Read the full transcript from DC Sean Duggan's media availability on October 1, 2026.

Of course you're getting pressures, which is good. You had several last week. Just getting that first sack on the board, does it weigh on the defensive coaches at all, or do you not think about it much?

Sean Duggan: I think everybody would love sacks, right? I mean, sacks are great. They're momentum plays. Obviously, whether it's pushing somebody back on third down or getting off the field on third down, they're great plays. You can feel the energy in the crowd when we get to the quarterback. But to be honest, we just look at what do we need to do to win that down and to win the game. Sacks are great, but that's the result of a good process. If you're affecting the quarterback, that's really the main goal. I think we've talked about before, affecting the quarterback isn't necessarily sacking him. It's getting him off the spot, forcing a bad throw, getting those cumulative kind of hits on him. I think it's more than just the sack number, but we just see that as what do we need to do to win that down.

What will be some of your rules against an elusive quarterback like Kyler Murray?

Sean Duggan: Yeah, I mean, luckily we've played some elusive quarterbacks, right? Purdy was an elusive guy, I think he's one of the more underrated scramblers in the NFL. And then last week, obviously, Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks there is at extending plays and keeping his eyes down the field and trying to hit home runs. I think with Kyler, kind of the same as those other guys, you have to have a good plan. Guys have to be in sync with the plan. You have to have coordinated rushes, whether that's the front four, whether it's guys blitzing from the back end. You just have to have awareness. He's been a really elite scrambling quarterback and it's not just scrambling to run, it's scrambling to throw for a long time, so I think guys need to be on the same page.

Looking at Chop's roughing the passer call, what are the coaching points there for him because from the untrained eye, it looked fairly textbook?

Sean Duggan: Yeah, I think it's just something we got to keep talking to him about. We're always trying to gather information, what they're looking for and we just got to keep educating the players and ourselves on what that is. We just got to constantly talk about it, which I think Austin does a great job with. Obviously they called it, so we have to do a better job coaching it up.

What have you heard as far as what he should have been doing better on that play?

Sean Duggan: With all due respect, I'm just going to – it happened. We got to coach it better and I'll just kind of leave all the official questions to Haf.

On Jacob Rodriguez, obviously when you see a rookie, he had six tackles, three for a loss, that diving interception. I was able to ask Jordyn Brooks about it, and then Hafley also said that you guys get together at 6:30 in the morning every day. Just talk about that relationship and what does it mean to have a player like Jacob in terms of where the direction of this team is going?

Sean Duggan: Yeah, I think when it comes to building relationships with the players, I think when you go back when we first got here, that was one of the first things we talked about. I think building the relationship on the field and off the field is huge. I think it's so cool to talk to both those guys and really every player, hey, how do you see this? Okay, well, this is how I see it. This is why we want you here. This is what we're thinking they're going to do. This is how we're going to be attacked. But then to get their perspective, because they're the ones playing the game, right? How do they see it? What are they comfortable with? I think those conversations go a long way in terms of building a plan, so those meetings are great. Sometimes they'll come in with ideas like, 'hey, I really like this call in this situation' or 'I think this one, I don't feel comfortable with it.' Well, that's great. That's the feedback we want really from every player, not just Brooks and Rodriguez. I think that's incredibly valuable. I think J-Rod has done a great job just continually getting better. Going back to training camp, you could see the progress every day, just playing faster, playing with more and more confidence, being more comfortable with not only his responsibility in the defense but what else is going on around him. I think he's continually getting better, but if you ask him at the same time, I'm sure there's plays he wants back. I think he's got a bright future, but his work ethic is going to continually drive him to continue to push that bar.

When you look at his interception, what do you think of the play he made at the spot on the field where he made it, considering where you started on that play?

Sean Duggan: Oh, it was huge. I mean, diving interception on the backside, it was an unbelievable play, but there's a lot that went into that. We got good pressure to your point about affecting the quarterback, we got him off the spot on that play. We forced him to make a little bit of an off-balance throw and other guys were in the right spot to help be in his window that I'm sure he wanted to throw it, and then J-Rod did a great job and made the play. It's such a team effort when it comes to takeaways or getting off the field, but it was awesome. I mean, that was a huge play in the game, and then to get up and run the ball. He played quarterback, so you could see a little bit. We told him 'you should have broken this tackle,' but he did a great job.

Apologies, if you've been asked this before, but what led to some of Julius Woods's nickel reps?

Sean Duggan: I think first off, the way he practices. I know you guys are out there early, just his movement skills, the way he goes about it. He plays 100 miles an hour. So I think just the thought of getting kind of a bigger body on the field versus some different personnel groupings and just give him a chance, go out there and show what he can do.

How do you think he fared during those reps?

Sean Duggan: I think he, again, played hard, played fast, showed his physicality and his desire to get to the football. But kind of similar to J-Rod, there's things we need to clean up, whether that's alignment or whether that where his eyes are. But I always appreciate guys that go out there and just play fast. I think there's stuff to clean up, but there's definitely ability there.

Was the decision, and Haf talked about this earlier this week, but the decision to go exclusively with Trader and Taaffe at safety, was it more a case of them distancing themselves a bit from Zayne, or was it more a case of you all wanting to see what it would be like with the continuity of two safeties, young safeties, playing alongside each other?

Sean Duggan: I think both those guys did a really nice job. I think the communication aspect, especially in that position, is huge for guys playing together, seeing things the same way, talking to one another on the field. I thought those guys did a really good job during the week, and we rolled with those two guys last week.

I know you obviously spend most of your time, huge amounts of time studying the Vikings offense, but on a week like this or maybe even in the offseason, do you spend much time looking at what Flores is doing and trying to steal some ideas from him?

Sean Duggan: Sure. He's done an unbelievable job for a long time. I got a lot of respect for not only his scheme, but the way his players play. I think the play style they play with is awesome. Not only do we look at him, we look at a lot of teams in the league. What are teams that are having success in certain situations, whether it's third down, red zone, early down run, all that stuff we look at and we try to look and see what they're doing, and maybe it's if there's stuff that we can always take to fit our scheme and our players. I think part of being on defense, you have to constantly evolve, right? If you kind of stay the same and expect to run the same things with the same calls and the same fronts and all that stuff, I think offensive coaches are really good and players are super talented and they'll figure it out. I think you're always trying to stay one step ahead and looking at other teams that are having success; if it fits, great.

You guys run similar disguises in bunch, I don't know what you call it, where everybody's crowded up at the line of scrimmage. What makes it successful for somebody to make it a prominent element of their defense? What has to work?

Sean Duggan: I think you got to practice it a lot, and it's whether you're pressuring or you're dropping out, I think things got to look the same. I think guys take a lot of pride in it, so if you put an emphasis on it, just like anything else, guys will buy in and success will happen. And again, it's kind of what's the plan of the week? It's not going to be the exact same thing every week. It's what do we need to do, what fits coverage wise, because not every coverage you can line up in the same look. So it's what does it fit coverage wise, what does it fit pressure wise and how can we marry those two looks together.

From being in the NFC North, what are some of the keys? What can you do to contain Justin Jefferson or try to?

Sean Duggan: I mean, he's an elite, elite player. You have to know where he is. Similar, I remember we talked about Brock Bowers, kind of knowing where he is on the field. I think anytime you have a really talented player, you have to know where he is. What makes them so dangerous is they have other really good players too. Jordan Addison, I think, is one of the better receivers in the NFL. Hockenson has been doing it for a long time. Aaron Jones is a threat out of the backfield running and catching the ball. And then you add a quarterback that can not only throw the ball but run. They have a lot of weapons on offense and it's going to be a challenge for sure.