Christian Wilkins – December 22, 2021
Download PDF version
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
DT Christian Wilkins
(WR Jaylen Waddle said that he gave you a 10/10 on your worm dance. He was watching from home. But he also mentioned that you rehearsed quite a bit. So I was curious what those rehearsals may have looked like and if that’s the case, what are you rehearsing now?) – “Definitely appreciate (Jaylen) Waddle’s stamp of approval. It doesn’t mean much because I had to teach him his celebration. (laughter) No, I’m just joking. But no, again, that wasn’t rehearsed. That was just all spur of the moment. But I’m a creative guy. I’m good on my feet so if I get another opportunity maybe I can find something pretty good to beat that or at least match it.”
(Talking about celebrations, I saw you when DT Adam Butler in his celebration of Dragon Ball Z and you wanted to do a fusion with him. Can you talk a little bit about that for our Dragon Ball Z fans and all young people that see you…?) – “Yeah so, first of all, that was probably one of the dopest, most exciting celebrations I’ve seen. That was a pretty good job. And it’s hard for me to give him so much praise with the Dragon Ball Z Kamehameha because I’m a big Power Rangers fan, but I’ve got to give him his flowers because that was pretty smooth. Just everything was dope there. It was pretty cool. And yeah, so we kind of did mention that like way earlier in the year. Like, ‘Adam, if you get a sack, we’re going to fuse.’ So I guess it was so far along earlier in the year because I guess he forgot, but we’ll work on it for next time. Now I’ll be really upset if he forgets to do it on his next sack.”
(Shifting to Monday night, the Saints have a pretty beefy interior offensive line with Saints C/G Cesar Ruiz and C/G Erik McCoy and a couple other guys. Just wanted to ask you what kind of challenges those guys present you for the game on Monday.) – “Yeah, this is a really good offensive line. I feel like in a lot of ways, it’s what makes their team go. They’ve got a lot of experience and like you said a lot of beef up there and they’re really good players across the board. Really good center, good guards, the tackles are two of the better ones in the league, so they present a good challenge for us. But we’ve got good guys on our side, too. We’re going to have to be at our best though in order to get a win. But it’s not going to be good enough to just be all right. We’re going to have to play pretty good to get the job done.”
(To that point, just as a whole, I wanted to ask just what’s the best way you would describe this Saints offense kind of powered by Saints QB Taysom Hill and it’s not the first time that you guys have faced like a QB run-powered offense whether it’s Ravens QB Lamar Jackson or Panthers QB Cam Newton. Can you kind of use those games as teaching points as well? Obviously it’s different teams, but are some of the same teaching points applying here?) – “Yeah, I would kind of just describe the offense as just very versatile, multiple. It’s tough. With Taysom (Hill) and the things he can do, it’s like you’re playing with 12 out there. You’re playing against 12 because he can throw the ball and run the ball. And (Alvin) Kamara – they’ve just got a lot of good skill guys and a good offensive line and obviously they’ve got a good play caller, too, and a good head coach. They present a great challenge for us, but you can definitely take parts of those other games I’m sure. Just even whether it’s little technical things, not necessarily schematic things – although you can probably take some there. But just even technical things – wrapping up, breaking down, how to make a tackle on such a mobile quarterback who has some thump to him, too. He’s not afraid to mix it up either.”
(Not quite to your extent, but the Saints have been like the Dolphins – pretty streaky this year and now you’re catching them on the upswing. Just curious whether you see any similarities between the two teams and the kind of seasons that you guys have had?) – “Really the biggest thing and the most important thing that matters is this week. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done leading up to this point or anything like that. It’s all about this game. This game is the biggest game of the year because it’s the next game. We’ve got to have that approach. We can’t – I’m sure neither team is looking at it like ‘all right, yeah, we’re hot’ or anything like that. You’ve just got to focus on the task at hand if you want to get the result you want. So we’ve just got to have that mindset over here that it’s the most important game of the year, it’s the biggest game of the year and take it one day at a time.”
(You’ve gone up of course against some of these young Dolphins offensive linemen in practice. Just the growth you’ve seen from August to now in T Liam Eichenberg, G/T Austin Jackson now at left guard obviously and G/T Robert Hunt with now nearly a full year under his belt at right guard.) – “Yeah, I like those guys a lot. Not only are they good teammates, but they work extremely hard. You see all the work they put in whether it’s during practice just grinding, getting after it in that hot-ass sun. And even after practice, they’re always working on their game, getting together, doing a bunch of things to improve. Just constantly talking, communicating, asking us, taking knowledge from us as d-linemen and I’m always willing to help them out. I’m going to give them as much knowledge as possible to help them on their games. But yeah, it‘s just been good to see the things they’ve been able to do and kind of their development and their growth. I’m happy for those guys because like I said they’re all good teammates and they all work extremely hard.”
