Terron Armstead – December 17, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023
Postgame – New York Jets
Miami Dolphins T Terron Armstead
(Speaking of the game, shutout – feelings, thoughts?) – “Defense was incredible. A lot of pressure, getting to the quarterback, disruptive on the back end as well. Great job stopping the run. Not letting Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook get going early – two incredible backs. That’s dangerous, you know what I mean? So they were incredible.”
(You’ve been a part of some winning teams. What’s special about being in it this late this season?) – “ Yeah, it’s tough when you’re not, you know. When you’re looking at trips and Airbnbs in December, it’s dark. It’s cloudy days in the facility. There’s not a lot of optimism going on, so when you get into a winning situation, we know how hard it is to be in these type of situations. So many things can change and alter your season. From an injury to a loss here and there, you know what I mean? So when you got a chance, you want to take advantage of it, capitalize. It’s only one winner at the end of the day so you want to give yourself an opportunity to be that.”
(What did you tell OL Liam Eichenberg this week, just made an unbelievable effort for him to get out there?) – “We needed him, we needed him. He’s a warrior. He’s worked like none other. He’s put his best foot forward every day and all you’ve seen is his progression. He’ll continue to ascend as a player and as a professional. His future his bright and he’s stepping up like none other.”
(RB Raheem Mostert – 20 touchdowns now – do you hit him up for some gifts? What do you do with that?) – “It’s an honor. It’s an honor, man. It’s a pleasure to block for him. We enjoy it. He makes our jobs easy. He’s in the history book. This game has been around for a long time, so you something like that, it’s amazing so just want him and his family to enjoy it, his last name to enjoy it. They’re in the history books. That’s incredible.”
Jaylen Waddle – December 17, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023
Postgame – New York Jets
Miami Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle
(QB Tua Tagovailoa said this week that if WR Tyreek Hill wasn’t able to play that you would have to step up. How do you feel you did in that regard?) – “When a guy like Tyreek’s out, it’s not just one person that has to step up. It’s the whole team, the whole unit when you have a caliber guy like Tyreek Hill, a Hall of Fame guy like ‘Cheetah,’ that’s missing. I think collectively we did a good job. It’s good. That’s a good defense, a great team, a great organization that we competed against today.”
(What’s it like to come up with a big plays on third down and long?) – “Yeah, we keep the chains moving. Having big plays on third down is something we harp on throughout the week, and we know if we’re good on third down that that’s often good for our chances of getting in the end zone.”
(Nice bounce back from last week, 30-0 today. Nice bounce back from the game last week.) – “Yeah, like I said last week, we got a good group of guys and leadership, and they really came together this week and played a good game.”
Bradley Chubb – December 17, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2023
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
Miami Dolphins LB Bradley Chubb
Q. How do you think you did today as far as just taking responsibility after last week and just coming to make an impact on today’s game?
BRADLEY CHUBB: I feel like 90 percent of this game – everybody’s athletic, everybody’s talented – d but it’s about the mindset. Of course I wasn’t happy with how I approached last week for sure about the game and all that, but the infamous play, everybody talking about it and I was hard on myself about; it’s just about how you move on from that, how you better yourself from stuff like that, situations like that, and I feel like today we answered the call. Not only me, this whole defense. You can’t pitch a shut-out with just one person. We were able to do with all 11 guys flying around. Some guys stepped up in big key spots that we needed, so just a blessing to see everybody put the work in and for it to come to fruition like it did today.
Q. How much easier said than done is that during the week as you wait for Sunday to get there mentally knowing you want to get that chip off of your shoulder?
BRADLEY CHUBB: Yeah, it’s way easier said than done. It’s one of those things throughout the week you’ve got to constantly remind yourself, stay the course, stay the course, stay the course. You hear all the noise, you hear everything about is this Dolphins team for real, blah, blah, blah and stuff like that and you can’t do anything about it until Sunday, and that’s one of those things you’ve just got to lock in throughout the week, make sure details are on point, make sure all the stuff throughout the week is on point and the game is just the easy part, go out there and just do what you’ve been doing for four or five days throughout the week, and we were able to do that today.
Q. Did you try to turn that play from the other night into a motivational thing for you? Did it spur you a little bit?
BRADLEY CHUBB: Yeah, in a way, but I wasn’t strictly thinking about that. I was thinking more of the defensive aspect of how we were on the field last and didn’t get the job done. My main thing is just trying to better this defense in whatever way I can. Yes, sacks and stuff help, but if it’s me just taking on a double team so somebody else can come free, I’m not thinking about ‘oh, I got to make up for that play.’ I just want to do my job to the best of my ability, and I feel like I was able to do that today.
