Jerome Baker – December 21, 2020
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Monday, December 21, 2020
LB Jerome Baker
(I’m wondering how often you’ve kept in touch this year with your good buddy Raiders LB Raekwon McMillan and how much you’re looking forward to seeing him Saturday?) – “Oh yeah, when it comes to ‘Kwon’ (Raekwon McMillan), that’s my big brother right there. I talk to him pretty much every week. We always just talk and just catch up on things. I’m definitely excited to see him. I’m definitely excited to see him play and do his thing. Definitely excited.”
(You guys have dealt with this before this season, preparing for more than one quarterback with the status of Raiders QB Derek Carr unavailable. How do you go about that this week and if it is Raiders QB Marcus Mariota, what kind of a challenge does he present, being a bit more mobile than Derek Carr?) – “It’s just a little bit more film work. You’re studying – honestly, you’re just putting more work in. You’ve got a bigger challenge in terms of it’s two quarterbacks and now you’ve got to put that work in to match that. But like you said, we’ve been doing it, so we’re definitely used to it. We’re definitely going to do that and when it comes to him as a player, he does it all. He can throw, he can throw on the run, he can run the ball. He does a lot of things. He gives us a lot of challenges. But ultimately our job is to ultimately come out with a win and get it done, so I’m definitely excited for that.”
(Is Dark Grind the LB Elandon Roberts brand and can you explain to us what that means?) – “Yeah, the Dark Grind is the work you put in when nobody’s looking. The work you put in when it’s just you and the grind. That hard sweat that you’re not doing it for cameras, you’re not doing it for people, you’re just doing it for you to get better. ‘E. Rob,’ (Elandon Roberts), he’s been around long enough; you can just tell he’s all about putting that work in when nobody’s looking. He doesn’t care who’s around. He doesn’t care if it’s coaches, he doesn’t care if it’s players – whoever it is. He’s just going to put the work in and get better. He got me a hat and I’m all for wearing his brand. I’m just happy he gave me a hat and I’m going to definitely rep it. (laughter)”
(I wanted to ask about the hat and in particular the impact of getting LB Elandon Roberts and LB Kyle Van Noy back into the lineup this Sunday. The three of you guys played a lot of reps in this game. I was just curious, what does it mean to the defense to get Roberts and Van Noy back in the lineup after missing them the previous game?) – “It means a lot. Kyle (Van Noy) and ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts), honestly they’re coaches on the field. We come to the sideline, we have a good idea of what went wrong and what we need to do before the coaches even say anything. That just helps all of us as a defense in the long run, so I’m always excited when those guys are out there and they coach me up, we coach each other up, we push each other. It’s just a great feeling when you have – in all reality – we have another coach. You have a coach on the field essentially, so it was definitely good to have them out there.”
(Two questions for you. One, you come from a college where the regular season ended, but your season never ended. You were always going to a bowl game and now in the NFL you haven’t tasted postseason yet, so if you can give us a sense for how much you’re hungry to get the playoffs and secondly, when you talk about Dark Grind, everybody has things that they have to do that maybe it’s not so much an inconvenience and other things, maybe part of your workout routine that you hate – what part do you hate?) – “(laughter) When it comes to playoffs, just going to The Ohio State (University), they prepared me for a lot of things I never would have even imagined. When it comes to the schedule, at Ohio State it’s pretty much, the playoffs just – we have to get there. That’s the standard. You at least have to get there. So when it comes to NFL, I want to get to that point of our culture is we’re getting to the playoffs and anything can happen in the playoffs. That’s the reality. So I’m definitely hungry. Our team is definitely hungry, but honestly I think the approach we have is just focus on this week and everything else will handle itself. If we win this week, if we do what we have to do this week, everything is still in front of us and that’s what I’m excited for. We’re going to come in this week and prepare and do what we’ve been doing and honestly just come out with a win and worry about the playoffs whenever they come. And the part I hate, for me I don’t really hate anything. That’s just such a strong word. I think for me, the only thing kind of bothers me, I’m not a morning person. So sometimes getting up at 6, 5:30 or something; it’s not as fun. (laughter) But I don’t necessarily hate anything.”
(In the last two weeks, I feel like you’ve played very well against the run. You’ve got about 17 tackles, maybe about three tackles for loss. In what areas have you really focused to do well against the run and in what areas do you feel like you’ve improved here in this stage of your career?) – “I think for me, it was just realizing I don’t have to make the tackle all the time. I don’t have to do the splash play. Sometimes building the wall is the best thing to do and for me, honestly, I study and I talk to ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts) because he’s quite good at run defense – the run stopping. So I talk to him, I’m in his ear, I’m in Kyle’s (Van Noy) ear. I’m pretty much just asking the question, ‘how can I get better?’ Sometimes the truth hurts, but you definitely just have to take it and you’re either going to just fold or you’re going to attack it and that’s what I’ve been doing. I want to be able to be on the field all three downs. I want to be able to help this team win in any way I can and I take that approach. That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing, is just trying to get better for this team. Whatever they need me to do, I’m down to do it. Yeah, that’s all I do.”
(I’m just curious how this year has been. It’s such a strange year and obviously you guys are finishing on a high note. I would imagine if you guys were losing, this season would be drudgery. With COVID and all the restrictions you have to go through, has it been a nice silver lining with how this season’s gone? How has it been just surviving this year?) – “I think this year was all about just being resilient. No matter what the season throws at you, whatever the world throws at you. You can’t just put your head down and mope around and just feel bad for yourself; you have to attack it, you have to get better at whatever you’re doing. You just have to attack it and go after it and I think our team as a whole, we’re built like that. No matter whatever challenge we have; if we’re down 20 or we’re down three, we approach it the same way. We can get it, we can get it done if we do it together. I think this year, that’s pretty much been – the fun ride for me is just seeing our team become a team and really have each other’s back. That’s pretty much been exciting for me, so happy just to keep getting it going and win as many games as we can and just do what we’re supposed to do.”
