Jalen Davis – June 4, 2019
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
CB Jalen Davis
(There are a lot of undrafted corners who have gone on to success with the New England Patriots. Was this a fact you’re aware of? Have coaches mentioned this?) – “They just go on the fact that if you can play, you can play. If you can play, you’re going to be out there. So that’s all I’m trying to do, just show them that I can play and show them that I can just be out there and running.”
(You have a lot of young guys obviously competing for a job at slot, also on the boundary opposite CB Xavien Howard. Are you excited about this? Do you feel like it’s an open competition with the eight or nine of you?) – “Of course I’m excited. Everybody is excited. (It’s a) new season, new year just to prove yourself to the coaches, to the players. That’s all we’re trying to do, just prove ourselves to everybody so we can just get better. That’s all we’re doing.”
(What was the feedback you’ve been getting from Defensive Pass Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Josh Boyer as far as what he likes, what he wants to see?) – “Just keep going off of my instincts and just keep showing my ability to play on the football field.”
(How much of an encouragement was the Jacksonville game to you last year where you got an opportunity and you made plays? Had that given you even more confidence that you can play at this level?) – “Yeah, but once again, I know my ability because I know what I can do out there on the football field. I was confident being out there and showcasing my skills.”
(Do you make a point to take every interception to the house?) – “Of course. (laughter)”
(Even if you have to run back to the next play or what?) – “You still have to go all the way, 99 (yards).”
(How many picks do you have so far, I guess through 10 practices, besides the one today? Any others?) – “That’s the only one, today.”
(Have you been pleased with how you’ve done through 10 practices?) – “Yeah. I’m pleased with how I’ve done, but I still need to improve a whole lot. I need a whole lot of improvement from myself.”
(Which of the young corners have stood out to you? We’ve seen you make plays, CB Cornell Armstrong, CB Jomal Wiltz. Who has stood out to you?) – “Everybody is just out there making plays, so you can’t just name one person because everybody is out there making plays each and every day. If somebody is making mistakes, they learn from the mistakes. That’s what we’re doing.”
(How much slot, how much boundary for you over these practices? Has it been some of both?) – “They just have me all over the place, so I’m just trying to show where I can play at.”
(Are you comfortable with both?) – “Yeah.”
(I’m doing something on players between year one and year two. A lot of guys will tell you year two is better because I wasn’t training for the Combine going into your rookie year. How does it feel for you? How different is it when you can work on football as opposed to training for the Combine?) – “It’s better because when you first get in here, you don’t know the speed of what’s going on and what’s happening. The second year, you’re more developed and you know what the practice speed is like, the speed of the practice and meetings and all of that type of stuff. So you get way more comfortable during the second year.”
(How do we see that out on the field?) – “Just playing faster. That’s all that is.”
(Then comes this defense where you’re all over in different places. How do you deal with that when you have so many different assignments?) – “Get in the playbook.”
(Is it tougher than normal, than what you’re used to?) – “No. A play is a play, so just learn them.”
(What you have here at corner, it seems like a bunch of young, athletic kids who were playmakers in college. What’s your read of the talent you have here at corner with a bunch of guys who are awfully young?) – “I’d say we have a lot of talent over here in the cornerback room. We’re just trying to showcase it out on the field.”
(WR Preston Williams, just covering him – have you had much opportunity to observe the skills he has?) – “Yeah. Preston is good. He’s going to be a good receiver.”
(Is it the size, the speed?) – “Size, speed, release moves off the line. He’s good.”
(WR Trenton Irwin, the Stanford rookie – any thoughts on him? Have you gone up against him at all?) – “Yeah. He’s nice. He has a lot of wiggle in him. I like that.”
Jerome Baker – June 4, 2019
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
LB Jerome Baker
(Today, Head Coach Brian Flores was talking to us. When your name came up, he was talking about how you are taking more of a leadership role this year. What gives you the confidence to do that?) – “I have one year under my belt. I’m really just trying to do my job and set the example. I’m really just doing my job to the best of my ability and just taking ownership of it.”
(Have you always been a leader throughout your high school and college career?) – “I look at myself as a leader. I want to lead by example. I don’t want to say it with my words, I want to lead by example.”
(You know how much Head Coach Brian Flores values leadership on this team, don’t you?) – “Yes, I do.”
(One thing that’s come up is your role this year. It seems like you may be asked to do more of a pass rush role. How do you embrace that?) – “They ask me to do a lot of different things. I’m really just taking ownership of that, just being versatile. Whatever they tell me to do, just do it to the best of my ability. If it’s pass rush, that’s what I’m going to do.”
