Christian Wilkins – January 10, 2022
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Monday, January 10, 2022
DT Christian Wilkins
(Just wanted to start off asking where were you when you found out that Brian Flores was fired as head coach and I guess what is your reaction to that news?) – “I was in the facility just doing my exit meetings and stuff, just going through the out-process and everything. Got the news and it’s just the nature of the beast. It’s just the business. I got a lot of respect for ‘Coach Flo’ (Brian Flores). He’s a great guy, great leader. We essentially came in together. I was his first drafted rookie so I got a lot of great things to say about ‘Flo’ and think kindly of him as a person and as a man and as a coach. All those other things that go on, those decisions made and things like that; that’s out of my control. I can only control essentially what I do and who I am every day and how I approach just being the player that I am.”
(Is it a surprise in any sense? Obviously the season ultimately did kind of fell short of everyone’s goals, but after you were able to turn around that 1-7 start, did it kind of come as a surprise when you heard?) – “Again as I said, those decisions that are made – I just try to focus on ball and doing what I need to do and being the player that I need to be and the leader that I need to be and the teammate that I need to be. I don’t really try to focus on all the other stuff.”
(What are some of the things that you learned from Brian Flores in these years that are going to help you moving forward?) – “The thing he preached the most, the thing that is going to stick with me in my head for forever is the mindset of ‘one day at a time, one play at a time.’ That is obviously something he was big on. That’s always something I’m going to remember, just that mindset that he instilled into all of us, instilled into me for my three years working with him which was an honor. Like I said, I think he’s a great coach and a great man and a great person. Just things like that and earning respect; you’re going to have to earn it every day. It’s a week-by-week thing in this league and he just taught me a lot, really. As a coach, he could really coach football well and like I said, I got a lot of respect for him.”
(Obviously the defense has been pretty impressive the past two years but the offense was kind of lagging behind. Do you understand why changes were made? Obviously, you guys rallied back for “Flo,” but was there hope that things would get fixed offensively with this team?) – “Again, I don’t really know what went into making all the decisions. That’s, again, above my paygrade. I don’t get paid to do that. I get paid to play football and be a good teammate and lead guys. I try to just focus on doing those things, being the same guy each and every day. The reasons why those decisions were made, I don’t really know that stuff, but you know, my job is to be a leader on this team and I’m going to continue to do that and be the best player that I can be. Life does go on. Life will move forward and I’ve just got to continue on.”
(In your mind, you’ve been with some pretty good head coaches throughout your career, what makes a good head coach? What characteristics personify good head coaches?) – “There’s definitely different types of coaches. You can be a player’s coach, you can be an x’s and o’s guy; but I feel like consistently to be a good head coach, you have to have the ability to motivate and essentially bring – you have to essentially be able to motivate and get everybody on the same page. There’s a lot of moving parts within a team, within an organization. That’s part of it and you got to be able to be a great leader. A servant leader. It’s not about you. It’s about things that are greater and you got to put the team always before yourself even as a head coach. That’s kind of what I feel makes a good head coach.”
(You guys on defense obviously were very successful this year. We saw you doing a lot of creative things, having a lot of success with the zero blitzes and stuff like that. Where are you in terms of your level of concern where maybe a new guy comes in, a new coordinator and he might fix something that’s not broken or do you think that you guys have so much talent defensively that you can sort of adapt to anything and make it work real well?) – “Again, it’s not necessarily about the talent and things. Each year it’s different, whether you have consistency, continuity or not. Each year is a little bit different, so it’s going to be up to the players making decisions to buy into whatever the system is or buy into whatever is being done, whatever play is called. That’s going to come up to the leadership on the team. Some of the older guys who are going to be around, the guys who have been around – they’re going to have to step up in this kind of situation and really be the ones first to buy in with this whole process. New coach, whatever is going on. You just got to adjust and that’s another thing that I learned from ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores); adapt or die. Just got to be able to adjust and go with it, whatever happens.”
(Now that the season is officially over, I was hoping to see if we can get you to reflect on what was a career year for you statistically? I think a lot of folks would agree your impact kind of reflected those numbers. Just wanted to kind of get your take on how you feel you performed this year and have you kind of laid out your road map for how you want to approach getting better in the offseason?) – “I feel like I had a pretty solid year, obviously. I was able to do some things, was able to have some success – the most success of my career to this point. But having that success only made me hungrier for more. I still want to be the best player that I can be. I don’t know what that is, what that looks like; but I’m just going to continue to work and immediately essentially get back to the grind and not really take a lot of time off because I know it’s important and my teammates are going to need that, and I want that for myself, for me to be my best. Just really going to stay with it, get right back into things pretty soon. I’ll take a little time for me but then after that, really going to try to do everything it takes from a nutrition standpoint, from a training standpoint and from just an overall football knowledge, watching tape and doing those things. I’m definitely going to want to stay sharp during the offseason so that I can come back and be the best player that I can be so I can have more success which ultimately will lead to more team success.”