Q. Shutouts are rare; what does zero points for the opponent mean to you?
BRADLEY CHUBB: It means a lot as a defense. It means 11 guys were flying around, playing together, playing with one another, and like I said; you see all the work from throughout the week just come to life. Today was the easy part, so to say. We sweated it on Thursday, full day of meetings, full day of just kind of getting back into the flow of things and then you get one day to go out there and run around. It’s a mental game, like I said, and we were able to win the mental battle.
Q. Have you exorcised, in Mike McDaniel’s words, those pressure demons because you were hard on yourself when you came here last season and how this season started?
BRADLEY CHUBB: No, for sure. Mike (McDaniel) has been pivotal to see how I see things. He just overall just keeps the big picture alive for me. It’s so easy to, ‘oh man, I’m not doing this, I’m not earning this,’ whatever the case may be, but at the end of the day, like I said, if me taking a double team or me winning up high and ‘Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) comes under – it’s so messed up you don’t see big picture when you’re so caught up in yourself, and this week my main thing was whatever I could do to help this team. Yes, the accolades and all that stuff, I want that, but at the end of the day you don’t get that unless your team wins. That’s been my mindset throughout this week and going to continue to carry that over.
Q. You had three sacks. Do you get hot as a pass rusher? Does the first sack help lead to the second?
BRADLEY CHUBB: For sure. I feel like just the flow of the game, once you kind of get that first half, you’re like, I got the first hit out of the way. Then you get the sack, and it’s like I got that out of the way. It was early in the game; let me see if I can get another one. Just kind of competition with yourself at that point. When you’ve got guys flying around, 10 other guys flying around like they do, it just kind of makes my job easy at the end of the day. It was dope, man. Give God all the glory for that performance, because like I said, the mental aspect, you can get hard on yourself, but once you turn to Him, it’s all good. Just got to keep going.
Q. I think the status was 22 pressures on 43 drop-backs. When you hear 22 pressures, what do you think?
BRADLEY CHUBB: It means we’ve got some big dogs up front, and those big dogs got to eat, and we’re going to continue to starve ourselves throughout the week so on Sundays we come hungry.
Q. When Jets QB Zach Wilson came out for the Jets and Trevor Siemian came in, did the defensive game plan change at all?
BRADLEY CHUBB: It was more of the same. It was more of the same for sure. Nothing really changed. Zach is a lot more mobile – and like ‘14’ (Trevor Siemian) – but Zach is a lot more mobile with his feet, can make you miss, extend the play like that. I would say the rush lanes changed probably, but the game plan itself didn’t.
Q. Obviously every season has its own journey, but 10-4 going into these last three games, where is this team at right now?
BRADLEY CHUBB: The team is right where we need to be, mentally, physically. We’ve got guys that are stepping up in big ways. We’ve got guys that been doing this for a long time and going to continue to do the things that they do and what made them so great. This team is right where we need to be, we’ve just got to stick together, understand that yes, we beat the Jets today, but that’s not the end of our season. We’re going to keep fighting, keep working, and next time we’re going to come out ready to play.
Mike McDaniel – December 17, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2023
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. What let you know this team wouldn’t have consecutive letdowns?
MIKE McDANIEL: I don’t know, just having my eyes open for the entirety of the season. It’s one thing that I mentioned to the team last night, what’s given me confidence is how they’ve responded to adversity throughout the season. We’ve had four losses, and it was just a point of emphasis from the year previous where our losses came in streaks. We’ve had four losses the previous three. We’re one-game losing streak. There’s a lot of character in the locker room. There’s a lot of character just in the organization. They’ve been really going after it. The players, coaches and support staff, every day, treating it like it’s the most important day. Football is not a game of avoiding adversity or it’s not a game of you go through a season and you don’t have things happen to you. It’s actually quite the opposite. You need to have things happen to you to grow and be able to handle some of the moments that come in December. There’s a litany of individuals in that locker room and beyond that gave me absolute confidence that they would come and compete today.
Q. You brought a running back with you from San Francisco, RB Raheem Mostert, who his career high going into the season was eight rushing touchdowns and now he’s breaking all sorts of touchdown records for this club. What are you seeing from him?
