HOUSTON — There are times when Richard Smith’s coaching “style” can feel like 99 parts “tough” and one part “love,” but the Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator saw a need this past offseason and a remedy.

Smith believed the Falcons needed more sacks, more impact plays, more everything from defensive end Vic Beasley Jr., so Smith asked one of the better pass-rushers he’s ever coached – Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller – for an assist.

“I’ve watched [Beasley] before, in college, then in Atlanta, I knew all about him,” Miller said. “But Coach Smith kind of put us together in the offseason when I was talking to him. And I’ve been calling, texting [Beasley] since. He’s one of my guys now. I feel like I have a great relationship. But when Coach Smith wants something, you know, I’ll do that.”

Toss Smith’s name at Miller and you will almost certainly get a smile, followed by Miller shaking his head with a “ah, Coach Smith …”

Smith was Miller’s first position coach in the NFL after the Broncos made Miller the No. 2 pick of the 2011 draft. Smith, who uses plenty of what Miller has called “get-your-attention language,” had the task of taking an immensely gifted player and turning him into a well-rounded pro.

It was much the same task Smith and the rest of the Falcons’ defensive coaches faced with Beasley, who was the eighth pick of the 2015 draft. Beasley’s rookie year often played out at the intersection of potential and transition, given he finished the year with flashes of what he could do to go with just four sacks.

“People were all over him last year, saying ‘he’s a bust, he’s a bust,”’ Smith said. “He said at the end of the year he was tired of answering all these questions, and I said, ‘Well, let’s do something about it.”’

So, they got to work, Beasley said. They worked to get Beasley stronger, worked to know more about what blockers wanted to do in each situation and they worked to find the player Smith said “you know is in there.” And the almost weekly conversations with Miller were also part of the improvement.

In a season when Beasley led the league with 15.5 sacks, he saved his best performance for Miller to see up close and in person. Beasley sacked Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch – who played for an injured Trevor Siemian – 3 1/2 times in the Falcons’ Week 5 victory in Denver.

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Beasley said he was an interested viewer when Miller essentially overpowered the Carolina Panthers in the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 win. Miller was the MVP of the title game with 2 1/2 sacks and two forced fumbles, one of which Malik Jackson recovered for the Broncos’ first touchdown.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Thursday during an appearance on ESPN’s NFL Insiders that the organization probably will have to use the franchise tag on Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kawann Short.

Short is an unrestricted free agent after the Panthers couldn’t reach a long-term deal with him prior to the 2016 season.

Rivera said general manager Dave Gettleman already has had salary-cap meetings, and the best way to guarantee Short remains on the roster is with the tag.

“Obviously, we’ll probably have to tag him,” Rivera said. “But if we do, so be it. If not, I think they can get a deal done and I’m pretty optimistic about that because KK is a big part of what we do.

“Again, we believe up front is the most important part of your team. You’ve got to be able to stop the run, rush the passer, and I think KK is one of those guys who has that kind of ability.”

The estimated tag for a defensive tackle in 2017 is $13.5 million. Short, who led Carolina with 11 sacks in 2015, was believed to have been seeking a deal similar to the $17.1 million per year the Philadelphia Eagles gave Fletcher Cox last year.

Super Bowl LI has been dissected from nearly every angle. In the final days before the game, let us add one more: the role of officiating in determining the eventual champion.

Perhaps the least-discussed aspect of this matchup is the extent to which referee Carl Cheffers and his crew will allow defensive players on both sides to be physical with opposing receivers. It’s an especially pertinent topic given the New England Patriots’ long history of overcoming elite-level offenses in the playoffs, at times using a strategy that was so physical that it prompted the NFL to redouble its efforts to enforce defensive holding and illegal contact penalties in the mid-2000s.

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It stands to reason that the Patriots will have more success against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones if their cornerbacks can push the limits of what’s allowable under NFL rules. Will Cheffers and his crew permit it? Let’s make that issue the focus of our final officiating preview of the 2016 season.

As we’ve noted often, penalty frequency can vary dramatically among NFL officiating crews, similar to a strike zone that changes in baseball depending on who the home plate umpire is.

Tracking this tendency, as both the Patriots and Falcons surely have done, is complicated because Cheffers won’t have his usual regular-season crew.

