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Michael Deiter – September 23, 2019 Download PDF version

Monday, September 23, 2019

G Michael Deiter

(How would you describe the experience of being a rookie and in-game, going ahead and playing left tackle?) – “Just another day of playing football. You never know how it’s going to play out. I definitely didn’t expect to play left tackle, but it is what it is and I just had to adjust to it. It could’ve been better. It could’ve been worse. There are two ways to look at it, but it was cool. It was just another little challenge that I had to navigate through, and I thought it went alright.”

(What does it tell you in terms of the coaching staff’s confidence level in you that they would put that responsibility on you?) – “It’s nice that they felt okay enough to put me out there. It’s cool to understand that, but I haven’t played tackle for a while and I don’t want to say that they’re like, ‘oh, he’s for sure the tackle we want,’ but it was cool that they were like, ‘he can do it.’”

(When was the last time you played left tackle in a game?) – “(I played left tackle in) college in 2017.”

(What are the adjustments you have to make? Obviously you’re going against a fast edge rusher as opposed to an inside guy, but what technique-wise and your steps and all that kind of stuff. Did that come back to you?) – “That’s the biggest thing is there’s a lot of different techniques. Especially when you’re throwing the football, it gets a little bit different with technique – how you set, where you want to punch, where your landmarks (are), all this – it’s all different. The first thing is knowing that. You can’t go out there and not know what the tackle’s assignment is, how he’s supposed to set, all that. That’s the toughest part and then the speed. The speed and the space is the biggest difference. Those guys – they’re not as powerful – some guys as powerful – but it’s just way more speed.”

(How many snaps would you say it took before you kind of felt like – I don’t want to say back at home – but felt like you were comfortable at left tackle?) – “I don’t know how many. It just took a little bit of feeling out, I’d say. Not too long. My first play at tackle was like a third-and-7 or third-and-6 and I was pretty rusty. That was bad, and I just kind went into ‘don’t get beat too fast’ mode. The first play was rough, but from there on it got better and better. There was some good. There was some bad, but it started getting going.”

(How long had they been looking at you at tackle because I think in the second game, I think I noticed that C/G Evan Boehm and G Shaq Calhoun were the extra linemen and I asked Head Coach Brian Flores what were you going to do at tackle, and he was like, “oh, I don’t want to give it away right now,” but that had to be a few weeks or so since regular season? I don’t remember it in training camp.) – “It was just the last two weeks. It was maybe, if need be, play some tackle. It was ‘he did it in college’ and I got a couple reps in practice at it, but not much. It was a very just-in-case thing. That’s it.”

(Are you going into this week with the mindset that that’s where you’ll be if G/T Jesse Davis can’t make it on Sunday?) – “No idea. I have no idea.”

(How many practice snaps have you gotten at tackle the last three weeks?) – “Probably no more than 15.”

(Combined? Each week or combined?) – “Combined.”

(I know your short-term goal is becoming entrenched as an NFL starting guard. Do you have any aspiration to being a tackle long-term?) – “I have aspirations of starting in the NFL on the offensive line. (laughter) I don’t care where – just as long as I’m playing. That’s it.”

(Anything shocking to you about left tackle whether it was being out in space – I know that stuff comes back to you, but…?) – “Just the speed was a little bit shocking. I just kind of had like weird flashbacks of ‘I remember doing this.’ I just kind of remembered getting the guy is just a little bit easier. In the league they’re just past you, so you’ve just got to be that much cleaner with your sets, that much cleaner with your hands, footwork. It was cool.”

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