Raheem Mostert – May 7, 2024
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Tuesday, May 7, 2024
RB Raheem Mostert
(First on the contract. I want to get your reaction to that and how that all came about?) – “Yeah, it was one of those things where I had a stellar year last year and then this upcoming year wasn’t necessarily guaranteed, so me and my agent sat down and decided to try to work something out and thankfully we did and we were able to get it done fairly early. Now we’re here. Added an extra year on the contract and it’s going to be a good one.”
(Quick follow-up if I could, 32 years old now. How much when you envision your career, how much do you expect to play? Running backs at 32 don’t have the success that you’ve had.) – “I always look at everything I do as just try to beat the standard. Obviously the standard is running backs at age 30 and above typically start to have that decline. Well, I didn’t have any wear and tear early on in my career, so it’s a little bit easier for me to go ahead and discredit that narrative altogether. Just continue to just do what I do at the highest level and help this team out and try to bring home a championship. That’s the most important thing. Especially for a guy like myself. I’ve been through all the ups and downs, highs and lows within my career. But one thing that I do want to get done is get ahold of that trophy at the end of the year. I think that’s going to definitely solidify not only myself in the position I’m in but a lot of different guys on the team and the position that they are in.”
(I’m sure everyone wants to know your reaction to the Dolphins not only matching what they did last year drafting a running back, but they made some moves to get in the position to draft him and he’s another fast guy. So overall, what’s your reaction?) – “Yeah, my reaction at the time, I was just like, ‘yeah, whatever, it is what it is.’ It’s the same typical thing, the draft drama pretty much all the time regardless of the position (laughter). But no, I’m honestly excited to have Jaylen (Wright) come in. It’s another Jaylen (laughter) coming in on the mix on the team. Just excited to have him here and try to coach him up, try to help him out within this offense and let’s see what we can do. I’m all about in-person experiences and thus far, regardless of any team that I’ve been apart of, who they drafted, I’ve always embraced the opportunity. Not only for myself, but for the people around me and in the room, too. Just super excited to have everybody here. He’s going to be here sometime this weekend with rookie minicamp. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting. And like I said, I just can’t wait to work with him.”
(We’ve always been talking to you guys about speed, not only with the running backs but obviously with the wide receivers. Now you added another fast guy. How much more of a headache does that create for defenses do you think?) – “I mean, the more the merrier. That’s what I would say. Especially in this offense. We can utilize a lot of different attributes and speed is definitely an attribute that we like to maximize to the most of our abilities. So to be able to have another guy come into the mix and bring his attributes and his contributions into the offense and his speed is definitely going to be very beneficial on our part. We can now line up and we could use three backs at one point with a receiver and maybe a tight end as well, so there’s a lot of different things you can do in the offense especially with guys that have a lot of different speeds.”
(I wanted to ask you about Head Coach Mike McDaniel. Obviously with how the season ended was painful for everybody, but you know Mike probably the most. Some people don’t factor in that you guys were mostly on one leg with the top players in terms of how the season ended. How do you think the season’s conclusion impacted Mike in terms of his thought process, his goals, his planning?) – “When I had the exit interview with him, and this is a great question. Not too many people realize the magnitude of what we went through last year, especially towards the end in that playoff game. After talking with Mike and sitting down and having my exit interview, we tried to formulate a plan and what’s going on at the moment for us. I asked him, ‘How do you feel about the season (ending) the way it did?’ He couldn’t have been any happier. Just because there were a lot of different guys that stepped up to the plate that made huge contributions. Especially a guy like Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips, right? Those guys alone were key ingredients in the defense. Just talking with him about that whole experience, he was happy. But he also knows that there’s more out there and that’s the attitude that you kind of have to have as a head coach and even as a player. Anybody really. Being a journalist and everything like that, you always have to have more. You always have to find a way to get better and critique yourself. He’s been able to do that this offseason. He’s understanding the problems we had last year whether it be health or just not doing the correct things that we needed to do as an offense. We just are going to go out here and try to figure it out. He’s on the up and up. He’s in good spirits about everything.”
(You were one of the guys that had that Wednesday program which you weren’t a fan of. Obviously as a 30-year-old player, even though Mike came into the season saying this is what’s its going to be, now do you buy into it? Or how do you have to receive it as a 30-year-old player?) – “Yeah, I mean regardless of my age I’ve always been bought into taking care of players first and foremost. I think that’s the most important thing, especially throughout the season because it’s a long 17 games. You’ve got to factor in playoffs if you make it and then factor in if you’re going to the Super Bowl. I witnessed that back in 2019 when I was in San Fran. We had guys that stayed healthy. We didn’t lose pretty much anybody that year. For these Super Bowl teams that come in, you look at the Chiefs, they had nicks and bruises but they still were able to go at a high pace, high speed and get the job done and ultimately they’re considered champs. Regardless of any type of program, whether it be Wednesday if I like it or not, I just have to do what’s best for the team and that means preserving myself, which I know given my age, but like I said I’m still young at heart. I’m still young and I’m still a young back, so I’m out here still trying to prove that.”
(The NFL schedule, you already know who you’re going to play and where, but what’s left to be determine is the when and primetime games and all that. So I’m curious your level of interest in the actual schedule release itself to find out the particulars?) – “Yeah, I’m excited. I like looking at the schedule release and all the creatives behind it and stuff like that and how different teams go about releasing the schedule. But I’m just ready to play football at the end of the day, man. I’m ready to go out here and do some historic stuff and try to bring home a title. That’s all I can do. I don’t know. I look at the schedule and if we’re facing Seattle here, Seattle’s got to get whooped (laughter). It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day in regards to the schedule release, but I do like the creatives behind it.”
(Have you noticed any sort of difference in the mood of the players reporting to the offseason program this year compared to last year?) – “Not so much. Although it seems like a never-ending cycle with the defense. We’re always shuffling defensive coordinators and mixing the changeup and that aspect and bringing in newer guys. It’s a little bit of a change, but honestly everybody has a great spirit. Everybody is doing everything they possibly can to get better. I see the guys on the defensive side of the ball, they’re honing in on the craft. They are working on their craft. They’re doing their best to try to be great.”
