Christian Wilkins – May 24, 2022
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
DT Christian Wilkins
(How would you assess OTAs so far?) – “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good. The guys have been working every day, trying to be our best. It’s been competitive. There has been some days, some plays where the offense has dominated. There has been plays and days where the defense has dominated. It’s just been fun and competitive. That’s all you can ask for. Guys who are coming out here in the spring, when we don’t have to be out here, just competing and that makes it fun.”
(What’s your reaction to LB Melvin Ingram joining the team?) – “It’s obvious that Melvin has been a good player in this league for a really long time. Anytime you can get a guy like that, with his experience, with his performance on the field, I think it’s always great. I’m excited to have him.”
(Have you met him yet?) – “Yeah. I got a chance to meet him and talk to him a little bit.”
(Is there a tangible difference for you to have continuity going into this year with the same defense and a lot of the same faces on the defense?) – “Absolutely. It’s not like you have it on a complacent sense. You have it in a – you can rebuild, but it doesn’t take as long to get where you feel like you need to get to. There are certain things like chemistry, like certain plays in certain times where me and Zach (Sieler) don’t even need to communicate. We just know what we’re doing and it’s just like I know you’re going to be there, or ‘E-Rob’ (Elandon Roberts) knows I have times and places where I take risks or I take chances, and he knows he’s got to make me right and things like that. It’s fun to play with guys and have some continuity.”
(I know you guys are going against him in practice, but what is it like going against WR Tyreek Hill on your team now?) – “He’s obviously been a really good player in this league for a little while. What we’re trying to create is a competitive environment here where everybody is competing against each other. He’s really good at what he does. He makes the secondary better. He makes the quarterbacks better. He makes everybody better. He pushes the guys in that receiver room.”
(What have been your impressions of going up against OL Connor Williams and the versatility he brings?) – ‘He’s versatile. He can play a few different positions. I think he’s a nice piece to add to the o-line room.”
(Have you been following this NIL madness in the NCAA?) – “Somewhat. Not too much. Everything is out there, everything is on your phone and people always talk about it, so you kind of hear about all of that.”
(Do you feel you kind of missed out a little bit?) – “Yes. Yes, I did. (laughter) I might have stayed in college a fifth year with all the money they’re making. (laughter). I’m just teasing. I feel like I’ve missed some opportunities, but it is what it is. I’m happy that those guys are able to get a few dollars.”
(Do you feel like the newness is sort of over with Head Coach Mike McDaniel? Are you guys at a point now in the process where everything is just normal, you’re not getting to know each other so to speak?) – “Yeah, so to speak. But I feel like we were all professionals since day one. We came in, we all bought in. We gave him a chance, he gave us a chance to show what we got. It just felt natural since day one. Guys came with the right mindset and started competing since day one. That’s been a lot of fun.”
(What were your thoughts on other teammates’ playlists?) – “I personally think I had the best one because I had a little something for everybody. But I think the other guys are pretty good. I can really vibe out to anything or enjoy listening to anything. It’s kind of just background noise when you’re practicing.”
(What did QB Tua Tagovailoa have on his playlist?) – “Tua had a mix of everything too. It was nice. He mixed it up. I thought his was really good.”
(WR Tyreek Hill said yours was more like for his kids.) – “Yeah, exactly because I had to start out with the musicals. You know that’s my thing, so I couldn’t disappoint there. That was fun.”
(When you look back at film of yourself from last year, what stands out for you? What do you expect to add to your game next year?) – “I felt like I definitely improved last season. But there is still so much – I’m not even scratching the surface of where I think I can be. I try to make it a conscious effort each and every day to come in and get better at something. I have a focus of the day and I try to lock in on that and be dominant at that for that day. And eventually, as you get more reps, you focus on that more times, and you’re going to get better at those things and in those areas. That’s just my mindset every day.”
(What was the focus today?) – “I’ll keep that to myself but I’m always going to try to improve on something.”
Thomas Morstead – May 24, 2022
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
P Thomas Morstead
(In your case, it’s good to just punt to WR Tyreek Hill in practice only. You don’t have to worry about it in a game.) – “Well, I’ve had some good success against Tyreek in the past. He’s a hell of a player. I know the team is excited to have him here but it’s irrelevant who’s back there as far as I’m concerned about how I do my job.”
