David Long Jr. – May 7, 2024
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Tuesday, May 7, 2024
LB David Long Jr.
(I wanted to get your thoughts on some personnel changes the Dolphins made this offseason. You all said goodbye to Jerome Baker, but LB Jordyn Brooks is now in. You have multiple off-ball linebackers you brought in. Just your thoughts on Brooks coming and Baker leaving?) – “Of course I had a lot of fun playing with ‘Bake,’ but the good thing about the league is there is a lot of good guys in the league. I feel like ‘JB’ (Jordyn Brooks) came in, ‘Ant Walk’ (Anthony Walker) came in and fit right in. We already knew ‘Walk’ (Anthony Walker). So ‘Walk’ was friends with a lot of guys on the team, so he fit right in. As far as play style, haven’t gotten the pads on yet, but as far as how we fit into the defense it’s feeling good right now. Everybody is clicking and learning every day.”
(When you have the kind of turnover you guys have had this offseason – brought in a new defensive coordinator – there are going to be some wondering how quick you can all put it together. It took a minute last year. Why do you think this year might be faster to hit the ground running?) – “I’m not sure how you would say that as far as faster. We’re on like, phase three. But right now everybody is clicking, I would say, and it starts off the field as well. How tight is the team, how good can we communicate, and how fast we can take the classroom to the field. Everyday it’s getting better, and I’m sure it will continuously get better throughout the OTAs, phase three and going into minicamp.”
(This is another new scheme for this defense. Obviously this is your second year here. How much similarities do you see, how much different does it feel, is the terminology different, what’s the communication style of the coach? Tell us a little bit about what you’ve learned or picked up so far about Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver’s defense.) – “First of all I feel like players gravitate towards that. I feel like we all see the style that he’s trying to implement in the defense and everybody is taking to it. It’s similar to me – I get a lot of it is turnover from Tennessee a little bit. So in my opinion it’s not the difficult to grasp it. A lot of this stuff throughout the league is the same, just different terminology. Once you get the bases of these defenses down it all kind of just turns over and overlaps. That’s the good thing. The good thing is we’re all here early so we can all learn at the same time and help each other. I think that’s the best thing working for us right now.”
(How much do you make of Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver being a player, and how much of a difference do you think that does make to the players? Obviously you [played] for Mike Vrabel who was a former player. Do you think it makes a difference?) – “It does. It makes a lot of a difference because he can relate the most. Not even (him) but a person that has played the game can relate the most to the player because they understand especially with the body, how the body is feeling or the difficulties of a defense and how to learn it. That goes again when guys are coming into the league because it’s not easy. But like I said, once you do get the base of it down it becomes easy. So like I said, I think that’s the best thing and that also helps. Him being a former player helps so much because like I said, he can relate.”
(This year is a contract year for you. How does this impact your performance, your mentality as you approach this season? Are you nervous a little bit or do you have a little extra motivation?) – “No. I’ve got the same motivation I had when I was picked sixth round. It’s the same. It hasn’t dropped off, it hasn’t gotten better. It’s the same. But I don’t look at it as that. Over the years I’ve grown my faith in God so I don’t really worry too much. I come to work every day. ‘Que sera, sera’ – I got it tatted on my neck. It means, ‘what will be, will be.’ It’s Italian origin, but that’s what I believe in, so that’s how I attack every day.”
(I talked to you and DeShon Elliot last year about bringing the attitude to the defense. Deshon is gone, Christian Wilkins is gone. Where is the attitude, who are the dawgs on this defense? Where is that going to come from now?) – “You can’t tell no dawgs right now with the jerseys on. There are still some guys from last year here. We’ve still got the same dawgs that you’ve seen last year and I’m sure more will come along, but we can’t just give that name out so loosely. Players have got to go earn that.”
(I’m doing something on what might be going through guys’ minds through rookie minicamp. Take me back to your camp especially as a lower-round pick. What were you focusing on? Did you kind of worry a whole lot about footwork and little things? Did you worry about what the coaches thought of you? Take me back to that camp.) – “That was real tough for me because coming in they were trying to put me as a special teams ace. Coming in, I’m like, ‘coach, I’m supposed to be out there.’ So that was just really – I wouldn’t say ego, I wasn’t too much of a big ego, but I just felt I could play right away. Then you learn quickly that you’ve got to earn that no matter how good you are. So that was the most difficult for me and then just to get that down pat like, ‘okay cool, I’m here, I’m going to have to play every special teams punt, punt block, whatever it is.’ So that’s what I did. We had ‘Auk’ (Craig Aukerman), one of my favorite coaches down in Tennessee. He just stayed on me. I had to come ask questions – even if I knew about pass blocking, it doesn’t (matter). You have to go in there. As a player, you have to go in there. Especially as a young player, you want to be someone. You have to go in there and make sure that you show them how bad that you want it. So that was the thing for me. I had to learn early that it’s bigger than that. You’ve got to start there, you got to earn it. I was staying after. I was out there early. I’ve seen a clip, it was of Tom Brady as far as the walking on the field stuff. It was a story about him never –once he hit the field he was always running. Any time he was touching the field he was always running. So that was a big thing for me, just learning the vet ways fast and the routine. Just the small things I would say that kept me there.”
