Jerome Baker – July 29, 2022
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Friday, July 29, 2022
LB Jerome Baker
(Do you want Durant?) – “Durant?”
(You know, to the Heat. Do you think they should get Kevin Durant?) – “Oh, I mean, if he’s willing to come to the Heat, I love it. I love going to Heat games, so that would be fun.”
(There have been a lot of interesting tweets, so why do you say that you regret getting the vaccine?) – “For me, it’s just that I don’t like putting just things in my body. I know the purpose of it is to help and fight off the virus, but for me, I don’t like putting things in my body. That’s really the main thing. I’m not saying the vaccine is bad or anything like that, just me personally, I’m one of those guys that if I’m sick, I’d rather just be sick and fight it out. I’m not going to take medicine or anything like that. That was the real reason. It’s not a ‘the vaccine is bad,’ or ‘I’m afraid of what’s going to happen,’ or anything like that. It’s just I wish I just would have taken the approach of I’d rather just deal with it when it comes.”
(So if you get sick, you don’t even take medicine?) – “So when I get sick, I take the approach of – I like to go outside, I like to sweat. I like to just be very hydrated – that’s my approach of when I get sick. It’s not sit in the bed and mope and just be sick. I like to get …”
(You wouldn’t take any Robitussin?) – “No, I’m just that guy. I would rather just try to fight it out (and) let my body do what it does.”
(I want to ask you about the two most prominent additions in the defense, it’s mostly the same. LB Melvin Ingram, what you’ve noticed so far from him and what you’ve noticed from LB Channing Tindall.) – “Melvin (Ingram), the guy is just explosive, man. He’s only – he’s a veteran, he knows what he’s doing. When we just pop on the film, he can just make plays. With Channing (Tindall), he’s young, but you can see all the potential he has. Just with any rookie, you just try to get the playbook down (and) you’re just trying to get the hang of everything, but you can just tell he’s just trying to get it right. That’s all that matters – just try to get it right and go as hard as you can, and he does that. He definitely has a bright future.”
(Where has the time gone? Year five.) – “Man, that’s crazy that you just said that. I went up to Ohio State for Braxton Miller’s camp a few weeks ago. I’m talking and I’m talking, and I’m talking in a sense of like I was just at Ohio State. Somebody brought it to my attention and was like, ‘Bro, it’s like your fifth year. You’ve been gone for a while.’ I was pretty surprised about that.”
(Did people still remember you?) – “Yes, I mean – you know, a little bit. They remember me a little bit. (laughter) No, the little kids, it’s one of those things of if it’s Braxton Miller or me, they’re going to Braxton Miller. (laughter) But it’s all cool. It was just a great camp. I had a great time up there. Year five and I’m still having fun with it.”
(Dolphins season tickets are going to sell out. I don’t know if you heard that or saw that yet. What do you think about that?) – “I mean, that sounds like it’s going to be some good games. There’s going to be exciting games. Our fans always just come with the energy, no matter what we’re doing on the field. I always appreciate that the fans, the community and the organization, they’re all just behind us as a whole. It’s definitely going to be a good one and I’m excited, man. I’m truly excited.”
(Are we going to hear you mic’d up? Because there are going to be some times this season where the defense is going to come off the field and the offense might score in like one or two plays. What’s your reaction going to be when you have to get back on defense if the offense scores?) – “Oh, I have no problem doing that. If our offense does something like that, you’re not going to hear any complaints from any defensive player. We’re supposed to be in shape, so if we’re scoring points and we have to go back out there, I’ll just keep doing it. I don’t care how many times. They keep scoring points, I keep going out there. Got no complaints from me.”
(Obviously, you’re not getting into gameplan stuff right now. Is the vision for you to just continue to still be everywhere?) – “I mean, yes. That’s always how I’ve been, nothing has really changed. We still have the same ‘DC’ (Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer). Even now, you can just see I’m pretty much everywhere. They throw me in places just to see can I do it and see how it works. I still love that. I love just going anywhere and everywhere. I love that offenses have a hard time of seeing what I line up and what I’m doing. I’m having fun with them. I’m still having fun with it.”
