Transcripts

Search Transcripts
Jaelan Phillips – August 29, 2024 Download PDF version

Thursday, August 29, 2024

LB Jaelan Phillips

(How have you felt your two weeks back?) – “I’ve felt great. It’s been amazing. I’ve been eager to get back into just getting used to my hands, getting used to my eyes and really used to the defense. I’ve been doing walkthroughs with my coach the whole entire time, the whole entire offseason, but doing it live is different. It’s just been really nice to be able to actually do it live and to learn the defense.”

(Is there a pitch count for you?) – “You got to ask somebody else, not me.”

(Pitch counts are tricky, because the fourth quarter, you got to win a ballgame. I’ve got a feeling you’re not going to sit.) – “Yeah, I mean it’s tough. I wouldn’t say that that feeling is misguided. That’s definitely how I feel, but hopefully it doesn’t come down to that. Hopefully, we go out there and handle our business. But regardless, I’m here to do whatever they need me to do. Obviously, I’m going to be pushing to play as much as I can, but I’ve got to be smart at the end of the day. It’s a long season, so we’ll see how it goes.”

(Head Coach Mike McDaniel talked about DT Calais Campbell, some of you guys being infants when he started in this thing. How much has he brought to the room, and what have you noticed the most about him?) – “It’s been really invaluable having him here just from a leadership standpoint, in terms of him being able to come in and identify the things that make up – he’s been to the Super Bowl – so him being able to just give us advice and kind of guide us on what we need and what we need to be focusing on to reach the end goal. Calais (Campbell) has been great, obviously that ‘U’ connection, too. So it’s been cool having him in the building.”

(When he’s physically doing things and some of the guys are tired, is it a kick in the butt? Like man, this old man is doing it?) – “No, because he doesn’t even seem like an old man. You wouldn’t think he’s 37 or whatever he is. He works his (expletive) off, and he moves really well for how old he is.”

(What is one thing you’ve learned from DT Calais Campbell?) – “I think he just more so puts us on game when it comes to what the standard is and what it takes to be one of those Super Bowl teams. On the field, obviously he might give you tips with games here and there, or things like that, but I think really from a leadership and mentality standpoint is just really when he’s come in and gave us a lot of advice.”

(Have you been able to open it up full torque, or whatever you need to to make sure that things is right on game day?) – “I’m rolling. I’m rolling.”

(What was the moment or two over the last two weeks that you were like, “Oh yeah, I’m good?”) _ “It’s really been kind of like a steady – the last about a month and a half, every time I would start to add load and do new things, I would just kind of surprise myself with how my Achilles didn’t get sore at all and it didn’t really react at all. There’s been a couple of times where I’d be watching myself, watching whatever drills I’m doing, I’ll see myself in my stance really pushing off of it, and there’s no rebound, there is no weakness. It’s just explosive, it’s feeling great. I just feel very grateful to play.”

(Do you let yourself have goals, sack totals and things like that for this year?) – “I never really have sack goals when it comes to that. I just want to be disruptive and be productive. I know that I’m a 10-plus sack guy. I know that I can go out there and disrupt the quarterback, stop the run, do anything I need to do to for this team. So the numbers will fall when they fall, but I’m going to go out there and try my best.”

(So you’re feeling pretty confident in your get off just consistently being able to push off?) – “Yeah, I feel great. I feel really good.”

(I wanted to ask a little bit about that initial push. It’s so important to what you do. How much of a concern was that when you first got hurt? When you do push off, you don’t feel anything afterwards even?) – “No, it feels rock solid. When I first got hurt, I didn’t really know what to think. I didn’t know what it was going to be like coming back. I didn’t know if I was – I heard a lot of people kind of mention to me about confidence things and having kind of like a mental block almost coming back and not trusting it, but I haven’t had that issue at all honestly.”     

Search Transcripts

Weekly Archives