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Christian Wilkins – July 27, 2022 Download PDF version

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

DT Christian Wilkins

(So Day 1, new coach, shorter practice. How’s the feeling out there overall as a group?) – “Good. Just a good place to start. Day 1 of training camp. That’s how I feel with a lot of different things, guys shaking the rust off, high energy, everyone’s excited to get back out here. So you know you’re just chomping at the bit and we finally to get be out here and practice so it’s a lot of fun. New beginnings for a lot of guys and stuff, so we’re excited to see what we can do as individuals and as a team.”

(What have you seen from him? Obviously you’ve been under Head Coach Mike McDaniel for a little while now with minicamp and now today. What has surprised you about him or impressed you when it comes to his coaching?) – “Nothing that really necessarily surprised me, but the most impressive thing is he’s the same guy every day. He loves what he does. He brings that same energy every day. Same demeanor, same mindset and it’s infectious and it’s contagious and it’s nice to be around so that’s been the biggest thing I’ve noticed about him.”

(CB Xavien Howard talked about the defense, or him as a whole, sometimes he doesn’t get the respect that he’s supposed to. He says Miami players for some reason don’t get the respect. Not that you have to prove something this year on defense, but do you feel like, ‘Hey, you know what, we need to show the division and the rest of the league that we’re here?’) – “I just definitely feel like if we take care of the things we can take care of – a lot of guys were away training this offseason working their butts off and then just like I said earlier, excited to be back here, get together. So if we just bring it every day and we do the little things right, do the common things in an uncommon way, we’ll command attention of the world. So we just focus on the things that we can do, doing the little things each and every day.”

(What are the advantages to having – you’ve been doing it for a while through OTAs and everything, but the shorter practice? Just a high-intensity shorter practice?) – “Yeah, exactly. That’s exactly it. When we’re out here, we’re working. We’re full-throttle, going and you can’t even get a second to look up, breathe – ‘oh, shoot’ – like no, we’re going. We’re moving, we’re constantly working. So that’s different and it’s a lot of fun and it gets us in good shape in this Miami heat and everything.”

(I take it you prefer it this way, right?) – “It’s good, just short and sweet and it means a lot. So while you’re out here working, your mindset is just different. You’re not just doing busy work or just kind of standing around or looking for things to do. It’s like every minute of practice and every second of practice has a purpose.”

(How do you process this heat day-by-day? You’ve been here for a little bit. How do you because today’s nice…?) – “Yeah, it’s not bad. This is – I ain’t ever had a training camp day like this, it feels like. So this is nice. I’ll take this. I’ll be happy with this. We know as we go on it’ll definitely be hotter, but I have an advantage just being here for a few years, so I know what I need to eat, what I need to drink in order to come out here and be effective. But I think it’s definitely good for us and makes us work harder and we’ve just got no choice but to go through it. That’s part of training camp.”

(If I can have an off-topic question. RB Travis Etienne is coming back after having a layoff last year. Have you talked to him at all about that?) – “I’ve seen him a little bit this offseason. I’m excited for him and the things he’ll do this year. That’s still my brother, one of my college teammates, so I’m always rooting for those guys. Every last one of them. So I’m excited to see what he’ll be able to do.”

(What do you think the league is going to see out of him when he’s fully healthy?) – “Well, really just he’s a guy who – it’s good to see that he’s putting in the work. I feel like a year away from ball kind of just changed his mindset and not saying he didn’t have a good mindset before, but I feel like at least from what I’ve seen and what I’ve talked to him, it just seemed like he’s putting it all together and that’s good. So it’s up to him what the league will see, but I think in years to come he’ll be pretty solid.”

(And how does it feel to specifically talking about you guys being disrespected, the Madden rankings came out a few weeks ago. You got disrespected. CB Xavien Howard got disrespected. How does it feel for you to just have that edge coming into this season? It’s just a game. It’s not the real game, but…) – “Yeah, I mean you always have an edge. If you don’t find ways to motivate you or aren’t self-motivated, you don’t last very long in this league. And every little thing does help. But then again, you can’t pay attention to a lot of those things. Just come out here, work, do what you do, be self-motivated, grind and let everything else take care of itself.”

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