Davon Godchaux – May 21, 2020
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Thursday, May 21, 2020
DT Davon Godchaux
(First of all, how are you doing? How has this experience been for you personally and how has the team managed to do some work all spread out around the country?) – “First of all, I’m doing good. Same for you guys – I hope you guys are doing well. (I am) just kind of working out each and every morning – waking up 6:45, 7 o’clock. I have my chef come in and cook my breakfast. I head to Pete Bommarito and get my workout in – my weightlifting, my field work. Then I come back and do the virtual meetings with the Dolphins, and I think that’s been going pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of virtual; but I mean hey, that’s what we have to do right now with this pandemic going on. I think the Miami Dolphins have done a great job with it.”
(Obviously this is a tough offseason for everybody, but with you going into a contract year how important is it one, for you to get on the field and two, for you to secure your future?) – “I just kind of look at it taking it day by day. I don’t kind of look at it as a ‘big year’ or ‘contract year.’ I think every year is a big year because it’s the next year, but I think each game I take that same approach where you have to go out and always put good stuff on film with my teammates. I think that kind of takes the pressure off me once I think like that. I don’t think ‘Okay, it’s my fourth year, last year in my contract. I have to ball out. I have to have a big year.’ That’s kind of my motto every year; but at the end of the day – I kind of get the question that you’re asking, but at the end of the day I just try to elevate my play, raise my play, do more, work on more things, working on my weaknesses and strengthening my strengths. I think if I take that approach, I’ll be good.”
(What stood out to you this offseason about the Dolphins’ moves? Obviously they drafted QB Tua Tagovailoa and made a lot of splash. What stood out to you on all the additions?) – “Obviously all the fans – everybody wanted a quarterback, so I think it was big, drafting Tua out of Alabama. The guy had a great career at Alabama. I’m still an LSU guy; but hey, hats off to him. What he did at Alabama, he had a great career. I think drafting Raekwon Davis in the second round is going to add some additions to our d-line. (We) added a safety in the back end, you added Robert Hunt, the second-round o-lineman; so I think just keep getting depth and keep getting stronger, younger; but just always be ready. Like I said with ‘Coach Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores), he’s going to be consistent with who he is. He’s going to expect great things out of you. If you did something great last game, he’s going to expect the same out of you, so I think having that mindset as a head coach, I think that’ll kind of keep us on our toes. He’s always going to look to bring in competition, so I think a lot of people don’t get that aspect of ‘Coach Flo.’ He’s always going to try to create competition. Creating competition is what makes your team elevate to the next level, so I think by him doing things like that, I think the sky’s the limit for our team in the future – if we just keep day-by-day when we get ready to go out for training camp and just day-by-day just chopping wood. Just keep it one day at a time.”
(In all of what you just said, do you think the team will be better and if so, why?) – “I mean of course everybody wants to (say), ‘Oh yeah, the Dolphins are going to be – we’ve got a quarterback.’ None of that stuff means (anything) unless you go and put the work in. What I know we want, if we go in and lollygag and not go out there and work hard in practice, it doesn’t matter that we got a first-round quarterback. It doesn’t matter about (any) of that stuff. Like I said, the biggest thing in football is trusting the man outside of you, next to you – me trusting Christian Wilkins, Shaq Lawson, Emmanuel Ogbah – trusting all those guys on the d-line the same way they have to trust me. I think that’s the biggest thing in football. I think when we do that, like I said – I’m going to keep saying it – you’re going to hear that from my mouth a bunch of times – that the sky’s the limit for this team. Adding guys like Byron Jones – the other corner on the other side of ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and the first-round draft pick – the rookie from Auburn (Noah Igbinoghene). I think things like that, just keep building and just keep digging and just keep chopping wood each and every day and grinding and getting better. We’ll see. At the end of the day, I’m not the type to say, ‘the Dolphins are about to go 16-0.’ It’s a process. Everything looks good on paper. You’ve still got to put the work in, so I think when we get back hopefully for training camp, I’m excited about it. I’m excited to see especially this defense and the new pieces we got – Kyle Van Noy, a guy who played in New England and played under this system – so I’m excited.”
