Transcripts

Search Transcripts
Jerome Baker – January 4, 2021 Download PDF version

Monday, January 4, 2021

LB Jerome Baker

(You registered career highs in several categories this year, mostly as a pass rusher. I’m just wondering what elements of your game do you think you took to another level this season here in your third year?) – “I think I just got more opportunities. This year, I had more opportunities to blitz, more opportunities to pass rush and it’s more a credit to the d-line. They take up most of the o-line and a few of my sacks, I’m usually free, so it’s a credit to them.”

(In terms of the areas of improvement, where do you feel you’ve made the most strides this season and what do you hope to add to your arsenal next year?) – “Just like you said, I think my pass rushing has definitely gotten better. Just getting to the quarterback has definitely been exciting and definitely helped us this year. This offseason, I have a lot of areas to improve on. Just linebacker things (like) making sure my eyes are right, being more explosive, being faster, being stronger, being bigger. I definitely have a lot of things to work on this offseason.”

(We just had a chance to talk to DE Emmanuel Ogbah and he mentioned that yesterday was not your identity, it’s not who you guys are and it was one of the most embarrassing losses of his career. I was wondering if you kind of share those sentiments and why do you think that was not representative of what this team is capable of?) – “That’s nothing of how we are. We have a lot of guys that are tough, a lot of guys that are smart and we play for each other. Yesterday, the outcome wasn’t what we expected, and that just wasn’t our football. That’s pretty much it.”

(Where do you see the franchise headed over the next one or two years? What do you think in the future for the Dolphins’ franchise?) – “We’re just going to keep going upward. We’re led by a great leader in ‘Coach Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) and the ownership. We just have great people all around. The only place we can go is up. We have great guys in the locker room, great trainers, we have a great support staff, we have it all. We just have to put it all together and the Miami Dolphins are definitely going to go upward.”

(Kind of following up on what DE Emmanuel Ogbah said a few minutes ago, he used a phrase that 2021 is our year. Do you second that and if so, what gives you that kind of confidence that next year is your year?) – “Yeah, definitely 2021 is our year; but ultimately, we have to put the work in to make sure it’s our year. We’re definitely going to take some time off, but we’re definitely hungry to get back out there and definitely excited to get back to work. We have to put the work in before we start saying that.”

(With you guys working so hard on defense all season, it kind of seemed like in that Bills game, when the offense wasn’t rolling, it kind of discouraged you guys defensively. How does that kind of work as a defender when you see the offense not really clicking on all cylinders? How does that make you want to play on the other end when you see the offense is kind of struggling?) – “One thing that is unique about our team is that we play for each other. It’s how it was all year – when the offense wasn’t necessarily clicking, it’s our job to hold up our end and give them good field position, give them the ball back or whatever it is. But yesterday as a whole, we just weren’t clicking – offense, defense and special teams – and the outcome is what it was. We definitely can’t have games like that. When we’re down, we expect the offense to build us up, and when they’re down, we build them up. Yesterday wasn’t the outcome (we wanted) and we just didn’t do a good job of doing that.”

(If you could give us one thing you feel like you guys as a defense can make the biggest jump in, and on thing in 2021 you still would like to make a jump in?) – “Takeaways. With takeaways, we did a great job of getting the ball back to our offense. I think that’s the one thing, I’m sure that (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) would say the same thing, that he’s proud of. We got the ball back to our offense. I think ultimately, we have to just get better in the sense of our run defense. We can get better in that. Just continuing to take the ball away, that helps everything. Get after the pass rush – we got a lot of things to work on. We have some time to really look back on our season and we’re definitely going to do that just to see what we can improve on.”

(The Dolphins have a history of rewarding their players after the third season with a contract extension. I was curious if there have been any of those conversation and if it’s your expectation to be here long term.) – “I’ll let my agent do all of that, but I love being a Dolphin. I want to be a Dolphin for a long time. Ultimately, I’ll let my agent do that. We just played a game yesterday, so I’ll let that handle itself.”

Search Transcripts

Weekly Archives