The Bengals’ head coach, Marvin Lewis, spoke to Bay Area reporters this morning over a conference call, and here’s what he said.
Q: Will Manny Lawson be the guy who mostly covers the tight ends?
LEWIS: It depends on our defensive front and our coverage.
Q: Is that something you saw in him in free agency?
LEWIS: They kind of had him as the drop side backer as much as they could. And so he’s done some of the things that we thought he could make the transition and fit into our defense.
Q: How difficult was it to project a guy who’d played in the 3-4 to a weakside linebacker in a 4-3?
LEWIS: In order to evaluate guys for the draft we have to have a position that hybrid guys fit into. That’s just the way we do it. We have the defense set up that way. We have a category for people like that.
Q: Did the lockout make you start game planning for opponents a lot earlier than you would have?
LEWIS: We would have game planned for this game anyway. It’s a new coaching staff and so forth and it’s in the third week of the season, so we would have spent the time regardless on that.
Q: Were you looking at the 49ers as far back as May and June when you would have been in OTAs?
LEWIS: Even though we’re OTAs we’re doing the same thing as coaches.
Q: Did that contribute to the fact that three 49ers are now on your defensive unit?
LEWIS: No, not really, because what we do as coaches and what we decide to do from a personnel standpoint are completely different. I’m really the only one involved in that.
Q: Was it coincidental that that happened?
LEWIS: I think it is more coincidental other than maybe Taylor (Mays), and I think in Taylor’s case I think Trent (Baalke) knew we had interest in Taylor. Two years ago during the draft we called them and asked if they wanted to trade their slot to us. That’s the slot they ended up taking Taylor in and we were going to do the same thing. I think that’s the only real (example) where Trent knew we had an interest in a player.
Q: What does Taylor Mays need to do better at this stage of his career?
LEWIS: He’s got to get an opportunity, and unfortunately for us he sprained his knee in the last preseason game, so he’s not really been able to be full speed up until the end of last week. So, he really hasn’t had enough practice time with us yet to understand. We feel he has a good skill set. He’s a big man who can run. In the two preseason games he got an opportunity to play in here, he really did a nice job of showing his range and coming up and being a physical player in the run support and so forth. He had good leverage. We’re pleased with him. It was a good thing for both teams. I think both teams are happy. They decided to sign some more veteran players. We wanted to get a young player that we could develop for our future here, so I think it was a plus for both clubs.
Q: Would you expect him to be active and playing special teams on Sunday?
LEWIS: If I told you that then why would we have to go through this whole thing on Sunday?
Q: You tried to trade the 49ers in the 2010 draft for their second round draft pick?
LEWIS: Yes.
Q: And you would have used that pick on Taylor Mays?
LEWIS: Correct.
Q: When you look at what Jim Harbaugh has done offensively for the 49ers, what’s your impression of how he’s trying to use his talent?
LEWIS: Jim has been very innovative, and I think that he’s trying to maximize the abilities of his players, and they’re doing a lot schematically in the running game. They’re giving you different looks. They’re setting and doing formations different ways, and making you as a defense adjust and see the forest through the trees.
Q: When you see that they use seven offensive linemen on occasion on offense what kind problems can that create for a defense?
LEWIS: It means they have the ability to try to run behind those big guys, and they’re going to try to make you feel run and try to isolate, go one-on-one down the field with the receivers on your outside guys.
Q: I think the conventional wisdom this year was that more than ever rookie quarterbacks would take a long time to develop given the lockout. Andy Dalton seems to be turning that thinking on his head. What has he done well to earn himself the starting role?
LEWIS: I think as we went through the process and spending the time with the quarterbacks, we felt that Andy had played a lot of football. We felt his demeanor and his poise would enable him as a young player to play successfully. We also felt that rest of the football team was mature enough, even though they’re fairly young, but they had played enough football that they could handle if a rookie quarterback ended up being our starter. We would build our offense around Andy and go from there. I think Jay has done a great job with that, and that was the other thing with the change of coordinators. We were starting from scratch, and that’s the other thing I think that enabled us with Andy. Andy knows as much as anyone else, because prior to the draft and training camp we had coached Andy Dalton more than we had coached any player in this building, because we spent more time with him in the draft process. For that I don’t think he had to win anybody’s confidence. I think we were able to get through that hurdle right away without him having to worry about this or that, because I think he felt the confidence that we had showed in him.
Q: Could you tell that that gave him a head start?
LEWIS: We thought it did. I don’t know about a head start, but there’s been a calmness that he’s been able to exhibit, but that’s part of his makeup. And I think everybody that spent any time with Andy, they saw that trait in him.
Q: When you talked about being familiar with the 49ers defense, were you talking about their scheme or their players?
LEWIS: Both. Obviously, Vic’s background through Dom (Capers) and the Pittsburgh 3-4. Obviously, I was part of that since the inception, so I understand that inside and out – the principles and things that are trying to be done. And then secondly with Justin, Ahmad, Madieu, you’ve got some guys, Patrick Willis, who I spent a lot of time with during that draft class year. Ray McDonald who is a guy we had done a lot of work on and evaluation. Just know a lot about them as players, and I’ve studied them over the last couple years and I think they’ve done a nice job on defense. I like the evolution that they’ve made on defense and their pressuring the football and I think it’s fun to watch. They play hard.
Q: How have you seen Justin Smith’s career proceed?
LEWIS: Justin has been an outstanding player, just like he was here. And he’s picked up right where he left off. He made the transition to a 3-4 defensive end. He gained a little body mass, body weight, but he plays as hard as Justin ever did. He’s fun to watch.
Q: It used to be the learning curve for rookie quarterbacks was pretty steep. What’s changed to allow rookie quarterbacks to come in and play right away?
LEWIS: I think every guy is different, but I do think there’s some of these guys who are coming out of college offenses where they’re throwing the ball quite a bit. I think defense in college football right now is a little bit more sophisticated than it used to be. And so they’re having to see a little bit more then they’re used to seeing. And I think that’s helped make that transition and understand things a little differently.
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