Calais Campbell – August 19, 2024
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Monday, August 19, 2024
DT Calais Campbell
(Obviously a lot of competition for backup jobs on that defensive line or roster spots alongside you and DT Zach Sieler. With DT Brandon Pili, a young guy – he’s had some plays, what do you like about Brandon Pili?) – “He’s a much better athlete than you’d think. Looking at him you think he’s just going to be a strong, powerful guy and he turns around and does some athletic stuff, just like ‘wow.’ He isn’t supposed to move like that as big as you are, but he’s a great athlete. Sometimes you got to remind him to play with that strength a little bit too, because you are strong too. But he does a good thing of both, very talented guy – this whole D-Line. We have a very talented D-Line, a lot of young guys just trying to earn, just trying to develop their talents and earn their opportunity. But it’s going to be a competitive roster – I don’t know what they’re going to do, this is probably one of the fewer where jobs are up in the air. You kind of usually have an idea who is going to make the team, who’s going to be playing beside you, but right now it’s pretty close and I don’t know.”
(You’ve played for a lot of coaches throughout your career, have you ever played for a coach whose positivity radiates like Head Coach Mike McDaniel? Some coaches motivate by fear, by criticism; he seems to motivate by positivity.) – “He is unique, to say the least. He definitely is just very positive, just happy to be here, every day you could tell. Energy is contagious, so it kind of rubs off and we all kind of get happy to be here, because it is a ‘get to’ job. There’s a lot of people out there that wish they could have this opportunity, a lot of guys that I’ve played with that are out of the league that wish they could still be playing. You never want to take one day for granted and there’s a lot of guys right now competing for jobs. A few weeks from now it’s going to be a whole different locker room, and that’s also surreal but right now, we just got to enjoy the journey where we’re at right now and make the best of it. He does a good job of making sure we keep that energy.”
(You’ve been around a few teams offseasons and training camps, is this any different?) – “Well, when I first got here and when I was kind of deciding to come here, I heard a lot of stories and different things and one of the things people said was like, ‘it’s a little easier there,’ and I’m like ‘I don’t know.’ From what I saw when I came to visit, I got to watch an OTA practice and then talking to ‘Weav’ (Anthony Weaver) and kind of getting the schedule and stuff, I was like I don’t know if I really believe that and now being here, it’s a lot of game reps. Now the schedule might not be as long – he tries to take care of the guys a lot, but when we practice, we’re getting good quality, high level reps, which I think is very beneficial. Especially early in the season, that pays off – you’re going to be a lot further along. And then once you play a few games, everybody kind of gets in that game shape, but I feel like we do a really good job here during training camp of really getting game quality reps – closest to it you can get in practice because obviously that doesn’t feel like playing in the game. I think that helps with preparation and really helps with evaluation too. You can see where guys belong on the team.
(Do you respond better to someone who’s on you or someone who kind of lifts you up?) – “Me personally, I am very self-motivated. I don’t really need a lot of motivation. I think the biggest thing is making this a fun place to work. I think that is a good thing and I think Coach McDaniel does a good job of making this a fun place to work. I respond well to every sort of circumstance. I’ve had a lot of coaches over the years – I’ve had the positivity, I’ve had the negativity, I’ve had everything in between. I think the biggest thing really as a football player is that you have to decide what kind of football player you’re going to be, and I’ve always kind of been the guy where I don’t really need the coach to tell me what I did wrong. I know every mistake I’ve made, usually right when I make it. It’s something I just experienced, I didn’t have this mentality when I was a young buck, but it developed. But I know my mistakes and really, it’s just an echo when a coach says it. I think a lot of times coaches knows that too because I’m usually kind of telling them, ‘Hey, I made this mistake,’ here or there and I’m usually correcting it before I’m off the field.”
(If I’m not mistaken, you drew a holding call on Saturday, right?) – “No, I did not draw a holding call. I think (Leonard) Payne drew a holding call on one of them. There might have been some other opportunities there, but I only played the first couple plays and I almost batted a ball, but I didn’t really make any plays. It was of one of those quiet days, but the biggest thing for me is kind of just getting through healthy. I wanted to get through healthy and just get through that routine because it has been a whole year since I had to get ready for a football game and so kind of going through that routine, especially a night game because we’re going to have a lot of night games this year, is just trying to get a feel for how things are going to be for those night games, so that pays dividends.”
(So it seems like these preseason games, while you only might play a series or two, or a few downs, there’s more to that preparation than just what you do on the field. What does an all-day game prep look like?) – “It’s more than just – I play seven plays. Those seven plays, it was good work; it was quick and easy, a little bit of physicality but it was exactly what I needed. But you go to the whole day, getting ready to play, that matters. Just that structure of your day, how you’re going to do things, like I’ve done it quite a bit, but it’s kind of like re-establishing this is what works well for me, this is what I want to do. And then what time to get at the stadium, what time to start my warmup preparation, it’s really just the way things are done here, how everything is structured, the layout and the lay of the land because there’s seeing the chiropractor, where I’m ready to roll out, if I need to get an IV or how everything’s going to be going. And all that stuff is kind of – every place is a little different, so you kind of got to get a feel for it. So going through that process was really good.”
