Christian Wilkins – September 5, 2019
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Wednesday, September 5, 2019
DT Christian Wilkins
(How excited are you for your first game?) – “I’m excited as I have been for every other game in my life, pretty much; but this one is obviously a little different, it being my first game – my first official NFL game. I’m just excited. I’ve just got to prepare every way I do for every game. I can’t get too overexcited or play too emotional or anything like that. I’ve got to play within myself, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
(You come from a national championship to a team that everybody saying is rebuilding and not expecting a lot – not you, though.) – “I feel like as a team, we can win. Outsiders or people who are not in this building create a narrative for us or create that rhetoric for us. It’s all with us and how we work and prepare every day. It’s hot as hell out there and we work every day hard in that sun and everything, too. Me, personally, just because everyone thinks we’re supposed to be this or that, I’m not rolling over for anybody. I’m trying to bring it in and be the best that I can be. I feel like guys around here are definitely trying to be great at what they do and be the best they can be. We’re all pros. We’ve all got a job to do, so if we come with that mindset, who knows where we’ll end up? I’m not promising anything. I just know that we work hard every day in that hot sun out there. Like I said, I don’t plan on rolling over for anybody because other people think something of us. As a team, we can’t allow outsiders to create that narrative for us.”
(You talked earlier – I remember early on – you said that you could bring that championship mentality here. I know you said that early as a rookie. Now that you’ve been through a training camp, that you’ve been through a preseason, how is that been going?) – “I just feel like I’ve got to bring the right mindset every day – just the mindset to get better and make those around me better as well because it’s not just me out there. It’s a team effort. Hopefully just some of my good energy, my positivity will rub off. Like I said, just make all of those around me better. That’s the biggest thing. I just always try to have a good mindset each and every day and get one percent better each and every day.”
(What are people going to see from this defense out there? Obviously, we haven’t seen everything in the preseason, like, you know what I’m saying?) – “I love our defense. I think we’ve got a lot of good guys – guys who work really hard. Just the group – there are good players at every position at every level, too. So just building that chemistry is huge for us and we are getting comfortable playing with one another and just creating a certain level of accountability for one another. That’s really important because that’s what allows the defense to be great.”
(You’ve faced Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson before. What are we in for here?) – “Oh yeah, several times. The kid’s pretty good. It’s weird. You don’t play too many guys like that. Just his ability to – obviously everyone talks about his ability to just run and how great he is with his feet and everything, but he can throw pretty well, too. That’s something that’s very underrated in his game. I think he can really throw the ball, too. He’s not just a runner. He’s definitely so dynamic. I played him twice in college. We thought we were doing well on him, and then all of a sudden, he’ll break a 40-yard run, break a 20-yard run here and there and just looking up, you’re like, ‘dang, he’s really moving the ball.’ He’s a really good player – competitive, wiry, strong. You think you can tackle him. You look at his frame like, ‘oh, he’s a skinny guy.’ But when you try to tackle him, he’s spinning and getting off and breaking tackles left and right. He’s definitely as good as advertised.”
(So your assignment against a guy like that – you’re in the middle. Do you take up guys, let other guys go to work?) – “Really, whatever I’m asked to do, I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities. Whatever the coaches want me to do, I’m going to try to do my best.”
(How are the abs coming? How’s the big-man body coming?) – “Come on, it’s South Florida. Beach body all year-round. I’m working on that. I’m working on it. It’s getting right. (laughter) I see two packs. I’m trying to get six. I’ve got two right now, so we’re working on the other four.”
(How do you feel about your progress since the start of training camp?) – “I feel pretty good, but I’m never satisfied. That’s just the mindset I try to bring every day. I just feel like I can always get better at something, but I definitely see the improvement which is good, which is encouraging. I’m definitely not where I want to be, not even close to being able to scratch the surface on my potential as a player. There’s just a lot of parts of my game I really want to clean up and get better at. I’m definitely happy with my progress, but still not satisfied.”
(What do you think the anticipation for you is going to be? Your first NFL game, walking out there. You were in a national championship game. Do you feel that same kind of feeling maybe just for the first game?) – “I don’t know. We’ll just have to see. I can’t tell you how I’m going to feel or what it’s going to be like before I get there, but typically you just go about it like any other game. At one point, you’re just like, ‘Okay, this is it. It’s go time.’ I don’t know. We’ll see how I feel, but I’m definitely – like I said, I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it. I’m just not trying to build it up too much. I just stay even-keeled throughout the week and just let it all out on Sunday.”
(You’re obviously going to play a big role in this defense right from the start of your NFL career. How much do you enjoy accepting that challenge and that responsibility?) – “I like it. Whatever is thrown at me, I just want to embrace it – the good, bad, the ugly, whatever it is. I just embrace everything that’s thrown my way, so if the team needs me to go out there and play a lot of snaps, I’m just going to embrace it and roll with it. If the team needs me to take fewer snaps – whatever it is – however I can help this team best, I’m all for that. The more I can do, the better, and the more responsibility that I have, I’m just going to embrace it and try to take it and roll with it.”
(Have you gotten used to seeing all those smaller fast guys around you around the defensive line and up in the box there on the defensive side? Have you gotten used to seeing a lot of linebackers and DBs up there with you?) – “Yeah. Shout out to those guys because they can do it, and they can do it pretty well. It’s fun when you can see a guy like Minkah (Fitzpatrick) who’s a safety, come down and lay. Bobby (McCain), too. Playing a lot of … just seeing how he runs around, how he gets after it, it’s great to see. That’s cool to know that you’ve got those kinds of guys behind you. Obviously, you’ve got to do your job and do your job well, but if anything happens to go wrong, it’s good to know we’ve got those boys to back you up.”
(Can you talk about the expectations that you started with at the very beginning here. You played on a championship team, what was the feeling going into that season? Did you know you were a championship-caliber team at that point?) – “Yeah. We knew we were going to be good but we didn’t know how good. We just knew if we got better each and every day and reset our mindset each week, we would be where we were supposed to be at the end of the year. Obviously that is in the past and that is what I was able to do in the past with my team, so I am trying to just keep that same mindset here individually and just get better at what I can control, work on my game and work on my craft. I will be as good of a player as much work I put into it.”
(Right now, we have seen a lot of change in the past few days in this locker room. Where is the confidence level and the expectation level of this team as a whole?) – “Again, I feel like we are all pros. We have jobs to do. We are going to bring it every day. We are going to try to be our best. We are all competitors too. Regardless of the expectations, regardless of no expectations, whatever people we’ve got – we have got great guys like Albert Wilson, who bring the right mindset. (laughter) I just definitely try to bring that mindset.”
(Have you allowed yourself to purchase any luxurious items this summer since you signed your rookie contract?) – “No. I do have a car now. But it’s nothing luxurious. I do have a car, though.”
(When did you get the car?) – “My baby. She’ll be three weeks old on Saturday. I named her Truth.”
(Your alma matter has their first big game this Saturday?) – “First big game? They are all big games. If you lose one and you see how big the games are. (laughter) So, yes I did see their first big game – well, I watched highlights of their first big game against Georgia Tech. So their second big game is against Texas A&M. I am looking forward to that because last week we played a game during (it). I was so mad because I wasn’t even playing in the game too, so I was like ‘Dang, I wish there was a TV in the locker room or something.’ (laughter) I got word at halftime of our game that Clemson was up 28-0, so I was like ‘Okay, my boys are doing good.’”
