Mike White – August 20, 2024
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Tuesday, August 20, 2024
QB Mike White
(Yesterday we got a very interesting explanation from Head Coach Mike McDaniel about the goal for this camp for the quarterbacks is to put you guys in the most adverse circumstances and situations that he can to see how you responded to it. What is your reaction to how you responded to it in terms of what you’ve faced this camp?) – “I think we’ve talked about it a couple of times after games, once you let your mind start wandering to that, you’re kind of screwed. I’ve taken the approach of whatever my plays are that day, play them out lead your group, no matter who it is. It could be Tyreek (Hill) and Jaylen (Waddle), it could be the rookies, it could be anybody. We do such a good job of rotating guys. There are times where you’ll take reps with the threes and Tyreek is in there. You’ll take reps with the ones and all rookies are in there. That’s just kind of how we operate, which I think is pretty cool – you get reps with a ton of different people. That’s kind of the approach you’ve taken, just whoever you – I can’t play coach and player; I can’t control who is on the field and also play the position. So when I get in the huddle, that’s when I find out who I’m with and then lead those guys to the best of my ability.”
(How important are these next series of days at the joint practice and then the preseason game, how important they are for the quarterbacks?) – “It’s every practice is important. I know it sounds super cliché quarterback talk, but that’s what I’ve learned throughout my time in the league is it’s never just one thing, it’s a collection of things. If you start thinking one practice is more important than the other, or one week is more important than the other, you start to get out of your mental state and you start to worry about the wrong things and then it starts to show up on the field. No, I’m going to approach this thing the same way I’ve approached it from Day 1 out here before we even got to joints. So I’m just going to do my job, go through my reads, do my footwork and all that good stuff that we talk about and just play ball.”
(How difficult is it when you don’t have a set unit or set group to sort of get that proper evaluation?) – “Such is life as a backup quarterback. You don’t get to control when you go in, you don’t get to control who goes in there, you don’t get to control how many reps you got prior. It’s the nature of the beast, and we all know what we’ve signed up for. I think this is a cool way of trying their best to replicate it. You just got to kind of roll with the punches and know there’s going to be ebbs and flows. You just got to get guys right and be that calming presence in the huddle, because a huddle can feel when a quarterback is stressed out or tense, then they start to panic and they don’t get to do their jobs. Then you’re starting to affect their livelihood and their family, so that’s kind of how I look at it – I want to put these guys in the best possible positions to make, if not this team, some other team, or whatever. It’s a crazy league, we never know what’s going to happen. That’s just kind of how I’ve wanted to approach it. Maybe in my younger years I’d be stressing out or all that good stuff, but I’ve been trying to keep a level head and have fun with it.”
(You’ve always been solid in that regard that you’re talking about, going into a huddle as a backup. I know your days with the Jets. What’s kind of the approach and mindset that you need to take into the situation?) – “I think experience helps. Having a couple of starts under my belt and having been thrusted into a game that you didn’t think you were going to, so experience helps a lot. I just try to be – like I said, calm them down, maybe crack a joke a time or two, just trying to get these guys to relax. Especially when you’re with young guys, there is so much anxiety, so much, ‘Oh, I got to make a play, I got to do my job. If I don’t do my job, the coaches are going to get on me.’ So you try to eliminate that to the best of your ability for them, just to let them go out there and just play. Obviously, the guys are more talented at this level, but at the end of the day, it’s just football. That’s what I try to communicate to them and try to convey, and hopefully it calms them down and let’s them just play their game.”
(What’s an example of you going into a huddle and lightening the mood, whether it be with a joke or any other way?) – “This past game where we were going to take a knee and we didn’t have a running back, so every play was a pass play. I go in the huddle, and it’s an obvious QB kneel, right? So I get in the huddle and I’m like, ‘Hey, we’ve got fly to trips right,’ and I gave them like a pass pro, and the entire offense line, all young guys, I’ve never heard them speak up so loudly in my life. They were all like, ‘What?’ Something like that, just to kind of give them – obviously it’s at the end of the game so we’re relaxed, but I just try to do something like that. Especially last game with (Je’Quan) Burton at running back, there’d be a couple of TV timeouts, I’d just tell him like, ‘Take this thing, I’ve never been a part of something like this.’ It’s almost so bizarre that it was funny, and it was just something we’ll all share together. I’ll see some of these guys down the road and be like, ‘Hey, remember when Burt had to run outside zone after never taking a handoff in the NFL?’ (laughter) Just something like that, just try to get them to calm down and enjoy it and try to have fun, because it is a stressful time of the year.”
(What advice do you give to the young guys heading into this week? Everybody knows what this is.) – “No doubt, I think that’s the hardest part. Because you can tell them until you’re blue in the face not to worry about that, but I think if you kind of recognize what it is and just kind of face it head on and realize, hey, it’s the nature of the beast. It happens, we’ve all been through it. That’s what I try to tell them. I mean, shoot – I was cut like four or five times one year in New York during COVID, just going up and down, up and down. You just try to acknowledge it and tell them, ‘Listen, man. If you just put good stuff on tape, no matter what’s going to happen, that’s out of your control. The only thing you can control is your resume, which you hear everybody talk about it and that’s your tape. So just control that, have fun with it, fly around. Other teams are going to see that if it’s not here, and more importantly, these guys are going to see that and respect that.’ You never know what’s going to happen. You never know if you’re going to get your opp Week 1 or Week 18. There’s so many injuries, so many different things that can happen, so as long as you just play the right way, how they talk about it be fast, physical, elite technique and all that good stuff. You play the right way and have fun doing it, more times than not it’s going to work out.”