(What made you want to come to Miami?) – “Look at this (points to the blue sky and training facility). I had a great career in New Orleans, 12 years, Super Bowl, Pro Bowl and whenever I was done there, I just wasn’t done. My kids are getting old enough now that they know what’s going on, they got to see dad respond to getting fired and having to persevere a little bit. It was a good opportunity for me to show them how I felt was best to respond and they’re old enough to know what’s going on now. We wanted to provide them a great experience that hopefully they’ll remember as a positive one.”
(How quickly did this come about with the Dolphins?) – “Quickly. I won’t get too specific about it because it’s team business but I actually reached out to them. There was no punter on the roster and I thought Miami seems like a nice place to play. Financially, I was willing to take a veteran salary benefit deal and I don’t think they knew that, so I just made it clear. They said, ‘Well get on a plane and come out here and see if you like it.’ I’ve made a lot of money in my career and these experiences are just, when it’s over it’s over. I love doing everything there is to it. I love the training. I love the grind of the workouts. Obviously, I’m a little bit different than most of my teammates. I’m not hitting a lot and things like that. At least if I’m doing my job well, I’m not. I just love being a part of it. I love being depended on and it’s special being a part of an NFL locker room. Especially when you have a first-year coach with some reasonably high expectations. It’s fun to be a part of that and be a part of building something and building a culture. I’m just excited to be here.”
(Practicing in the shadow of this stadium, does it bring back memories of what had to be the biggest play of your career?) – “Yeah, I haven’t been back here in 13 years. Last time I stepped off this field, we won the Super Bowl and I had glitter all over my shoes. It was a great experience. Eight years later, we played the Dolphins away in London so I haven’t been back. I’m really looking forward to getting back in the stadium. Although it was a long, long time ago, in certain ways it was just like yesterday. I’m excited to be back in there.”
(What’s the welcome been like for you from the coaching staff, players and your first impressions of Head Coach Mike McDaniel?) – “Look, I just felt an authenticity from everybody I met here. The GM, I had a great conversation with him and it was all about, surprisingly, it had nothing to do with me doing my job. It was about what are you planning to do with the family, how do you see this going for you and things that were of major value to me. That was really important. Getting to meet Coach (Mike) McDaniel, he’s a super interesting guy. It’s my first time having a head coach that is my generation and it kind of feels like one of my buddies as the coach, which is kind of cool. It’s cool to see people like him that are of a unique background getting opportunities to do what they do, provide value and help build a team. I’ve just felt that and lastly, meeting with Coach (Danny) Crossman was, that was my No. 1 criteria for coming here. If you don’t have a, you kind of get married to your coach or coaching staff when you join a team. If you don’t have a good wife, your life sucks, right? (laughter) So, if you don’t have a good marriage with your coach, it can be a really crummy expierence. I’ve experienced that once before and it’s not ideal. It sucks all the joy out of playing. On the flip side, when you do have a good coach, somebody that you immediately gain a trust with – there’s nothing better than going to battle with somebody like that. I’m excited to be here. I’ve felt nothing but love from coaches and players. I just hope to do my small part and be accountable to the team.”
(Who’s the real ‘T-Stead?’) – “Well, I’m the original ‘T-Stead’ because I’m older than Terron (Armstead). I told him at some point I need to get my No. 13 jersey and pose just like he did when he signed, get his ‘T-Stead’ chain. I need to borrow that from him.”
Tyreek Hill – May 24, 2022
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
WR Tyreek Hill
(Now that you’ve had a chance to get on the field with WR Jaylen Waddle, how do you think you guys’ games kind of complement each other?) – “I think they complement each other very well. Just having another speed guy on the other side of you, that definitely puts a lot of fear in a lot of d-coordinators’ minds, so I’m very excited for the year. I’m excited to see what Tua’s going to do especially, so we’re all ready for it.”
