Austin Jackson – April 13, 2022
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Wednesday, April 13, 2022
G/T Austin Jackson
(What has this offseason been like for you? Obviously a lot of changes have happened with the team and with your unit.) – “It’s been great so far. In terms of myself, just getting in a great routine, being very structured and taking a pretty great approach with my training. As far as the team with the new coaching staff, I’ve talked to (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) and (Offensive Coordinator) Frank (Smith) a bunch and I’m really excited for what we have in place. I’m even more excited for the work we’re about to start. First things first, it starts now. That’s why we’re meeting and training together and getting the details down really of our concepts of what we’re going to do.”
(How different is this scheme compared to anything you’ve run in college and in your first two years here?) – “What I like about this scheme is it’s very detailed. It’s very detailed. We have a very detailed emphasis. At the end of the day, we’re going to have to rely on the concepts that we know, study and train for – which is fun. It’s actually a lot of fun to do that because when you get in the actual game, there are a lot of different situations to be ready for. I think we’ll definitely have our great playbook and concepts that we’re installing right now to fall back on.”
(I know you haven’t had a practice yet, but the zone rushing philosophy seems to align with many of your strengths. How do you think it aligns with your strengths?) – “It aligns with a lot of my strengths, one of them being my athletic ability, of course. Personally, I feel like I can play in any system. It definitely aligns to the strength of overall as a team. I’m really excited. I don’t know how to fully explain my excitement, but just know we’ll definitely be utilizing speed all around. We have a team full of people that are fast – skill wise and offensive line wise. Very competitive and very aggressive. Those are three fundamentals, as players, that we pretty much operate on.”
(What is T Terron Armstead bringing to this offensive line? Not just from a playing standpoint, but from an mentality standpoint.) – “He’s a 10-year guy coming in. All Pro experience and all of that stuff. If we’re being quite frank, that’s somewhere every offensive lineman in the NFL wants to be. He’s definitely coming with the work ethic and his experience. We all look into that stuff. We all want to be there. You’ve got to tip your hat to the OGs and do your job at the end of the day.”
(I think we heard DE Emmanuel Ogbah say the other day that T Terron Armstead brings that dawg mindset to the line. Have you felt that so far? Or do you have to wait until you put the pads on in order for that to really resonate?) – “He’s a dawg to the dawgs, definitely for sure. He’s definitely a dog. He’s helped. There are little things in my training that I’ve taken a different mindset to. Like we said earlier. It’s a room full of dawgs already. Now we’ve got more bite.”
(Did you have any prior knowledge of your new offensive line coach Matt Applebaum? What are your impressions of him as a teacher?) – “I’ve actually watched quite a lot of college tape. I’ve watched a lot of tape, I actually love playing offensive line. It’s more of an art form to me, so I love to study it. I’ve definitely seen what Boston College linemen have been doing in the past couple of years. They’ve been super fundamentally sound technique-wise and all of that – these last couple of weeks we’ve been working together have been great. I’m looking forward to more in the future for sure.”
(What do you view as your ideal position with this group on the line and ultimately going forward in your career? And are those two things the same or different?) – “As you know, I played guard last year, as well as tackle. Personally, I’m a tackle. I feel like I’m a tackle. I’m comfortable there. I’m also very comfortable playing guard. I really just want to be in whatever position I can be in to help my team at the end of the day.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said that T Terron Armstead will be the left tackle. They signed OL Connor Williams who is projected to be left guard, but that is still up in the air. The outside thought is that you’ll be competing for a job at right tackle with G/T Jesse Davis gone. What do you think about that and what changes do you think you would have to make from moving from the left side to potentially the right side at tackle?) – “I’ve actually played right tackle. This isn’t the first time playing a new role for me. I played it in high school, I played it in college – actually collegiately, like starting at it. It’s not completely new for me, but at the end of the day, I have to make sure I’m 100 percent right in my techniques and my fundamentals because what our offense does is if you get the technique down and use that same technique, it’s supposed to be the same at every position. It’s allowing for people to be interchangeable. First things first, that’s what we’re locking in on in April.”