MIKE McDANIEL: Well, it’s the same thing that got him in the position to be on this team. There’s a lot of people on the team that have been told that they couldn’t, and there’s certain types of people that really thrive in those type of scenarios. Raheem was told he shouldn’t have an NFL career from his first draft day. You go undrafted, that’s something that people don’t really pay attention to, but that’s a heartbreak. Then you’re cut from a multitude of teams. He’s one of the strongest-willed people that I’ve ever been around. By the way, he’s a unique athlete, one that I think – second to Tyreek in ’16, he’s the only other player to ever go 23 miles per hour and he did it when he was like 28 or 29. That’s a different type of athlete with a different type of mindset, and just very happy for him, and the first thing he said to me after the game was, yeah, I know, I’ve got a game ball for setting a franchise record for touchdowns, and he immediately came to me and said, every single player on the offense should get one because he understands that for him to exhibit some of his unique traits, each and every play people really have to grind for that to happen. I think a lot of our guys totally understand that at this point in the season, which is why you see inspired football. That’s really fun to watch.
Q. Your defense did some impressive things today. What was the most impressive thing that the defense did today?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think it was really the whole team. The whole team – I can’t overstate how – I don’t know, it was a punch to the gut last week, and I think in a situation where it wasn’t because of lack of effort or attention to detail. So to be able to go into a game and to have so many different question marks all week, for no one to bat an eye and for guys to go have fun playing football without the anxiety of what’s induced from last week, it takes a special unit of people. I thought that Eli Apple did an awesome job, really jumping in the reins. I thought Bradley Chubb was phenomenal, obviously, but guys like Brandon Jones who had to learn the system during the year as he was recovering from a season injury last year. There’s a ton of guys on defense. Then you have some of your – Christian (Wilkins) makes a great play on special teams, and then you have Jaylen Waddle really rise to the occasion when the team absolutely needed it. Collectively that’s what I was impressed with was all three phases being unfazed with such a disappointing end to a game that was important to them last week. So you can’t do anything about the past and the future doesn’t exist. They really leaned into the day each and every day this week, and I was very, very proud, as proud as I’ve been of any performance from this team since I’ve been here. I was extremely proud with the resolve and just that — I was happy that everything that I’ve seen behind the scenes came to fruition, because it doesn’t surprise me.
Q. LB Bradley Chubb had three sacks today. He has been hard on himself. He came here last season and part of the season started off, you said he started to exorcise those pressure demons? Is he doing that right now?
MIKE McDANIEL: Absolutely. Every so often you are trying to take yourself to another level, and you’re inspired to take your game to another level, and you kind of have to realize that it’s the work that you do day in and day out, and nothing has to change on game day. You have to be yourself. Yourself is absolutely good enough. You don’t have to try and go above and beyond. You just have to be diligent and play with your teammates. He’s one of my favorite players on the team simply because of how important it is for him to do right by his teammates, and as you can see, him being him is plenty good enough. He was really, really hard to block today.
Q. You mentioned players that had their doubters – obviously QB Tua Tagovailoa was on their list, people doubted him going into the season and even this week or who were wondering can you do it without Tyreek. He was 21 of 24, 224 yards and a touchdown. How do you think he did today?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I think him – it’s not like we talk about that, but noise is loud. You embrace adversity for the opportunity that it is. But far from surprised me. I could tell all week there were certain things that him in particular, him and Jaylen Waddle were doing together that I knew they were going to be able to do some explosive stuff, and he really did a great job playing within the play. There was a couple times that there was a shot down the field, I think on the two sacks, if he would have had a tick longer, he probably would have thrown the ball. But he would have been pressing to do it. I was really fired up about his sacks, to be honest. I think what we’re watching as a team is a bunch of young players really coming into their own, and he’s one of the primary ones, Tua is, because he’s learning from everything. That doesn’t mean everything goes well. Again, I think that’s fake. That would make me nervous if at this point in the season we hadn’t gone through adversity, just because I know what is coming. I think that it was a great example of him worrying about the right stuff, which is his responsibility each and every play, and he definitely commanded the game entirely.
Q. How close was WR Tyreek Hill?
MIKE McDANIEL: You know, pretty close. That wasn’t the easiest decision, but when you look at what’s the best decision for the team and what’s the best decision for him, it was a collective decision that when you’re faced with, all right, do we press forward and just hope or do we do the thing that the individual player and the team needs for the season; it became easier in the moment just because we have the right well-intentioned people that are looking at this as their responsibility to protect players first and foremost. I think some decisions are hard but easy at the same time.
Q. QB Tua Tagovailoa said you guys came out and threw a lot of short passes early so you could see how the defense set up without WR Tyreek Hill out there.
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, football is about a collective group of people kind of putting together a plan, and there are a lot more — this is the first time Tyreek hasn’t played since I’ve been here, so there could be extra unknowns disbursed because you usually have an idea of how people are going to be threatened and how they’re going to really approach the game. There was more unknowns than usual because of that, so there was kind of a feeling-out process that was intentional in the opener to kind of get a grasp as to what was going to go on.
