Christian Wilkins – September 29, 2021
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Wednesday, September 29, 2021
DT Christian Wilkins
(With the sack on Sunday – you are studious about your work. Pass rushing to you – how much have you focused on that in training camp and even through the start of the regular season in terms of skill development?) – “It’s part of being a pro. One of the things I try to always do is continue to hone my craft. Get better – pash rush, run. Just become a complete player. Be balanced and be able to stay on the field as much as I can and do my job as well as I can. Whatever the coaches ask me to do, whatever my team needs me to do, just try to develop them as much as possible, whether it’s day by day or week by week or season by season. Just always getting better.”
(As far as sack numbers go, I don’t think the Dolphins rank very high in the league. But you are in the top 10 as far as hitting the quarterback and contacting him. How do you bridge that gap between actually bringing him down versus just running into him?) – “There’s a lot of things that go into that. The fact that we are getting there and hitting him, hitting the quarterback, it does say we are able to get a lot of pressure and make a few things happen. We might have to try that much harder to make sure we get there and get home and bring him down.”
(I guess it feels better not getting the sack but still hitting him than not getting the sack and not touching him at all?) – “You always want to go. Again, there’s always a lot of different things that go into that. Sacks are big plays but hitting the quarterback is affecting him as well.”
(I ask because a lot of fans like to clamor about sack numbers, but it feels like sacks are, like you said, a great stat but it can be a little misleading.) – “Yeah, right. Like I said, there’s a bunch of ways that you can affect the quarterback. A batted pass can affect the quarterback just as much as a sack can. It really all just depends.”
(Did you and Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark go over the offseason program in August, focusing on polishing some of the pass rush moves you have? Or have you worked on developing new ones?) – “Really, like again, it doesn’t really matter about – there are a lot of guys who have great sack numbers off of just a few moves. It’s really working on what it is that you do as a scheme and what fits you best as an individual and mastering those things, and figuring out where you can take risks, where you can take shots, where you can’t, here and there. It’s all just about the scheme and what fits your skillset.”
(When you guys look back at run defense, you had some bright spots like the turnover on downs, the forced fumble. But allowing a guy to go over 100 yards, what did you find?) – “Each week the goal is just to get better. You’re always looking at what we did well, what we didn’t do well. The things we did well, we are going to try to continue to do moving forward and the things we didn’t do so well, we are going to try to improve on those things.”
(I wanted to ask you about third-down defense and time of possession. There have been several games in a row here where you have been on the field a lot. I don’t think I have to tell you that. What are you seeing as what is going wrong and how frustrating must that be to not be able to get off the field when you want to?) – “As a defense, your job is to get the ball back to the offense and get off the field as much as you can. That’s always your No. 1 goal. We’ll just keep trying to build each week, keep focusing on what it is that we need to do and execute the gameplan at a high level so we can get off the field more.”
(QB Tom Brady or Head Coach Bill Belichick?) – “What does that have to do with anything?”
(You’re a Massachusetts guy.) – “Yeah, okay. (laughter)”
(I know we talked a couple years ago about QB Tyler Van Dyke being here. He had his first start. Do you all have any sort of contact still from the Connecticut school?) – “Oh yeah, Suffield Academy. Suffield’s finest. A proud alum. (laughter). Actually, I talked to Tyler when he first came down here a little bit. I’m still open to talking to him whenever but obviously I do check in on games and that is the local team down here. I always kind of see things and pay attention to him when I can.”
(He went 10-for-11 for 266 yards in his first start.) – “Yeah, I definitely do pay attention to him. I try to support the fellow Suffield Academy alum.”
(Did you get a chance to talk to DE Clelin Ferrell, CB Trayvon Mullen Jr., WR Hunter Renfrow and C John Simpson?) – “Yeah, I was able to talk to all my guys and just catch up for a second. Just let them know I’m proud of them, keep working hard and we’re brothers.”
(Were there any jokes about how many of them ended up on the same team?) – “There were a lot of jokes, but yeah we were kind of just shooting it and just like old times. It was like we were in the locker room or something. Just kicking it, talking and making fun of each other. A bunch of different stuff.”
(This is the second game at home. Obviously the first one didn’t go the way you guys wanted. To have a successful season, you have to be good at home. How big a motivation is winning at home on Sunday or is it just about executing the gameplan that you guys have?) – “You always want to execute and that starts in practice. That starts in the meetings, it starts in the workouts and everything. It all goes into winning on Sundays. It’s definitely important to win at home. You always want to protect your house. You just have to have that mindset. You want to win anywhere but you definitely want to take care of your business at home.”
(They’re honoring Head Coach Don Shula this weekend. Do you feel that history in this building and if you had any interactions with him that you remember that stand out?) – “Absolutely. I’m definitely aware of the great history here and the great things that teams before us were able to do. The history here is pretty rich. I think that’s awesome. I think that’s pretty cool. Whenever former players come around and former coaches, I always have a little extra sense of let me listen, let me lock in or let me just go and say what’s up to that guy or that person, that coach, that former player or whatever and just shake their hand a lot of times when I can. There’s a lot of people that came before me that made the rich history here. It’s always pretty cool.”