(When it comes to your weight that you want to be at and your specific preseason training, spring and summer, is it helpful to go in with the heads up that they are going to try you out at tackle first? Is there a difference in weight and training for tackle versus guard?) – “Not for me. Last year, I was at my tackle weight I guess you would say, and I ended up getting moved to guard. It depends on the player. Some players are heavier at guard, some players are lighter and smaller at guard. It really depends on what you do with your feet at the end of the day. I will say that one thing that we put an emphasis on in this new offense is elite stamina. You definitely want to be at the tip top of your game in terms of how hard you can push yourself, especially when you’re training. Being in South Florida, playing against all of these other teams, that’s another huge advantage you definitely want to take advantage of. To answer your question, I would say it helps out all around to be in great shape just overall.”
(You talked about your experience last year playing both guard and tackle and you’ve obviously a very studious player. I’m just curious if having that different lens, a different perspective, kind of changed the way you viewed offensive line play going from tackle to guard?) – “I definitely would say it enhanced me as a player, 100 percent. It’s easy to be at one position and not fully take in what’s done at other positions. Why would a quarterback have to think about everything a slot receiver needs to do technique-wise? I’ve never played quarterback. I don’t know if that valid or not. (laughter) But you get the point. I think it allowed me to get a deeper appreciation of what core techniques and fundamentals allow you to be consistent and dominant.”
(Last week the re-occurring theme was that there was a good energy in this building, whether it was from Head Coach Mike McDaniel or just from the guys coming back. Can you echo those sentiments?) – “Definitely. It’s a great feeling in the building. At the end of the day, the front office or whoever brought us all in together did a great job of bringing in a bunch of like-minded guys who are willing to work hard, want to work hard and are willing, hopefully God-willing, reap the benefits of that. And we do it with a smile on our face. It’s not easy to do every single day and still be happy about it. I think when you have turmoil, it brings in a lot of other stuff. But we’re just taking it smiling and enjoying it.”
(We’re all just getting to know Head Coach Mike McDaniel. We’re kind of happy he’s here and he seems like he is good to deal with and we appreciate that. What’s your impression of his personality and his approach?) – “I really like his personality and his approach. He’s confident in what he’s doing. The confidence just kind of reeks out of him. It’s pretty gross. It’s like a lot of confidence. (laughter) It just kind of pours into how we as players operate. He’s got a great plan. I think he’s doing a great job of getting everybody to buy in. Right now we’re being deliberate in our approach and how we train. He’s emphasized that. We need to be deliberate and present in what we do every day and that starts in April. It starts today. It started actually a couple of weeks ago, but we’re talking about it today.”
Mike Gesicki – April 13, 2022
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Wednesday, April 13, 2022
TE Mike Gesicki
(So how do you feel about receiving the franchise tag?) – “I mean, I don’t think anybody across the league would be mad about a situation that you get to come back, you’re obviously getting an increase in financial purposes and that kind of stuff. It’s obviously not the goal, the end-all, be-all goal. It’s definitely more team-friendly than it is player-friendly. But it just gives me more reason to continue to come back here, work hard and continue to be motivated, get back to work and help this team win football games and hopefully eventually get what I deserve moving forward.”
(It was a pretty eventful offseason for you. Was there like – were you able to kind of compartmentalize? Obviously you have the wedding, you have the honeymoon and then you’re kind of talking with your agent. Like were you able to compartmentalize?) – “Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, it was awesome. I had a lot of fun this offseason. A lot of the focus was not football-related. A lot of the focus was on the wedding and the honeymoon and all of that kind of stuff and I made sure that Halle knew that it was all focused on the wedding and the honeymoon. I wasn’t even worried about a contract. It was awesome. It was great. It was everything that I could have imagined. I was in Bora Bora on my honeymoon and it’s like a six-hour difference in time so it was 3 a.m. and my agent texted me and he’s like, ‘Hey, they’re tagging you.’ I was like ‘oh,’ I like, rolled over in the middle of the night, checked my phone. I got a text from my agent and I was like, ‘okay,’ and then I also had a hundred other texts because I had slept through it. It was like 4 a.m., 3 a.m. Bora Bora time and rolled over, checked my phone and knew what happened. Woke up Halle, she was all excited and then went back to sleep. (laughter)”
(So are you and the organization sort of like, ‘hey, let’s have a one-year look-see?’ Or are you still open to the possibility of a long-term?) – “I am absolutely open to negotiation, but it’s not really up to me, as a lot of this is not. So I just kind of go with the flow and if they reach out, then my agent will be listening.”