Q. You come out there (indiscernible), you came out first down you threw a 60-yard – did you see something that said, okay, we’re ready for this?
MIKE McDANIEL: It something that when you watch it, I’m sure that play will make its rounds on the internet because it was more about the flow of the game, what I kind of thought about protection, and there’s not many people that could cover the route that Jaylen Waddle ran because there’s not many people that are capable of going vertical. He did a left-right move and then still found an exit angle, which is a very hard thing to do. We really liked the player, the match-up, and just kind of the way those two were connecting all week. Yeah, that was pretty easy to call.
Q. How important is rest at this point in the season? I know you all said on WR Tyreek Hill, but is it a possibility Tyreek may sit next week to have him at his best in January?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, there’s people that – there’s no such thing as resting to me at this stage in the season because you don’t just all of a sudden create a scenario where you have momentum. You have to be playing your best football when you’re going against teams that are good football teams that in December there’s no easy games really. I think the – shoot, all those guys want to be a part of these type of atmospheres, to be a part of these type of games, and to crystal ball and say, we don’t need you, I don’t think that’s fair to the team or fair to them. I think resting players and just assuming that – sometimes there’s costs at trying to play your best football. The second you let your guard down and start not taking a game serious is the second you lose your edge. I think really we had a ton of guys really, really do everything they could. I can’t say enough about the work that our training staff did this week. I mean, you want to talk about overtime in a lot of ways. Then there was guys that put some inspirational efforts, Liam Eichenberg is first and foremost the first guy that I gave a game ball to this week for his performance and how he willed his way to make sure that he was the starting center. There’s a lot of guys that way. When you have guys that approach things that way collectively, you can do some pretty cool things like they were able to do today.
Q. When you say you saw some things that Tua and Jaylen worked on throughout the week, is there anything you can share specifically that you saw them doing?
MIKE McDANIEL: Well, I’ve been talking to the team. It was probably two – Jaylen had probably the best offseason, if not the best, right there with the top three offseasons of any player on our team, and he came into the season with a lot of momentum or came into training camp with a lot of momentum and then had just some random injuries that he was dealing with. One of the coolest parts about this season has been watching him progress through those injuries, and then for the last three weeks probably, I thought that he was going to have a performance like this today and I think he had his best route running game the week previous against the Titans. Then he just continued that in the week of practice, so there was some stuff that we had up that I knew our quarterback was supremely confident in because he watched the tape, too, and watched the same progression. So when you have players who are very confident, one running the route and one throwing it to him, you’ve seen that story throughout your career and you know that’s what leads to some special stuff on Sunday for sure.
Tua Tagovailoa – December 17, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2023
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
Q. On the television broadcast, Tony Romo described the 60-yard touchdown pass to WR Jaylen Waddle was a ”big arm throw.” How would you describe that throw and that play?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was just me, just me throwing the ball to our playmaker. That’s all it was. Jaylen (Waddle) made a play on that, and the result was a touchdown. That’s all that was.
Q. I know after the Titans game, you said that the offense was a little bit out of sorts without WR Tyreek Hill. There was a lot of uncertainty about whether he would suit up during the week. How do you think getting in those practice reps without Tyreek helped with the execution of today’s offense?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, you know, as we looked throughout the week, not having Tyreek, yeah, it’s tough not having one of your star guys out there. But as a collective group, it’s like, well, what are we going to do; are we going to run the ball the entire game or are we going to do action game the entire game? No, we shouldn’t change who we are as an offense because one guy is out. We’ve got a lot of other guys that we trust, that we believed in, to keep on the team, and that’s what happened out there. It’s just the trust that we have in each other, and we just go out there, play what we see and play fast. As we prepared, that’s sort of the mentality that we had going into this game.
Q. After the touchdown pass, you gave a talk and then kind of a (hand motion). What was that signal I guess to your sidelines?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah. It’s an inside thing that I say a lot. I tell the guys a lot, ‘talk to me.’ So that’s what it was. I mean, I just love doing that, and that’s why Bradley (Chubb) said that. A lot of the guys say that, and so it was just funny that we could do it like that.
Q. What does it mean?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It could mean a lot of things, really. It really could. When Bradley Chubb got his strip sack, he came to the sideline, I looked at him and went like that, and he heard it and was like, ‘talk to me.’ (laughter) It could mean a lot of things. I couldn’t give a definition, but our definition right now means a lot of things.
Q. How did you feel the protection did in front of you today?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: The protection did really well. I would say on Monday with the things that had happened with guys going down and then others having to step up, it was a good rep for me throughout the entirety of the season. Things like that hadn’t happened and we needed just a little bit more time so as we went through our practice this week we knew what we were up with and really it’s just that. It’s trusting the guy next to you. It’s trusting that, hey, one guy might have lost on this play, but don’t think that they’re going to lose on the next time we call that play. Just trust that they’ll make that block, and that’s really the mentality that – not just me that I came in with but that everybody came in with.
