Washington Commanders interim defensive backs coach Cristian Garcia addressed the media on Dec. 1. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
On what this week has been like for him:
"It's been a whirlwind. Obviously, Jack's [Del Rio] been a mentor for me and then working with Vies [Brent Vieselmeyer] for a couple years. Good friends of mine, good coaches. Had a lot on my plate, obviously being the DB coach and then losing two people from staff, we had to shuffle the responsibility so there's more on everybody's plate. It's been a whirlwind, but it's been fun."
On how his role shifts:
"In terms of game planning, I'm doing third downs, and two-minute, so game planning some areas, running the defensive back rooms and preparing those meetings and then coaching them on the field, so it's changed quite a bit."
On if it's a challenge to keep everything seamless for the players:
"Yeah, absolutely. And then also Coach [Ron] Rivera has his own philosophy on how he wants to do things, so we've changed a few things going towards the game plan and how we're operating practice and individual drills, so trying to keep it seamless. But also, we want to change because obviously the results haven't been what we've wanted."
On what has been the problem and on what can be changed:
"I'll keep that in-house just between us. Obviously, we're playing a game this week. I wouldn't want to give away anything that would be advantageous for Miami."
On what he has seen from DB Quan Martin:
"Quan's doing a great job. The thing that sticks out with Quan is he is a pro. From the day he walked in. If you saw his notes, you'd be highly impressed, color coded, highlighted. He's done everything he's needed to do to get to this point. And he played pretty well against Dallas and in the Peso package throughout the year he's made some plays, so we're excited about his development."
On how paring things down helps the younger players:
"There's definitely certainty in what you're doing. The message this week is, it's about us. We're going to make people beat us. We're going to do what we do, play fast, make plays. That's been his philosophy and that's how we'll carry going forward."
On if he notices a difference in practice with players playing faster:
"Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. When there's certainty, you can always play fast and you can feel it, so the guys are excited about it."
On points of emphasis for CB Emmanuel Forbes Jr. in the remaining games:
"Obviously, Emmanuel's very talented. I think he's got like eight PBU's, hasn't even played half of our defensive snaps this year. So really for him it's about the details, alignment, assignment, technique, and the sky's the limit for that kid. So, we'll just keep working on those things and honing in on the details and chasing that."
