Calais Campbell – October 14, 2024
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Monday, October 14, 2024
DT Calais Campbell
(What’s the team’s mindset right now? You guys are coming off of a victory that you didn’t play that well, but you played good enough to win and kind of get things turned around. How are you guys feeling about your last game and looking ahead?) – “Yeah, I think everybody’s mindset is staying in the moment and looking forward to just this week. I don’t think – everything up to this point, kind of put it behind us. The bye week, that’s what that was for, to kind of steady ourselves, figure out what we did well, what we did bad and now it’s time, just looking forward.”
(What could getting back to 3-3 do for the locker room?) – “I think that’s good. Big. I think just stacking wins, too. I think just having two wins back-to-back is huge, but at the end of the day, you’re never worried about the actual record or anything else, you just try to be 1-0 for this week, that’s it.”
(You’ve been around Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver before in Baltimore, what’s impressed you about how he’s handled his first year here as a defensive coordinator and what stands out about him in general?) – “Yeah, ‘Coach Weave’ (Anthony Weaver), he’s very process-driven, and he really just has an excellence to him that he demands from all of us. I think sometimes when you’re in a new situation it kind of takes a while to get your processes established and how you want to do things, but I think we’re starting to get to that level where now we kind of can anticipate things, how players, everybody – the team we have – how we interact with each other, how we do things. So I think we should start seeing an uptick on everything, but I think he’s been great. He’s been a great coach as I expected, and I think he’s going to continue to help us be in a position to win ball games.”
(QB Tyler Huntley is another guy that you know from Baltimore. He gets thrust into this leadership role as a new guy on the team just because of the position he plays, quarterback. Did you do anything for him when he came in just to help him along that path?) – “Yeah, I mean we have conversations all the time. I think he’s a great guy. I wouldn’t say I did anything to help him; I think he has all the tools, that’s why he’s been around, and he’s played in games and he consistently does what he’s supposed to do. But I mean I have a lot of respect for him. I think he’s the type of player you want – like I’ve told other guys around – I’ve won games with him before. I know we can win games with him and hopefully we win another one with him this week, but I just think he’s a special kind of talent. It’s hard to be a quarterback in this league, but then to be a backup for so long and have to have the mindset of preparing as a starter even when you might not play or not, he’s had to do that most of his career. And then every time his number is called, to show up and make the plays, it just says a lot about him as a person and hope to win another football game with him.”
(What have you seen from him in terms of earning that trust from this team?) – “He has a similar mindset as me; just go in there and connect with guys and just be the best version of himself. And I think he has natural leadership qualities, but the main thing is just being himself, he’s authentic.”
(RB Jonathan Taylor has been a little banged up, but he may play this week. Have you faced him before? I haven’t gone back and looked at your…) – “Yeah, I’ve faced him before. He’s arguably one of the best backs in all of football, especially in the last few years. But he’s one of the best I’ve ever faced – different level of speed, great vision, jump cut, acceleration, break tackle, he has it all. With the ball in his hands, he’s a threat to take it to the house every time. I’ve had some good games against him and some bad games against him and I don’t know what happens, I don’t know what his injury is. We just started to break the tape down on them, but if he plays, he’s probably the most talented back we’ll face all year.”
(Probably the ultimate test for the run defense that you guys think you’re better than what the stats might say right now, right?) – “We definitely think so, that’s for sure. And this will be a great test and their coach is committed to running the ball. We have to be prepared for a lot of runs, that’s just how it goes and it’s going to be definitely a big challenge for us, but we know that if we play together where we’re capable of playing it, it’s a challenge that we can live up to.”
(You played with LB Tyus Bowser in Baltimore, what do the Dolphins get in adding him?) – “He probably knows the defense better than anybody, better than everybody, honestly. He’s a real cerebral guy, very dependable. A lot of ball games, time shared on the field with him, and he’s probably been one of the most dependable teammates that I’ve had in my career.”
(Regarding CB Jalen Ramsey, potential gold jacket guy and somebody who has been used in a lot of different ways this season, what’s been his effect on the defense on the field and off the field?) – “Yeah, I think he’s a coach’s Swiss Army knife. ‘Coach Weave’ (Anthony Weaver) can do a lot of things with him, and he’s been pretty impactful everywhere, but I think when he gets in that nickel and we blitz him a little bit, sometimes I think that really messes with teams. But can do it all and he likes to do it all, and so obviously, he’s a gold jacket guy for a reason. Great player and great teammate.”
(As a Division II waiver claim, really no one has made more out of their skills what they were considered than DT Zach Sieler. What have you learned about Sieler being his teammate? What have you grown to appreciate about him and his skillset?) – “Sieler is a great player. It’s kind of funny because I see him as this great player; I’d never seen him as a Division II, guy that just barely made it. That’s kind of funny. Perspective is important, but he’s one of the reasons why I came here, right? I think he’s a great ball player. He’s a natural-born leader and he loves the game of football, plays it passionately with everything he has. I think some of the best things about a guy like him who had to – there’s a football term we like – ‘to get it from the mud,’ is undrafted, grind it out, work his way to being a starter after being a backup for a few years; is that you realize that it’s the small things done well that allow you that success. And so a lot of times, it’s just going back to the basics and doing it well versus when you have the guys like superstars early on and sometimes you think you can win on talent and not the work, so it’s good for a guy like him to understand that it’s always the work.”
(Can you just detail the difference in preparation for QB Anthony Richardson as opposed to QB Joe Flacco?) – “We’ve got to prepare for both. That’s just more work for all of us, right? They both kind of played a few games this year, so at least there’s tape on both of them. But (Anthony) Richardson is probably the ultimate athlete and probably from a pass rusher standpoint, the biggest challenge we’ll have so far this season. And then you have Joe Flacco, who from the secondary stuff is different, but for us up front, he’s probably as close as you’re going to get to a statue in the NFL. I did see the game, he kind of actually scrambled for a few yards and was moving around pretty good, but now in this day and age and in this business, he’s the ideal guy you want to go after from a pass rusher standpoint, but he also has a brilliant mind and can make every throw and he has weapons and he knows how to use them and he’s been playing some good football, which I expected. So preparing for both of them is a challenge, but that’s just how it goes. But Joe Flacco is one of the few guys older than me out there, so we got drafted the same year and I got a lot of respect for him, but I’m looking forward to whoever plays, just going out there and competing.”