Q. You were in this room six days ago and you said you wouldn’t let what happened kind of sink the season, that this was a different Dolphins team. How did that process start over the course of the week? Did it start in the locker room? Did it start Monday or Tuesday? When did that process start saying, hey, we’re going to get back up and still make something…?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I think that process started today. I say that because throughout the week, no one changed what they did within their normal routines. No one did more than what they’d normally do. Everyone knew that what we had put out Monday night was embarrassing, and it felt weird as we came into the building. One thing we wanted to do was not feel that feeling again, so in a way guys were happy that it was a short week, that we got to play again, and sort of exorcise a lot of the things that we didn’t do right and take the right step forward in winning – really winning the way we did today.
Q. There’s the idea out there that obviously everyone understands No. 10 is having an arguably MVP season. Does it bother you a little bit that there’s kind of a narrative out there that this team will go as far as Tyreek takes them? Today you didn’t have him and you went out there and you performed against a – notwithstanding their 5-9 record they have a good defense. You went up against a good defense today without No. 10. How important was it to show everybody that we love Tyreek, we understand that, but we can do this without him?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I mean, that’s what everyone is going to say. Everyone is going to have their own deal with how they feel. In my personal opinion, give Tyreek the MVP or give Jaylen Waddle the MVP or give Raheem Mostert the MVP. Give all those guys the MVP. I could care less personally. I feel like everything is made about me, which makes me feel very uncomfortable and makes me feel a little weird about that. But it’s a team sport. Like with ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) being down – I went out there when ‘10’ was warming up. He was talking to Kyle (Johnston), he was talking to Chris Grier, I went up to him, and I told him, ‘Dude, if you can’t go, we got you, brother. It’s a team sport. It’s going to take all of us.’ And he said, ‘I appreciate it, but don’t count me out yet.’ And he made the decision, and it’s tough because he’s a competitor, and he wants to be out there with the guys. With not having him and to be able to put 30 points and have a shut-out by our defense should tell you a lot about the team, really, the guys on all three aspects and three phases of the game.
Q. RB Raheem Mostert is setting all kinds of team records for touchdowns this year. Can you describe how important he’s been to this offense and what he’s meant to you?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, he’s been very important to this offense. This goes all the way back to last year. And then you listen to his journey, things that he’s had to go through throughout his NFL career, being cut however many times, going through multiple teams, and then being able to have opportunities in San Fran, and really when our head coach gets the job here, this is one of the main guys that he brings in to showcase that hey, I believe in you and whatnot. He’s been a tremendous part of the success that he’s had offensively and the success that we have happens because the guys up front, happens because of the guys outside, and those guys are doing really well at executing, and it’s really fun seeing those guys have fun and see their success.
Q. Speaking of Raheem, with his 20 touchdowns, what’s it feel like for you to hand it off to him in the red zone? How confident are you that he’s going to get in there when you hand it off to him?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it starts with our play caller. It starts with our head coach. That should tell you how much trust he has to be able to call three runs in a row down there and that should tell you basically enough that the trust that our head coach has, the trust that I have with the play call to just leave it on and call it, and the trust that our guys have up front that he’s going to do what he needs to do. It’s good.
Q. Head Coach Mike McDaniel decided to go for it on a fourth-and-5, and you completed a pass over the middle to WR Jaylen Waddle. Can you talk about the decision and the play?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, the decision on that was Coach McDaniel’s call. I think he had a threshold of how far we were in order for him to — wanted us to go for it. I guess it was maybe right there at the 5, while it was 4th and 5. Really we called that play, and it was just tailored for me to read it out, and Jaylen (Waddle) made a phenomenal play on that.
Q. Were you setting up the long pass to WR Jaylen Waddle with short passes coming out early in the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No. I would say with Mike (McDaniel), he was just trying to get a feel off of how the defense wanted to play with ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) being out, if they were going to pressure more, if they weren’t, what the back end was going to look like. I think in that regard, he was just trying to get the ball out as quickly as possible because it also does help our guys up front. It throws off the timing of the d-linemen with where the spot is for the quarterback. I think that that was something that Mike had done really well in the game plan for today.
Q. After taking on the Jets last month, what did you take away the most from their defense, maybe specifically their secondary, that you took to your advantage today against them?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, take what they give me. That’s really what I came out with. Can’t turn the ball over, although we almost had one. But yeah, I would say can’t turn the ball over against a team like that, and I think we did really well with that today.