(You played this team as an opponent last year, and now you’re here seeing the offense on this team. I’m curious, there’s so much motion and things that go on pre-snap and post-snap in this backfield, what does that do to a defender’s eyes in your position, how this offense attacks opposing defenses?) – “It’s one of the toughest things you can do because usually you want to look for pre-snap information, especially a guy like myself who has the experience to take advantage of pre-snap information. A team like this, they don’t really allow you to do that because they’re doing so many things that you kind of got to just play your technique, just read your key and go forward. You really can’t see and get advantages that way, so it limits you to going back and just playing kind of regular Day 1 ball. For someone like me that hurts, because the best part of my game is being able to see things before it happens.”
(When you look at the roster, when you go to defensive line, all of them say defensive tackles, not a defensive end. Would you see yourself as the roster trims down going down and playing inside over a guard, maybe not over the center, but over the guards during the course of games?) – “In this defense, I’m going to be more over guards more so than anything else over the course of a whole game. Especially when you get into like – the game is played in 11-personnel, and in 11-personnel, most of the time the outside linebackers become ends and the ends become tackles. Now there will be some packages and stuff where I get to set up on a tackle in 11-personnel or a tight end sometimes too, but for the most part I’ll be interior.”
(You’re amazing, in your thirties – at 37 played, you 712 defensive snaps last season. Have you and DL Coach Austin Clark and Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver talked about whether that’s a good number for you again? This year, a year older, do you want to lower that number a little bit?) – “We haven’t really discussed it, but they’re always trying to protect – usually I have to fight for extra reps because there’s been a few years now where they’re like ‘We want you fresh in the fourth quarter. We want you fresh later in the season when we’re hopefully going to the playoffs, we want you fresh,’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, yeah trust me. I know my body, I’m ready to go. I’ll let you know if I’m getting too many.’ A lot of times the sweet spot is around 35-40 plays a game, depending on how many plays you play, of course. Some games more, some games less, but that’s usually where I feel I can be a predominant and productive player. But in this business, you just try to help win ball games any way you can. The biggest thing is when the game is on the line, critical moments, I like to be out there and having the chance to help win a ball game.”
(I’m wondering what you think about training camp now – the way that it’s structured, as opposed to how you came up originally and do you like it now? Where the veterans, you get most of your work in the joint practices and kind of the youngsters play the preseason games. Is that the best way to prepare the entire team or should training camp be shorter and maybe the youngsters come in earlier and the vets come in late?) – “There’s always ways to improve training camp and stuff like that. It is completely different than when I first got here. I think this structure is better than what it was back then. Now, the game has changed too though. We play so many more plays now than we did back in 2008, so practices have to change too for that but I do like this structure. I actually like competing against – I know a lot of times in the (NFLPA) stuff, lot of back and forth when it comes to these joint practices, but I don’t mind the joint practices because you get more of a game-like kind of rep that you wouldn’t get in practice. And then also, you just kind of break out the monotony of going against the same guys over and over again, and there’s a balance of doing what you know wins versus doing things that help you get better for the other teams you’re going to play this year. So when you get to go against other people, it just kind of gives you that different variety of things. It also helps you work on your preparation, seeing things, working on cues and stuff like that, that can help me get an advantage versus going against the same guy, I know what they do, I know all the cues, I don’t get the work mentally as much.”
(Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner Stephen Ross said that he believes this team, if healthy, can compete for a Super Bowl. We know that’s what you’re here for, do you appreciate hearing that from the ownership level on down?) – “Yeah, because usually that means in any organization, that starts with leadership and rolls down. So him believing in doing the things required to help us have the opportunity is important, and then the head coach sets the tone for everything. He’s done a really good job of setting the tone of kind of just having that mentality where we’re going to be the best versions of ourselves all the time. And hopefully when we get to rolling and stuff, we put ourselves in position to have a chance. Obviously, I don’t think anyone in this building thinks it’s going to be an easy route. I don’t care how talented you are, the AFC as a whole is a gauntlet – a lot of teams that are talented, a lot of teams that are hungry and think they have a chance. We just know that if we continue to practice the way we’re practicing and dedicate ourselves, we’ll have a chance when it matters, That’s all you really ask for is a chance, and then we’ll hopefully play our best ball at the right time. But it is nice to know that the whole organization really believes, and I feel like when you have that belief that you can do it, it makes you just go a little bit harder on the small things.”
