Emmanuel Ogbah – November 16, 2020
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Monday, November 16, 2020
DE Emmanuel Ogbah
(I wanted to ask you, after the injury last season and your time with the Chiefs, to have the success you’ve been having now this season, what does it all mean to you?) – “It means a lot. I’ve been around. I’ve been on three teams in five years, which I’m tired of moving. (laughter) It’s been quite a journey. I’m blessed and I’m grateful for all the experiences I’ve had. I’m happy to be a Dolphin.”
(I wanted to ask you about your teammate and kind of counterpart there on the other side in DE Shaq Lawson. There was a great video of guys back in training camp where he was complimenting your ‘heavy [bleeping] hands’ when he talked about – I was curious what kind of stuff do you guys do on a daily basis to kind of work with each other and improve your games, and also if you can, just kind of talk about the personality that we see all the time in all those great videos.) – “Usually in individual drills we work together, so that’s where that kind of started off. Shaq’s a character. He brings energy to the group. Him and Christian (Wilkins), they both bring great energy to the group and that same laugh y’all see on social media, he does that all the time. We hear that 24/7. So it’s a good thing it’s actually a mix, because it’s not all business all the time. You’ve got to have some fun with it, too. It’s a game we all grew up playing and he just brings that energy every time he’s out there with us.”
(I wanted to kind of piggy-back on a previous question. This is for you – this is probably how you expected your career to go and it took a couple years to get here. What were some of the trials and tribulations and setbacks you had and was this the vision of you playing at this level because there’s not a Pro Bowl this year, but you would be in Pro Bowl consideration if there were. It’s got to be rewarding for you, but can you just talk about the journey a little bit?) – “Obviously I was drafted by the Browns. Every time you get drafted by a team, you want that team to be your home. You want to stay with that team for life; but everything happens for a reason. It’s just been a journey. I’ve had my ups and downs. I’ve started hot and got (seasons cut) short to injuries, but I’ve been focusing this year and just staying healthy, taking care of my body, spending money on my body just to make sure I’m good to have a full season.”
(I just wanted to kind of I guess piggy-back about the hands. I had watched you a little bit before. You’ve always had good hands, but this year it seems like your hand use is next-level. Can you take me into sort of what you may have done or what you’ve been able to do this year with your hands to be able to get off blocks so effectively?) – “I’ve been working on hands ever since I got out of college. I feel like that’s the key to a d-lineman’s game and so every year I’ve progressed, I worked at it. You’re going to eventually grow and become better and better as you keep improving and working on your hands every offseason. I just got better and better at it.”
(This year you’ve had at least a half-sack in eight straight games and at least one sack in six straight games. I don’t know if you remember that basketball game where the guy used to get on fire and he couldn’t miss. I kind of feel like that’s you right now like Steph Curry or something. What’s the hottest you have ever been in a sack streak in your life? Was it college, high school, Pee Wee?) – “I would say it was college when I ended the year with 13½ (sacks). That’s probably the highest I’ve had; but it just takes the play calling, just working together as a defense, and coverages work hand-in-hand. ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) is back there, Byron (Jones) is back there holding it down, giving me a second or more just to get back there and just do my thing, and I’m grateful to have those guys back there helping me out.”
(You talked about putting money into your body. What does that all entail? Are we talking acupuncture, cryotherapy? What’s the difference between the young Emmanuel and the veteran Emmanuel?) – “The young Emmanuel didn’t really take into consideration how much you use your body during the season, so I was not really into nutrition like that. I didn’t really work out as hard as I am now and just massages, like you said acupuncture, cryo; I just get all that stuff done. I don’t think about the money anymore. I think about it as an investment to my body.”
(Right now you’re I think fourth in sacks and the names that you’re behind are like T.J. Watt and Aaron Donald? That’s a whole other level. You’ve been productive in the past, but those are really truly some of the very best players on the planet. When you hear your name mentioned in that breath, what do you think?) – “First of all, I don’t listen to stuff like that because it’s week-to-week and anything can happen. I just stay focused, just keep doing my assignments and just going out there and giving it all I got and just try to make plays every time I get the opportunity to.”
(One of the Rams players a couple weeks ago was talking about – one of the defensive players – was talking after the game about he’d never seen the kind of pressure that you guys brought and then Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn was saying yesterday after the game was saying that you all bring pressure like nobody else in the NFL. To hear those things from the other side, what does that mean to you?) – “We work on that every day at practice and until it gets stopped, we’re going to keep doing it.”
(I need you to settle something for me. Who has played better this season, you or CB Xavien Howard? I’m trying to figure out who the MVP of the team is. You’ve got eight sacks, he’s got five picks. You’re the reason y’all are scoring more touchdowns defensively than he is, although he’s getting the turnovers just like you are. You’ve got to settle the debate for us.) – “How are you going to put me on the spot like that? (laughter) Come on now. I’m going to let you guys decide because I feel like we’re both playing good and we’re both improving every week and we just make each other better. Like I said, pass rush and coverage work hand-in-hand. So me getting a sack could be him back there holding the receivers and him getting a pick could be me pressuring the quarterback, so it works hand-in-hand.”
(I just wanted to go back to something you said earlier about you moving around a lot throughout your career. Have you started to think about this and whether Miami could be a long-term place for you?) – “Like I said earlier, I’m tired of moving. (laughter) I don’t want to move no more. (laughter) So God willing, if it be Miami, then I’ll be thankful for it. I’ll be happy for it.”
(I want to go back to something you talk about often with the trust between you and the coaches and kind of that mutual trust you guys have. I’m just curious if you can go maybe a little bit more in depth on what exactly that means in terms of how you get that trust and how it has a positive impact on the field for someone on the outside that maybe doesn’t know exactly what that does for a player and coach relationship?) – “We’re the players, we’re out there; so we see sometimes what the coaches don’t see. So when I come to the sideline and say, ‘hey, the offensive tackle is giving me this and whatnot, I want to take this move,’ that’s why I was telling them like, ‘hey, I’m going to take this move, can you have somebody cover me?’ or something like that. That’s the trust we have with each other and he would say, ‘okay, I’m counting on you. I know you’re going to make that play, so you go ahead and do it.’ So when I go out there and do what I said I was going to do, that’s how the trust keeps growing and getting bigger.”
