Jeremiah Washburn – July 29, 2018
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Sunday, July 29, 2018
Offensive Line Coach Jeremiah Washburn
(What happened with your leg and how did it happen?) – “This is the first time I’ve told this story. (laughter) No, we were in Uganda for a couple of weeks. We got back and the next night I was just running an errand and you know that you can’t just run an errand across Federal (Highway) on a bike. I was on the sidewalk and going through a crosswalk and a truck was trying to get out on a red light and turned right. He accelerated into me and then ran over my left leg. It was an accident. The guy owned up and he was great. It should have been way worse. I was really … It was a blessing. God is good. It tore an MCL and PCL and I just got a couple of lacerations.”
(Were you taken by ambulance to the hospital?) – “I was, yes. Lighthouse Point first responders – they’re studs.”
(And how are you today?) – “Better. I’m better. Considering what happened, there’s a lot of gratitude that it wasn’t worse.”
(What’s the prognosis as far as rehab?) – “Well, we have the best training staff in the league; but they are savages. They are working to get range of motion right now. (Assistant Athletic Trainers) Nao (Inoue) and Troy (Maurer) are both very tough on me right now with that. The whole group has been awesome. Dr. (Gautam) Yagnik and (Dr. John) Uribe have been … It’s a blessing to work for the Dolphins. They have such first-class care.”
(Does it show your players how tough you are?) – “Heck, no. Those guys go through way more than I do. I didn’t make much of it with the guys. They were awesome. All of them reached out and have done a lot for me and have mocked me pretty well. They’ve been great.”
(I assume you’ll still be on crutches when preseason games start.) – “I threw my crutches out there today and tried to walk. (Josh) Sitton started picking on me. I don’t know. I’m going to try to walk. I think I can.”
(How hard has it been to do your job out here when you’re out here with these two hour practices?) – “There’s nothing to it. (Senior Director of Football and Player Development) Joe Vitt had to work with an Achilles. My dad (former NFL coach Jim Washburn) got leg-whipped like five years ago by a Pouncey and he had to work with a broken leg. We all have to deal with something so it’s not hard. We all have to do our jobs.”
(You’re a field guy anyway. You wouldn’t be in the booth, right?) – “I think. We haven’t talked about any of that, to be honest with you.”
(When did this happen? What was the date?) – “July 3rd. The night before (the Fourth of July).”
(We’ve been asking QB Ryan Tannehill about going with different braces and stuff like that. Did you have like a scooter or a different kind of crutches?) – “So they threw the scooter out at me. I just kept thinking of George Costanza, so (Head Coach Adam) Gase kept sending me YouTube clips of Costanza when he was working at Play Now Sports. So we’ve had a thing going with that. (laughter) So I said no way. Luckily they gave me a golf cart. They’ve been great. Adam has been unbelievable.”
(How much support have you gotten from Head Coach Adam Gase?) – “It just tells me the man. I mean I don’t want to patronize him but he stayed on the phone with my wife all the way until like 2 a.m. through my surgery. He’s amazing.”
(Was the incident itself to the level of where the trauma was almost like a life-threatening incident to you?) – “Yes. You do … (Director of Football and Player Development) Clyde Christensen called me a couple of days later and you know, he’s Clyde. So he gave me a verse. He said ‘Hey, Psalm 23:2: He layeth me down in greener pastures.’ And he said, ‘You just meant to lay down here for a couple of weeks,’ so that’s how I took it. I spent a lot of time with my family and watched a lot of football and felt prepared for training camp.”
(I think you mentioned there was a chance you could have lost a leg. Was that correct?) – “Well, it just looked bad. The adrenaline is flowing and when you stand up, you stand up and my leg is kind of at an angle and I thought, ‘My gosh, I just lost it.’ But then I was standing. You have those prescient moments where you think, ‘I think I just lost my leg,’ but then I didn’t so I was pretty grateful.”
(Has this always been your personality? You’re talking about something that most people would be … You’re kind of nonchalant about it right now. You take things in stride, I guess?) – “To be honest with you, you can roll your eyes but I’m a man of faith and I was raised by a man of faith that went through a lot: my dad. He always took everything in stride and when you witness those things growing up, that’s just how you’re conditioned to be. You don’t say ‘Why me?’ It’s ‘Why not me?’ I’m grateful for the things you get. And I had just come back from a third-world country. We’re fine. They deal with real stuff. I’m dealing with a leg and I’ve got the world’s greatest care. Those guys, where I had just come from in Uganda … You see a whole lot different there.”