(Have you heard from the defenders out here about how challenging it can be to defend you guys and all the speed you guys offer?) – “Yeah, man, it’s just all locker room chatter. But for me, I’ve been in this league a long time. None of that really means nothing because at the very end of the day, you’ve got to line up and you’ve still got to play ball, so you can be the fastest guy on the field, but it’s all about knowing where to be at, especially for the quarterback just for the quarterback’s timing. So that’s the thing that’s real special about this team; we have a lot of guys who are wanting to be coached, who want to get better. So like I said, I’m very excited to be a part of this team.”
(You get some exercise then on the practice field. It seemed like they were using you downfield a ton…) – “That’s what I do, man. (laughter)”
(It wasn’t like a veteran’s day for you.) – “That’s what I do, man. Like when I came here, I signed up to work. I didn’t sign up just for the paycheck. I also signed up to be a team leader and also lead this team and show this team how I do things. And how I do things is I work hard and I want the guys behind me to follow that. So I just can’t be a guy in our locker just saying, ‘hey, you guys should be doing this, doing that.’ I’ve got to be that guy who’s willing to come out on the field and work hard and show these young guys how to get the job done and potentially win a Super Bowl, so that’s what I’m here for.”
(You mentioned QB Tua Tagovailoa. What do you think of the way the ball comes from him now that you’ve experienced it for a little bit here?) – “I mean it’s nothing weird. At first, I thought it was going to be something crazy – the ball going all over the place, but Tua actually has probably one of the prettiest balls I’ve ever caught in my life. It’s very catchable. I don’t want to continue because the more I talk, the more it sounds weird. Tua is a very accurate quarterback. That’s all I’m going to say.”
(We saw the video that you posted kind of in response to the one video that got a lot of reaction, so why is it so important for you to – QB Tua Tagovailoa kind of declines to comment on a lot of the reaction around him, but why is it so important for you to speak out and kind of support him?) – “I just feel like football is all about confidence and I’m very confident in my quarterback. So I just feel like if I’m able to help him get all the confidence in the world and push other guys to push that confidence into him, then the sky’s the limit for the guy because he’s a heck of a talent, has crazy arm strength, arm talent. So like I said, we’re all excited just to watch him sling the ball each and every day.”
(What about your confidence? You obviously come across as a very confident player. Was it always that way when you were this tall or…?) – “Oh yeah, I’ve always been like that. That is something that my grandparents instilled in me. I just feel like without confidence, you really can’t do anything because the mind is going to help you get to where you want to get. I just can’t come out here and just feel sorry for myself every day. Just like today – I had a very hard day of just running back and forth. I could have easily just said, ‘you know what, I give up, I already got what I wanted.’ Yet still my mindset, my confidence; I just want to get better. I’ve got too much pride in this game. I was telling somebody that the other day. I’ve got too much pride in this game. I want to get better. I want to learn from Coach (Mike) McDaniel. I want to learn from the OC (Frank Smith) and I want to learn from Coach Wes Welker, so I’m just willing to elevate my game even more. That’s just the way I think.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa wasn’t here today, so you played with QB Teddy Bridgewater. What’s it been like with him on the field?) – “With Teddy? Oh, it’s fun. I think the world of Teddy also. Teddy is another veteran guy who can come in and just sling the ball all across the field, so it feels good to have two quarterbacks who can come in and do the same thing – ball on time, ball in the right place – so it feels good.”
(I was just going to ask you about the playlist today because it was all over the place, man.) – “The playlist was terrible. (laughter) I’m sorry to tell you (Christian Wilkins) that, bro…”
Christian Wilkins: “I’m going to see you in the locker room. (laughter)”
Hill: “I’m joking, bro. Besides the Clemson – was that a Clemson…?”
Wilkins: “That was the Tiger Rag.”
Hill: “That was nice. I was turnt off that. I like that though. (laughter)”
(It was all over the place, right?) – “It was all over the place, man. He was even playing Disney music. Was that Disney music you were playing?”
Wilkins: “I started with that.”
Hill: “I have no idea what was going on today. I felt like I was in my living room with my kids again. I was like, ‘yo, this is getting crazy.’ (laughter)”
(So have you had a day with the playlist or have you been an orange jersey guy?) – “No, I haven’t been an orange jersey guy. I guess I haven’t been working hard enough for Coach (McDaniel), but hopefully I can get it.”
