Christian Wilkins – October 6, 2021
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Wednesday, October 6, 2021
DT Christian Wilkins
(We didn’t want to ask you last week – can we ask you now? Brady vs. Belichick?) – “That doesn’t have nothing to do with me, so I’ll just leave that one alone. (laughter)”
(Not that you’re a doctor, but I know Head Coach Brian Flores is saying we’re hopeful with DT Raekwon Davis this week, we’ll see how practice goes. How did he look today lining up with you, if you could?) – “Again yeah, I’m no expert. I’m no doctor or anything like that. I’ll leave all that up to coaches and whoever makes those decisions. But it’s always good to have Raekwon (Davis). That’s my little brother. I like to pick on him. I like to put him in headlocks and stuff and make fun of him. He makes practice a lot more fun.”
(You pick on Raekwon?) – “Yeah. (laughter) He’s the little brother. I don’t care what he says. He’s the little brother. I’ll put him in his place, put him in a headlock, all that good stuff.”
(How does that usually end when he’s in the headlock?) – “Oh, you can ask him, but he knows I’m winning that matchup every time. It’s just the big brother effect. (laughter)”
(In years past, Cam Wake used to always say if you want to get to QB Tom Brady, make him uncomfortable in the pocket. Whether you’ve watched games or what you’ve seen on film, is there still a way to make him uncomfortable because he has a couple steps and he has a quick release?) – “Yeah, I definitely feel like that’s an accurate statement, but it’s definitely difficult. You see watching the tape, you see why many consider Tom Brady to be the GOAT. There’s just so many things he does throughout the course of the game that are just different than what a lot of people do, but we’re excited for the challenge. This is a game you tell your grandkids about. Not necessarily a game, but playing someone of Tom Brady’s stature and things like that. Well shoot, at this rate, he might play my grandkids. (laughter) But yeah, he’s definitely a special talent and we’re excited for the matchup.”
(If I could follow up, have you personally seen any of QB Tom Brady slowing down at all?) – “It’s interesting because you definitely hear sometimes like people are like, ‘oh he’s slowing down.’ People have been saying he’s slowing down for five years, but I don’t really see it much. He just keeps winning and keeps doing great things and he’s continued to be the player he’s always been.”
(Going back to the last three games, is there anything in particular that you have seen on video that’s sort of a common denominator as to why you guys haven’t been able to get a win?) – “It’s just doing the little things consistently right. That’s one thing I’ve learned in my time in my NFL, is just consistency. If you want to be good at anything, it’s just being consistent. So I’m not saying that we haven’t been doing good things. It’s just doing them always and being consistent, like I said, so making those plays, just doing all the little things right.”
(Speaking to Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer yesterday about how you’ve had success this year getting into the backfield and one of the things he talked about was hand placement, which maybe you can help me teach me a little bit about hand placement and what the key factors are and how it can actually dramatically impact whether a play for you is successful or unsuccessful?) – “You want to come up here and I’ll show you? (laughter) Nah, I’m just teasing. But no, that’s something I definitely try to work on and I’ve noticed that’s been something I can improve on – the coaches as well – so that’s just something I honed in on in the offseason. The coaches hit on that. Not just me, but all the d-linemen. It’s all about hand placements and getting your hands on them and putting them in the right spots so then you can take care of just the fundamentals and techniques and things like that, so that’s something I just try to work on every day and just focus on that. That’s definitely one of the areas of improvement.”
(The other point that Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer made was that he believes you’ve been very committed to film study. How has the way you study film changed, if at all, since you entered the league?) – ”It’s just a combination of things really. Yes, film study, but just confidence, understanding the scheme – where you can take your chances, where you can’t. It’s a multitude of things. But yeah, like understanding things more – again, more confidence. And sometimes things just slow down or it just feels different, so that definitely does help.”
(What’s the best piece of advice you could give your rookie self if you did that now?) – “It would definitely be something that just John Jenkins says all the time, is just ‘stick to the process and enjoy the process.’ He’s been around for a while and that’s always what he says and that’s something that always resonates with me and I just hear like yeah, the dog days, the good days, the bad days – just enjoy it. We’re playing this game and it’s work to us, but it’s still a game at the end of the day, so just enjoy it all, take it all in and just enjoy it.”
(Did it seem a little more tedious when you were a rookie when the tougher times came?) – “Again, I have perspective now and things like that so again, my mindset is different, so I can always still enjoy it more it now in a sense because I was just a wet-behind-the-ears rookie. But now I’m definitely more experienced and like I said, I can enjoy the process more.”
(You mentioned taking chances. What are some of the factors that you’re constantly considering when making that choice?) – “It’s just really what you see on film, what you see in practice and then just having confidence in yourself to just go do it. Like when you’re going to take a chance, when you’re going to take a shot, don’t just halfway pull the trigger. Like shoot the shot and hopefully good things happen.”
(In what ways are you guys emphasizing and really how do you emphasize not beating yourself this week? How can you implement that more so than you had been in the past?) – “Yeah, it’s definitely something we talk about and we have just a bunch of different drills and just situational things that we emphasize during practice just like ‘all right, this is an opportunity where this is the situation.’ Like let’s be locked in, let’s focus in on it. Let’s not beat ourselves. This is where this is winning football. This is the time to make a play. This is the time to lock in a little bit more. Not that you’re not locked in the whole game, but this is the time to go the extra mile. So just things like that and it’s really a mindset that we’ve got to create.”
