Jakeem Grant – August 25, 2020
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Tuesday, August 25, 2020
WR Jakeem Grant
(How do you feel like your training camp has gone. I know obviously you missed today, but overall?) – “I feel like it’s going pretty smooth. It’s going really good. I’m going to continue to go out there and get better every day at everything that I do, continue to gain the coaches trust and be consistent every day.”
(Obviously WR Albert Wilson and WR Allen Hurns opted out earlier this offseason and you guys lose them; but that means that somebody has to pick up their reps and I know you’ve always been looking for that bigger role. What does their absence mean for maybe what potentially you can do in this offense?) – “It means a lot. I hated that those guys opted out, but I know that they have family issues or anything that they have going on, and I definitely support those guys on that record. I’m ready to take on whatever role that coach has for me. Whether that’s picking up the slack with those guys opting out and catching those targets, I’ve been waiting for it, and I’m ready for it. I’ve been pushing that message that I’m a receiver before a returner for the longest now. This year will be the biggest year to show it.”
(I warn you that I’m going to stir it up a little bit here. Who’s the fastest guy on this team?) – “Me. You don’t even have to say it. Me, of course. I’m going to say it every single time. I don’t care about – I told Matt (Breida), I don’t care about him running a 22.3 (miles per hour). I don’t have to run full speed to beat guys to the end zone. I don’t have to do all that. I’m going to continue to say that. If he wants to race, it’s nothing. I’ll continue to tell him, ‘you’re not going to beat me bro. I’m just telling you.’”
(To piggyback off of what I asked before, those guys talked about playing a lot of slot. You’ve been playing more outside as of last year, but you have played slot before. Where is your comfort playing slot if they need you to?) – “My comfort is at an all-time high playing the slot. Like you said, I played the slot probably throughout my whole career until I got to the NFL. When I got here as a rookie, I was playing in the slot. I got to learn behind Jarvis (Landry) and they moved me to the outside; but I’ve been playing the slot my whole life. It’s nothing to play it, just more communication with the quarterback, identifying coverages and just knowing where to be at all times. I feel comfortable playing that without a doubt.”
(I’m wondering about the left-handed quterback thing. Obviously you guys have a lefty now. Is there some adjustment? Is it any different?) – “I would say not really. As a receiver, if the ball comes your way, you’ve got to catch it. It’s as simple as it gets. I feel like there is nothing different, besides the spin rotation of the ball. It’s nothing different. Like I said, if you’re a receiver, catch the ball when it comes your way.”
(We saw you telling WR DeVante Parker that you’re 200 pounds these days. I wanted to ask you if there is any truth to that and how did you get all of that weight on?) – “I’m not 200 but I always like to tell him I’m 200. (laughter) I’m close there, I’m close to 200 though. I’m getting there. I just tell him that because I like to mess with him because he likes to weigh in with his backpack on, with his shoes on, with everything on. He’s always like ‘Yeah, I’m 225 (pounds).’ And I’m like ‘No, you’re not. You’re like 215 after you take all of that stuff off.’ That’s why I kept saying that I’m 200 because if I weigh in with my backpack and all of my clothes on, I’d be 200 too. That’s where that all started.”
(On that WR DeVante Parker tip, we saw that he had that cartoon out this week or like last month. He had the annoying nephew, and a lot of us couldn’t help but ask, are you the inspiration for that nephew? Do you know?) – “I think that I am. We’re trying to do a little feature on that with him being ‘Unc’ and I’m ‘Neph’. That’s probably what it is because as you can see with the mic’d up (segment), I’m always messing with DeVante. Whether anybody has film on me or the cameras are on me, I’m always messing with DeVante. I’m just trying to tell him that I’m bigger than him, I’m better than him, just the typical ‘Unc’ and ‘Neph,’ just to continue to get that rolling. Everybody loves it. It’s just something that we did just playing around. I guess it just blew up.”
(You’ve got Head Coach Brian Flores and General Manager Chris Grier who are the only black GM/head coach duo in the league. I wanted to know from a player perspective what is it like to kind of see your leaders kind of look like you?) – “It goes a long way just to see that those guys – that you’ve got a GM and a head coach that are black. That speaks volumes for the black community, as well. For me, I wouldn’t say it’s different if I had a white GM or a white head coach. It doesn’t mean anything to me. But I would say it does speak volumes. It’s something that a lot of people look to in the black community and to show that black people can reach that level of success too. With me, it’s the same as anything. If it was white or black, it doesn’t matter to me; but it’s great to see black men take that type of empowerment.”
