Kendall Lamm – August 22, 2023
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Tuesday, August 22, 2023
T Kendall Lamm
(We talked at the beginning of camp in terms of what you wanted to accomplish. Do you feel like you’ve done that?) – “I mean, to be honest with you, bro, today’s just kind of another day. The culmination of camp hasn’t come to a close. So to be completely real with you, regardless if it’s camp, regular season, practice, whatever comes, I approach each day as each day as its own entity. So it’s like, yeah, you want to do certain goals. You want to get comfortable on the left, comfortable on the right. You want to get comfortable with the guys you’re working with, of course. But in my opinion, that’s chopped wood, carry water mentality. You’ve got to do that each and every day. So yes, sir.”
(Where did you get the chopped wood, carry water mentality from?) – “I don’t know if you can see my shirt, but I wear my college stuff all the time. When I was up on the mountain in Boone, we were Division I-AA. That’s nine, 10 years ago now. A lot of people didn’t really give us too much credit. But from my perspective, I really could care less about other people’s perception and what they thought. We just went out there and did what we did every day. I tried to bring what I took on the mountain, then what I did in Houston, then Cleveland, then Tennessee, and I approach it the same here.”
(How do you feel a second year in the system has helped you play better, play faster?) – “Familiarity with anything helps. Espe ially being with the guys, especially hearing the calls. Last year when I came in, to be completely real with you, when I came in towards halfway through the season it’s like, I understood, but at the same time, not being able to go through this time and this process is major. Especially this being year nine for me. I look forward to training camp because this is the time when you really get to grind. This is the time where I get a feel. This is the time where I truly get to put the weight on someone each and every day. Then at the same time, of course when the season comes, we don’t necessarily do this as much. So for me, hearing the calls, getting on the same page with Liam (Eichenberg), Isaiah (Wynn), Rob (Jones), Rob (Hunt), I just love being able to do that now. Not having that last year was different, but it’s been beautiful to do it now.”
(It was like 30 snaps last year in the Patriots game. Do you use those reps on tape to go back and learn or is it the Dolphins in general last year that you use?) – “The biggest thing for me, I look at a culmination of everybody. I see it from T’s (Terron Armstead) eyes. Last year I saw it from Greg Little’s eyes, ‘B Shell’s’ (Brandon Shell) eyes. I always picked their brains and saw what they kind of see through the same set. But now that I’ve had the ability to do it more, and now that I’ve had the ability to put my hand in the dirt on both sides and get a good amount of reps, I go off of that. But don’t get it twisted. I never forget what we talked about in those situations because when certain things happen, you always want to pull from that.”
(Does having the perspective of playing either tackle spot throughout camp kind of give you a more broad view of what you’re trying to do or does it matter?) – “I mean, as I said before, to be honest, left and right is its own entity. I go from left, you go to the right side, it’s a brand new place, brand new field. That’s like CEO, the COO. That’s just how I look at it because it’s completely different. Your timing with your hands. Your timing with your steps. Opening up a certain way. Kicking a certain way. It’s beautiful to be put into that conflict, to be honest, because to do it now, especially against (Bradley) Chubb and (Jaelan) Phillips, like they’re very good. So when I go to the right tomorrow, or whenever, I get to see Jaelan. When I go back to the left, you see Chubb. So you’ve got to bring your A game no matter what because they’re very good. It makes you really get with the program real, real fast.”
(Is your comfort level the same at left and right tackle?) – “For the most part, yeah. Like I was telling (Offensive Line Coach) Butch (Barry) in OTAs, during OTAs I took majority of left, which was cool with me. It didn’t bother me. But I always ask them, please, please, please, let me get some right. Because I know as the season progresses, you snap your fingers and when it’s called upon, it’s called upon. So I try to get as comfortable on both sides but that takes time.”
(In that first half against New England on January 1, 2023 and throughout camp, you’ve proven to be reliable. Is that an important thing? Does Offensive Line Coach Butch Barry or Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith ever use that word or any words like that to you?) – “Like I said, this is my ninth year. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve seen the multitude of defenses from the various teams I’ve been on. The one thing that Coach Mike Devlin told me a long time ago, he said, just put your head down and get comfortable being uncomfortable. So from my perspective, like I told you guys a few weeks ago, if they tell me to play right that day, that’s what we do. If they tell me to play left the next, it’s what we do. That’s kind of my journey and what I have to do, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”
(So you asked to play right?) – “One-hundred percent. I mean, think about it from my perspective. If I get into the game – I mean God-willing, and whatever’s going to come – we get into the game and something happens, you can’t say ‘oh my god, I don’t want to go to right now.’ You have to be able to do that. So why would I not ask to be able to do certain things? Even if you’re swinging in practice, put me in uncomfortable situations so I can try to work through those and build the process in my mind and go from there.”
(You talked about obviously playing in a lot of systems. Is this one similar to a spot that you’ve been in before?) – “Yes and no. Football is football. When we run outside zone, it’s going to be outside zone. You skin a cat a few ways. But you want to, of course, get the objective done. We have a lot of speed here. Everybody knows that. So when we come off the ball and do certain things, we want to make it look a certain way. But I mean ball is ball. If I’m asked to run inside zone, left, right, that’s what it’s going to be regardless if it’s Houston, Tennessee, Cleveland or here. It always stays true.”
