Aaron Brewer – March 15, 2024
Download PDF version
Friday, March 15, 2024
OL Aaron Brewer
(I know you’re pretty agile for your position. Do you think this Dolphins offense can highlight that and how well do you feel you fit in this scheme?) – “I believe it’s pretty solid. They’ve got a fast team and that’s one of my strong suits. I’m one of the fast offensive linemen, being able to get to the first level, second level. In open space, I can move pretty well. I feel like it’ll be a nice fit for me.”
(Some center last year, you also have experience at guard. You’re very versatile. Have you been told definitively you’re the starting center next year for this team? Or is that still to be determined based on who else the team can bring in?) – “I believe that’s still to be determined. Right now, I’m just here trying to figure out the best way I can help the team.”
(You spent this past season at center and you kind of transitioned from guard to center when you were in Tennessee. Can you kind of give us the backstory into you transitioning to center? I know in college and even high school, it seemed like you played everywhere on the offensive line, but a lot really at guard.) – “I’d say that transition to center, I feel like that was always my destined position, just for me being more of an undersized offensive lineman. I’m not one of the big 320, 310, 300-pound offensive lineman. You don’t really see too many of the undersized offensive linemen being at guard. I just feel like me being undersized, it was basically predetermined for me to be at center.”
(How would you describe your strengths?) – “My strengths, I would say, are my speed, my aggressiveness, my will, my work ethic and leverage. I would say those are my strengths. I would say those are my strengths. My speed, strength and just that will I’ve got. I’m not going to stop so I’m going to keep going. I’ve got that chip on my shoulder and I feel like that’s my edge above the people I’m playing against.”
(The dude who played center last year, OL Connor Williams, he’s hurt. But he was also a converted guard. And it blew our mind sometimes to see this man run blocking 10, 15, 20 yards down the field. How do you approach that when that opportunity comes to be doing that second-level run blocking from the middle?) – “Me personally, I’m going until I hear the whistle. I’m just trying to be aggressive. I’m headhunting out there, so if I can get my hands on you, I’m on you until I hear the whistle. If we’re running downfield, the ball the hasn’t stopped yet, so I’m on you until then, until the ball passed me. Even when it passed me, I’m still trying to find some more work.”
(You have run blocked for a pretty good, powerful, downhill running back for a good while in Tennessee. What does it take to be a good downhill power running football team?) – “You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to be in shape. You’ve just got to be relentless. You’ve just got to be able to go. You’ve got speed. You know Derrick Henry, he’s a big back. He’s fast for his size. If your back’s fast, you’ve got to be fast as well in what you’re doing. I’ll say just being in shape, having that effort and finish mentality about you and not giving up, and being able to go four quarters.”
(I would assume that you want to bring that kind of mentality to the Miami Dolphins?) – “Absolutely. It’s been the mentality I’ve had with me since I can remember. That was that edge that I had, just being in condition. Because if you’re conditioned, you can have your technique and you can give the effort you need. If you’re tired, you’re not going to be able to give the effort you want to give or your technique might start lacking as well.”
(I’m working on a couple of things, one is on Head Coach Mike McDaniel and his personality and what it does for him as a recruiter. How did his personality play a role, if it did, in you coming to the Dolphins?) – “His personality from what I’ve seen – I haven’t had much of a personal conversation with him yet – but personally from what I’ve seen and heard and just read about the dude, he’s got that juice about him. He’s just very knowledgeable. He’s passionate about what he’s doing. I just love that you can feel it without even knowing him. You feel that passion about him, so I like that and that definitely played a role in me coming here.”
(Winning at the line of scrimmage, that’s something that this team needs to improve on. How do you win at the line of scrimmage? Is it being mean? Is it being aggressive? Good fundamentals? How do you win at the line of scrimmage?) – “I’d say it’s good fundamentals. Everything you said, it takes all of that all together and just trying to be as fast as you can at the line of scrimmage. You’re trying to win the line of scrimmage, so whoever is coming off the ball fastest, whoever initiates that contact, that’s who most of the time is going to win the line of scrimmage. It takes those fundamentals, that aggressiveness, being intentional with everything you’re doing, your first steps and all that. It all plays together.”
(I’ve got to ask you, we can’t let this introductory news conference go without asking you about backflips. Not every offensive lineman can pull that off, so tell me about your backflips and when there’s a touchdown, are we going to see you doing one in the end zone or what?) – “I feel like it’s going to have to be the right situation for me to pull that out during a celebration. You can’t just pull out just anytime, because as you said, that’s special. You don’t see too many offensive linemen that can do a backflip, and then definitely in pads in that. So I’m for sure going to try to pull it out sometime, but when? I can’t tell you.”
(I wanted to ask you, you talked about you felt like center was your natural position, so why did it take so long for you to make that move? Like why didn’t you do it earlier?) – “Because I felt like that was a part of my plan, the process when I was coming out. I was undrafted. I had a great vet ahead of me, Ben Jones, who is a hell of a player, but just coming in, that was the role I was put into to try to be like the XL tight end, guard/center. Taking on, learning, getting little gems from Ben and the older vets ahead of me, because I had Ben Jones, Rodger Saffold, Taylor Lewan. Just a lot of great players ahead of me. I was always working both of them in practice, but in the game, you’re seeing Ben Jones or whoever it was, and whenever one of them had a hiccup or got an injury, I had to come in and step into that spot. So that’s just what it was and I just had to trust the process.”
(When did the snapping part of it become easier or second nature?) – “I’d say it was like when I got into the season, to be honest. Because you’ve got to think I didn’t play a full season at center since probably I was in middle school. Even when I was in high school, I was always switching center, guard, tackle, going to every one. Just having that full season of being a center and just getting that repetition and the reps, I got more comfortable in just learning my style of play with being at center.”