(Your pass rush skills, how would you assess them? You had the three sacks last year. You have the speed. How would you assess your skills in that area?) – “It’s just a work in progress. I’m just out there with (Linebackers) Coach Rob (Leonard) and constantly improving and trying to get better in all aspects of my game.”
(Your comfort level playing in a 3-4 – obviously, we saw you a ton in a 4-3 outside. What’s your comfort level in a 3-4 as an outside guy?) – “Football is football. It doesn’t matter what the scheme is. You have to go out there and make plays and just get to the ball carrier. That’s pretty much what I’m doing, just out there having fun.”
(Did you change your body at all this year? Anything you do differently?) – “Yeah. I got in the weight room a lot. That was my main thing, just working out as much as I can and hopefully improve so it pays off in the season.”
(Did you put on any weight?) – “A little bit. I’ve been a little heavier today. I’m just trying to keep it and be consistent.”
(What are you up to now?) – “Today I weighed in at 227.”
(Had the staff wanted you to be a little bigger without it sacrificing speed?) – “They just want me to be healthy and make sure it’s the right weight. (Head Strength and Conditioning) Coach Dave (Puloka) can definitely do a good job with that.”
(How great was it to have S Reshad Jones back?) – “It was definitely great when you have a player like that. He brings that leadership, so it was definitely good to see him.”
(How much stronger do you feel now?) – “I feel like a new player, honestly. I feel stronger, feel faster. I just have to take that into the season and constantly improve.”
(Have you always been a weight room kind of guy or not?) – “Yeah, I go in there. But this offseason, it was like a main focus of mine. I definitely took that, this offseason, to heart.”
(How do you look back on your rookie year?) – “It was a learning experience. It was definitely fun. (I’m) just trying to take that next step this year.”
(What’s a main lesson you learned as a rookie?) – “Just because you’re a rookie, that doesn’t mean you don’t say anything. Last year I would know the call, I would know something and I just wouldn’t say anything because it was an older guy. This year, just speak up what you see. If you’re wrong, at least everybody is on the same accord. I just kind of took that to heart.”
(It sounds like you hit the perfect balance because you’re talking like a veteran but you’re still a very young guy.) – “Yeah. I love being a young guy. I like that hunger, I like that edge, so I’m going to definitely always keep that.”
(In a couple of days, you guys are going to get a break. I’m sure you’re looking forward to that as well. What are you going to do with your time off?) – “Just really soak in the playbook and enjoy my family. Just see my family as much as I can before we go into the season and just really appreciate them.”
(You’re not going to go diving with sharks or climb Mount Everest or anything?) – “No, I’m not going to do that.”
(What excites you about this defense?) – “We’re young and hungry. That’s the main thing. We’re young and hungry. The coaching staff is so versatile, so you have to know a lot of positions. You never know where you’re going to be at. Just young, hungry and being versatile.”
(Take me a little inside that scheme. Is it more tricky, are there more positions to learn or a lot of plays? What’s it like?) – “We just have to learn the concepts. (Head) Coach (Brian Flores) will really move you around pretty much any position if you learn the concepts. You can just tell if you really want to play, that you have to learn multiple positions.”
(I’m doing something on the difference with players between year one and year two because a lot of times, you talk to the players and they say year two I was here training as opposed to training for the combine. I was doing football activities. For you, what’s been the big difference?) – “It’s definitely that. You can just sit in one place and just focus on your training. For me, that was a big difference. I didn’t have to travel. I didn’t have to go see different teams. Just kind of sit wherever you want to be at and work out and just enjoy yourself there. That was definitely a bonus for me.”
(Tell me about the traveling and the working out. How many teams did you visit? How much time were you working out?) – “I probably visited five teams, and it was all in a span of a week. Pretty much, I’d go home, change, go on another flight. It was flight, flight, flight, back to back to back.”
(What teams did you visit?) – “San Francisco, the Chargers, Jacksonville, Broncos. I think that was it.”
(This year, what have you been doing? It’s been working out. You’ve been with the team.) – “I took one trip to Bali. After that, I kind of just stayed here and just worked out and just kind of enjoyed Miami.”
(Let me digress and ask a stupid question, how was Bali?) – “It was amazing. It was definitely beautiful. It was just the culture of it was beautiful. I definitely had fun.”