Q. With the ups and downs of this season, how ready do you think you are for this final stretch knowing what’s ahead of you starting this week in Dallas?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I couldn’t tell you like how ready we are for anything. I can tell you that right now we’re going to enjoy this win. We’re going to get ready for Dallas. That’s all we’re worried about. We’re not worried about anything else.
Q. Keeping the main thing the main thing as far as 10 wins at this point in the season, the experience of last year when it’s December to now getting those wins and taking the loss last week, just staying on track, can you touch on as far as how impactful that loss last week can help prepare you for the rest of the season going into January?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think something like that that happened on Monday could have went both ways. It could have went really good for us, could have been something really good or could have been something really bad. We could have felt sorry for ourselves, we could have felt bad that we lost, and we could have come out here and possibly done the same thing. But I think the mindset that everyone has in the building to just be able to let that go, move on, and realize what we have ahead and the opportunity that we have to do something really, really special this year.
Jaylen Waddle – December 15, 2023
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Friday, December 15, 2023
WR Jaylen Waddle
(What is the approach this week after a tough loss last week? Another opportunity?) – “The same approach. The same approach as every other week.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said today that he really likes what he sees from you guys bouncing back and focusing on what’s next. What is the key to that mindset of focusing on moving forward?) – “Just keeping the main thing the main thing. Going about work each and every day with the same mindset to get better. It’s the last stretch of the season, so getting better at this time is something we’re trying to do.”
(How do things change for you if WR Tyreek Hill doesn’t play? Do you feel like you’ll get extra attention?) – “We got a lot of playmakers on the team that can do a lot. Not extra attention. Everybody just has to step up in a major way. So not really.”
Liam Eichenberg – December 15, 2023
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Friday, December 15, 2023
OL Liam Eichenberg
(What are the chances you play Sunday?) – “I am trying to get better every single day. I would not be surprised if I was out there playing. Yeah, I’m getting better every single day. Just kind of having the athletic trainers get me right and improve every single day. Day by day. That’s the plan.”
(How’s your movement right now? Do you have mobility?) – “Good. Yeah.”
(How much of a strain was last game? I thought I saw a couple times where it was tough for you to pick yourself back up?) – “Yeah, it was tough last game. It was tough. There were certain times where it was a struggle. But at the end of the day, I had to get through it. I wanted to us to win, I wanted to be out there. That’s what matters. I’m trying to help the team win.”
(You guys are short on bodies obviously. How much of that is on your mind when you’re out there? That I got to go because there’s no one behind me.) – “Yeah, at the end of the day I just feel bad for Connor (Williams) man. That’s one of the closest guys I’m with on this team. He went down and the (crappy) thing is I wasn’t even there to be near him. I was taking snaps. So that’s part of how it is. But I felt bad. I hoped it wasn’t too bad. I saw him on the sideline and he said what it was and I said are you kidding me? It just sucks. He’s such a good leader and hard worker for this team.”
(Have you dealt with a calf before?) – “No, I have not.”
(Has there been pain much this week? What’s the week been like?) – “It’s just sore. It just feels like a bruise. It’s not too bad.”
(How much more comfortable are you now at center compared to where you were two months ago?) – “Back in the saddle. Back in the saddle at center. First couple snaps took me a minute, but after that, I felt comfortable. It’s kind of like riding a bike. I felt better as the game went along.”
(What’s the biggest challenge of center? Is it the physical part of it or the making the calls at the line and things of that nature?) – “Just getting the ball to the quarterback. That’s the biggest thing. Snapping it on time, making sure guys aren’t offsides, kind of getting back in that rhythm and getting the ball off. It’s different at guard. I kind of would jump in at guard. But center I need to jump even more. So it’s one of those things you have to be conscious of.”
(You were playing center for the first time in your career this year. Would it be easier for OL Jonotthan Harrison since he is a center? He’s been out of the game for a little bit, but could you project how tough it would be for him?) – “Yeah, I think he’s a good player. He’s done a great job stepping in and picking up this offense. I wouldn’t be surprised – I think he’ll play well if he has to be out there. I think everybody in the room believes in him. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he was brought in. He’s done a great job picking up the offense.”
Mike McDaniel – December 15, 2023
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Friday, December 15, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(On player statuses) – “DeShon (Elliott) is still in the protocol. He is out. Rob Hunt is out. Everybody else will practice with exception to Tyreek (Hill) and there’s going to be a ton of questionables.”
(WR Tyreek Hill will be one of those questionables?) – “Yeah.”