(When LB Melvin Ingram came to you guys in Kansas City, what do you remember he brought to the team?) – “Just that veteran leadership. Just adding another brother to the locker room. I just feel like with me and Melvin, me and him grew close in the locker room outside of playing football whether we were playing basketball at one of my good buddy’s gyms in KC and just building that bond together. So when he came here, I was all for it. I’m very excited because I really know what Melvin can bring to a team – his mindset, just the way that he approaches his work, his craft and he’s just able to get around guys like Christian (Wilkins) and Emmanuel (Ogbah) and it’s just going to crazy, man. That d-line is going to be crazy.”
Mike McDaniel – May 24, 2022
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(On LB Melvin Ingram) – “He’s a veteran player that has been very productive in this league. In conjunction with the scouting department – Chris (Grier), myself and the rest of the scouting department and the coaching staff felt very excited to have the opportunity to add him to the team. He’s a veteran presence, a guy who has been in big games, a guy that for a young team can be very impressionable and a playmaker to boot.”
(Where does that stuff show up? Does it show up early … or is it always there?) – “I think that shows up – one of the great things about football is that nothing you see on Sundays just comes out of nowhere. This is a very practiced and well-orchestrated game that you don’t just all of a sudden have production out of nowhere. It’s how you carry yourself on a day-to-day basis, especially people that are able to be productive for several years at a time. That’s a day-in, day-out process and we have coaches and players that have been on teams with (Ingram) that were able to kind of give us a glimpse of what we’d be getting. And that type of person first is the reason why the player exists.”
(The orange jersey and practice player of the day, was it your idea? Tell us how you came up with it and what’s your process for selecting who earns that practice player of the day?) – “This offseason, we were spit balling various things. Coach Jon Embree brought up the idea of – there was a lot of talk about my DJ skills pre-team meetings. So to kind of put that to bed and say, ‘Hey, if you’re so great, why don’t you show yourself?’ He floated the idea of having a practice player – organically as a staff we came up with selecting a particular person that would not only be represented as the best player on the field from the practice before but also take all accountability for DJ selections from the head coach and make sure everyone knows it’s the person with the orange jersey that’s making those calls.”
(Did anybody have a playlist that was not well received?) – “That was another learning opportunity for the team because I think the first day, Jaelan Phillips received some flak just for some particular selections. Everyone has an opinion, especially when it comes to things like that. But we talked about it as a team. Since then, there’s been no grumblings because the whole point is if you have any comments or critiques over the DJ list, become the DJ.”
(So this basically takes the heat off yourself?) – “I mean an unintended consequence. I think there’s multiple winners in the whole process. I think the guys, they definitely respect the players that have been given it and you can tell this team is full of competitors because even within one’s position group, the second one guy receives it, it seems to lift up the level of play from that group.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa won it one of the days. What have you seen from him and what do you want to see out of Tua?) – “He earned it. I think his teammates acknowledged that. What have I seen from him? I’ve seen a guy that’s attacking the moment, a guy that really likes to play football. In the process of college evaluations, you’re in the National Football League in a different conference and you hear people describe a quarterback’s instinctiveness. It’s kind of probably how it hits your ear that it hit mine, where that’s intriguing, but I didn’t quite know what that meant. Now I have a better idea of what that meant but I still don’t have a better way to describe it besides instinctiveness. But you can tell the player has played the position for a long time and that he thinks about the game of football through the lens of the quarterback position. I’ve been very excited about his development as far as the offensive plan and being the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.”
(What specifically during OTAs are the two or three things you’ve really wanted to achieve?) – “You’re first trying to identify a standard with which you play and a standard with which you practice. Within that, that’s where your camaraderie and that’s where your relationships are built. They’re blood, sweat and tears that are earned over hard work and you’re trying to get a team to decide what their standard of play is going to be and then you want to uphold that standard because that’s the way that you operate and function as a football team. So that identity, it’s a tackle sport but the way we look at it is you can start that identity by the way you practice without tackling.”