(When you’re here and you’re doing football activities, when you get out there on that field, do you feel more confident? Do you feel better because you’ve been here? How does it make a difference? Where do we see that manifest itself?) – “You’re just more confident. You’re ready for football shape. Combine shape and football shape are two different things. You definitely feel ready for that and you kind of just take that on and be consistent. It’s another break, so you have to make sure you stay in that shape. You can definitely feel it out on the field.”
Christian Wilkins – June 4, 2019
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
DT Christian Wilkins
(How goes it for you out there?) – “It’s going pretty well, honestly. I’m loving each and every day, honestly. I’m just living the dream right now. The NFL, so far, is everything I could’ve asked for, could’ve hoped for. I’m literally getting paid to play the game I love so much, so I couldn’t be in a better position knowing I’m not working in an office. I am, but I’m with another 90 other guys, get to show up to work every day in sweatpants, so it’s pretty awesome. I’m living the dream right now.”
(I know it’s only been a few weeks since the draft. How far have you come the first time you stepped on this field to today?) – “I definitely see and feel an improvement. The first day, everything was real fast and you’ve got to adjust. You’re going up against guys who’ve been in the league so long. You’re throwing things at them that they’ve seen before. It’s kind of a challenge, but I love the challenge. I feel like each day I try to come in with the mindset to improve. Not to be the most down-to-play on the field, but have the mindset I’ve got to improve and get better every day.”
(Other than every guy here was almost an All-American, a really good college football player. What is different than the last few years for you out on that field?) – “You just said it: this is the best of the best. There are going to be times where I might slip up and do right and lose or even when I do my best and it’s just a stalemate. It’s part of the growing process and the growing pains. I’m loving it and enjoying it. It’s pretty awesome.”
(In college when you slipped up and you didn’t do your best, you were still the best player.) – “Exactly. And there’s times where you can mess up and still make the play. Now, you can’t make as many mistakes. As you get better and better and as you improve, now you’ve got the best of the best, the air gets thinner and that margin of error gets real small, too, so you can’t make as many mistakes. You’ve got to be on it from knowing your job, executing your job and playing at a high level.”
(Who are the teammates that’ve helped you out the first month?) – “There’s a lot of those guys. I really like Charles (Harris). He’s been a good vet for me so far. The same with Akeem Spence. I love those two guys. Just as far as in my role, they’ve been helping me get adjusted. Akeem is an older, savvy vet who’s always teaching me little techniques and things like that, so I really like him. Seeing how certain guys work like Bobby (McCain), guys I’m earning respect for, I have a lot of respect for (them) and seeing how they work is really commendable. They’ve been there for me since I got here.”
(Do your personal expectations rise as they ask you to do more like, “This is a first team rep, go do that?”) – “The expectations I have for myself are always higher than anyone can have for me. Wherever they want me to play, whatever situation they want me to be in, my job is to go out there and dominate and play at the highest level I can and to contribute and do my job so that the team can be successful at the end of the day. That’s what I always keep in mind when I go out onto the field, when I’m studying at night. I’m like, ‘I’ve got to do this so the team can be the best that they can be.’ That’s always my mindset.”
(How do you feel you did today?) – “It was honestly like a backyard football day kind of with the rain. You’re playing out there and it’s slushy. I feel like I did pretty well. It was fun. I had a good time. I try to improve on something each day.”
(How different was it? Was today almost like the first day because everybody is here? How different was that? Was it like another first day?) – “It’s not like we had too much time off or anything in between. We’ve been still going at it. Yeah, it’s kind of like that, but we’ve been working for this last month. Really, it wasn’t too different. But you’ve just got the mindset, ‘Okay, this is all the mandatory portion and we’re getting after it. We’re going to be grinding. There’s a little bit more time that we can spend here now.’ As far as a practice standpoint and practice schedule, it’s all been the same. That wasn’t too bad or anything.”
(You mentioned DE Charles Harris. Has he helped you with the expectations of a first-round pick, because he was a first-round pick?) – “He holds himself to a high standard and so do I. I try to watch the things he does and pick and pull the good things that he does and listen to him, because he’s a really intelligent guy that works hard not just on the field but off the field. He’s a guy that I look to for a lot of different things. Just little things like where is a good place to live or who’s the best chef around so I can get good, quality meals. Just little things like that, he’s always there for me and always helping me with.”
