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Jonnu Smith – January 6, 2025 Download PDF version

Monday, January 6, 2025

TE Jonnu Smith

(What do you think transpired when one of your leaders expresses his desire to want out after adversity? How does that make you feel?) – “I’m not going to speak for Tyreek (Hill) respectfully. Tyreek spoke for himself. I can only speak for myself. We’re all men. We all feel differently about certain things. We handle situations differently and rightfully so he handled the situation how he felt he should’ve handled it.”

(One thing that LB Bradley Chubb and DT Zach Sieler have talked about is players needing to hold themselves to a higher standard. Zach said earlier this year that was an issue. Players have to be on time, etc. Was that an issue where the team can improve? I’m not talking about every player obviously but some.) – “I would definitely say, definitely a lot more house cleaning rules we can clean up on. Is that going to equate to wins? It’s hard to say. You definitely need structure any time you’re striving to do something great. There’s a lot of things we need to clean up as a team. I’m speaking individually for myself that I can improve on and get better. And again, I’m just going to continue to speak for myself, but where we are as a team, like I alluded to it yesterday, I think we all know the foundation that was set. We’ve got a good foundation. We’ve just got to continue to carry that out and let the leaders in this locker room continue to stand on that and continue to relay that message throughout the 2025 season coming up.”

(You’ve spoken about having to go to FIU, being underrated and all. Some of the stuff has to drive a guy like you pretty crazy.) – “Nothing ever came easy for me. I like it that way, though. It’s made me a better man. It’s made me a better person. It’s made me more appreciative of the opportunities that I have. To always walk in humility, obviously as a man of faith, that’s one of the pillars of my everyday living. So just for me not taking a day for granted, being grateful for every opportunity that I have knowing that this is earned each and every day; this  opportunity that I have to wear that badge, to represent a great organization like this. Everybody has their own theories about life and how to move about it. The great thing about this game of football is so many people from so many parts of the country come together, even the world now, we come together and strive to reach one common goal. So we’ve kind of got to put all our world views and how we think morally; we’ve kind of got to put that aside and just come in here the eight or so hours that we’re here a day and just lock in and try to achieve one common goal. So I think that’s what’s beautiful about this game. I think we started doing that as time went on, but things just didn’t go the way we wanted it to.”

(Head Coach Mike McDaniel reminded us that emotions are high after a loss like that. Is there something to be said that could be attributed to WR Tyreek Hill’s demeanor?) – “Absolutely. The whole season, the whole season, just  kind of how things shaped out for us was emotional. It was a roller coaster. Again, everybody handles emotions differently. To each his own. You can sit here and say ‘I would’ve handled it this way,’ or ‘I would’ve done it that way.’ We’re all different individuals. In some way, shape or form that’s what makes us unique. So however you feel about it, however whoever feels that way about it, to each his own. We definitely have the right guys in this locker room. We’ve got a lot of the right guys. We had a lot of great leaders in this locker room. I’ve been around, I’ve been on a championship team. We didn’t win the championship, but we won. Even just getting there, I’ve seen the kind of camaraderie we had as a team and we’re getting there. We’re getting there.”

(Going back to Week 1. The way the season started with the incident outside the stadium to QB Tua Tagovailoa getting hurt in Week 2. How much of a mental challenge was this season for you guys?) – “It was tough. Like I said, it was a roller coaster up and down. Things didn’t go our way. Proud of where we came from. We fought. That goes back to the guys we have in here. Like 2-6 to 6-2, it’s a hell of a turnaround. It’s not easy any week to go from 0-1 to 1-1. Every week in this league is so valuable and so precious. We understand the impact and the grand scope of things when you’re playing each week. We dug ourselves out of a hole. The funny part about it is we dug a big hole early on so it was hard to get out of it, but we still came up out it. We still found our way climbing and fighting and scratching and crawling and giving ourselves a shot and opportunity the last week of the season when guys could’ve been thinking about vacation. We didn’t go out the way we wanted to, but we gave ourselves a shot.”    

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