Dwayne Allen – April 18, 2019
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Thursday, April 18, 2019
TE Dwayne Allen
(Have you noticed Head coach Brian Flores doing it his way, because I asked him today. A lot of people may say that he’s doing it the ‘Patriots way.’) – “That’s the only thing I have to go off of. In New England, Coach Flores ran the defense. I didn’t get to see much of him other than when he was on the other side of the ball and we talked a little crap to him. Here, it’s his show and he’s running things his way.”
(What’s his way been so far?) – “He wants a smart, tough football team that can perform well under pressure. It starts with practice and being well-conditioned. Getting out here in the heat and what I’ve learned from everyone is that this isn’t the heat quite yet, so I’m pacing myself. (laughter) (We’re) getting out here and working hard, and that’s what we’ve been able to do so far.”
(We noticed the conversation that you and TE Mike Gesicki had. Are you kind of taking him under your wing a little bit?) – “The entire tight ends room. That’s my job here. I’m the veteran guy in the tight ends room. I want to make sure that we as a corps, are able to go out there and execute our job.”
(What’s the most important thing that you want to get across to them?) – “Execute. Execute. Knowing exactly what they have to do, when they are supposed to do it and giving them tools to be able to go out there and execute it.”
(What have you seen from a guy like TE Mike Gesicki? He came in really hyped about his talent overall. I know he probably has to work on blocking and he hasn’t gotten that size yet.) – “We’re all learning. We’re all learning. Me going into Year 8, Gesicki and Durham (Smythe) going into Year 2, Clive (Walford) and Nick (O’Leary) going into Years 3 (and) 4, we’re all just trying to get out there, learn and continue to grow and continue to get better at the tight end position. In this league, once you think you know it all, that’s when you’re on your way out.”
(When you say the word execute, to fans what does that mean? How can you put that into terms that they can understand?) – “When the ball is moving forward, everyone on the offensive side of the ball is executing pretty well. (laughter)”
(When I asked Head Coach Brian Flores is it going to be the ‘Patriots way,’ he said you can call it whatever you want but it’s going to be my way. He talked about how he’s a stickler for time – to be on time, and what time means to him.) – “Yeah, early is on time, on time is late and late is forgotten, as Coach Flores likes to say. That’s his thing. That’s one of the things he said the first day that we got here. He wanted to maximize our time in this building and make sure that we’re utilizing it, so we can go out and execute the game of football the way that we want to. Guys have been very receptive and have been early.”
(You’ve been used to that time?) – “Yeah, if you say so. That’s one of Coach Flo’s (Brian Flores) things and that’s the first time I hard that.”
(How much does that add to a team? Those are little things but those little things are what establishes what type of group you’re going to have.) – “It’s all about the little things. That’s another thing that Coach Flo stresses to us. Make sure that we are sticklers of details and one of the details is time. Making sure that we’re early to things so that we can maximize our time inside this building.”
(This team hasn’t run a lot of two tight end sets in the last few years. You can tell me if I’m wrong, but with you coming down here, do you have a feeling you might run more of that here?) – “The allure of me coming here was to have the opportunity to be around a great coaching staff. It’s headed up by a couple of guys that I was familiar with coming from New England, but also a lot of guys that were added that I wanted to work with. The offensive scheme, that all depends on who is calling the plays, not necessarily where they learned the offense from. So, the way that (Patriots Offensive Coordinator) Josh McDaniels calls it could be and will be I’m sure totally different from the way that (Offensive Coordinator) Chad O’Shea calls it.”
(So we shouldn’t read too much into what we saw in New England last year translating here?) – “Not at all. The way that Coach (Chad) O’Shea calls things will unfold throughout training camp, throughout the spring, throughout the summer, throughout the preseason. You’ll be able to see.”
(You’ve known Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea for a minute. How do you think his play calling will be, what do you think his style will be?) – “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m just looking forward to getting to work and executing whatever plays are called.”
(What do you know in Year 8 that you didn’t know in Year 2?) – “Wow. You don’t have enough paper for that. I promise you that you don’t have enough. (laughter) The most important thing that I realize is what it means to come together as a team. That starts with appreciation – appreciation for everyone’s job. Once you have appreciation, that’s when accountability can come into play. That appreciation for everyone’s job and that accountability to hold everyone up and everyone accountable, that’s when you come together as a team and have the opportunities of doing something special.”
