Zach Sieler – December 11, 2024
Download PDF version
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
DT Zach Sieler
(How does it feel? Finally, to get your first AFC Defensive Player of the Week award.) – “Honestly, it’s really incredible to blessed with this award. My wife and I were just talking about it. So this time five years ago is when I was released from Baltimore and got down here. So it’s kind of cool like five years later, then to have this happen this week was pretty cool.”
(You’ve come a long way, haven’t you?) – “Yeah, it’s been a special journey.”
(We’ve all talked a lot about this, but do you remember the emotion you felt when John Harbaugh and the coaches said, “We’re going to let you go?” Had you at all wondered, “Is this even the career for me?”) – “It was my second year there, I was released after camp, cleared waivers, put on practice squad, moved back up probably halfway through the year and literally this time – I think it was week five years ago – cut the second time and really didn’t know what to think. My agent at the time called me and was like, ‘Hey look, I don’t have any teams asking about you. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Hopefully something shakes out and you get picked up. If not, I know Baltimore said they’d love you back on the practice squad.’ So I actually redid the brakes in the RV Thursday night into Friday, because I wasn’t working on Friday, not knowing where I was going and my brakes were shot. So I pulled the pads and all that off the RV, but I did that and then Friday afternoon I got a call and he’s like, ‘Hey, I don’t know where you’re going but you got claimed.’ I think he said Cleveland, or someone called and said, ‘Hey look, we put a claim in for him. We don’t know who got him, but we didn’t get him. Do you know who claimed him?’ And he was like, ‘I have no idea.’ So then about 20 or 30 minutes later, I got a call from Miami saying, ‘Hey, look, there’s a flight out at eight o’clock tonight, can you make it?’ I’m like, ‘Absolutely.’ I’m sorry, that was Thursday night – Wednesday into Thursday. But then Friday morning, showed up, got here, went to all that stuff. I did practice Friday, and then we were at the Jets actually that time and then ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) had me stay here that weekend to kind of get my feet wet, and then the next week was Giants, Cincy and New England.”
(You’ve been one of the best waiver claims in Dolphins history. Has General Manager Chris Grier or anyone in the organization ever kidded with you about that or said some line to that effect?) – “I think the contracts we’ve signed and them keeping extending me is kind of that notion they did for me, absolutely and just saying that appreciation there.”
(What would it mean to you to make the Pro Bowl?) – “It would be everything. To me, just to be able to come from where I came from. Just from walked on D-II, cut twice in the NFL to even have a chance of making it is just an incredible journey and makes me emotional because coming from where I came from in high school, I was always told ‘You’ll never play in college, let alone in the NFL.’ I think it’s a cool story and I love to share that and talk to kids and families and schools or whoever asks about that. Especially being from a small school in the middle of nowhere, not a lot of scouts or people kind of came by that area, so it’s pretty special and it’d be something cool.”
(What are you most proud of in what you do week after week?) – “For me, I think – and this is something I want to make sure I teach my son is – it’s the name on your back, as well as the name on your front. You represent the organization, as well as your family name and then obviously everything else is it’s all glory to God. So to be able to go out there and to emulate and to show that, and hopefully it shows in my game and in how I act on and off the field. To me, that’s what I pride myself on the most.”
(What does desperation do for a team knowing where you guys are trying to make the playoffs?) – “I think it’s more of a backs against the wall, it’s every week is a playoff week and I think it’s, ‘Hey look, we’ve got to do everything we can in our power.’ Stay late, extra tape, extra tubs, whatever you need to do to get the win. I think we did that last week and we need to do that this week.”
(Another tough matchup with C.J. Stroud at quarterback, what do you see in the matchup?) – “Great young quarterback, has good feet, has a heck of an arm. We’ve got to contain him and get back there and stop the run. They got a great back, Joe Mixon, o-line, they’ve got Laremy Tunsil who was here. Just got to get at them up front.”
(When you talk about all the adversity that you have fought through, you must be the perfect leader here to see four straight wins ahead, that’s nothing compared to some of the stuff you fought through, right? This is doable, to make the playoffs?) – “I think it’s honestly taking it at a week at a time basis – that’s what I always have focused on my whole career, my whole life. Obviously, you need to look big picture at some point and it’s hey look, to get there we need to win out. So it’s what can we do this week and what can I do today to get to that point and ultimately hit that goal.”
(I guess at 1 p.m. you won’t be scoreboard watching, but how much do you guys pay attention to the standings maybe once you get back to the locker room or later that night?) – “I mean if you’re winning, that’s all you can do to control. We can’t control what other teams do, whatever happens there. I think at the end of the day, we’ve just got to win out and go from there.”
(The last three seasons, I guess two-plus seasons since Head Coach Mike McDaniel has been here, you’ve been one of the best and most consistent big game performers on this team. I don’t know if that’s occurred to you, have you thought about that? I mean the touchdown in the playoff game at Buffalo, everything.) – “No, I haven’t really thought about that. I guess to me, it’s just do what you do when your number is called. Be that one-eleventh and be that guy to go out there every day, every snap and play your hardest ball. You don’t know when your play is going to come. Something we always joke about and always say up front is the ball rewards those who run, so I think that gives you those opportunities – it definitely did that touchdown in (Buffalo).”