(In the last five weeks when you haven’t been on the field, what have you been doing to get better?) – “I’m constantly working on my body, doing little recovery things and studying a lot so I can get this playbook down. The more I study and the better my body feels, I feel like the better I’ll be out there on the field. All of my focus at all times is essentially back to football, improving my game and craft so that I can help the team at the end of the day.”
(The tackle and the end role, both of those roles I know you played them at Clemson, but is there anything that’s carried over here in the first couple weeks?) – “No, because I’m not on offense yet and I’m pretty upset about that. (laughter) I need to get some offensive touches. We’ll see. That was later down the line. I’m just messing (around). It’s tougher, yes, because it’s the NFL and the jobs they’re asking me to do, but at the end of the day it’s still football. I’ve still got to get in my stance. It’s all about alignment, leverage, technique, playing with your hands, doing those little things, eyes, hands, feet. It’s still football at the end of the day, but it is a little tougher, because it is the NFL and guys are better. If you take a wrong step, it’s tougher to recover. Little things like that. As long as you’re on it, it’s not too terrible, but it is tougher, because it’s the NFL, like I said.”
(Are you all settled in personally?) – “I’m still figuring everything out as I go a little bit. (I am) trying to learn the area and really get to know my teammates. That’s the biggest thing.”
Reshad Jones – June 4, 2019
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
S Reshad Jones
(On running in practice.) – “We are going to run in games so I guess it helps out.”
(Are you excited to be a part of a defense where you can do multiple things?) – “Most definitely. I’m excited to be back. I’m excited to be here with my teammates, learning the defense. There are a lot of packages and a lot of stuff I have to catch up to, but I’m excited about it.”
(Why were you not here for the rest of OTAs?) – “I wanted to take time to get physically in-shape and ready to play a 16-game stretch or longer.”
(Was your shoulder a big part of that?) – “Yeah.”
(And the team was okay with that?) – “Yeah, me and Coach (Flores), we spoke about it.”
(We saw a lot of your videos whether they were on social media, Instagram or whatever. Was that to kind of show the work that you were putting in and to prove to the fans out there that …) – “I don’t really have to prove anything to anybody. I’ve been one of the best safeties in this league for a long time. I put the work in year in and year out. That’s my pattern. That’s what I do. Every year, I put the work in. I post videos up the previous year, the year before that and every year so it’s the same thing I do year in and year out.”
(You not being here, do you think it was a little overblown by everybody?) – “Yeah, most definitely. Me and the coach, we had communication. I know you guys have to write stories and stuff like that but me and coach were communicating. Voluntary mean voluntary so I took the time to get physically ready to play a 16-game stretch coming off a surgery in February.”
(What is it about this defense when you get out there, the differences and changes?) – “It’s just a lot of movement and a lot of packages. Guys (are) playing different roles. (It’s) fast paced. It looks exciting so I’m excited to be a part of it.”
(I don’t know if you pay attention to some of the media things that are put out there but your name is apparently coming up in trade rumors and trade speculation. Have you noticed that and just kind of your thoughts on the matter?) – “I’ve seen it and I’ve heard of it but I control what I (can) control. I’m in great shape. I’m still one of the best safeties in this league and whatever happens, happens. I control what I (can) control. I’m here, I love this city, I love the fans. I’d love to be a part of the Dolphins organization.”
(Do you think there’s a certain level of respect that should be given to you given what you’ve accomplished in the league?) – “I mean the numbers speak for themselves. Respect? I earned that. I earned my stripes in this league. I’ve done everything possible. I’ve been a two-time Pro Bowler. Everything you can possibly imagine. It doesn’t faze me. I put the work in year in and year out and I’m here to help this team win football games.”
(We saw you sitting and watching a lot of practice today trying to figure out everything that’s going on. Was that tough?) – “A little bit but I’m catching up pretty fast. I’ve played a lot of snaps in this league, a lot of football, so I catch on pretty quick.”
(How would you describe your relationship with Head Coach Brian Flores?) – “We’ve had minimal relations, minimal talks but I know he’s a straightforward guy. He kept it real with me, once we were communicating about me not being here and different things like that. I know he comes from a winning program so I’m excited to be working with him.”
(How would you describe your emotions this offseason as far as everything you’ve had to deal with?) – “I mean coming off of surgery, I had been through it. I’ve had two of my labrums (repaired). Two, three years ago, I went through the same surgery. I feel pretty good now. It’s the same thing for me, pretty much.”
(What percentage do you think you are health-wise?) – “I’m not 100 percent, but I’m close.”
