Davon Godchaux – August 13, 2020
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Thursday, August 13, 2020
DT Davon Godchaux
(I know that you’re looking forward to a big year and an improved year. Talk about universally the defense – how much better can this unit be than last year?) – “I think we’re just taking it one day at a time. Starting slow. Got on the ground yesterday and started fast with it. Just taking it one day at a time. We’re just – like I said – we can do a lot of things, but we have to come in and work hard, keep communicating as a team, as a defense; and like I said, we can do whatever we want as long as we do those things.”
(I heard this summer that you were the guy that coordinated the players-only workouts.) – “Man, who told you that? (laughter)”
(After getting in your feelings about seeing the Jets and the Bills come in your community and do their players-only workout, what was that process like coordinating it and what was the motivation?) – “It was kind of tough because you’ve got a lot of guys in the offseason – we would’ve been at OTAs, but the coronavirus – but you’ve got a lot of guys wanting to have their free time to themselves. A lot of guys got wives, a lot of guys got kids, so having to get it coordinated – we had to get a group message started specifically with the defensive line and get those guys, ‘hey, you’re going to be here at this time.’ And of course, you’ve got other teams doing that; I, of course, want to get my guys rolling and get my guys a head start on things like having rookies coming in and trying to get ahead, trying to get the playbook and things like that. So of course when I had the opportunity to do that, of course I took advantage of it.”
(Since you’re in charge of organizing things. I have an idea. What about a team private viewing of “Tua” the movie?) – “’Tua’ the movie? I mean, hey, if he’s got a movie – he’s got a movie coming out or something?”
(Yeah, it’s going to be on Fox.) – “Hey, I’m excited to see that. I hope they have the last game when LSU beat them (laughter), but hey, I’m just … That’s my guy though. He’s a great guy. He’s a great guy.”
(I wanted to ask you about some of the offseason additions made up front this year on the Dolphins defensive line. How do those additions help you guys be more multiple up front?) – “We have guys – Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah – both of those guys can rush the passer. Both of those guys can set the edge, so I think when you look at those two guys, they’re very big, very strong, very physical guys; so with me and Christian (Wilkins) inside and to add some other guys to it, I think we’re just going to start off being a physical defensive line. We want to rush the passer. We want to stop the run first, but I think when you add those two guys, you’re looking at two guys that can really set the edge and really can play on third down, too.”
(I know you probably are keeping a very close eye on what is happening with college football. I wanted to get your views on what you think – what you’d like to see happen – and also there’s some talk about even spring ball and I can’t help but wonder, if you go to spring, is anyone who’s an NFL prospect going to play that kind of ball?) – “Probably not because you’re kind of throwing it off schedule with the guys are usually playing in the fall. Then the spring they’re usually getting ready for draft time, Combine time and things like that; but I don’t know. I’m very interested. I hope teams – if the ACC doesn’t play, I hope teams like Clemson can join the SEC and play a couple of those teams. Teams like Ohio State – the Big Ten – can come down and play the SEC, ACC. It’s very interesting. I see the Big 12 is going to still go. I think the SEC is going to go. I think the ACC is still going to go, but the other two – the Pac 12 and the Big Ten – hopefully some of those teams can come down and play SEC and ACC and Big 12 teams.”
(You were obviously on the COVID-19 list for a quick couple days there, but I just wanted to ask what was that process like and what do you think of the process of players jumping on the COVID list, being quarantined from one another – do you think it helps the teams keep their goal of keeping guys COVID-free and able to continue in practice and things like that?) – “Absolutely. Once you first jump on the COVID list – I mean, me, I jumped on it, but I knew it was like a false positive because I didn’t think I had it because the antibodies said I already had it back in June sometime. So I didn’t think – when I first saw it, I’m like, ‘hey, this can’t be right,’ but I got a second test, got a third test and both of those were negative. I’m just glad the NFL, I think they fixed it or something like that. Like once you test positive, you can test the next day where you can get it like, cleared, so I’m glad they fixed that because I think a lot of guys are going to be screwed in the season if you test positive on a Friday and you had to test two negatives, you’re going to miss that Sunday’s game. So I’m glad they fixed that, but at the end of the day I think it’s a good thing, a good protocol we’ve got to do. If you test positive, you’ve got to leave the building. You can’t be in the building. You can’t come in the building because right now you have 79 other guys on the roster. You can’t mess with those guys. You can’t screw those guys. So when you test positive, I think it’s absolutely a red flag (and you need) to leave the building.”
(I wanted to ask you, everybody always looks at sacks where there are teams or individuals to kind of grade things and I know Head Coach Brian Flores talks about scheme and pressure – what do you think about the concept of scheme and pressure and how effective that can be for a defense maybe in lieu of the exact numbers?) – “It works well. You have ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) was with New England and they had the scheme – scheme pressures – and you just have to have everybody do their jobs. If the nose tackle’s got to penetrate, he’s got to penetrate and the Buck probably has to do a stunt or he’s got to do something; so you’ve just got to have everybody on the same page. I think once you do that as a defense, you’re going to get sacks, you’re going to get the numbers you want. You’re going to get the TFLs. You’re going to do all of that, but you have to do it as a team. It’s 11 guys on the field as a defense. I think once you do that, you can do pretty much anything you want – like I said the first time – but you can’t have guys out there being selfish. ‘Oh, I’m going to jump this gap when I should be in this gap,’ to try to make a play. It’s not going to work like that. You’re going to have teams getting gassed in the run game and in the pass game opening up big lanes for the quarterback.”
(I do want to ask you a question about how important it is for you to step up your role as a leader. I know you were a leader last year, but you did say something that kind of confused me and lit up a red flag about false positive tests and being on the positive list and the NFL changing some of the rules. Can you clarify that so – this is the first time I’m hearing about it?) – “I think the rule – I was talking to (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston) the trainer – usually when you get a false positive test, you have to be out for two days. You have to take two negatives in order for you to get back in the building. Now they have a thing where if you test false positive, they can get you immediately to the cardiologist – correct me (if I’m wrong). They can get you to take some tests that same following day or the next day, and you can get those results like in 10-15 minutes. And you do that and then you see whether you were negative or you were really positive and you come back and be back in the building or you’re at home.”
