Jaelan Phillips – August 12, 2024
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Monday, August 12, 2024
LB Jaelan Phillips
(How does it feel?) – “It feels great. It feels amazing. I’m just happy to be back out there. It was a little bit of a tease. I’m ready to start hitting some things, but it was great. I’m just so blessed to have my health and be out here running around with the boys.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel mentioned that he feared that you might be the No. 1 violator as far as sneaking in extra workouts. How did you resist that temptation?) – “Just trying to take it day by day, trying not to get too ahead of myself. Obviously, I’m a high achiever and I want to come back healthy as quick as possible. So throughout this whole process I’ve just been listening to my body, listening to my trainers obviously, and it’s been great so far. Been definitely great.”
(What’s your main takeaway from this whole process?) – “It’s just taught me a lot of patience. Your body is going to be ready when your body is ready, so I’ve just been doing everything humanly possible to give my body what it needs and take the time to get after it. I have such a good training staff here and such a good strength staff, and we’ve been working our asses off for eight and a half months now. I just, like I said, feel very fortunate to be back out here doing what I love again.”
(The mental part is just as big as the physical. Are you in your mind completely comfortable on the Achilles, or will that take some time?) – “I think it’s a process. I definitely found that the more that I’ve done, the more confident that I’ve gotten. If you asked me two months ago or whatever, ‘Oh, are you going to be ready to play?’ I would say, ‘Oh I don’t know, I haven’t done anything yet.’ The more that I keep putting load through it and doing football movements, I just get more and more confident every day. So yes, I feel great.”
(If we had told you at the time of the injury you’d be back by August 12, what do you think you would’ve said at the time?) – “I wouldn’t be surprised, because like I said, I’m a high achiever and I’ve been pushing myself as much as I’ve been able to. I didn’t really know what the timeline was. Frankly I didn’t really care because what was more important to me was taking it day by day, week by week. Now that August is here, it just feels great. It feels really strong.”
(Where do you stand as far as the big question, the season. When it starts, what are your thoughts on where you think you’ll be then?) – “We’re just playing it by ear. This is the first time I’ve practiced with the boys in eight months. It’s hard to give you an exact timeline or an exact date when I’m coming back, but all I know is that I feel great and I trust my coaching staff, I trust the training staff to get me back into play when they think I’m ready.”
(What have you learned from your rehabilitation process and also what you’re being told by your doctors and trainers about the explosiveness return. Obviously, it’s not going to be immediately right?) – “People have told me in general like – some people have said the explosivity doesn’t fully come back until the second year. I talked to Shaq (Barrett) for example, because he did his Achilles a couple of years ago, he was saying he felt pretty good, pretty great his first year back. With me, I’m trying to hit the ground running. How it’s going react, how it’s going to feel is to be determined but I feel really explosive and really strong right now.”
(Who else have you consulted about the Achilles and the recovery process?) – “I’ve talked to Aaron (Rodgers) some when it first happened. I checked in with him, he’s checked in with me throughout the process. His situation is a little different than mine, it’s kind of not really comparable in that sense. Shaq was somebody I talked to, I talked to Kirk (Cousins), but again another quarterback, it’s kind of a different situation. Vince Biegel is a guy who I played with – you guys know Vince. He did his Achilles a couple of times. Cam Akers when I was back in LA doing my rehab, he was there as well. I’ve just been picking people’s brains and kind of the main takeaway I’ve gotten from everybody is that they feel 100%. They don’t feel like they had to miss a step or whether it’s a year or two years afterwards, they don’t feel there is an injury there. That just definitely reassured me, like I said, the more I’ve been able to do, the less I’ve been thinking about the Achilles and the more I’ve been building confidence. It’s feels great.”
(Because of Hard Knocks we got a unique look into the injury and post-injury process. Did you watch that episode of Hard Knocks?) – “Several times. (laughter) A lot of times.”
