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Jerome Baker – September 7, 2022 Download PDF version

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

LB Jerome Baker

(Do you enjoy the chess match going against the Patriots and Head Coach Bill Belichick?) – “Yes, I mean, he’s a future Hall of Fame coach. Of course I’m excited. I love a challenge, so it’s definitely exciting. It is going to be a good one.”

(You know they’re going to try to throw it up to a guy you used to have here – WR DeVante Parker. They’re going to try to get him a jump ball, right?) – “You know it’s coming, but the great thing is we have Mr. (Xavien) Howard here. (laughter)”

(The fans are always excited about Week 1, but being at home, there is a different feel. Do you sense that, with the expectations for this team? From the fan excitement perspective?) – “Of course. You could just tell with the preseason games, the social media – I think we sold a lot of tickets. Our fans and our city are definitely excited (for us) to go out there. It’s also our job to go out there and continue that excitement and ultimately win games. It’s going to be dope.”

(Having seen this offense every day in practice, are you impressed with how they’ve looked?) – “Impressed? I would more say I’m excited. It’s the National Football League. Every offense is going to have playmakers. Every offense is going to have great coaches. But for me, I’ve been here five years and just to see that excitement on the offensive side of the field, I’m definitely excited about that.”

(I know you would never think in this context of, “OK, we don’t have to be as good defensively,” because that’s not how defensive players think. This is a league where the best teams tend to be able to outscore others. Do you feel like that’s a luxury now you might have because of this being the best offensive cast you’ve played with?) – “I wouldn’t say it’s a luxury. I would more say it’s more just responsibility on us. Our defense prides ourselves on just being a great defense, going out there every week and showing that we’re a great defense. I’m not going to say we don’t care about what the offense does, but our standard has always been the standard. It’s great that we have some guys that have come in and are going to do some great things for us, but ultimately, our defense, we have a standard and we’re going to always stick to that standard.”

(Not a lot has changed. Obviously no CB Byron Jones the first four weeks unfortunately, but what does adding LB Melvin Ingram and now LB Trey Flowers to the edge rusher mix do for you all?) – “I mean, it just helps our defense as a whole. Those guys, they get to the ball, they do what they’re supposed to do. They’re veterans, so they know how the game works. They’re smart. They understand their roles in our defense. Ultimately, it helps our whole team. If our d-line is doing well, it helps the linebackers and it helps guys like Jevon (Holland) and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and all of them get those picks. Ultimately, when we bring guys in that can help us on the defensive line, it really is a trickle-down effect for everybody.”

(You’ve been here for years through thick and thin. Can you express your excitement to see how much hype there is surrounding this team? Sold out stadium on Sunday. It’s going to be exciting, isn’t it?) – “Oh yes, just the excitement – you could feel that excitement back when training camp first started. All the fans came out and you could just feel the energy. For me personally, I’m just so excited because it’s been a while that we’ve had this excitement. So I’m going to really be appreciative of what’s happening. I’m excited for Sunday. We have a good team, great offense, great coaches and great people – it’s going to be good.”

(Should this be the best Dolphins team you’ve been on, do you think?) – “Should it be the best one? I think it should be the best one because it’s the next one. Every year – we work on getting better every year. This year, we look pretty decent on paper. It’s doesn’t matter what you look (like) on paper, it’s time to actually take that to the field and really prove what we can do.”

(The Patriots had a couple of solid rushing outputs the two times they faced you guys last year. What do you have to do prevent that from happening?) – “Do our job. On our defense, we believe in each other. We believe in the coaching staff. It’s just one of those things, we have to lock in and do our fundamentals and do what we were taught. You don’t have to try to hard and do too much. Do what you’re supposed to do and it’ll work out for us.”

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