Jaelan Phillips – December 5, 2021 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 5, 2021
Postgame – N.Y. Giants
LB Jaelan Phillips
Q. Take me through the decision to somersault.
JAELAN PHILLIPS: All my celebrations are random. I can’t tell you. There’s no thought that goes into it. It’s just spur of the moment. Whatever feels good, I just do it. Christian keeps making fun of me. He says they all suck. (laughter) He said during the bye week, we were going to work on them, so it’s all good.
Q. What do you attribute your increase in production over the course of the last five, six weeks?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: I think it’s us as a defensive line and defense in general just playing together. They always say sacks come in bunches, and the last five, six weeks or so I just think we’ve been executing really well. Been working really well together and just been getting after it. That’s all you can do.
Q. What’s it like to have all that hard work starting to show up?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It’s incredible. It’s like you said. It’s all the hard work we’ve been putting in since camp. Since minicamp, really. So just to see all this kind of pay off, obviously, we’re not satisfied, so we just got to keep going, keep building.
Q. What’s it mean for you to know that no Dolphin rookie has ever had as many sacks as you have in?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: Honestly, I didn’t know that until like right now. They just told me right now. It’s incredible. It’s a surreal feeling, but honestly it’s bigger than me. I’m just blessed to be a vessel, to be able to go out there and do what I love and put on for you guys and for the fans and for my teammates, so we’re just going to keep doing it.
Q. Jaelan, I think Jerome Baker was saying earlier that at training camp you weren’t working out with the d-ends or the outside linebackers. You were with the inside linebackers. He said it impacted you in some way. I was curious if you remember your mindset during that time or what that meant to you during training camp?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: I don’t even know what he was talking about, to be honest. Yeah, training camp was a blur. It was a rough time for me. I had to go through it, and you never really get the fruits of your labor until you go through those hard times, so everything that we’ve gone through as a team has led to these moments right here. Like I said, we’re just going to keep going.
Q. Why was it so tough?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It was a learning curve and I got hurt at the very beginning, and I was frustrated with myself because I felt like I wasn’t performing the way I needed to for my teammates, but ultimately, like I said, had to go through those rough times to be out the other side, so it was a blessing in disguise.
Q. You have seven sacks in five games, I believe it is. A light bulb go on then, or is it just opportunity presents itself?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: Like he said, sacks come in bunches, so I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Last week I talked about it a lot. All the sacks I had last week literally came from my teammates. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. Same thing today. We’re resilient, and we’re always going to keep rushing the passer and giving it our all. When it pays off, it’s great.
Q. What do you remember the sacks, the plays, back-to-back plays, but what do you remember each of them?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: Say that again.
Q. Take us through the sacks, the moves you made, or what happened.
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It’s just effort. It’s just effort. I think on the first one it was some kind of play action and just ran (Mike) Glennon down, and then the next one it was just he was sitting in the pocket. We got great coverage on the back end, and I was just able to get an effort rush there and get an effort sack.
Q. What was it like today with the guy that you rushed the passer with last year on the other side?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It was awesome, man. I love Quincy (Roche) to death. He is one of my true best friends. Just being able to see him out there doing his thing, you know — I’m not going to congratulate him on the sack because it was against us, but, yeah, saw him after the game. I have a couple of guys on that team. Daray Holmes. Kadarius Toney I trained with so it was definitely cool to see a bunch of those guys.
Q. Sacks aren’t always the lone indicator of success with the pass rush, but is it nice to get that validation? Is it nice to get the little reward at the end regardless of how well you have been doing your job?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It’s always nice to get the reward, but ultimately, the biggest reward is winning the game, and so we’re just happy with how we’ve been playing and we’re just going to keep executing, doing our thing.
Q. You’re a University of Miami grad. So how does it feel to continue to have success here in Miami and what does that mean to your fans that have watched you come up through college?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: It’s crazy. Every time I look in the stands I see people throwing up Us. It’s amazing. I definitely feel like it’s kind of like a home team thing. There’s really no feeling like going out there and feeling the support from your fans, and so I was just – I never thought I would end up in Miami in my life. I’m a SoCal boy, born and raised. These last two, three years of my life have been a whirlwind, but I couldn’t be more blessed and thankful.
Q. Do you any thoughts on the UM coaching search? There are rumors about Mario Cristobal.
JAELAN PHILLIPS: I just heard right now that Cristobal got hired. Is that true?
Q. There’s some reports. (laughter)
JAELAN PHILLIPS: I don’t know anything. I just play football. I don’t know. I mean, look, Manny Diaz, I am forever indebted to him for taking me in. I was 215 pounds when I got to Miami. He had a lot of faith in me, and that whole coaching staff – I’m really grateful for them, so I know they’re going to be successful in whatever they do, and if somebody comes in new, I just hope that Miami can get the best leaders possible because ultimately, we have a great history at the University of Miami, and we want to see those wins come.
Q. Are you looking forward to the bye week? You think your body is ready for a week off?
JAELAN PHILLIPS: I’m ready to play the next game right now. Let’s go. (laughter) But the bye week is good. You sit back and re-evaluate the season and do a lot of self-scout, so we’re definitely going to be prepared coming out of the bye.