(The emotional journey the fans went on with you on that episode, I’m curious to kind of reflect with you going back to then versus today, just those dark days of your journey by yourself versus getting back on the field. When you think about that. what comes to your mind?) – “When it happened obviously, I was just so devastated that all the work we put in together as a team, and obviously individually, throughout the whole offseason and everything culminating to that and kind of just the way the season was going. Obviously I had some adversity at the beginning of the season injury wise, and I felt like I was really hitting my stride. Especially the way that game was going, like I said I was hooping, I was balling out. (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) had told me before the game, ‘This is your opportunity to kind of be a household name,’ so I was riding high. Like probably the highest I’ve been in my NFL career, and then to be humbled just like that, it was devastating. But right when that happened, I remembered going to the shower and I was crying. I just told myself, like ‘This is OK. I’m going to attack this. I’m going to get over this and this is going to make me stronger at the end of the day.’ I really thanked God. I really said thank you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, because I know it’s going to make me a monster. So yeah, it’s been a hell of a journey just having to test my patience like I said. I couldn’t walk for basically four months, and then getting back into it, obviously I love running. I love speed that’s my whole thing, so coming back into it, having to start on the treadmill, and then when I’m out running on the ground the first couple of times, I was running it felt good, but then afterwards I’m super, super sore and having to cut it down for a little bit. It’s just been an up and down process. Most things in life in general aren’t linear, but especially recovering from an injury and a major injury like that is not linear. There’s been a lot of peaks, a lot of valleys, but I feel like I’m in a really strong part of my recovery now and I’m making a lot of big strides. I don’t have a lot of time to reflect on it just because like I said I’m so present. I’m so focused and really so eager to get back. When I watch those videos and stuff like that, sometime I have to remind myself who I am as a player. Looking at old film, looking at the Hard Knocks episode and stuff just to give me that confidence because I’ve been away from the game. This is the longest, basically, my whole life that I’ve been away from football other than when I retired, but that’s kind of a different story. But I came back swinging when I retired, so hey, I’ll come back swinging now.”
(What was your reaction when the pulled you off the PUP list?) – “I’m not celebrating, because I’m ready to go. I’m excited for actually being back into playing. I’m really focused on being on point with the playbook and obviously a bunch of new teammates. My No. 1 priority is gaining their respect. They do respect me based off my merits and based off what they’ve seen, but I want them to respect me based off of what I’m doing right now. I know they do because they see me working my ass off and they see everything I’ve put into it, but I’m really just excited to actually get back on the field. This defense is really special. We have a lot of talented guys and it’s really exciting seeing them fly around, seeing them make plays, but I want to be a part of that too. I want to be that guy on this defense. It will soon come, but I’ve just got to like I’ve said I just got to play it day by day and be patient.”
(Speaking of those new teammates, what have your first impressions been of guys like LB Chop Robinson or LB Mohamed Kamara who’ve had these increased reps with you and LB Bradley Chubb being out?) – “They’ve been great. They’ve been super eager to learn. They’ve been picking my brain; I’ve been trying to give them as much knowledge as possible. When I see them play, like Chop (Robinson), he’s super athletic, super explosive. His get off, his aggression, his leverage, everything is better than I was when I was a rookie, for sure. His mentality too, like he doesn’t even celebrate. I’m trying to get him to be a little more emotive just because you could tell how that’s not enough for him, when he makes a big play, makes a TFL or whatever, that’s kind of the standard, which is an amazing thing. So I think he’s been doing a great job. ‘Mo’ (Kamara) has been doing a great job, like I said, super eager to learn. Grayson (Murphy) has been doing great – obviously, it was really unfortunate to see what happened to him. But the guys in our room are amazing, having ‘Og’ (Emmanuel Ogbah) back has been incredible. I know he is a great leader for the guys and obviously he can play his ass off still, and then ‘Q’ (Quinton Bell) has been the biggest – I wouldn’t say surprise because everybody within the organization knows that he’s been a dawg, but he’s taken that next step and he just embodies energy. He embodies confidence and he does all the right things right and his mentality is in the right place, so we got a hell of a group of guys.”