(When you worked with Kyle Shanahan and obviously his dad, what was the significance of the fullback to that offense and what impact has that had on your coaching philosophy?) – “It’s been extremely impactful. I’ve been fortunate enough since the year 2005 to be in the same structure of offense and this will be my seventh team. From the starting point of Day 1 installation, I’ve had a fullback involved. One of the advantages of a fullback is that you have a backfield player that can give you different numbers on each side of the center depending on the direction he goes. If you’re in just a normal dot formation, you have two eligibles on each side and then the halfback at home. When you’re in the I-formation, is it 3×1 or is it 2×2? That’s a starting point. It doesn’t hurt that a lot of offenses have gone away from that only because with the historical experience that our staff has had, myself included, defenses aren’t as adept at fitting those types of plays, whether they’re runs or passes, and defending against it, which is a competitive advantage when you’re able to find a fullback that – it’s just not any ordinary human being or you must play with a fullback. You have to have an athletic player that is smart, can understand a lot of schemes and can read on the fly. When that position player plays fast, it can be pretty disruptive to teams that are not used to going against it.”
(You drafted a quarterback this year. Every team has a different evaluation for collegiate quarterbacks when they’re going through the process. What are the pitfalls teams need to avoid when going through the evaluation process? We have all of this information – more information than ever – on these college kids but teams still make mistakes. So what are the biggest challenges?) – “I think it’s paramount that you just get good quarterbacks and avoid the bad ones. (laughter) It’s like any other position. That’s the hardest part of football is when you’re selecting players to play in a game that’s slightly different. There’s compounding variables for success. Does your quarterback benefit from having a fast-paced, very fast highly-skilled group of eligibles? What kind of situations is the existing coaching staff that he’s playing in, what is the scheme like? What is he being coached? There are so many layers which makes this game beautiful, which makes scouting departments extremely relevant and makes it very tough. That’s why you’re not 100 percent on any position ever because it’s an inexact science because you’re dealing with human beings that are a product of their environment and you’re forecasting what they’re going to be in a completely different environment. There’s like a laundry list of different things that can create success or failure in NFL games, so you just try to project what the things are that an NFL quarterback is going to be asked to do. I’m not sure when you watch NFL games but the pockets aren’t huge. There’s a lot of congestion, there’s a lot of traffic going in and around quarterbacks. Can they play the position in high duress? Are they tough? Can they anticipate? Those types of things, you’re looking at the college game that they’re playing and try to extrapolate to an unforeseen future.”
(I wanted to ask you about OL Connor Williams. We saw him working inside. Is that more of everybody cross-training or is that a realistic option for him? And how much of that experience was part of the reason why you guys explored signing him?) – “When you’re training a player, specifically one that has inside flexibility – he’s played center in preseason games – and you’re trying to train and you have a multitude of linemen that have position versatility, there’s not a greater way to learn intricacies of the offense than by starting with different alignments and assignments. Namely the center position, you have to make a bunch of calls so you have to really know what everyone is doing. So it doesn’t hurt to – you don’t ever want to put a ceiling on and decide before you see them play within your system exactly where – you want players to decide that for you. It’s something that an offensive line, you guys have been around the NFL game long enough, there’s so many things that can happen and you’re only as good as your versatility within the NFL framework of a season. It only benefits the Miami Dolphins if you’re able to play a multitude of positions. We felt one of those positions for Connor would be center.”
(You guys brought in a handful of receivers this offseason in kind of the same vein of guys that can play multiple positions – the X, the Z and the slot. Is that kind of the same idea at the receiver position, how they see the game from different spots and their flexibility at those positions?) – “Primarily, first and foremost, we’re looking for good football players. I know our coaching staff has learned over the course of their careers and I have extensive experience in the fact that the more you know, the more versatility that you have and the more that you can isolate and take advantage of matchups in a given week. I think Chris (Grier) shares the same view as I have, where there’s a degree or allure or attractiveness to football players that can do a multitude of things. That makes them – remember, they’re a cog in a wheel of efficiency, that you’re trying to create on both sides of the ball. It’s the ultimate team sport in that you have the most players working in unison at the same time, as well as it’s a game of inches, as we know, where the most minute shortcoming of technique or the best execution of technique can be the difference between winning and losing games.”
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