(If OL Liam Eichenberg is unable to play, can you share – I don’t know competitively I guess if you can share who would start if Liam can’t?) – “You can take me surface level on this. It’s one thing when you’re trying not to divulge a competitive advantage for studying purposes. This is not the case. This practice I get to see one of the potential starters for the first time ever. So we have plenty of, a lot of moving parts, a lot of contingencies. If you’re voting for Pro Bowl offensive line coaches, submit your Pro Bowl vote for Butch (Barry). We’ve been getting his money’s worth with his work and there’s multiple scenarios whether our working plan of Lester (Cotton) is involved, whether it’s one of our new acquisitions, it’s important for practice because I don’t feel comfortable just making blind crystal ball ‘this is what’s going to work.’ I’d like to see it and be able to move forward from there. So again, I apologize, but it is what it is.”
(With all the injuries up front, how much does that shrink your playbook?) – “I wouldn’t say shrink because there’s a lot of guys – you’re attempting to do your best job at the art of multiplicity of doing the same thing. With a lot of guys having a lot of experience doing a lot of things, with the offensive line having to block certain things with certain rules, there can be a happy medium hopefully to the point that it would be unnoticeable to all of you guys, so I don’t expect it. There are always things that change, ways you attack defenses. You’re doing it to the strength of your team. When there’s less experience and you’re trying to win a football game, you have to really strain and see how multiple you can be with being very similar for what their piece is. I think we’ve done a good job of putting together a plan where it’s not unreasonable for those guys to really execute it as well as being multiple and keeping the defense honest. But we’re also playing a defense that prides itself on fundamentals and technique. It’s similar to what we do from a defensive standpoint where they’re trying to get their players, the Jets try to get their players to play as fast as possible with as much conviction. They do a good job of being versatile within their system, but it’s also manageable for them because they’re all about the performance of their guys and maximizing their players, knowing Coach (Robert) Saleh and (Jeff) Ulbrich extensively. It’s a good opponent for them to identify stuff. However, that opponent brings it at an aggressive level, so all of our guys have to be very confident and intentional. The bottom line is this defense is – wherever they’re ranked is not fair. They should be higher. I think those guys over there, the energy that they have played with since we last played them, just being involved in some tough times myself, I know what type of coaching that takes. All three phases for the Jets, I pretty much know all those guys and it’s really, really cool to see. We don’t want them high-fiving this week. But just the whole locker room, it says a lot about the players. They have played with energy and I think they’ve had two out of the three best defensive performances when everyone was saying, oh this season is this, that and the other. That’s my favorite stuff. Hats off to them, we’re going to have to be super prepared because they are going to be coming to Miami with a point to prove. I can assure you that.”
(What, if anything, should we or could we read into WR Tyreek Hill not practicing?) – “It’s not really a read-in, in terms of where – like I think he in theory, he would be able to practice if he didn’t have the standard of practice that he has. Right now, we’re just focused on getting it as healthy as possible and then bottom line is, we’ll have a conversation that will be based upon – remember this is Tyreek Hill’s career. He’s a very experienced player. I handle very experienced players different than I handle younger guys because they know what they signed up for and it’s his career, so when we talk, this is what will happen. In his season, in his career, on his team as a captain; if he’s confident and I have the support of the medical guys, he’s confident that he can go be himself and I have the support of the trainers that’s responsible to the risk, then he’ll play. If it’s not that, then he won’t and literally every hour for him is imperative. He has had the same energy that he has had all season, which I’ve never seen somebody take a step like this who’s already a great player and he is in this building – what is that, a 12-hour day – of focusing, knowing everything to do and rehabbing. So he’s doing everything he can. I don’t know. I don’t have a feeling yet because we’re getting ahead of it, but he’ll be spending time rehabbing. We’ll see what happens.”
(I wanted to ask you about backup quarterbacks and with some of the injuries we’ve see to starters in the past couple of seasons, backups have come in and played really well. I’m wondering your thoughts on kind of the importance of the backup quarterback role in today’s NFL and I guess how important it is to kind of invest in and develop that position?) – “I think I didn’t give it its due when I first got in the league and then over time, it’s one of the more important positions on your team. Just because they’re not the starter doesn’t mean – I mean, they’re as important as anybody because not only are you supporting the process of the starter, but you have to at a moment’s notice, go and orchestrate full-speed everything you have worked on and you have to have the right guy because a lot of those times those reps aren’t to be had so you have to work extra and then you have to have the right type of mindset so that zero to 60 process, you are able to do best by your skillset to not quiver. It is challenging, challenging, challenging because you never know what’s going to happen and to sit there and say at any position, ‘oh, we’re good, we don’t need depth,’ – I think in just two years of me being here, you can’t assume any position is going to be void of injuries. We’ve had one at least at every position, so the quarterback being able to do that and then on top of that, you have to garner the confidence of all your teammates so that when you walk in that huddle, they can be their best selves and it’s not like, ‘oh, here we go.’ It is an important role that I think Mike White and Skylar Thompson for us, every week there’s residual effects of what they do during the work week through Tua. That is a group. Coach Bevell has said in his 20 years in the NFL being in those rooms, this might be the best one and they’re all supportive of each other. It’s a hard position, but then you have some brothers that can attest and give you feedback and be like, ‘dude, don’t worry, that was a really hard throw,’ ‘oh, don’t worry, I didn’t see that.’ That hits differently to your ear than this guy. So it’s very important and it will continue to be important.”
