Christian Wilkins – October 16, 2023
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Monday, October 16, 2023
DT Christian Wilkins
(Where do you think the front seven’s growth has been the past two weeks? What have you done better as a front collectively than early in the season?) – “I just feel like we’re still constantly improving and working on things and doing our best to get things right and be better each and every week. But just urgency, communication, and just understanding what our jobs are. Kind of figuring out and working and understanding how to play together and building that trust because that’s important when you take the field and you want to make sure this guy is going to do his job, or if he does this, then you do that kind of thing. So just building that rapport and that trust amongst each other.”
(Does the trust kind of have to be, I don’t want to say rebuilt, I don’t know what the right verb is, but because it’s a different system asking some different things, was there a process of having to rebuild trust and everyone is going to do what’s expected in this system?) – “You kind of always have to restart ever year, regardless of the system, but there might be a little bit of that. But you always kind of want to restart and rebuild and understand what everyone’s kind of doing in a sense or how people want to play certain things and do certain things.”
(You in particular have had splash plays the last couple of weeks. What’s been the difference? Has it just been the opportunities are there and you’re taking advantage of them or do you think you’re playing better? What do you think that was?) – “I mean, I’m just locked in on just trying to do my job as best as I can and doing whatever it is that this team needs me to do. Just playing my game, taking what’s there and just trying to make big plays for the team.”
(You’ve had a couple sacks. Is that something this offseason you really wanted to lean on and add more on to your game?) – “Like I kind of said, you’re always looking to improve your game and working on different areas of your game and really attacking your weaknesses, whatever they may be. Not implying that was ever a weakness or anything, but you always want to work on every aspect of your game and trying to find little areas of growth. What did I do good? What did I do bad? Why was it good? Why was it bad? Just try to figure out those little things. It’s a year-round thing trying to get better and improve just for the small opportunities in a game on those Sundays.”
(The run defense in particular has made strides since the opener. What do you attribute that to?) – “Kind of like what I said earlier, just guys understanding what we need to do and how we want to play things and building a rapport amongst each other. And hopefully we’ll just continue to improve each and every week.”
(I don’t know if you saw, but last week Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio was asked about you and made a reference to the time that you missed, saying he thought it got you a little rusty, but you ran back into form now. Fair criticism? Do you agree? Disagree?) – “Again, that’s his opinion. That’s what he feels and thinks, but I definitely think, like I said, each week I’ve focused hard on trying to improve and get better for my team and for this defense.”
(I know you haven’t wanted to talk about the contract stuff much about which we respect, but there was one thing on my mind that I did want to ask you. Did you and David Mulugheta, your agent, make the decision at some point in August to turn down what would have been I’m sure good amount of money, basically betting on yourself that you’d be able to even make more money off this season? Is that a decision you felt strongly about at the time? Was that a tough decision to bet on yourself as opposed to taking what would have been generational wealth?) – “Kind of like you said, we haven’t talked about it and we’re not going to talk about it. I’m just focusing on being on being as good as I can for my team, being the best player I can be for these guys around me and being the best leader, best teammate, all that good stuff.”
(What do you think going into Philly, that atmosphere? Is that something as a player like you kind of live for?) – “I’m really excited about this one. You hear so much about the Philly fans, the atmosphere, all that good stuff. It’s going to be an exciting game and things like that, so I’m excited about this one. They are a really good team. They do a lot of really good things. This is kind of what you want. It’s going to be great football weather, football atmosphere, just all that good stuff kind of building up until Sunday night. I’m looking forward to it.”
(Personally how much do you embrace that kind of environment with those Philly fans and how raucous they can be?) – “Again, that’s just football and I can respect fan bases and different things like that, that other places may have going on. That’s what makes it all fun. The passion, all of that good stuff. I welcome it. I love it. It’s all part of the game and it makes it real fun.”
(Speaking of the fun atmosphere, the fun atmosphere you guys are having here, how much enjoyment are you guys having… Obviously you guys are winning makes it even better with the celebrations and everything going on in the locker room?) – “I definitely want to give a little shoutout to the fans because it’s been fun playing at home. I really enjoyed it. They come out and it’s good and everything. We try to do our best to put on a good show and obviously produce and win, and we’ve been having a lot of fun. So we’ll just try to continue that and hopefully we’ll continue to do things that allow us to have some fun.”
(We’ve seen you do a split. I don’t think we’ve seen you do a backflip while videoing yourself. Your thoughts on the WR Tyreek Hill celebration?) – “I thought it was pretty cool. I’m not going to lie. It was pretty impressive to do a backflip after a deep ball and everything. I would’ve been too tired to even think about doing a backflip. That was kind of impressive. I don’t know what the league will think about it, so I might stay away from that one.”
(Can you still do the split?) – “I don’t know, it’s not like I sit there and practice it. (laughter)”
(Any win I’m sure is a good win, yesterday’s win for example. But given the quality of your opponent next weekend a win would be that much more, would it make any kind of statement?) – “It’s always tough to win in this league, and every win is important and every win is big. You see time and time, year after year; you might have one slip up here, one big win, or loss or however you want to look at it. It’s always important, and I more so and I think we more so as a team want to just focus on ourselves and just improving. That’s the biggest thing, improving each week and getting better each week. If we do that, we can live with the results.”
(You’re third in the league in sacks as a team. Do you feel good about where the pass rush is right now?) – “I feel like we’ve done some good stuff, and again, there is always room to improve. Obviously affecting the quarterback is very important and a huge part of this game. So we’ll look to continue to do that, improve and get better in that area and other areas on defense as well.”