(I’m curious with the new Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer, what have you learned about him? How would you describe his personality and leadership style? Does he have something he just seems to always say all the time? Fill me in.) – “Josh played a big role last year. Josh filled in a lot of things with ‘P.G.’ (Patrick Graham), so he said a lot of things last year, so I’m kind of used to him having the voice of the room, if that makes sense. Josh is going to tell it– like I said about ‘Flo’ – Josh is going to be straight up with you. For instance, we were getting ready for Week 1 (last year) – we were getting ready to play Baltimore – and we were practicing and ‘Flo’ was like, ‘if that’s a single block, I expect you to win that all the time. If they double you, then somebody else is going to make the play,’ but he basically told me, ‘if it’s a single block, I expect you to win.’ Josh kind of has the same mindset. Just coming down from New England, he and ‘Flo’ were in New England for a long time, so I think he’s going to have the same mindset. He’s going to expect excellence out of you. You’re going to get better each and every day. He’s going to expect the same thing from you every day – no switch-up, no sugarcoat – so I think having that mindset as a DC, players feed off of that.”
(First of all, I hope the Chauxdown is still going on this year. I’d hate for the d-line to lose that. What I’m asking about is I’m doing a story on what if there’s no draft this year for whatever reason – Covid-19 or whatever – and you would just fill your roster by recruiting players. That’s what teams would do like you do in college and my question to you – you can take any aspect of that – would that be better for the league or better for the team? Would that be better for the player because you can pick the system that fits you? And knowing now what you know about the league and the way things work, what would be the most important thing in your decision in choosing a team if it worked that way?) – “I’m going to go ahead and answer your last question right now. First of all, when I’m choosing a team, if there was no draft or anything like that – let’s just say that – I’m looking at the position depth. So I’m a d-tackle. If I’m coming out of college, I’m looking at who the Miami Dolphins have at d-tackle. Is this guy on the last year of his contract? Things like that. That’s going to be important to me. If I was a receiver, what receiver, how many receivers do they have? How many guys got hurt last year? How many guys are on the last year of their contract? So all of those things right there, I’m looking at if I’m choosing a team without any draft; but the end of the day I think guys should – if there was no draft – I think they should choose specifically what the team needs. If the team needs a receiver, if the team needs a defensive tackle, then go play that position, but if there’s no draft – I think there always should be a draft because guys who worked hard, guys who earned that (opportunity) to go to that green room in the first round, they deserve that because they worked hard in college. They probably won the Heisman, they had crazy stats; so I think like the first 32 picks, I think there should be a draft so those guys can have the chance to sit in the green room with their family, once-in-a-lifetime (opportunity) to hear their name called by the Commissioner Roger Goodell. I think things like that should always take place. But if there was no draft I think all those things like guys seeing what the team needs in their position should be a big factor.”
(You’re one of the players who have under the previous coach Adam Gase, you’ve dealt with everything in all of the first year of the rebuild last season. Being here at this point with the new additions, the excitement, what do you think the rest of this rebuild has in store for the team and the franchise?) – “Everybody just wants to win, but everybody has to take the steps to actually win. You just don’t come out winning. New England didn’t just win overnight. They built the process and they took days to build the process. They had probably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time that played for them and probably one of the greatest head coaches that coached of all time. It’s always a process, but I think it’s our time. Why not the Miami Dolphins? I think we kicked it off with a good draft this year drafting (11) guys. We kicked it off with a good draft. I think just taking that step and taking that process and coming in and hopefully being here for training camp, taking it day by day. We’ll see. To me on paper, the sky’s the limit, but paper doesn’t win games. You still have to go out there and work at it, so I’m excited to see it.”
(I wanted to know about the bike riding in terms of how far are you going and when did you realize you could actually do this?) – “(laughter) Well, it’s actually funny. One of my neighbors came to me. She’s from Germany. She’s in pretty good shape actually. She came to me and she was talking about the bike riding the whole time. Like she came to me and she knocked on my door. She was like, ‘Hey Davon, you’ve got to get a bike.’ I was like, ‘Man I haven’t ridden a bike since probably like middle school or elementary. Like a 300-pound guy riding a bike. I (haven’t) ridden a bike in a minute.’ So I finally – she talked me into it – we went to the bike store, got a bike and the rest is history. I’m up to – she wrote a map. Last Saturday we were supposed to do 40 miles. We ended up – her map only was like 31 miles so I was kind of mad because I wanted to hit that 40-mile mark. We ended up doing 38.6 miles. I haven’t hit the 40-mile mark yet, but I kind of toned it down a little bit because I wanted to not exhaust my body, so I kind of toned it down a little bit. I’ve been doing like 20-25 miles, but the most I did so far was 38.6 miles. It’s a great exercise and this is after my Pete Bommarito weight lift, my Pete Bommarito conditioning, and then a bike ride will be later on that day just to get some extra cardio just to stay on top. Like I said, I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in these last four years. I’m going on four years of my NFL career, so I feel good.”