(I saw you talking to Kirk Cousins last week during joint practices – two things: No. 1, did you seek him out or did he seek you out? And No. 2, what have you learned about the fraternity of NFL players who have had similar injuries?) – “I actually met Kirk (Cousins) at the Super Bowl in Vegas and I was at some NFL corporate sponsor event just being a show pony. (laughter) I saw Kirk, went up to him and kind of approached him. He knew who I was, and we just started chopping it up. He’s just super humble, super down to earth guy, so we had some great conversations then and then obviously when I saw him out here, checked in on him, saw how he was doing. And then in terms of the fraternity of the NFL, especially when you’ve got guys who have similar injuries, it’s just kind of like you’re already connected off the bat. Obviously if they’re good people, you can kind of chop it up and stuff like that. I think in general the NFL fraternity is pretty great, is pretty cool. Most guys when I meet them outside of ball, it’s just like game respects game. People like Maxx Crosby, who is someone I met in the offseason, and we were able to chop it up and him telling me he loves my game, I tell him obviously I love his game. I think that’s pretty cool, it’s a really cool part about being in the league.”
(What does it say about the Dolphins faith in you that you’re going your rehab and then they pick up the fifth-year option not knowing if you’d have this moment today?) – “It means the world obviously. Contracts and things of that nature aren’t obviously my priority. I want to be here as long as they’ll keep me, I love being a Dolphin. Really with me, I’m focused on coming back, being healthy and staying healthy and doing everything I can for this organization both on the field and off the field. So it meant the world to me that they had the faith in me and obviously it shows how they feel about me as a person and as a player, so very appreciative of that, for sure.”
(Even if it was at a walkthrough pace, what were those moments like today being back on the field with the guys in the team setting?) – “Like I said, it was great but it was a tease – I need more. (laughter) Like I said, I’m patient and I trust the trainers, I trust my coaches and at the end of the day, I trust myself too. I’ll be honest with them about how I’m feeling, and I know that they’ll take care of me. They want to see me back out on the field too, but they also have the long-term vision – I do as well obviously, but Mike (McDaniel) said it perfectly, I’m like my biggest enemy when it comes to trying to get back just because I’m so eager to be playing and be back out there with my guys. But yeah, it will all happen on its natural course.”
Mike McDaniel – August 12, 2024
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Monday, August 12, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Will WR Odell Beckham Jr. and LB Jaelan Phillips come off PUP this week, do you believe? And also TE Tanner Conner – Tanner Conner left with discomfort the other night. Do we have an update on whether he’s out short term or long term or neither?) – “The backstory to this is unbelievable because I was assuming you wouldn’t state the right question and I was going to have to offer up as a gift to your diligence just that Jaelan Phillips will be off PUP today. What does that mean? I don’t know. It means he’s going to be practicing with his guys. Really excited for him because if you haven’t noticed he’s one of the most involved players through the whole offseason program and he hasn’t taken a snap yet so excited for him. And that was the news I was ready to break. I don’t expect to see Odell (Beckham Jr.) this week, but I would put it in the week-to-week category after that. I’m just feeling really open so I’m just throwing that information out.”
(And TE Tanner Conner?) – “It was uncomfortable and so he’s going to be with the training staff today. I think he will be working his way back. When do I expect – I don’t expect it in the next couple practices. Beyond that is really hard for me to forecast.”
(A bunch of other wide receiver questions that you guys have had – WR Jaylen Waddle, WR Braxton Berrios, WR Anthony Schwartz – what wide receivers do you expect to see at practice this week?) – “I expect to see a couple – there are some guys that haven’t been practicing that I expect which will help the depth for that position. I think I expect to see – in what amount, that will vary depending on how their body feels through stretch and warmup and stuff – but I expect to see a little bit of Braxton (Berrios) here soon and expect to see Erik Ezukanma today.”