(What have you noticed about Jets QB Zach Wilson’s performance? I guess he was AFC Offensive Player of the Week? What did you see on tape?) – “I thought it was kind of cool because just think about that. To be offensive player of the week for your whole conference in the same season of getting benched. Fortunately he’s in a small, under the radar media market. (laughter) So I think it’s cool. What I saw was internal fortitude. There’s some conviction and confidence. I saw when the pocket was clean, he was seeing it and then when it wasn’t, he was able to find ways to get on the edge of the defense and do some of the stuff that is the reason he was the second pick in the draft because he has some arm talent that’s unbelievable. I don’t have to be in that building to project. Everybody knows – that’s a galvanizing situation – because everyone knows how hard it has to be, I’ve talked about it before, everybody wants to live up to where they’re drafted and you go and you have to hear questions about stuff. Then for his teammates to watch that happen and then him go out there and really believe in himself and show confidence and then make some plays, I’m happy for people specifically when that happens. I can relate to that stuff. So I see a confident guy that’s dangerous that you have to disrupt. I think that you have to be very, very good with your pre-snap presentations. I think you have to get on edges of offensive linemen and disrupt his vision. And I think if you allow him early confidence, he’s going to play confident, so that’s our objective to start the game and I think guys are up for the challenge there. One thing they’re not doing is – you can tell it hit our locker room, too – they’re not taking this team lightly. They know how tough things can be when you’ve lost a couple games in a row and then the amount of momentum you have from one game. So we’re going to have our hands full, but at this stage in the season, that’s what you want. You don’t want to gift victories. You want to go earn it and they’re going to make sure we have to do that, so we’re going to have to be on all of our stuff, which is why today is so important. It’s the most important day of our lives.”
(You mentioned how one game can kind of flip momentum. Have you been able to sense from the players, coaches, the team in general, from Monday night to today, how have they been able to move past that?) – “You know what it is, but the team, I see a team that is eager to play football again. I sensed the first time I talked to them this week, they wished the game was that day. I know their bodies didn’t, but you want to wash that out. What I’ve seen thus far is guys focus that frustration into the gameplan and preparation for this opponent. I think on the surface, you’re generally kind of worried about that. For me, this team this week, I’m not. Because like I said, they’re eager to go make some things right. And it’d be one thing if we spent that game – watching the film, there were things that were to our standard. So we’ve been focusing on how did the backend of the game unfold. Once we did that, we moved past and it’s been J-E-T-S all week.”
(Along those same lines, where do you think that mentality comes from? Is it the leadership? Is it you guys within the week? After a tough blow on Monday, where’s that core, that base of the way you guys approach this week?) – “I think that all has to do with the collection of individuals. As a coaching staff, we try to do our best to kind of – you end a game and there’s so many things that happen. Individuals think about this play, this play, this play. Then quite naturally, you’re like, how did this happen? I think as a coaching staff, we kind of look at things and then you deliver a mindset message on okay, well, this is how we can kind of categorize that. Then it takes a bunch of like-minded individuals who are interested in things much beyond themselves, who are strong-minded with will, to listen to that and then decide, ‘hey, you know what, collectively, this is the way we’re going. This is how we agree that we can file this under this envelope and say, okay, that’s what that was, and learn from it.’ That’s why I love the locker room because they are not blinking or feeling sorry for themselves. They are 100 percent focused on the Jets, which you have to be in this league. That’s another reason, another example, that will always present itself in every NFL season of why you have to come prepared. Everyone gets paid and there’s a lot of teams that win games that beat Vegas’ odds. So all of that being said, I think the bottom line is none of it matters unless you have the right human beings as players. My expectation is that as coaches, we funnel the information appropriately, because that’s our jobs. I could be Knute Rockne and if I have guys that aren’t about each other and focused on the right things and committed to this team and organization and the city, it doesn’t matter. I would say it’s a credit to the locker room that has been built up and the individuals in it.”
