Cameron Wake – October 20, 2017
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Friday, October 20, 2017
DE Cameron Wake
(I asked Head Coach Adam Gase earlier this week and you being one of the leaders of the team, obviously I’m going to ask you the same thing. Are you ever amazed how you guys handle so much of what most people might call distractions? You guys handle anything that comes your way pretty well and how do you do that being one of the leaders on the team? How do you make sure the young guys, as well as yourself, handle anything that comes your way?) – “I’m not surprised. I think in order to be good at what we do, playing football, handling distractions should be probably one of the top two or three things on your job description. I think obviously being in Miami, this area has a lot to do, at all hours, all days, all seasons, and you have to be able to keep your mind on your job, task at hand and then perfect your craft. That’s just the nature of the beast living down here in South Florida. So just overall, I feel like if you want to be able to be here, that’s already something that you have to mastered, so to speak. Being here so long, for me, personally even, it’s something that you have to grab a hold of very quick, very early in your career and I’m sure the young guys, being here since April, the same thing. You figure it out. I don’t care if it’s a party going on, families in town, my knee hurts, it’s hot outside, the crowd is cheering, coaches yelling, whatever it is, I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
(Outside the Pandora’s Box, which is Miami, which you know if you grew up here or live here – you’ve been here for quite some time. Just like the other distractions whether it’s the anthem, cops boycotting the stadium for security, just all those things, it seems like you guys are just kind of like ‘Alright, whatever. It’s time to play football.’ How do you guys make sure you guys deal with that on the list?) – “It’s all in one box. Whether it’s football or not, it’s not football. So if it’s not football, once you cross over into this building or across the field on the practice field or on the game field, if it’s not helping you do your job better or helping us win, you can deal with it after the game is over, after practice is over – whatever it may be. Some things are football, whether its heat, injuries, (something) hurts, football schemes, situations, whatever, then there’s obviously other things outside of that; but it’s all the same mentality. You have to put it aside, focus on your job and then if it needs to be dealt with later, deal with it later.”
(Obviously you guys didn’t perform as well as a team as you would have liked to the last time you played the Jets. What does the defense have to do better to sort of finish out that game and get the ‘W?’) – “We eventually watched quite a few plays where … I mean self-inflicted wounds. I feel like, again, if we play the way we know how to play, play the way even for the most part we have been playing, I’m confident that we’ll go out there and do what we need to do as far as playing together, playing consistently and playing for the entire game – four quarters. Again, this is another situation where you can’t play three and a half quarters. You can’t play 65 snaps. You’ve got to play the entire game, start to finish, because they’re a hard-nosed, stay tight team and they’re going to continue to throw punches every chance they get, and you’ve got to be able to respond anytime that that situation comes up.”
(You’ve been part of those physical Tony Sparano, Todd Bowles-esque teams where, no matter what, you were going to win the line of scrimmage or win that trench battle. What’s it like when you’re faced with one of those teams?) – “Well I’d like to think that’s a mindset that we’ve had from the beginning of OTAs, that this is going to be a No. 1 priority – upfront, the front seven, defensive line, whatever it may be. That’s a battle we have to win week in and week out, without question. That’s No. 1 on our list. If you look at the guys we have, I feel like everybody has the same kind of mentality. It is hit first, hit hard, and there’s no other way to do it. Again, knowing Coach Bowles and Coach Casey and a lot of other players on that team, I wouldn’t doubt that they have the same mentality either. I feel like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
(How much pride do you guys take in the fact that nobody has scored more than 21 points on this defense?) – “I didn’t know that actually, but it’s … A lot of stats are thrown around but I think obviously that’s A-1. If you can’t score, you can’t win, and whatever the formula is to get to that point, I guess so far we’ve done okay. The funny thing is, I don’t think you would ask anybody in the locker room or upstairs, ask them, ‘Oh, we’re doing a great job.’ I think we’ve been okay and even in that game (last week), there were plays that we kind of let slip through our fingers – self-inflicted wounds, things that we should have done better. I feel like we haven’t even gotten close to where we should be. So 21 points is not a … I wouldn’t pat myself on the back for that personally, and I don’t think a lot of the guys would either.”