(In talking to QB Mike White after the game, he said one of the things that he wanted to accomplish was being a calming influence on the team and in the huddle. He knew that some guys were out there for the first time. He knew some guys were going to be stressing over making the 53. Are there other things like that, that you are looking for from the backup quarterbacks? Things that aren’t on the stat sheet?) – “Absolutely. Those things are monumental. That’s cool that Mike (White) said that because that’s what we’re talking to each quarterback. You’re in a competition that is inherently within the game, a little different. You’re working with different players, different portions of the game like Mike alluded to and so you may not – and just knowing that from a coach’s perspective, very clear with the quarterbacks that there’s various things that you’re looking for when someone is in those types of situations in a close competition but with different controlled variables. How you handle yourself, how you add value to players – you can tell by the coordination of an offense the conviction and the confidence of the quarterback simply by how players exit the huddle. When I say we evaluate everything, it’s literally that deep of a dive because you’re responsible for conveying the initial conviction of every play with every play call and then your assertiveness and how you emphasize different words in a huddle call; that can bring clarity and conviction to just how people approach the line of scrimmage. And can you do that while also juggling a ‘Hey, make sure you tell the Z to run a high corner because he doesn’t know what that is.’ That happens in preseason games. And all of it is – you take that into account so you can make sure that you present those types of challenges, the equivalent challenges to both quarterbacks. Skylar (Thompson) has the same opportunity in that way and we can assess from there.”
(I believe the last three years you’ve had two running backs atop the depth chart as co-starters. Can you describe your balance there between maybe a planned approach and then an adaptive or reactive approach as it goes through the season?) – “I mean, who says we have to stop at two? Maybe we can just have four. I think you have to let the players determine who gets the ball and how frequently and how much during the game, and that’s very important. I think the cool thing when you have a position group that on the front end you know by NFL standards is very, very talented – one of the most, if not the most talented that you can remember or you’ve been on teams with – you don’t worry about how that is going to unfold. You let it unfold and it’s always very obvious. You can tell by how people execute their blocks and their belief of the player carrying the ball and you have to be able to be open-minded to how it plays out. So I think the residuals of a deep room, you can see on each individual player. I’m seeing for instance some of Jeff Wilson’s best ball that I’ve seen him play. I worked him out as a player in North Texas back in 2018 and some of his best stuff has been in this camp and I can’t help but attribute that to the overall talent of the entire room. So it’s something that you just keep coaching, you keep seeing how much guys’ games can develop. You don’t put a ceiling on that because guys will continue to surprise you in a positive manner if you let them and we just know that a strength of ours can be handing the ball off to some pretty good backs and we just go from there.”
(What is S Patrick McMorris showing you so far in camp and Friday night as well?) – “It’s been cool to watch ‘Pat’ (Patrick McMorris) develop in non-padded situation, because you got to see a player directly take technique training and drill work and apply it in his game and evolve his game from the first day we saw him. Talking about breaking, being in a pedal and breaking at a direct angle towards an eligible as opposed to rounding out of it, those little things I’ve seen him develop. And then I think the team got to see him tackle, and we thought we’d be happy with it, but you never know until you get to see someone with the pads on in a tackle situation, and that part of his game is live and active. So it’s been cool to watch him really take some extreme – he’s taken advantage of the opportunity. The opportunity is that he has a room headed by Jevon (Holland) and (Jordan) Poyer that have an immense amount of knowledge. You have – Elijah Campbell is really going after it, Nik Needham is getting in there sometimes, Marcus Maye has done a lot of stuff in this league, and all those factors he’s taking advantage of. So he’s in charge of how far that goes and what he’s able to do on this team as a rookie, but what I do know is he’s taking full advantage of his opps, and his game continues to grow and it has to as a rookie. It’s very, very hard to contribute as a rookie in the National Football League, and the rookie year is not built for everyone to excel during. So it takes a special commitment and so far, so good with him. We’ll see what this week and this practice has in store for us from him.”
