Austin Jackson – August 3, 2023
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Thursday, August 3, 2023
OL Austin Jackson
(Although you didn’t get to play too much last season, how do you see a second season in this offense benefiting you?) – “It benefits me a lot. While I was hurt last year, I didn’t go away from the facility and do my training elsewhere. I stayed right here. I went to all the meetings. I made sure that I was locked in mentally and I made sure that physically, I was in the training room or with the weight room staff every single day throughout the season and offseason, making sure I did what I had to do to be healthy and to be coming back to perform well the next year, despite being injured.”
(How do you feel on that ankle result? After OTAs, minicamp, and then a now week-plus into training camp, how do you feel?) – “Great. I don’t feel a thing. Stronger than ever. Yeah, stronger than ever.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel has touched on the difference in how this offensive line plays compared to how other lines are taught to play. How do you kind of feel that system suits your skillset?) – “When I get a task, I like to get the job done. Huge, huge kudos to this coaching staff for sitting with the players and helping us get a better understanding of what’s expected. I think playing in this offense, we utilize speed and that’s just one of my many skill traits that I benefit with. I think that that’s a plus in this offense.”
(How much are you looking forward to the joint practices next week?) – “I’m looking forward to them. It’s great practicing against your own guys, but when you go against each other for nine days, you kind of know everything you’re going to do. So, I’m excited to get out there and get some other guys and get some great reps against other teams so we can come together – offense and defense – and work on doing our job against another team. Looking forward to it.”
(What parts of your game do you feel best about right now?) – “My pass protection. I definitely feel more confident in my pass set and my ability to be stronger at the point of attack is much better. I feel much faster. Just having a better understanding of the offense has allowed me to play faster in the offense as well.”
(Does that give you confidence that your best is yet to come?) – “Yes. Correct.”
(What extra element does T Terron Armstead bring to the unit out there that maybe fans and the media don’t get to see?) – “It’s crazy, because I remember in high school – you know, he’s a lot older than me – I remember watching just the best tackles in the NFL, watching Terron Armstead in high school. Who would have known I would have grown up to play right next to him and learn a lot from him. He’s great guy. Very smart. He’s very intentional. I definitely try to pick his brain a lot when it comes to this football stuff because I feel like we’re both pretty locked into it.”
(What are the differences in the coaching methods for Offensive Line Coach Butch Barry compared to Matt Applebaum or I guess Frank Smith also.) – “Well, I’m not going to compare him to other coaches, because I’ve had three great coaches since I’ve been here. This is my fourth one? I can’t remember. Yeah, I don’t know. But all my coaches have been great so far. They’ve all invested into me and worked hard with me, so I really appreciate that. When it comes to Butch, I like his intensity. He’s very intense. How he goes about things is very deliberate. He does a good job of keeping us intense. He just brings a lot of passion every day, which I think we respect and feed off of it.”
(How much of – I don’t want to say obstacles is the right word – but how difficult is it to deal with a new offensive line coach almost every year?) – “That’s not my business. That’s how I look at it. Show up, play football, and I show up to work with my coach. So, that’s my business, showing up to work and get my job done.”
(When it’s the same system, although it’s a different o-line coach, how much does that help that transition?) – “It definitely helps a lot. Going into my second year, I understand the playbook. Like I said, even last year with me being hurt, I didn’t leave to train and rehab. I stayed right here in all the meetings even though I wasn’t playing, doing all the game plans, making sure I knew what I would have done if I was healthy. I think that all kind of translates and helps you play faster.”
(The tight ends have their tight end camp. Is there like a tackle camp that you guys all get together and bounce off ideas? Or is there a tackle you worked with this offseason outside of this building that you think made you better?) – “Yeah, I worked with a lot of tackles, actually. Not at like a tackle camp, but just at Pete Bommarito’s facility down in Aventura, Florida. There’s a lot of tackles that go down there like Orlando Brown, Morgan Moses. Some younger guys, some older guys. Just a lot of knowledge there. We’re all working and getting to it. But that’s a good idea. Maybe somebody will start a tackle summit. Is that what they call it?”
(Was there one thing from that experience that you felt you got better from?) – “It was just nice in the offseason to really talk ball. Just really talk ball and pass sets on our own, in our day-to-day to life without coaches there. But still just talking about technique and getting to work. It’s very hot out here so it was a lot of good work this summer.”
(What is your expectation for yourself this season?) – “To do my job correctly and extremely well every single play.”
(It’s been a couple of years since you were drafted here. How have you taken that roller coaster of your career and ridden along with it?) – “Well I’m grateful for the opportunity, first and foremost. No matter the situation, losing seven games my second year, moving from tackle, all that stuff, I’ve just been grateful through it all. I’ve had confidence in myself through it all. I’m excited that I’m still here and get the opportunity to play football. I think great things will happen.”
(T Terron Armstead comes off PUP and gets to be a part of practices now for the first couple of days here. What’s the value of having him out there compared to when he’s not out there?) – “The value of having him out there is he’s got a lot of leadership. It’s like an extra coach in the room, really. I think he’s about as old as our No. 2 coach in age. (laughter) It’s a lot of leadership out there. He’s a great guy. We love T-Stead. He always comes with that energy, he’s always looking out for us. It’s great having him out there with us.”
(The No. 2 coach is Assistant Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre right? How’s that relationship grown over the years?) – “It’s been great. It’s been great over the years. We both have approached each day the same way in terms of our approach and how we interact with doing our job. Outside of all the other stuff that quite frankly you guys worry about more then we do – if we worried about that, we probably wouldn’t be here. But we just show up and do our job. As a staff and everyone in this building, we lean on each other to get better.”
(T Terron Armstead is 32. I just don’t know, are we making him older than he is?) – “No. I’m just 23. I’m one of the youngest guys on the team. I get the room to talk crazy. (laughter)”
(You’re really 23 years old?) – “Yes sir. (I turn) 24 on August 11th.”
(That’s wild. Some people are just coming into the league at 23 years old and it feels like you’ve been here forever. Have you talked about how young you are and how far you’ve come?) – “I was just that young and showed up.”
(You couldn’t even drink.) – “I couldn’t even drink. (laughter) I had to wait about two months when I got down here to officially turn 21. It doesn’t matter. The reason we are here is because we have always had that confidence and belief in the process and our hard work and who we are, to compete and play football. It’s something we’ve been playing for so long. I played so much football in college and high school. We’re confident and serious about it, and it shows up in our work ethic and our performance.”
(A week short of 24 years old, do you still feel like your entire career is in front of you? There’s guys who don’t start out until your age.) – “Kind of like I said earlier, the biggest thing is to focus on the day. Attack what I need to do today, and make sure every play I have is great, full speed and physical. That’s what I focus on. That’s the focus to get somewhere else.”
(Big picture wise, some people say the most important thing for the 2023 Miami Dolphins is keeping QB Tua Tagovaila healthy. What do you think about the idea that you’re so instrumental in that process, being the guy who protects his blindside?) – “I love that responsibility. I truly do. It’s what I get up and work for. It’s what I get up and train for. It’s what I study for. It’s what I take care of my body for, so we can be the dominant line that we need to be in order for Tua to keep being himself. He’s a great quarterback. He’s going to get the ball out anyways, but he needs more time from us and that’s a responsibility we take every single day.”