(Looking at the group of linebackers that you have there, that’s a lot of experience between the three starters there – LB Lawrence Timmons, LB Kiko Alonso and LB Rey Maualuga. There’s not a lot that they haven’t seen. How helpful is it to have them back there behind you with their experience level?) – “You guys can probably debate about this but they might be the most improved position on the entire team. I mean the way those guys have been playing, I think it is lights out. Obviously between … We kind of work together as far as the front, and even the linebackers just always, whether it’s a guy taking on double teams, linebackers filling holes or us swapping gaps and blitzes and things like that, it’s really all of us working as one unit. We can go back to each game we’ve played and single out plays that those guys have made that have changed the game, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from this weekend, obviously in a game that’s probably going to be another one of those hard-nosed, rock’em, sock’em type games. But like you said, every single one of those guys who is back there has been in those games, played, won, made plays, so on and so forth. So our expectations are high and they will continue to be.”
(In the communication, when you guys do have gap exchanges and things of that sort, is that what you’d like to be?) – “I’m hard to please. (laughter) I’m very hard to please. Again, it’s been decent. Obviously it’s been better than it’s been in a while; but even there, we have room for improvement. I was just trying to do the math in my head, thinking about how many years, or how many games between Kiko (Alonso), ‘Law’ (Lawrence Timmons) and Rey (Maualuga. That’s a lot of snaps in the backfield. I think there is no doubt that we’ll get it done.”
(How do you prepare your body for two games in five days? And also from a player’s perspective, looking ahead, what’s your philosophy on Thursday night games?) – “What is it two (games) in five (days)? Three (games) in eleven (days)? That’s a lot. That’s a lot of football. It’s interesting. People always ask me, people who don’t play, ask me ‘How do you feel after a game?’ or ‘What’s it like?’ It’s hard to explain; but I always say, ‘If you’ve ever been in a car accident, that’s probably as close as you’re going to get.’ To me, the hardest thing about playing in the NFL is not pass rushing, it’s not learning the playbook or training camp. It’s recovering from Sunday to next Sunday, that space in between, because once you play one game, you’re never 100 percent. It’s always how much closer can I get to 100 percent than the next guy, or as quickly as I can, to be able to play. Obviously that time … Technically we played a game last night if you think about it in our head (because last night is one week from next Thursday). That’s a very quick turnaround. To be very honest, nobody is going to be ready the way they like to be. They’ll be as ready as you can be on Thursday night. I guess it’s a great money-maker maybe for the league? I don’t know. You guys probably know more about that than I do. I think it’s a little much for the body; but again, the people who know that (are a small amount) and the people who enjoy it and benefit from it are 50 million times that. Who knows where that will go, to say the least.”
(How would you evaluate DE Charles Harris after five games?) – “Charles is my guy. I like him. I like him a lot. I think, literally, he’s getting better and better as the time goes on. He’s learning more. Obviously I spend a lot of time with him, speaking to him about both football things and non-football things. He’s catching on quick. For them, if you think about where they started as rookies – the season ended, the (NFL) Combine, training, (NFL) draft – they’ve been going forever, I’m sure it seems like. He’s doing the right thing. He’s taking care of his body, taking it in stride, learning the plays, doing what’s asked of him, and he’s being productive both on the practice field and the game field. Again, I know he has high expectations of himself and the guys in the locker room have high expectations of him. I think he’s really doing a great job.”
(Have you seen him try to do things, similar things that you do, as far as taking care of your body?) – “He’s asked me a couple of questions about, whether it be nutrition or maintenance or certain things. A lot of guys obviously, being as old as I am, and still being able to do it – I think that’s one of the most untapped resources of football. Everybody lifts weights, everybody wants to go to their speed coach in the offseason and so on and so forth; but again, that recovery thing. Getting your body back to as much or as close to 100 percent as you can, that’s what I think will allow you to be one step quicker on Sunday. Remember that one thing that you didn’t necessarily maybe would have remembered otherwise, which is going to make one more play, which could obviously completely change the game, and one game can completely change the season. I think he’s definitely taking the steps to make sure he’s going to be prepared for that.”