(Does it bother you that they didn’t feel necessary to get a multi-year deal done?) – “I mean that’s up to them, honestly. I have a good relationship with Chris (Grier) and Brandon (Shore) and this new coaching staff obviously – maybe that had something to do with it, I’m not sure. I don’t really have all the answers. But I do know the kind of person that I am and the worker that I am and the player that I am, I’m just going to go back out there and continue to do what I do, continue to improve and make plays and help this team win football games and eventually get compensated for it.”
(Are you planning on playing on the tag as a tight end or are you thinking about seeing what you can find as a wide receiver?) – “Well, I mean I’m definitely playing. I’m here at OTAs, so – this is obviously optional – so here I am. I want to do whatever I can to help this team win football games. I think I’ve been here for four years now. The last two years we’ve been the odd team out, the last team out at the end of the regular season in terms of playoffs. So whatever it takes to go out there and win some games, win a playoff game and get back out there and kind of get this city going in the right direction. It’s been a long time, but obviously it’s a long process and a lot of work goes into it and we’re far away from that right now, but there’s obviously the excitement. But all 32 teams are excited. It’s April.”
(I think he was referring to are you going to appeal for the receiver designation for the franchise tag or keep it with the tight end?) – “That’s kind of up to – obviously it’s up to me, but more my agent and him kind of putting that out there. But as of now, I’m in here and I’m not really a big controversy guy. I’m not trying to be the guy that’s the bad locker room guy or the guy that’s bringing the organization down or the guy that’s in the headlines for the wrong reasons. I’m just trying to, like I said, help this team in any way I can. I’m going on my fifth year. I joke around with Durham (Smythe) now – I am the most tenured Dolphins player on offense. I beat out Durham by about 17 hours. (laughter) So that’s me now. So I’ve got to be the leader, so obviously be a team guy and continue to do what I do and come in here with a smile on my face and work hard.”
(What are your thoughts on the acquisition of WR Tyreek Hill and might it impact in any way what your role in the offense?) – “Love having more playmakers on the field, so to bring in a guy that’s one of, if not the best, at what he does in this league, it’s only going to help everybody in this offense. It’s going to help our run game, it’s going to help our pass game, it’s going to help Tua (Tagovailoa), it’s going to help me, it’s going to help Jaylen (Waddle). It’s going to help everybody. So I’m super excited about that acquisition and excited to continue to get to work with him. It’s been good.”
(When you look at the 49ers film and you talk to Coach Mike McDaniel and you talk to Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends Jon Embree, what do you see and what are you hearing about how your skillset could fit into that scheme?) – “Yeah, it’s definitely a different scheme as to what we’ve played in, but at the end of the day, football is football. These coaches are elite in what they do and I think that they’re going to put people in position to be successful. To be honest, we haven’t really gone over installs or anything like that. It’s just been very, very basic knowledge of the offense. So that’s pretty much where we’re at right now, but I’m ready to do whatever I can to go out there and make plays.”
(Does and did George Kittle run a lot of the types of routes that you have run?) – “I would say George (Kittle) and I are different players, but in terms of route-running and ability to make tough catches and make plays, I think the thing that he’s the best at in the league, I think out of probably anybody in any position, is yards after the catch. He gets the ball and he runs angry, he runs people over, he stiff arms people, he runs by people. So I think having Coach Embree here and he’s kind of a guy that helped – I’m not saying that he’s the reason that George is where he’s at or that George is the reason that Jon is the coach he is, but they worked together and did a very good job together, so he was able to help him in a lot of aspects and obviously George is the player he is now. So I’m happy to have Coach Embree here and it’s definitely some good tape to watch, watching Kittle out there.”