(What do you think about getting to practice in front of fans tomorrow?) – “I’m excited. That’s one of those things that the practice is a lot easier when we have a crowd and you can feel the energy. I’m definitely excited to have them come and I’m excited to make some plays – that’s my thing.”
(Thoughts on OL Liam Eichenberg’s playlist?) – “He kept playing the same song a few times. (laughter) But he had some songs on there. I had to tell him. I was like, ‘Bro…’”
(They had an error, so it wasn’t a good reflection.) – “Oh, OK, because it was like the same four songs for a while. But it was pretty cool. He surprised a lot of us. I didn’t know he was going to play those songs, but I give him a – if I had to grade, a little B-minus. It was cool.”
(From going up against this group, obviously May, June and now, on offense, what besides WR Tyreek Hill is something that’s going to give other defenses trouble in games this year? What stands out to you besides Tyreek?) – “I know with Tyreek (Hill), they all get the hype and all of that, but what’s interesting about this team is it’s not just Tyreek, it’s not just (Jaylen) Waddle, it’s not just Mike (Gesicki) – you see where I’m going with this. We have guys that can make plays one-on-one opportunities. So that’s what I’m excited about, to see guys make one-on-one plays. It’s no longer you’re just double-teaming one guy and it’s not that many guys open. We have guys that can make plays in space. We have guys that can beat one-on-ones. We have guys that run the ball hard. That’s what I’m excited about, just the overall good offense.”
(So you’re not scared [expletive] of this offense with WR Tyreek Hill?) – “Me personally? Am I scared? I wouldn’t say I’m scared, man. It’s one of those things, I believe in our defense. So when we go up against them, it’s very competitive. We’re out there having fun though.”
(I want to ask you, your responsibility… There’s a group of you guys on defense that have been a corps and been here the last couple of years. What sense of responsibility do you guys have to make sure that you guys are playing together, playing under Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer, having it all together so that the offense is in good shape and you guys can actually make a real solid push for the playoffs this year?) – “So the thing with – even today, Josh (Boyer) just went over this, we have to set the standard. It doesn’t matter what the offense is doing. It’s not what whoever we’re going against. It’s our standard, and we have to set that. We can have a good practice and we know that it could have been great. That’s just how our standard is – no matter what we’re doing, we know how great we can be. We had times in the past few years where we can see our defense is pretty good – we just hold to that standard. We have a lot of guys coming back, but now it’s just taking that next step of getting to the playoffs, doing all those things you need to do. But ultimately, our defense knows what we have to do. We have a standard; we have to hold everybody accountable.”
(On that, how has LB Channing Tindall the rookie came along since spring coming into summer?) – “For me, I love seeing how guys develop mentally. Physically, the guy is just talented. He can run fast. He can do all the things that you ask him to do. For me, it’s just mentally. The part where you can look in there, you see him in the meeting rooms and it’s not just he’s scrambling. He calms down and really can answer the question. That’s the part where you can see that now it’s starting to come together. Now, it’s just training camp. With spring, it’s easy – you don’t have (any) pads on and everybody is not going as hard. Training camp, when the pads come on and it’s time to really perform, that’s the part I really want to see. Right now, he’s doing a good job. He works hard. He does everything he does, but I’m waiting for the pads to see what he can do.”
(Do you feel like the side effects of the vaccine have made it harder for you to prepare for this season?) – “No, not at all.”
(Were there any side effects that you had…) – “I really never had any side effects, I would say. It’s just, like I said before, I just don’t like putting things in my body. I know somebody tweeted back and was making fun of me or whatever, but that’s just the guy I am. I would rather just be sick and fight it out than put something else in my body.”
(How did your mom feel about that growing up?) – “What? Just being sick?”
(Just you wanting to tough it out.) – “So when I was young, I wasn’t this guy. (laughter) I was the ‘I’m sick, I want to stay home.’ As I got older, it was just no point in sitting there, being in your bed and you feel bad. I’d get up, take a shower, get outside, sweat a little bit. It makes the process go a little easier for me in my opinion.”
(Did you have a favorite stay-home-sick show to watch?) – “I was a SpongeBob guy. I would sit there and watch SpongeBob all day, every day. I still remember just waking up, put some shorts on, sit in front of the TV all day and just do whatever. When they (would) come home, you have to act a little bit more sick, but it’s all good. (laughter)”
