Isaiah Ford – September 22, 2020
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Tuesday, September 22, 2020
WR Isaiah Ford
(I wanted to ask you about your first time back in your hometown of Jacksonville on Thursday night for a prime time game.) – “Yeah, I’m really excited. Any time you get to play in your hometown in front of your family and friends, it’ll be a really exciting time. This will be my first time actually getting to play inside the stadium, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
(Some of us are going to make the drive up to the Jacksonville Beach area tomorrow morning in advance of the game. Do you have any tips at all? Anything that we want to check out in the Jacksonville area?) – “My favorite restaurant is this hibachi place. It’s called Okinawa. It shouldn’t be too far from Jacksonville Beach. Maybe 15 minutes. You could check that out or you could go to Potter’s House Soul Food Bistro. A lot of really good choices there, too.”
(Two-part question: what do I got to order tomorrow at Okinawa and could you speak on just the comfort level that you felt on this past Sunday and just what those reps mean moving forward, that you showed what you’re capable of building off of last year?) – “So my go-to is the teriyaki chicken and scallops. I get the fried rice. I get the double fried rice instead of vegetables. I’m not a big vegetable guy. (laughter) So you can’t go wrong with that and then as much of the yum-yum sauce as you can handle. But no, just in the game, being comfortable with ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) – me and him being on the same page with what we’re seeing on the field, what coverages, where he is expecting me to be and where I’m expecting him to throw the ball and things like that. So just kind of trying to build on that and hopefully get a win.”
(So many people including Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick talked about the freedom that wide receivers have to alter their routes. Is that something that’s just based on what the defense is showing or what they’re doing pre-snap or is it just based on feeling chemistry in terms of what you and “Fitz” might be like?) – “I think it’s a little bit of both. There’s certain concepts that we have where if the defense is playing zone, then it’s more about being in the right spots, running the right route. Sometimes you may have to open it up for another receiver and then when it’s man coverage, that’s when he really allows us to have that freedom, and being in the spot that he’s expecting us to be at, but how we get to that destination is really on us being creative and getting to that spot.”
(Two-part question: your parents or your family, are they still in Jacksonville?) – “Yes.”
(Part two, then: what do they think of “Minshew Mania”?) – “My mom grew up a Cowboys fan and my dad grew up a Buccaneers fan, so I don’t think they really watched too much of the Jags games, to be honest with you.”
(A couple days ago, I read a really interesting piece that involved players who played with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and they talked about what it meant to have him as a teammate, and they shared a lot of stories that are “Fitz” and only “Fitz” kind of stories. When you hear that what comes to mind? Do you have any “only Fitz” kind of stories that involved you and him, advice he gave you or something funny he might have done?) – “I can’t recall one specific time, but I just think his leadership and his command in the huddle kind of give everyone a sense of peace, especially us having a lot of younger guys. He’s always calm, comforting. Even if he makes a joke or something – whatever the case may be – but he does a really good job at getting everyone comfortable and ready to go out and execute.”
(Has there been a single person inside the Dolphins who has said something along the lines of we are proud of you for how far you’ve come – a guy who was bouncing back and forward from the practice squad to now being a reliable slot receiver? That’s one, and also have you heard form Steve Smith at all in the last couple of years?) – “I think a lot of the guys that have seen me mature throughout this entire process since I’ve been a Dolphin, they’ve kind of given me encouragement and things like that. But really, when you’re dialed into the grand scheme of things you’re not really focused on how far you’ve come. You’re still thinking you’ve got a ways to go. I have not heard from Steve Smith. I have not.”
(In the last game, you had several clutch receptions to create first downs. One thing I noticed is after one of the catches, you did this sort of shimmy thing. Where did that come from, what prompted that, do you have a name for it?) – “Nah. It’s something that I’ve kind joked around with the guys in the receiver room. With me adding that weight this offseason and putting on some of that muscle, so being able to take some of those hits and bounce back up, it’s just something fun that I’ve been messing with the guys about.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick last week said that he wanted to get TE Mike Gesicki a little bit more involved; but also you were a little more involved in the last game too. When you guys are being found in the passing game, whether it’s you, Mike, WR DeVante Parker or WR Preston Williams, what can this passing game be if it’s really clicking on all cylinders?) – “It’s infectious. I think that we saw a glimpse of that this past week. We kind of feed off of each other making plays. I think the entire team feels that energy and we start to play complementary football, which is really what it’s all about – the offense making plays and then the defense making plays on their end to get us back the ball, and so on and so forth. I think it’s just a little glimpse of how good we can be as a football team. We just have to string more of that together so we can start winning some games. ”