(When you went over the film of the offensive line, obviously I’m sure T Patrick Paul kind of stood out to you. What else were things that stood out positively and maybe something that needs to get addressed?) – “Overall I think there were several technique principles that we’ve really taken a look at how we articulate and coach them and emphasize them and so one of those being the line of scrimmage. And one I was happy with at times during the game and particularly in the group that Patrick (Paul) was playing with, I saw the line of scrimmage be reset and that is something that we work diligently at. We’ve tried to kind of reframe how we articulate it to engender better results, and I think overall you get to learn a lot about your overall team and where they’re at by some of the twos and threes and where their game is at, because it’s almost like a baseline of what is your starting point with where your game is at and what has clicked for the group. And to see the line of scrimmage reset at times, that was very encouraging and then I think there was some communication stuff that we will always be working on so we can have conviction and unity whenever we’re executing whatever phase. But I saw the line of scrimmage was a big positive coming out of that game with the younger guys in particular really gravitating towards their new technique and fundamentals. That being the first time in a competitive situation and game-like situation, they were able to execute those fundamentals.”
(How does the T Kion Smith injury impact that offensive line going forward?) – “It’s going to give some opps to some guys that – Kion (Smith) is a guy that, that was a hard – it’s always really, really hard to in real time watch a player really digest the reality of a season ending injury, because I don’t think … people don’t really think of it this way, but you have all these objectives and this forecasting that’s built up just like coverage for the National Football League is built up for months, and then all of a sudden, boom, wow, it’s all different. So for Kion, who’s really been bold in how he’s gone after his job and he’s developed since we’ve been here as much as anyone. One of our favorite guys to coach, that was tough. That was tough. I think there are some real strong battles going on on the offensive line that what does this do? Well, it forces guys to kind of clear those battles up, give some opportunities. Fortunately, I don’t know how many NFL offensive lineman we have, but it’s more than you’re able to keep on a roster. So that’s the good news, is that there will be guys that will get opps and have to step their game up because Kion is somebody that we’ve learned to rely upon more and more and somebody’s got to step up in his place. Who that’s going to be? They’ll have the first opportunity to tell me today.”
(I wanted to follow up on LB Jaelan Phillips. What was maybe your biggest takeaway about the way he attacked his rehab process?) – “For me, what I got to learn about Jaelan Phillps is that he is a very capable, strong learner because this was a test of internal fortitude. For Jaelan, his game, he’s always been an impact player. But right when he got injured, there was momentum swinging in a positive regard towards his conviction of how to play his position. He was feeling a different level of confidence and then for a guy that has ambitions as he does – he wants to be great in the worst way – it is a long vision challenge to attack this injury appropriately and not something that by nature is totally his speed. He wants to fix the issue and go play. So to watch him diligently go about the process – I thought he was going to be a No. 1 violator of secretly overdoing what he was supposed to do – to be patient and to have the vision for his teammates and what we’re all really relying upon him coming back and him being able to first find his footing from a health perspective and then be able to contribute to his team, I’ve been very proud of how he’s attacked that and while doing so, doing things that leaders do. Which is you feel his presence as a teammate. I think even when he’s not playing he definitely took note, both him and Bradley (Chubb) did, of how Jalen Ramsey attacked his injury last year and as a result he’s already impacted the 2024 Dolphins before he’s set out on the field. So excited for him to go to the next stage and we’ll see how his body responds to that.”
