Jerome Baker – October 1, 2020
Thursday, October 1, 2020
LB Jerome Baker
(I wanted to ask you about something away from football here for just a moment. You’re pretty involved in the community both here and back in your hometown. I wanted to ask you what it was like during the pandemic to still try to find a way to give back, and if there is any specific event you can tell us about from this past summer that you were involved in?) – “A lot of my events, they didn’t get canceled. They either got changed quite a bit. I had the backpack giveaway at my high school. It was originally supposed to be a camp and everything, but with the pandemic, we just decided to give backpacks away and that’s pretty much all we did. It was hard. It’s definitely still hard, but you’ve just got to find different ways to try to be safe and just get through it.”
(I wanted to ask about you going up against the rookies – G Solomon Kindley and T Austin Jackson – in practice. What have you noticed from them specifically on Austin and it just seems like the offensive line is very new, but they’ve held it together here in the first few weeks?) – “Just right off the bat, they go hard and they’re willing just to get better. It doesn’t matter who they’re going up against. They’re not afraid to ask questions. Pretty much most of our rookies, they all just come in and pick everybody’s brain and just do things the right way. Guys like that just come in and have that hunger to them. You can just tell they’re going to have success and you can just tell our o-line has definitely gotten better and just continues to get better.”
(What was your reaction when you heard about what happened to the Titans – the outbreak they’ve had – and are you confident that something similar won’t happen here?) – “My reaction – I was actually surprised. With all the protocols, with all the things that we have to go through just to stay safe. For me, I’m not going to say it’s easy, but now we’ve adjusted to it. You definitely have the tools to stay safe and I’m pretty confident that we won’t have anything like that here; but you’ve just got to be safe and just be cautious of everything you do on the field and off the field.”
(I actually wanted to ask you about RB Myles Gaskin. He’s from the Seattle area, so I don’t know if he grew up a Seahawks fan; but I’m sure he’ll be jacked up for this game. Some of us are kind of surprised that he’s gotten so many touches in the first few weeks. What did you see from him even on the practice field and in training camp that was kind of impressive?) – “If you’ve been around here, you’re not surprised at all about Myles (Gaskin). He goes hard. He’s smart and he truly works hard not just during practice, but outside of practice. Even this week, we had a few days off. If I come in and just do some stuff in here, he’s on the field doing ladder drills, running. He’s a guy that does way more than what they ask him. For me, I’m happy to see guys like that just work hard and get what they deserve; and for him it’s more carries, but nobody’s – if you’ve been here – nobody’s surprised. One-on-ones – he does great in one-on-ones, pass protection, he does it all. It’s not a surprise. For me, I’m definitely happy for him.”
(I’ve been looking back at some of your snap counts over the last couple years and you pretty much play every snap, and you do come off the field sometimes. I’m curious if when they call you off the field for the couple of snaps a year that you do miss, are you kind of like, “no, I don’t want to do that” or is it hard to get you off the field?) – “Some of the time it’s a little hard just simply because you can be going – you only can get a play off, two plays off. It drains your energy more to run off the field then run back on. You really don’t get any water. You just pretty much run off the field for nothing; but overall, it’s good. I just try to stay healthy, try to stay ready and try to stay in the best shape I can, and that’s just a credit to it.”
(I wanted to ask how much do you miss Raiders LB Raekwon McMillan? How’s he doing? Have you kept in touch with him over the last couple weeks?) – “Oh yeah, ‘Kwon’ – that’s my boy. Yeah, I talked to him a little bit. We talked a little bit of football, but he’s good. He’s doing his thing over there. Yeah, I definitely miss my boy, but I’m definitely happy for him.”
(It’s the first time you guys haven’t been on a team.) – “Yeah, in a long time. Yeah. We end up playing them later on, right? So it’s definitely going to be cool.”
(I wanted to ask you about the pass rush. What are you seeing out of it that has improved since the first couple weeks? What did you see in the Jacksonville game that was so much better?) – “We’re starting to jell together. We’re starting to really understand every guy’s strengths and weaknesses, so that just comes with time and we definitely are moving in the right direction when it comes to that. I know the DBs, they’re happy because it helps all of us. It’s starting to come together, but we’ve just got to constantly just improve and get better and we’re doing that.”
