Albert Wilson – December 2, 2021
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Thursday, December 2, 2021
WR Albert Wilson
(I remember after the Ravens game when you had a breakout, Head Coach Brian Flores said that the coaching staff told you to be ready to make plays. Earlier in the season, your name wasn’t really called and you were healthy, but what do you think changed over the past couple weeks or months?) – “I would say just scheme really. We have a ton of weapons in the room. The coaches do their job every week to get the ball in their hands but when Mike (Gesicki) and Jaylen (Waddle) are doing so well, it started bringing attention to them. I feel like that week he just knew that other guys would have to step up for us to get the win. That’s how our offense has been. Any week, any guy can be that guy. That’s what kind of makes this offense kind of special and still unknown.”
(I feel like it’s a three-way tie between you, WR Mack Hollins and WR Phillip Lindsay now on the best hair. Let’s break this down here, how would you rank you, Hollins and Lindsay?) – “I’m going to have to go me first. I think I’ve been growing mine the least. Then I’m going to have to put Mack (Hollins) last. It’s going to have to go me, Phillip (Lindsay) then Mack. No reason, that’s just the way it goes. Sorry.”
(WR Mack Hollins will go to the cornrows, but you just kind of keep it out.) – “Right, yeah. I think I’m about to cut mine again though. I like to switch it up, keep it moving. Mack (Hollins) has good hair. He does a lot of fun things with it. I’ll probably switch back up there.”
(Who has the worst hair? There are some bald guys.) – “(laughter) There are a lot of people with some mattes up there man, I ain’t trying to throw nobody under the bus or nothing like that. There’s a couple of them. They know who they are.”
(On a serious note, WR Mack Hollins’ comment was interesting about maybe everyone though they were practicing hard.) – “Yeah, I wanted to – to a certain extent. We’re a young team. I think guys kind of figured out what they needed out of those meetings and out of that practice and out of those film studies instead of just being in there for an hour-and-a-half wasting time. Guys are actually putting in the work in those sessions. I don’t think we weren’t actually doing anything. I think we just didn’t know what to get out of those meetings and out of those film sessions and out of those practices. I guess guys are kind of coming into their own and figuring out when I’m in a meeting room, I need to look at this. When I’m at practice, I need to work at this. I think that’s pretty much where we’re headed. I don’t think we weren’t doing anything because we wouldn’t be around, I don’t think.”
(So it was more about efficient work as opposed to putting in more hours?) – “Right, like with everything. Just showing up, that’s half of the job. But actually putting in the work is everything. I think guys were kind of just showing up and that’s what you’ve got to do. That’s half of it. In the beginning, you’ve got to show up but I think guys are starting to see just showing up wasn’t enough, so they started actually putting in work and guys actually knowing what they need to get done out of the things we are doing.”
(How do you think they came to the realization? Is that an individual thing or do you think coaches opened eyes?) – “I definitely think it comes with the leaders. Our coaches, just continue to hammer it on us. Being in the meeting room for three or four months, sooner or later I think any human being would be like, ‘Okay, I’m here for a reason. Let me start doing something with this opportunity.’ I think it was kind of just not knowing what you were supposed to do, guys kind of finding and learning what to do and guys looking at others to figure out what to do. I think it was a mix of a bunch of things.”
(Becoming a professional it sounds like?) – “Right. Correct.”
(Do you, I don’t want to say blame, but do you put responsibility on the fact that it was such a young team? I don’t really know if you all are that much younger than you were last year.) – “Nah, not so. I think that’s just the mindset. Not really saying we’re just so young we don’t know what to do. I just think guys were just kind of coming in. Like you said last year, you win 10 games and we got a lot of talk behind us. We were kind of thinking we are going to come in and win 10 more when that’s not the situation. You got to come in and put the work in and that’s how you get results. I think guys finally realized that we’ve got to put in as much work as possible to get the results that we want. That’s kind of what we turn to.”
(What has impressed you about WR Jaylen Waddle and his game?) – “The way he gets open, the speed, the toughness, the want to. He wants to go out there and be the best guy on the field every time. To be so young, to want to take that role and put it on himself is awesome to see. It’s just exciting. We know he can get the ball and he can do whatever he wants with it. That’s the biggest thing, just seeing what he can do with the ball.”
(I wanted to ask you about what I asked WR Mack Hollins as well. Fans can be unrelenting in criticism of guys who are injured, complaining about WR DeVante Parker, complaining about WR Will Fuller. Do players notice it? Do players in your room notice it? Your friends with both of them and have missed time before with something really serious.) – “So are you asking do they players know that the fans are…”
(Do the players notice this? Does this upset them that on social media people would get on them for missing games?) – “I think you just kind of look at those things, even if you don’t want to look at them. If you tell yourself it don’t matter, you’re going to see it. Especially if you’re a guy that spends his time on social media, it is going to pop up. I think some guys, they take it with a grain of salt and they know what they’re doing to put the work in to get back on the field and some guys it might rub them the wrong way and put them in a mood that’s not really healthy for them. It’s tough. It’s tough because it’s like Mack (Hollins) said, you don’t want to be hurt. You don’t want to not play. For you to come in every morning at 7 o’clock and do treatment for eight hours then have to go home and wake back up and do the same thing while, like he said, your teammates are going out there battling every week. Now we got this win streak going and you’re a part of it but you’re not out there sacrificing things to be a part of it. It’s not like you want to be at home sitting on the coach. Forget what everybody else is saying if they’re not really lining up with you.”
(You’re big on doing stuff in the community so your My Cause My Cleats is your foundation. Can you tell us about it?) – “The Albert Wilson Foundation. We work with a lot of foster kids and a lot of foster parents on making their everyday life okay or better than what it was. Whatever it is, the situation can be mentoring, it can be a food drive, it can be an outing. However we can make the foster kids in the system’s life better or make it more exciting, that’s what the foundation is offering. We offer scholarships for kids to go to school out of state. This year I did a collaboration with the Kenya Project when me and one of my mentors went to Africa a few years ago, maybe in like 2016, and did Samaritans Feet. We were able to give kids shoes and stuff like that, so it was awesome. I kind of want to do a collab with them to shed some light on both of the foundations.”