(What are your early impressions of Head Coach Mike McDaniel – the man, the personality, the coach?) – “Yeah, funny dude. I had a meeting with him last week and it went well and just talking with him just about everything – the atmosphere in the building, the guys, the locker room, everything. So he’s awesome. It’s been great and I’m excited to play for him and work for him and do everything I can to earn his trust for some big-time opportunities coming up this fall. But it’s April right now. Everybody is optimistic, everybody is happy, everybody is in a good mood. But we’ll see how it goes when things start flying around and adversity hits and all that kind of stuff. But I think that this locker room, the guys that are still here, have been through a lot. So I’m excited to continue to use our past to get better in the future.”
(I know you want to avoid controversies, but you can’t take off the wedding ring this early…) – “Yeah, I’m in trouble right now…”
(You can do it with your hands behind your back.) – “Yeah, I know, the hands are behind my back. (laughter) So Halle is on a bachelorette party this weekend in Miami, so I went back home to see my parents. Went home, forgot my ring at home. I’m driving to the airport on Sunday and I’m like, ‘oh boy.’ Text Halle: ‘Hey, I forgot my ring.’ ‘Yeah, okay, like you did it on purpose.’ ‘No, Halle, I didn’t do it on purpose. I forgot. I got out of the shower, I put it down and then when I got out I forgot to put it back on.’ So I’ll be sure to replace that on my finger here, but pretty sure everybody that at least I care about knows I’m married.”
(… And by the way the shirtless dancing is nice…) – “Absolutely. Yeah, I was enjoying myself at the wedding. I was enjoying myself at the wedding. Durham also enjoyed himself at the wedding. Don’t let him tell you any differently. He was standing on tables and spraying champagne, too. There’s just no visual evidence at the moment.”
(I have a question for you. How does your – obviously it’s a wedding, it’s not necessarily for you – but you planned it so close to free agency. Like what was the thought on that?) – “So we got engaged almost, this summer it’ll be two years, and we did it quickly in terms of planning. So we got engaged on July 1. I had to come back for training camp, like call it the 25th of July. So we wanted to have it kind of scheduled before we went back. We went to a bunch of different venues and this was before my third year. So I’m like, ‘All right, I’m going to have a good year, I’m going to get extended, I don’t even have to worry about free agency.’ Third year passes, no extension. Fourth year ends, no extension. Then here comes my wedding. I’m sitting there talking to Halle. I’m like, ‘Yo, we’re going to be in Bora Bora. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I might get a phone call here, a phone call there. We might have to fly back early. I have no idea. We’ve just got to kind of roll with the punches.’ And she was great. She was obviously super excited and was awesome throughout the whole process, but it was getting close and everybody was like, ‘Bro, you’re getting married on Friday. The tag window closes on Tuesday morning and then free agency starts. Like why did you plan your wedding…?’ I was like ‘Bro, I don’t know.’ I was not thinking a year and a half in advance obviously.”
(So what was your favorite part of the wedding?) – “That’s a tricky question. You’re trying to get me in trouble now. (laughter) Like obviously getting married, saying my own vows. I did like saying my own vows. I didn’t want to at first because I was like…”
(Did you memorize them or read them?) – “Memorized them. I got there the night before and the priest was like ‘I need you to give me your vows. This way we can look over them.’ And Halle had them all written down, handed it to him and I’m like, ‘Oh, I didn’t write them down. I’ve got them up here.’ So then Halle thinks I haven’t even thought about writing my vows yet, we’re getting married in 12 hours. (laughter) I’m already in the doghouse, but then obviously I’m like, ‘Halle, I’ve got them right here.’ So I wrote them out the next morning, gave them to the priest. ‘Hey, here’s what I’m going to say.’ I went straight off the dome and it was great. I said some nice things, so I was clear for the whole night. So it was great. And then the reception, the after party, it was awesome. It was a lot of fun.”
