Durham Smythe – July 31, 2023
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Monday, July 31, 2023
TE Durham Smythe
(Did it finally feel good to put the pads on?) – “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I tell everyone all the time, as a tight end blocking on the edge, that’s no fun without pads, especially with some of the athletes we have on the edge. No pads, you can’t get into them. It’s no fun. So, I love when the pads come out, for sure.”
(What could you tell today about the team in pads that you couldn’t tell last week out of pads? – “I think the one thing that was pretty evident was just how professional this team is. A lot of teams that I’ve been on and that you see throughout the league, day one, day two of pads, there’s a lot of wasted time with fights or whatever, people tapping out. I think everyone came in today with a plan to attack. There were no skirmishes or anything like that that wasted time. So, I think more than anything, this team is very professional.”
(What do you see in the front seven, defensively this year?) – “Yeah, I mean, really, you could say front 11. We rotate those guys and they’re all very talented. I think it’s the most talented front seven in the NFL. It’s definitely the most talented I’ve seen here in five years. I think there’s obviously star players in every position, but the depth too. Guys can just roll in and there’s no slack. It’s definitely a chore to go up against every day, but it’s an iron sharpens iron situation.”
(So much has been said this summer about the heat. Number one, how do you deal with it? Number two, do you feel any kind of difference? It’s always hot here. But is there any difference this year?) – “Yeah, I mean, you’ve got to just embrace it. When I first came here in 2018, I was falling out of practice every day during training camp because that’s how tough it is. Especially with guys who sweat a lot. You have to embrace it, though. You know it’s coming. There’s really nothing you can do besides know that you have to be prepared in terms of hydration and stuff. And then, just you have to attack it. That’s going to be the same every time. You can definitely notice a difference. In September, when teams come here, or we go somewhere else and it’s a little cooler, there’s obviously a very large difference.”
(A lot of the offensive guys have talked about how much more comfortable they are in Head Coach Mike McDaniel’s offense. From the tight end position, in your experience, what are some of the little nuances that you’re more comfortable with?) – “Specifically this time of year. Last year I think we were all just kind of figuring it out. Now I can turn to a tackle or Alec (Ingold) in the backfield and we can change a play basically without having to change the play. We can go to different spots, whatever – we all know we’re on the same page. So, I think that, above everything else, is very evident at this point during the season. Whereas last year, I think we we’re just going out there and trying to play fast and kind of just wishing.”
(Is it weird having your first training camp without former Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki here?) – “It is. I tell people that OTAs was kind of weird, because that’s a long time spent in the building without him. But now, it’s kind of business as usual. We’re back to it. We brought in a lot of good guys. So, there’s still a lot of good people on this team that I can hang out with.”
(So who’s your replacement best friend?) – “Oh, man, I can’t say that because if I said that, I’d get a call in 10 minutes in there and (Mike Gesicki) would be yelling at me. But you know, I think the tight end room in general is great. We brought in a lot of guys that have played a lot of football, kind of know how to be a guy in the locker room. So it kind of picks up where we left off last year.”
(What have you seen from the young tight ends Julian Hill and Elijah Higgins?) – “Very talented, both of them, honestly. Every year we bring in people and you know, everyone’s talented that gets to this level whether you’re an undrafted free agent or you’re drafted. But these guys, I think, are different than a lot of the guys we’ve brought in in the past just because of how physically ready they are. They feel like they’re NFL guys. A lot of times it takes time to transition to that. You’re kind of swimming for a while. Both of these guys are physically ready. Obviously there’s things that rookies have to deal with. But in terms of being football players, these are two good football players.”
(Can you talk about the front seven and the talent there. For guys like yourself who have been here for a long time, how have you guys kind of raised your expectation or level of play knowing with everything that’s come in…?) – “I think, like I said, with the guys on the edge and how much depth we have there. Every rep for us on offense, especially on the edge, tight ends, tackles, fullbacks, it’s every rep you’re getting better or you’re going to get embarrassed out there. I think that’s something that in the past, you know, you go out there, if there’s not as much depth, you can not have your best rep and still win it. That’s not how it works anymore on the edge. I think when you have that on the other side of the ball, we’re getting better every play and I think that’ll continue to stack and show as the season goes on.”
(When you talk about no skirmishes, no wasted time, professionalism out here, what does that mean in the grand scheme of things? How will that manifest itself in the regular season?) – “I think it translates in a lot of ways. When there’s adversity in the middle of the season, teams can quit or fight with each other, things like that. Obviously, it’s one day of pads so I’m not saying that we’re perfect out there by any means. But I think we showed specifically compared to the years in the past, that this team is capable of that. When adversity comes, I think these are a bunch of professionals in that locker room that’ll handle it well.”
(From an offensive standpoint, what’s the biggest challenge picking up Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio’s defense?) – “I think it’s a lot of things. I think structurally, it’s the disguise. The secondary obviously does a great job. A lot of smart guys in our secondary and with Vic’s defense, they can disguise things until the last second. What that does for us in the middle of the field is number three receivers, tight ends, slot receivers, you’re looking at the safeties after the snap and you’re having to change your route five, 10 yards down the field. So that can definitely get confusing at times. I think on the edge it’s letting those guys kind of be themselves. They can do whatever they want as long as they win and when you have athletes like we do on the edge, that’s tough when they’re kind of let loose like that.”
