasis on as a defense.”On if the secondary has a set number of takeaways they’d like to accumulate this season?“There’s really no set number or maybe numbers that I’d probably share, but it definitely is a goal—that’s No. 1 on the goal board—just takeaways. I mean literally No. 1. Every time we walk into the room, we’re talking about takeaways. We watch takeaway tape and emphasize it in practice. That’s all we’re focused on.” ................
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