(How big was it?) – “It was about probably like 250 people there, so it was cool. Yeah, it was a nice venue. It was cool.”
(Did you do any of the planning or you just showed up?) – “I showed up. I can’t really tell you much. I was at the tasting. I tried the food and that was pretty much it. I left it all up to Halle because if I said something and we didn’t want to do it or if I had said something and she didn’t want to do it, we weren’t going to do it. So ‘Halle, if you want the color of everything to be pink or blue, great, let’s roll with it. As long as you’re happy…’”
(Did you get your tux?) – “I did pick my tux. I did pick my tux, so that was me. It was great.”
(So you got the wedding, you got the honeymoon and then you got a chance to break the news for TE Durham Smythe’s contract extension. How pumped were you about that?) – “Oh, I was fired up. I was fired up. It was like getting married and then Durham getting re-signed was like, right here. (laughter) So it was great. I was super fired up about that. I was actually driving to go work out and he had texted me that morning saying, ‘I think we’re close.’ And then after that (the senior director of football communications) FaceTimed me. She’s probably watching this interview somewhere having a heart attack, like, ‘Oh God, what is he about to say?’ She FaceTimed me and said, ‘Hey, I think it would be funny if you broke the news.’ I was like, ‘Great.’ Sent her a couple pictures and videos and she was like, ‘Do not post any of those. Do not post any of those.’ (laughter) I was like, ‘Okay, fine, like I’ll try to find something a little bit more appropriate.’ One of them was like us in Vegas. She was like ‘Do not, do not post that!’ (laughter) I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll keep that private.’ So then I ended up the one from when he scored his touchdown against the Jets and broke the news and yeah, it was great. I was thinking about flying to – he was in North Carolina on a golf trip – I was thinking about flying there and then I was like, ‘All right, I don’t like you that much.’ I’m not going to celebrate with you in North Carolina. I’ll just see you when I see you.”
(So there was only one source. See, that’s wrong. You need to get two sources on when you break news like that.) – “It was straight from me. It was just straight from me, so it was the most reliable source possible.”
(How’d that feel, breaking news like that?) – “It was great. It was great. I think I have a future after football. There’s definitely some potential there. (laughter)”
Elandon Roberts – April 13, 2022
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Wednesday, April 13, 2022
LB Elandon Roberts
(It’s been a pretty hectic offseason to put it mildly. A lot of changes on offense but on defense, you guys are running it back. How surprised were you to see that and what are your thoughts about that – to everybody on defense running it back?) – “It was a great thing because I know all of those guys. You’ve got that team camaraderie with your defense. I’m glad we got all the guys back and it’s going to be fun. I know somebody is going to have this question, but the NFL changes every year so to not have your defensive unit change that much is a good thing.”
(Obviously Brian Flores is no longer here but Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer is staying as the defensive coordinator. What do you expect to change in that aspect with him really taking the reigns with the defense?) – “I think Josh is going to do a great job and do what he’s been doing since he took over the last two years. That’s it.”
(How does that continuity help you as a communicator to just get the defense with the rest of the guys? There’s no real going back to step one. You’re already at step four or five or whatever. How does that help you as a communicator?) – “It’s good because now you can build on it. You can start putting yourself and your defense in situations that you might have not been able to put in last year in OTAs. You had to start from the foundation. Every year, you still have to start with your foundation because guys have been off. You’ve just got to revamp things but it’s a quicker process and stuff like that. As a communicator, as a guy that guys know on the team and I know them and know the best situation to put each other in, it’ll really complement us in the long run that we were able to stay together.”
(I’m sure you had some options. Why did you decide you wanted to come back?) – “To be fully transparent, I just felt like this is my defense. I’m a leader on the team and a leader on the defense. It was kind of a no-brainer for me, to be honest with you. I love being in Miami. My family loves it out here. I have a good relationship with everyone in the building. It was kind of a no-brainer.”
