Austin Jackson – December 5, 2023
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Tuesday, December 5, 2023
OL Austin Jackson
(I remember we spoke to you back in the summer and you said that the time off after the surgery was good because you were able to really heal and strengthen your ankle. I was curious if during the offseason, you picked up anything else in terms of taking care of your body? You’re the one offensive lineman who’s played in every game.) – “That’s an interesting question. I think for me, when I’m working on my durability, I think I had to do just more workouts, essentially, to strengthen different parts of my body. That happened to be parts of my body I’ve previously injured. So I already kind of knew what my body needs going into my fourth year, what usually hurts at different points of the season, etc. And for me, it’s just like my ankles, feet, typical stuff that offensive lineman – we run and plant every play of the game. So for me, it’s those things I worked on a lot in the offseason.”
(How do you strengthen your feet?) – “It’s a lot of ankle mobility. It sounds crazy but stretching them makes them stronger. Stretching definitely makes it stronger, on top of doing ankle pumps and little movements to strengthen the little muscles.”
(When you see the offensive line perform the way that they did, finishing out the game with those drives, how much confidence does that give you about the run game? I know you guys are at five point something per carry, but where is the confidence level now?) – “Yeah, that definitely builds up our confidence level pretty high. That’s something we look to accomplish, so the feeling of coming up with a plan on how you want to execute, executing it, you get a lot of confidence from that. Next time we get in a situation like that we’ll be looking to figure out a way to be better from the last time we did it, if that makes sense. We just keep getting better and make that a part of who we are, as best we can.”
(Speaking of getting better, just talk about the overall growth of the team each and every week.) – “Yeah, the growth of the team every week is pretty good. I think our whole team understands that in this league, you have to get better every day, because everyone’s trying to get better. The second you take a day off because you did something right, you’re already behind. I think everyone on this team does a good job of showing up every day and understanding it’s a new day to fix things, no matter if you’re Tyreek Hill and you had a career game. It doesn’t matter. We all come up with something to get better at.”
(How’s this team been able to stay focused this season? You look at some of the other top teams, Kansas City lost recently. Jacksonville lost last night. Dallas has lost to Arizona. You guys have not suffered any of those types of losses. Why have you been able to win all the games you’re, ‘supposed to win?’) – “I think it just comes down to – credit our coaching staff and the guys on the team. They just show up to play every day. We work really hard to take advantage of every opportunity we get on the football field. We kind of set that standard in the summer and in training camp with being very critical of everything we did football-related. So that’s just always been our mantra with everything we do. Kind of like I said earlier, it allows us to get better. Because even if you’re great by Week 5, you still have to find different things to do by Week 7. Those teams are going to know what you’re doing. It’s just getting better every day. It’s just helped us stay on our path and we’re excited too. We’re excited to go out there and play every time no matter who it is. We’re excited to go play with each other and execute on what we’ve been practicing and working hard on.”
(I’m not sure if you’re able to think about this in the moment while you’re working throughout the season, but is there kind of a sense of gratification, kind of a sense of appreciation, especially for you and OL Liam Eichenberg, who dealt with early-career injuries and adversity and now are playing the best ball of your careers?) – “There’s definitely some gratification. You’re very grateful for the opportunity. Like you said, for Liam and I, with having some slower starts that we did, I think one thing we always did was just keep getting better, which is kind of like the motto of the team. You take the opportunity to get better and you make something out of it. You don’t quit or curl up because it’s hard or you might be asked to do something you haven’t done before. So yeah, for everyone included, we just stick with it and hope that the results pay off for us.”
(How difficult is that, particularly for a player like OL Liam Eichenberg, with his struggles earlier in the season, to keep your confidence high and continue to push forward?) – “I think for Liam, especially, you’ve got to look at the bread and butter. I mean, he’s playing great ball. He’s played five different positions and started. He’s still an NFL starter at the end of the day. However you want to call it or cut it, he’s still a great offensive lineman in the NFL. He does a good job of inspiring the line just because he shows up to work every single day and executes wherever he’s at. You don’t see his intent change or focus change or his attitude. He’s always on his stuff and he’s always confident in himself. I think that’s one great attribute about him that will take him very far in life.”
(One thing that we hear about LB David Long Jr. is he’s very intense in practice or in games. Do you have any stories, or can you tell me anything about his intensity? Have you seen evidence of it in practice, training camp, anything?) – “Yeah, he’s very intense on the field. Chasing him, he’s fast too. He’s fast, he’s got a good center of gravity. I’m like 6-5 and he’s probably like 6-0, 5-10. If I’m not bracing myself to make contact with him with my knees bent, that’s tough for me. He executes on those type of things all the time. You see it in his game. He’s actually a really cool dude, though. Every time I’ve talked to him in the locker room, he’s always got a smile on his face. Cool dude, but on the field he’s a monster.”
(With the holidays right around the corner, what’s the best Christmas gift you’ve gotten? Or what’s the worst Christmas gift you’ve gotten over the course of your lifetime?) – “Well, I’ll keep it relative to these last couple years. I got a Traeger (grill) for Christmas my rookie year. Shoutout to Tua (Tagovailoa). I use that thing all the time. It actually kind of taught me how to grill. The worst gift, I got like a bartista. You know what those are? It’s like a Keurig for coffee but for like alcohol. I don’t know, it didn’t taste right. I didn’t like it. (laughter) I got that like two years ago, or a year ago.”