(Obviously we’ll see snaps for LB Anthony Walker Jr. and LB Duke Riley, but I wanted to ask you specifically about LB Jordyn Brooks. Have you watched him at all over the years? What do you think of his game? And what is the David Long-Jordyn Brooks inside linebacker tandem, a highly productive tandem, what is it going to be like for opposing teams to face?) – “Fast and physical, I would say. He hits hard just like me. I think we play well off each other. Of course I’m going to say that. We haven’t been out there yet with pads and 11-on-11. But as far as our playstyle, he’s calm and instinctive, some similarities to me. So I think it’s going to be great. Referring back to what I said earlier, we’re here early and that’s where you build the chemistry. As far as the d-line, (Teair) Tart and the new guys, me and Tart have some history. But the earlier we get in here and the more attention to detail we are, the better we’ll be when it comes around to the fall.”
(I was hoping to get your perspective on coming back following a disappointing end to last season. You start off so strong, but the year doesn’t end the way anybody wanted it to, and you were on some Titans teams that got close but didn’t quite close the deal. I was curious from your perspective, how does the disappointment from one season fuel you for the next?) – “That’s a good question. I remember we got to the AFC Championship game and we were up I think 21-7 against KC and right before half, (Patrick) Mahomes made a play where he spun, stiffed arm and scored a touchdown from 40 yards out that changed the game going into the second half. So it’s a tease how you get so close and then like that, it’s gone. As far as I think it gets worse the closer you get. Every guy wants to get up there and hold that trophy. You go back depending on how serious you are about your craft and your wants. You go back and you look at the little things. The biggest thing I explained to the younger players, especially towards the end of the season, is don’t be that guy that is like, ‘Dang, I wish I could have done more. Dang, I wish I could have done this.’ If you watch me play, I’m emptying the tank every snap. I’m trying to max it out so I don’t have that feeling of, ‘Dang, I should’ve made sure to – Week 13, I should’ve made…’ I don’t want to be that guy who regrets something. I think that’s how I feel. You know you’re capable of doing it, but what small details and how important is it going into that next year to make sure you actually finish.”
(I wanted to ask if you made it back out there on Sunday for the (Formula One) race and what you experienced?) – “No, I got my one day out the way. It was cooking. (laughter) I’m not going to do two days in a row. It’s too much walking. I had fun, though. That was first time there. Different experience. I got to do a hot lap, that was fun. Scary, but fun. It was good. I met Yuki (Tsunoda). Yuki is a cool dude. It’s good to see different sports. I didn’t know those cars are like $12, $13 million. That’s crazy to me. But it was cool, a good experience.”
(In terms of football, my question is you have a good idea of how much speed you have in your backfield, especially with those three guys. From a linebacker perspective, take me through some of the things that kind of give a defense headaches when you see so many fast guys in the backfield.) – “I would say just open field. When you have so much speed on the opposite side of the ball, you better be able to tackle in open field and lessen the yards after catch. I think that’s the biggest thing when it comes to speed. I think we have – just speaking on that – I think we have the guys to be able to handle that. But luckily, they’re on our team so we’ll be practicing against them and not actually playing against them.”
(This is three defenses in three years, the third new defense in three years that you’ve had to learn. I’m curious, what’s more challenging? Is it more challenging to learn a new defense after you’ve been in the same one for a while? Or is it more challenging having to switch year after year after year?) – “I would say the first one. After you’ve been in it for so long, especially as far as calls, because some calls are the same, but just different words. So now you have to know that you are running the same thing, but it’s just a different name. It sounds difficult at first, but like I said, once you get like, just go basic cover three is a general call in every defense in the NFL, but certain teams and certain coaches have a different way to get into it. So I think that’s the most (challenging). You get comfortable. It’s also good. Now it’s kind of easier for me, so it’s kind of good that I’ve been there so now I have a good variety of defense. Because in college I only ran man and cover three. So it’s good to get new experience.”
(With the new defensive coordinator, new scheme, couple new teammates as well, how long does it take? At what point do you feel genuinely comfortable in a new scheme with your new teammates? Is it end of training camp? End of OTAs? Where is that point where the light bulb generally turns on?) – “Speaking realistically, you just want to have a good feeling after mini camp because it’s not going to be there especially without the pads and it’s a little hotter in training camp. It’s going to be a little more difficult to keep the communication after all the plays on them days. So you want to get a good feeling after that, but you probably won’t see it until Week 2 or Week 3 of training camp when everything is just rolling and we don’t have any mishaps. So I think from my experience, that’s usually how it goes.”