(What are you going to do when football is over? Have you thought about that?) – “For me, this might sound funny but I tell everyone around the building because I’m successful off the field in what I’m doing. I’m doing my own thing off the field and I’m going into year seven. I tell them all the time I’d love to just be a high school head football coach. That’s it.”
(Why high school?) – “Because I feel like the foundation for kids starts then. You’ve got a lot of kids that are going to college and coming to the NFL and really still don’t know or really still don’t know who they are – even as a football player. You can be this great athlete, a great football player and still not know who you are until you get to the NFL. I feel like me, being a guy that’s financially stable and stuff like that, maybe down the road I may be like, ‘I want to coach in the NFL.’ Or I might wake up next year and be like, ‘I want to coach in the NFL.’ But right now, I just want to mentor kids and give them the right opportunity to be prepared for certain situations because when you’re in college, you have competition coming in every year, so you’ve got to approach that a certain way. If you don’t build that foundation when those kids are in high school and start them off on that path – there’s a time and a place to pat them on the butt and say, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ but when you throw them in the fire and you’ve got the wolves coming every year, the strongest survive. At the end of the day, it’s just like my situation. Every year (the media) tries to push me out. I’m still in here looking at you guys. (laughter)”
(Do you find yourself serving as a mentor to some of the younger guys with a new coaching staff and just helping get things set in place? I know CB Xavien Howard talked about that last week saying he’s just trying to lead guys with a new coaching staff and get them to buy in. Do you think you’re doing the same?) – “Yeah, I think that’s the energy around the whole building. Just guys in this time, it’s a different year then the past two years when you haven’t been able to come in for OTAs, minicamp and all of that. None of us were really in the building so now that everybody is in the building, you’re able to really, really build with your teammates and stuff like that. I just like that we’ve got some normalcy going around the NFL. These last two years have been kind of weird. I kind of forgot how an offseason program can go. I was doing my own thing. So yeah, it’s cool.”
(So we’re all starting to get to know Head Coach Mike McDaniel. What do you think? How would you describe his personality?) – “I think he’s his own guy. We had conversations and it’s been great. Him around the building has been great and I feel like everything he told you guys, you can kind of go off that. He hasn’t hid anything from you guys or tried to do anything of that nature and stuff like that. For me and him, him as a head coach – my job is to make sure that I lead the defense and the team in the right direction. What way that he wants me to do that, that’s the way I’m going to do it because at the end of the day, that’s my head coach and I’m going to follow behind him and do my part with the team. I feel like everybody dealing with coach and whatnot is having a positive mindset and everything with it. He kind of told y’all everything so I don’t really know how to fall in. (laughter)”
(What has been your impression on this team’s additions on the other side of the ball, specifically with all the new speed that’s been infused on offense?) – “I was at home. I kind of got the news like y’all. I feel like it’s been great. It’s exciting but all we can really do is control today and when the day is by, we control tomorrow. If we live in the future, we wont handle what’s in the present. We’ve just got to handle every day day-by-day.”
(I know it’s been a while since it happened but what was your initial reaction when Brian Flores was let go? He’s a guy you had a long-standing relationship with.) – “It was months ago. I can’t remember like that. I just worry about the present, not the past. I’m not trying to be, but I’m just, yeah.”
(With you coming off an ACL tear and then having a career year – I don’t know if you were fully recovered when you were playing but what does that say to you about yourself and what you can do?) – “I just feel like me, myself, every year I come in, any year, and I just try to get better in what I need to get better at. This year for me is a 360 of difference because last offseason, all I did was worry about rehab. Rehab, get my knee right. Rehab, get my knee right. Now this year, I can really get back to looking at me as a whole, looking at what I can really have a true offseason and really put my best foot forward for my team. That’s leading the team, doing my job and making sure each week we are ready to go. That’s how I look at it. To answer your question, I am excited to have a full offseason (where I’m) not worried about rehab and worried about getting bigger, faster, stronger and all that.”