(Are you pleased so far with what you’ve seen from the offensive line in the first four days of practice?) – “No; but yes, I guess? We’re not near where we need to be. I think Adam (Gase) probably said the same thing yesterday. But I do like our group. It’s a good group of guys and they’re working hard, but in terms of production, we’re not near where we need to be – protections, run game and screens. We’re going to have to continue to work at it. I know that sounds cliché but that is really it. We tell them the same thing every day and those guys should be saying those things to you, as well. We’re not near where we need to be. I know (Defensive Line Coach Kris) Kocurek just said that about his group and I thought, ‘Really? They look fantastic.’ (laughter)”
(Can you elaborate more on the work that you’ve done in Africa and how that started and what you guys have been doing over there?) – “Sure. Four years ago I had a couple of players in Detroit that supported this mission and this ministry is an orphanage. The quick of it is they wanted a sports camp for the kids that go to school there. There’s about 150 (of them). A couple of players set it up. (Defensive Coordinator) Matt Burke and I went, one of my players – Dylan Gandy – in Detroit, we all went over. It was an impactful experience more for us than for them. My gosh, they took to American Football really well. It was just a way for us to mission. My father-in-law is a doctor and he’s traveled overseas and I think, ‘My gosh. I’m so worthless.’ But then you go over there and you say, ‘There is a place for all of us.’ My gosh, journalism is such a big deal over there. Not being corrupt in terms of that, let’s go over there and help. So we all have a place and we’ve just found our place. We’ve gone for the last four years and it’s expanded and it’s been a blessing for us to be able to go.”
(With the chemistry that you’re trying to develop by keeping that unit together since OTAs, are you seeing progress?) – “Yes; but it’s not fast enough. You guys know that have been around, we just don’t get the time that we used to with groups. That’s not an excuse but every day is priceless for us. It’s so precious out here – a padded day – so we need to see progress. But I’ll say this, it is nice having some continuity. It really is. You guys know around here that it’s been a shuffle, even when I was here in 2016 and then in Chicago (last year) we had the same thing. It is nice having that same five start every day and hopefully we’ll see some benefits from it.”
(What do you lose when you’re not shuffling?) – “Well, something always happens. What is that, Murphy’s Law? It’s always going to happen so you do have to get guys in there. We do have to stay mindful of that of getting guys in non-traditional spots. In Chicago last year, I had two guards that had never played guard before – Tom Compton and Bradley Sowell. And you’ve had it here too where you had (Anthony) Steen, (Kraig) Urbik. You had Sam (Young) playing. You had all of these guys playing different spots, so they need to get valuable reps in that, as well. You do lose that but we have to stay mindful with that with the rotation, which Adam (Gase) does a good job with that.”
(What do you want to see from G/T Jesse Davis to make sure he takes that next step?) – “I can’t answer this without being incredibly cliché but just consistent day-to-day play. I mean that’s the life of an offensive lineman. We’ve got to be boring. We don’t want you to talk about us. It’s just embracing the monotony of offensive line and being consistent with that technique day to day. He’s getting there. He’s working at it.”
(Talking to the guys, you use the word “Forged” a lot when you talk to them. What does that word mean to you and what message do you want that to send to your guys?) – “Oh, the ‘forged.’ You’d have to ask more of Coach Gase. That’s been a really cool message. I’ve enjoyed that. I haven’t worn the t-shirt yet but I think it’s just building relationships and connection through work. I think a lot of that is authenticity, which is hard to find in the NFL. That’s what I really enjoy about our team is there are a lot of genuine, authentic guys that speak their mind – sometimes to their detriment. (laughter) I think those things are going to forge a real team, not just some of this fake stuff that you see in the NFL. I think you can be real and authentic, so I think that’s the message.”
(With T Laremy Tunsil, is there anything you guys are trying to do to rebuild his confidence and get him out there playing with some swagger and kind of a nasty demeanor?) – “He’s done it himself. He came with that eye. He had that eye as soon as he came back in the spring. It was something that he found within. Look, I’m his biggest fan. I was here Day 1 with him. He’s come back with that. It really hasn’t been … I don’t have to motivate Laremy Tunsil. He’s a motivated young man and he knew after last season. He’s very prideful. You guys know that talking to him. He’s wired that way. He just has to keep that up.”