(Could you talk – we know by now watching you work and talk that you’re not constrained by tradition or doing things the way just because they’ve always been – training camp this year you guys scheduled days off. Little things like last week the Falcons were running sprints, you guys don’t. Can you talk about your mindset on training camp and sort of what you hope to get out of things like that?) – “To me the ultimate focus for our team is as rudimentary as, what do we want our football to look like? How do we want it to feel? How do we want to approach our technique and fundamental? And so built around that is, how do we get players adept at the system, adept at the techniques, while also with the long vision of the season? And so for me, it’s really prioritizing how when we go, we recreate game-like enthusiasm, focus, attention to detail. That to me is how you create and build and maintain your standard. Within all those moving parts, you have to develop a trust – from my perspective, comes from whys, but you have to develop a trust with your locker room that we won’t ever shortchange the way we go about full speed stuff, but we have to dive into the science, we have to follow trends, and we have to adjust our rep counts accordingly, so that we don’t do either end of the spectrum: not prepare guys or overwork guys. So that whole thing to me, if you have one group of people moving in the right direction or in one direction and you explain your whys with diligence and get the appropriate buy-in from the locker room, you can go out and we can get infinite amount of game reps more than our opponents. That’s kind of how I look at things. So it is a balancing act for sure which is why I have a hard time absolut-ing stuff and how things kind of change to a certain degree each and every training camp because you have a different problem to solve. And then what happens if you have too many players that need management and then you overwork – you can’t do as many reps. It’s ever-evolving. I think case in point, the practice today with various constraints at certain specific positions, we had to frontload with our full-speed reps and we kind of have to have an in-between walkthrough and light practice, jog-through at the tail end of it. That’s something that you guys aren’t used to seeing all the time, but that’s an adjustment to protect the way we train our fundamentals and technique which if you want to be a good football team or the best football team or anything that falls in the bucket of where we’re trying to go, you have to train those, much like I was talking to the team today about Steph Curry. Got a chance to talk to him this offseason and he talked about every time he shoots, his focus is the same on the front of the rim as in games. Well then you can do some elite stuff, but it comes back to his practice and preparation for those moments are why he can do things that no one else can. So that approach which makes it impossible to forecast exactly how things will play out because you always have to attend to all the – you want to talk about there’s a lot of variables? There’s a ton of variables, but you just do your absolute best with all the controllables that you can control and then communicate that amongst your team so everyone knows why you’re doing everything you’re doing.”
(You said you spoke with Steph Curry? Where was that?) – “It was at the Orlando Four Seasons visiting Disney. I think Golden State was on a road trip to play the Orlando Magic, and I ended up talking to him a little bit. My wife got a picture of us having a conversation. I think he got a picture of us, but I was too rattled to ask for his phone number. If he’s listening to this press conference, I would love to get that picture. But yeah, it was pretty cool. He’s the extreme version of everything I believe in in training for athletics, so when you bump into a guy when you have maybe five to ten minutes, I don’t even know what I said. I just rattled off a bunch of stuff and just remember what he talked about focus.”
(Did you introduce yourself? Did he know who you were?) – “Well, that goes to something that happens to me on routine. He did know who I was, which made no sense, much like every person in public that – people identify me a lot and it never gets normal. It’s always – maybe I’m delusional, I don’t know, I just don’t ever expect it.”
(Weren’t you a Halloween costume?) – “That doesn’t make any sense. Denial. (laughter)”
(How fun was it to face Raheem Morris in that game the other day? How different, how special was it for you?) – “It was cool. It was really cool to see him doing what everybody that’s worked with him has always known that he would be elite at. So it was fun, and it would have been more fun if he would’ve failed at his challenge. Unfortunately, he didn’t.”
Braxton Berrios – August 12, 2024
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Monday, August 12, 2024
WR Braxton Berrios
(Watching Friday’s game from the sideline and seeing tapes of other NFL games, your reaction on the kickoff rules back then – for returners, it looks a little chaotic out there, but how might you describe it?) – “I think in preseason regardless kickoff return is a little chaotic, but I liked it. I saw a lot of things, obviously in our game alone, a lot of things we did good, a lot of things obviously that we’ll learn from and get better at. But at the end of the day, I think the opportunities are there more so than any other year, and that’s exciting.”
(What’s it like to see a fellow Hurricane come back in LB Jaelan Phillips?) – “Oh, it’s awesome. Obviously when it all went down, you kind of knew that he would attack rehab. And to say that and think that then watching him every single day throughout the offseason, when most people aren’t here, he’s here, obviously through OTAs and through training camp, just absolutely get after it. The fact that he’s come back in such a short amount of time just speaks volumes to this training room and really him and his dedication and commitment to this team, it’s incredible.”
