Jevon Holland – May 9, 2023
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Tuesday, May 9, 2023
S Jevon Holland
(I wanted to ask you, you lost S Brandon Jones about halfway through the season last year. How excited does it make you to see him back working again, getting back to healthy?) – “Feels great. I’m very excited for him. Brandon is a big piece of our defense, a close friend of mine. I’m happy he’s healthy and in good spirits and working hard.”
(The way you guys play, it’s pretty clear that preparation is a big part of your game. So I was wondering from an individual and team perspective, how do you guys maximize the limited amount of time you have on the grass with your teammates in the offseason, to really try to be as efficient as possible picking up a new system?) – “I would say just like focusing on what we got going on, on the field. That’s basically it. And then take advantage of meeting times, locking in in meetings. There’s like nothing else to it. You just got to focus up when it’s time to focus, don’t play around and waste reps.”
(I just had to ask about the addition in the secondary with CB Jalen Ramsey. What’s your initial thoughts about him? And how do you see yourself elevating this year?) – “Ramsey’s a hell of a player clearly. He’s just got so much knowledge that’s put me in a position to be able to develop more. He’s a great guy. A funny dude. He’s very nice for the locker room.”
(I wanted to ask about the addition of Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator. And when you think about what he’s been able to do with safeties like Justin Simmons and others, and you kind of kind of look ahead to what your role may be, what excites you about that?) – “It’s exciting to just learn from him. He’s been in the league longer than I’ve been alive. So it’s nice to hear him speak about football, and hear his perspective about defense and philosophy and scheme. I’m learning a lot from him. Just from the simplest thing to the most complex thing, he explains the game in a very knowledgeable manner. So I’m excited to learn and grow underneath him.”
(I know last year I talked to you and S Verone McKinley about how the chemistry back from your college days are really helped when Verone started to get more snaps, but now you also have S Brandon Jones and now you have S Deshon Elliot who played together as well. How do you see all of that familiarity helping you guys kind of move around in the secondary?) – “Everybody’s just vibing. We all know each other. We’re all good friends. So Verone and DeShon have known each other since like elementary school or something like that. So being able to just function together on the field, moving around, moving different positions should be like seamless. Guys just understanding that they can be interchangeable and everybody’s willing and able to move around when they need to be.”
(I want to ask you about the new additions that Miami has made to the receiving corps in WR Chosen Anderson and WR Braxton Berrios. What do you see from back there that you believe can help this team?) – “They’re hella fast and good receivers. They’re elite receivers. Braxton, he’s like in special teams and stuff – he’s an elite returner too. So that’s going to be great for us. He’s like a spark that we need. Same with Chosen. They’re both electric players. That’s about all I got. I haven’t really seen them on the field for real. We’re doing different stuff right now. But they’re electric in where they’ve been before and they’ve had success, so I’m excited to have them on the team.”
(With six of Vic Fangio’s safeties having made the Pro Bowl, and this is something that was referred to a few minutes ago, in what ways are you getting the feeling that his scheme is safety friendly?) – “Vic, his scheme is the scheme. I’m just enjoying it. It’s fun. It’s exciting. And yeah, that’s about it.”
(One of the things that a few players have referenced is that they feel freedom that they aren’t necessarily locked into rigid assignments. What have you heard about that? Or what are your feelings on that, if in fact, it’s true?) – “I feel freedom. We are moving around. There’s a lot of moving parts. But yeah, Vic’s defense is fun. I get to just see more. I really enjoy it.”
(I’m doing some on the secondary. And I’m wondering why the secondary works so well together. You guys are, for the most part, have all been drafted. And so it’s been a draft and develop plan there. Why do you guys work so well together?) – “I think we got a lot of easygoing personalities. I think everybody in the room enjoys each other’s presence, so we’re willing and able to maneuver around any kind of difficulty that we have together. We come to a common ground and are able to work through it. And I think we have a mixture between guys who are extremely talented, guys who are extremely smart, guys who are both, people who are vocal, people who are quiet, everybody kind of knows each other’s personalities so that we can kind of balance off and basically be successful.”
(We know the draft. You’ve gotten good draft picks. But you just talked about how you guys played well. What else goes into the development part of it? I mean, socializing, the hard work in the classroom, does making plays on the field encourage other guys to make plays? What else goes into the development?) – “I mean, you basically named it all. You took the words right out my mouth. I mean, on the field, off the field success, guys want to see each other win. Nobody has really a jealous personality. Everybody just wants to see each other be successful. That’s pretty much the main thing and like the fire that pushes everybody forward. Everybody has an equal and even opportunity to make plays and have success. So I think everybody just kind of takes advantage of that. And when other people have success, we celebrate because that good karma is going to come back at you. So that’s basically it.”
(With the arrival of Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator, and the addition of CB Jalen Ramsey and LB Bradley Chubb being there from the start, the expectations for this defense on the outside, as I’m pretty sure you are aware, are very, very high. So my question to you is, how do you guys feel about those very high expectations? Is that something you welcome? Would you rather lower expectations rather than everybody expecting so much from you guys? How do you feel about those?) – “It is what it is. It is what it is. I mean, it’s not going to change what we do on the field. Your expectation is your expectation. You’re not in the building. So I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with us. We’re just got to keep doing what we’re doing and play.”
(As a follow up then, what are your expectations for how good this defense could be? – “I think this defense is very talented and I think we all have a have a like-minded expectation for us to be successful, s every high-level competitor should be.”
(What were you most proud of in 2022 from a personal development standpoint, and what do you still need to work on to take that next step?) – “That’s a great question. Tackling out of the post is always a difficult feat for free safeties, safeties in general. I feel like I improved on that as the season progressed. I was put in a lot of different positions during the season last year and I was able to handle those, so I was proud of myself for that. But also wanting to continue to build and capitalize on the opportunities that are in front of me. Not leaving money on the field. Things like that. It’s a new defense, so there’s a lot of moving parts, getting to know the defense better, just understanding more. So baby steps right now. But I’m not really goal based. When you’re goal-based and you don’t succeed or get to your goal, you kind of fall into a depressive state or a negative state. I’m enjoying myself and enjoying the process throughout my whole time here, so I’m happy either way. I’m just enjoying playing the game and living the good life, so I can’t even trip.”
(I’m sure every player would love to be selected the Pro Bowl, to the All-Pro, but if that’s something that motivates you or is that just something that if it happens, it happens?) – “Absolutely. People have north stars. I don’t think it’s negative or It’s a bad thing to have a north star but, I don’t focus on that day in and day out. I focus on pushing myself, pushing past my limits day in and day out, because I know that I’m getting better progressively. So if I’m getting better progressively from the point of when we started to now and so forth, I mean, I just know that I’ll be better next season because I’m continuing to get to get better. So that’s basically my process.”
