New Orleans Saints Secondary Coach Aaron Glenn
Video Conference with New Orleans Media
Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Earlier this summer you were talking about being hard on Marshon Lattimore and pulling greatness out of him. Is he a player that responds well to that type of coaching?
"Absolutely. Marshon's the type that being easy on him, letting him get away with little things, he doesn't respond well to that. He's the type that wants the criticism. He wants you to tell him about the little things that he's doing wrong, because he wants to take his game to the next level. I've always done it to him since his rookie year, he and Marcus (Williams) both. They react to it really, really well. I expect some great things out of him this year. I always have and I do every year with him.

You got Janoris Jenkins in the middle of the season, what is your impression working with him now at a training camp and getting a better feel for him?
"The one thing that I do know and I'm going to take both those guys, we have the ability to play a lot of press man coverage with both of them. They do a really good job of working off of each other really well. Their communication with each other has been outstanding and I think that's a huge thing for corners and a lot of people take that for granted, that for corners to be able to speak and unspoken language (is big). They can speak without speaking and know what the other is thinking and their going to develop that as we go through practice. They're going to develop that on a lot of those stack routes, a lot of these switch routes. They just take a look at each other and know how to respond to those things. That takes reps. With him being with us to get it has been outstanding. He is an outstanding player. You see the bounce in his step. I think he's very happy to be here. That has a lot to do with the way he's operating right now."

What do you think the hurdle is in improving Marcus Williams' tackling?
"When you look at today's safeties, you start to see a lot of these guys at 195 barely into the 200 pound range and I think a lot of times that's what they think they have to be at. I think Marcus came in at around 199 last year and before that his rookie year he was 207. I gave him some stats on his progression as a tackler going from his rookie year to this past season. He totally saw the difference. His rookie season, he was a real, real good tackler and his build was a lot better. He came in this year at 210, even with all the running that we're doing he's maxing out at 208. He looks powerful. He's moving powerful. That extra weight that's on him is going to help him be able to wrap and make those tackles. He's a long armed player. With those long arms, he needs strength with that. I think that added weight and strength from this offseason is going to make him the tackler he was his rookie year. I'm excited to see what this player will do this year."

Is it a concern the weight will affect his coverage abilities?
"Absolutely not, because it's not the type of weight that you add in fat eating Krispy Kreme donuts every day. It's the added weight of him building that muscle mass in his frame that he added before and he just recaptured that. He's a finely tuned athlete right now. His legs are a lot bigger, his upper body a lot bigger and he's added the right type of weight instead of the weight you add just trying to be big."

Talking about his rookie year, many people like to define his tackling by one moment which is unfair, but he was good until that Minnesota game?
"A lot of people don't look at the whole thing. They look at what sells. They don't look at the good stuff. They look at the one bad thing that you do and that sells papers. That's just how the world works. Sometimes for a younger player, that would mess with you. I would tell him it's just understanding who he is and trusting his ability. I've done it. I can do it. It's been put on tape, but I didn't' do it as well last year and we have to confront that and that's another thing. He knows I'm going to be honest with him on that and we sit there and watch the tape on that and he agreed with everything that I showed him. He understands it and you see a different player at this camp. I'm excited to see how he's going to react when a gametime comes around."

He used to be sensitive talking about the tackling and admitted his tackling had to improve in his last meeting with us. For him to come out and talk to us about it, it seemed like growth. Do you feel he's more confident?"
"Here's my philosophy with him this offseason. If you don't confront the things you have to get better at, you'll never get better at it. You have to hit it head on. That's what we did watching tape together, before we had the Coronavirus pandemic we were watching it in my office and then during the offseason we were watching it on a zoom. Again, he confronted it. That's the number one thing you have to be able to do in this league as a player. You have to confront your issues and then you need to correct it and he's doing a really good job of that."

How does Malcolm Jenkins' intelligence benefit your team?
"The first thing I would take to the meeting room, the type of questions that he asks, the way that his input on things that he's seen and the way that he's going about doing things, but the good thing about him is he's willing to learn new things and he's willing to apply them out on the field and I think Malcolm understands that I can teach him some things in regards to playing that's going to continue to help him and I think that's why this relationship has been good right now and the communication has been good is because of that. Now once you put him on the field and talk about disguising. Since he's been around so long he totally gets it. Some younger guys, you have to explain it to him, you want to do that, he says I got you coach and he's able to help the guys on the field, (telling teammates), here's what he's trying to say. He's almost an extension of a coach on the field and not just the secondary but with the linebackers. It's awesome to have that player. I'm enjoying coaching and being around him. I know the players in the locker room are enjoying being around him and I know our room as a DB group enjoy that he's in there. I'm expecting big things out of him too."

With PJ Williams, we heard about the big interception he had the other day with pads on, but are you seeing more confidence out of him particularly at safety and corner just because of the success he had last year?
"P.J. is my swiss army knife, so P.J. has no choice but to have confidence especially if he's going to play as many positions as he's going to play. I've talked about this, he's like Malcolm one of those positionless players, they have the talent to play a number of positions, but they also have the body type and ability to do it. P.J. can play corner when we need him to play corner. He has the confidence to do that. He can go play safety when we need him to play safety. He can play nickel when we need him to play nickel. He can go play dime when we need him to play dime. The good thing about him is P.J. can go in and play those positions and there's not a lot of hiccups because he understands the role and does a lot of studying. P.J. is one of my favorite players because of all that he can do and he doesn't have an ego. He's willing to do whatever we ask him to do to help us win and as a coach you like players like that."

Dennis Allen said that Marshon Lattimore's next step is consistency. Is that a product of focus for him, being locked in on every play?
"You just hit it on the head because everybody's not going to be Julio Jones. Everybody's not going to be Mike Evans. They're not going to be the top-notch guys where they force you to be locked in. My philosophy is you are going to battle those really good guys, but the guys you are going to dominate, you have to dominate them. There are no bad players in this league but there are different levels of players. The Julio Jones' you have to battle that guy. Mike Evans you have to battle that guy. Other receivers I need you to dominate that guy. There are going to be times when you don't have any help. You have to dominate that guy. That's where his focus has to be. When it's time to dominate, dominate. When it's time to battle, we're going to battle. They're going to make some catches. They're good players too. But you need to have a locked in mentality everytime you line up. I always ask him the question, are you being intentional. I want to see your body language being intentional, locked in, focused, your eyes are tight on that guy and ready to go. He's doing a really good job of that."