(After seeing the kickoffs, what’s the key here? Are there going to be opportunities to break some? Or are we going to see an awful lot of 1st-and-10 on the 23-yard line type things?) – “I think first and foremost, I think they’re trying to put the ball in play. The changes in the rule was to get more returns, and if they kick it straight into the end zone, it’s the 30 (-yard line) instead of the 25. If they don’t make it to the 20 (-yard line) or kick it out of bounds, it’s upward from there. So I think you’ll see a lot better field position, and I do, I think you’ll see a lot more returns for touchdowns. How that is going to happen, I have some thoughts on but I’m going to keep that in house and between me and (Special Teams Coordinator) Coach Crossman. But yeah, I think you will see more returns for touchdowns this year and at an absolute bare minimum, I think you’ll see better starting position for the offense.”
(What skill do you see with WR Malik Washington that kind of leaves you intrigued?) – “He’s attacking everything like a pro, I think, first and foremost from a learning standpoint, and then obviously that’s why he’s here. He can do a lot of great things with the ball in the air, and then also in his hands, running routes and blocking as we saw down there in the red zone. He’s really been awesome, been a great teammate and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next for him”
(How is the inter-wide receiver competition going that you guys do every training camp?) – “It’s actually going really well. I think it’s either tied up or somebody has the upper hand by one after today. So it’s actually like really close and neck and neck how you would hope it to be to, so good job captains.”
(When does it end? Does it end as soon as preseason is over?) – “That’s a good question, I don’t know. It’s either that last preseason game or whatever practice or two after that whenever training camp officially officially ends. But I’m going to guess it’ll probably be through the third preseason game.”
(So is it the losers buy the winners dinner?) – “I’m going to keep that one in house, too.”
(Wasn’t that the case before?) – “That has been the case. Yes, that has been the case.”
(Nice dinner?) – “It was a nice dinner, yes it was.”
(It feels like on every level, offense, defense, coaches, players, that just building chemistry and camaraderie this offseason has been really important. Besides this competition that receivers do, what else do you guys do on offense as pass catchers to make sure that you guys are close off the field?) – “I mean honestly, we hang out and I think that’s key, just not inside meeting rooms but obviously in the locker room we see each other but getting out outside the building and doing things. Whether it’s the dinner for that, whether it’s hang out at somebody’s house and anything else, and then obviously all the team events that we through, we’re all there together. I think it goes a long way, seeing each other outside the building, seeing each other with their significant others and spouses and kids and all that, I think that really building the team chemistry ten-fold rather than just when you see people in the building.”
(Is that something that kind of gets lost at the pro level? Because it feels like – I didn’t play college ball, but it feels like in college, you guys are in class together, live together, everything.) – “It can, it absolutely can. Everybody is grown. A lot of people like I said have wives, have kids, have girlfriends they live with. Everybody has – football obviously is their career, but everybody has their own life around it. It can, it can get lost, and that’s why when you have a team that makes an effort and makes it a point and a coaching staff that makes it a point to get everybody together outside the building, again, I think it goes a long way.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa obviously has lost some weight after the team had wanted him to bulk up a year and a half ago. Do you see any change in terms of mobility at all going back to OTAs to now?) – “Yeah, I do, and I think he said it as well. I think at the end of the day, whatever he feels best at is going to be best for this team. Obviously he feels best where he is, and we’re all confident that he’s at his best.”
(WR Tyreek Hill gets the first pick and he chooses WR River Cracraft over you. How do you feel about that?) – “That’s OK. That’s OK. River is a dawg, man. He comes out every day and obviously he knows what to do, he does the right things and then he makes plays. Obviously we’ve seen him this camp, he’s had a tremendous camp. He’s absolutely earned and deserving of that first pick.”