The NFL assigns postseason games to its top-graded officials, regardless of crew assignment. In this case, Cheffers will have only one member of his 2016 crew with him: head linesman Kent Payne. Cheffers himself has little impact on penalty calls in the defensive backfield from his position behind the quarterback, other than setting the tone for the entire crew before the game.

So in this situation, we’ll utilize regular-season data for the crews of each official who will play a role in making such calls.

We’ll refer to “defensive coverage” penalties: the combined total of calls for defensive pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding. As you’ll see below, most of the officials who’ll have the primary responsibility for those calls in Super Bowl LI — as spelled out on the NFL’s football operations site — hail from crews that call fewer such penalties on average.

Here’s one statistic to keep in mind from the top: Overall, penalties have dropped 29.7 percent in the 2016 playoffs compared to the regular season, from 15.8 per game (including declined/offsetting) to 11.1. Within that drop, however, calls for pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding have remained steady: about 1.2 per game. It’s quite possible, of course, that the flag total has remained constant even as the level of physicality has increased, which leads to a net result of fewer uncalled fouls.

Referee Carl Cheffers

2016 analysis: For what it’s worth, Cheffers’ regular-season crew called a combined 45 defensive coverage penalties, fifth most in the NFL. As a referee, he is primarily responsible for officiating hits to the quarterback and offensive holding. During the regular season, he called only five roughing-the-passer penalties, and his crew called 46 penalties for offensive holding, fifth fewest in the NFL. He drew criticism from the Kansas City Chiefs, most notably tight end Travis Kelce, for calling a hold on left tackle Eric Fisher to negate a game-tying two-point conversion late in a divisional playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cheffers also called a questionable face mask penalty against the Detroit Lions in 2015 that put the Green Bay Packers in position to win with a Hail Mary touchdown throw. Former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira wrote in his book, “After Further Review,” that the penalty was “too technical to call.”

Former New York Giants kicker Josh Brown admitted publicly to domestic violence for the first time during an interview with “Good Morning America,” but he disputed the more than 20 incidents claimed by his now ex-wife, Molly Brown, and said he never hit her.

Brown, 37, wants to return to the NFL. He was cut by the Giants on Oct. 25 after admitting abuse to the team.

“I mean, I had put my hands on her. I kicked the chair. I held her down. The holding down was the worst moment in our marriage,” Brown said during an interview with ABC News’ Paula Faris. “I never hit her. I never slapped her. I never choked her. I never did those types of things.”

Farris asked Brown how people reconcile are supposed to reconcile him abusing but not hitting his ex-wife.

“They’re not supposed to. What I did was wrong. Period,” Brown said. “Domestic violence is not just physical abuse. We’re talking intimidation and threats, the attempt to control, body language. An abuser is going to abuse to a certain degree to acquire some kind of a reaction.”

Brown still seemed to take offense to the notion that he hit his wife.

“The world now thinks I beat my wife,” Brown said. “I have never hit this woman. I never hit her. Not once.”

In October, documents were released related to Brown’s arrest on domestic violence charges in Woodinville, Washington. The letters, emails and journals contained admissions by Brown that he had physically, verbally and emotionally abused his wife.

“These were the things that you say to yourself and then you’d burn them. … And I didn’t,” Brown told GMA. “The fact that my private things are being used against me, that’s hard to swallow. I’m talking about my journals. I had to learn all that and write that down in order to heal and now you’re telling me that I’m going to be punished for trying to correct the things in my life that needed to be changed.”

Brown was coming off his best season of his career in 2015 when he made 94 percent of his kicks. The Giants signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal last April despite knowing he was under investigation for domestic abuse.

Brown was arrested on May 22, 2015 for domestic assault, fourth degree. Charges were never filed.

The NFL ultimately suspended Brown for one game for what he repeatedly called a “moment.” Brown was arrested after he was accused by his ex-wife of grabbing her wrist during an argument the previous year. He said the league has known everything since the start of the investigation and that he’s never tried to hide his problems.

But the arresting officer wrote in his report that Brown told him he tried to grab the phone and grabbed her wrist. Brown provided a different version of the story during his interview with ABC News.