LB Jerome Baker
(I’m wondering how often you’ve kept in touch this year with your good buddy Raiders LB Raekwon McMillan and how much you’re looking forward to seeing him Saturday?) – “Oh yeah, when it comes to ‘Kwon’ (Raekwon McMillan), that’s my big brother right there. I talk to him pretty much every week. We always just talk and just catch up on things. I’m definitely excited to see him. I’m definitely excited to see him play and do his thing. Definitely excited.”
(You guys have dealt with this before this season, preparing for more than one quarterback with the status of Raiders QB Derek Carr unavailable. How do you go about that this week and if it is Raiders QB Marcus Mariota, what kind of a challenge does he present, being a bit more mobile than Derek Carr?) – “It’s just a little bit more film work. You’re studying – honestly, you’re just putting more work in. You’ve got a bigger challenge in terms of it’s two quarterbacks and now you’ve got to put that work in to match that. But like you said, we’ve been doing it, so we’re definitely used to it. We’re definitely going to do that and when it comes to him as a player, he does it all. He can throw, he can throw on the run, he can run the ball. He does a lot of things. He gives us a lot of challenges. But ultimately our job is to ultimately come out with a win and get it done, so I’m definitely excited for that.”
(Is Dark Grind the LB Elandon Roberts brand and can you explain to us what that means?) – “Yeah, the Dark Grind is the work you put in when nobody’s looking. The work you put in when it’s just you and the grind. That hard sweat that you’re not doing it for cameras, you’re not doing it for people, you’re just doing it for you to get better. ‘E. Rob,’ (Elandon Roberts), he’s been around long enough; you can just tell he’s all about putting that work in when nobody’s looking. He doesn’t care who’s around. He doesn’t care if it’s coaches, he doesn’t care if it’s players – whoever it is. He’s just going to put the work in and get better. He got me a hat and I’m all for wearing his brand. I’m just happy he gave me a hat and I’m going to definitely rep it. (laughter)”
(I wanted to ask about the hat and in particular the impact of getting LB Elandon Roberts and LB Kyle Van Noy back into the lineup this Sunday. The three of you guys played a lot of reps in this game. I was just curious, what does it mean to the defense to get Roberts and Van Noy back in the lineup after missing them the previous game?) – “It means a lot. Kyle (Van Noy) and ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts), honestly they’re coaches on the field. We come to the sideline, we have a good idea of what went wrong and what we need to do before the coaches even say anything. That just helps all of us as a defense in the long run, so I’m always excited when those guys are out there and they coach me up, we coach each other up, we push each other. It’s just a great feeling when you have – in all reality – we have another coach. You have a coach on the field essentially, so it was definitely good to have them out there.”
(Two questions for you. One, you come from a college where the regular season ended, but your season never ended. You were always going to a bowl game and now in the NFL you haven’t tasted postseason yet, so if you can give us a sense for how much you’re hungry to get the playoffs and secondly, when you talk about Dark Grind, everybody has things that they have to do that maybe it’s not so much an inconvenience and other things, maybe part of your workout routine that you hate – what part do you hate?) – “(laughter) When it comes to playoffs, just going to The Ohio State (University), they prepared me for a lot of things I never would have even imagined. When it comes to the schedule, at Ohio State it’s pretty much, the playoffs just – we have to get there. That’s the standard. You at least have to get there. So when it comes to NFL, I want to get to that point of our culture is we’re getting to the playoffs and anything can happen in the playoffs. That’s the reality. So I’m definitely hungry. Our team is definitely hungry, but honestly I think the approach we have is just focus on this week and everything else will handle itself. If we win this week, if we do what we have to do this week, everything is still in front of us and that’s what I’m excited for. We’re going to come in this week and prepare and do what we’ve been doing and honestly just come out with a win and worry about the playoffs whenever they come. And the part I hate, for me I don’t really hate anything. That’s just such a strong word. I think for me, the only thing kind of bothers me, I’m not a morning person. So sometimes getting up at 6, 5:30 or something; it’s not as fun. (laughter) But I don’t necessarily hate anything.”
(In the last two weeks, I feel like you’ve played very well against the run. You’ve got about 17 tackles, maybe about three tackles for loss. In what areas have you really focused to do well against the run and in what areas do you feel like you’ve improved here in this stage of your career?) – “I think for me, it was just realizing I don’t have to make the tackle all the time. I don’t have to do the splash play. Sometimes building the wall is the best thing to do and for me, honestly, I study and I talk to ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts) because he’s quite good at run defense – the run stopping. So I talk to him, I’m in his ear, I’m in Kyle’s (Van Noy) ear. I’m pretty much just asking the question, ‘how can I get better?’ Sometimes the truth hurts, but you definitely just have to take it and you’re either going to just fold or you’re going to attack it and that’s what I’ve been doing. I want to be able to be on the field all three downs. I want to be able to help this team win in any way I can and I take that approach. That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing, is just trying to get better for this team. Whatever they need me to do, I’m down to do it. Yeah, that’s all I do.”
(I’m just curious how this year has been. It’s such a strange year and obviously you guys are finishing on a high note. I would imagine if you guys were losing, this season would be drudgery. With COVID and all the restrictions you have to go through, has it been a nice silver lining with how this season’s gone? How has it been just surviving this year?) – “I think this year was all about just being resilient. No matter what the season throws at you, whatever the world throws at you. You can’t just put your head down and mope around and just feel bad for yourself; you have to attack it, you have to get better at whatever you’re doing. You just have to attack it and go after it and I think our team as a whole, we’re built like that. No matter whatever challenge we have; if we’re down 20 or we’re down three, we approach it the same way. We can get it, we can get it done if we do it together. I think this year, that’s pretty much been – the fun ride for me is just seeing our team become a team and really have each other’s back. That’s pretty much been exciting for me, so happy just to keep getting it going and win as many games as we can and just do what we’re supposed to do.”
WR Isaiah Ford
(I’m sure a lot of my colleagues will ask about your role and your time up in New England, but I wanted to ask – rewinding back to the day after you get sent up there – when you saw the picture of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, what did you think and did he do it properly in honoring you?) – “(laughter) Yeah, so ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) actually sent me a picture with the shorts on before he actually went out to practice, so I didn’t know if he was just like wearing them around the locker room or something like that. But that just speaks on the type of leader he is and the relationship that I have with him. ‘Fitz’ is my guy, man. He’s an awesome teammate, he’s an awesome older – like a brother figure – and I just love that guy to death.”
(Can you take me through your journey over the last couple months? What it’s been like to go from Miami to New England back to Miami?) – “It’s been a little bit of an adventure to say the least, but the thing that I’ve tried to do throughout the entire thing was just to control what I can control and focus on getting a little bit better each day, whether I was in Miami or I was in Foxborough. So just trying to work on my craft and get better and learn as much as I can and I’m just happy to be back now.”
(What was it like to put on a Patriots uniform? What was it like to kind of learn all their secrets in a short period of time?) – “(laughter) I was excited about the opportunity. It was something – you hear so much about that organization and you have so much respect for that organization as a fan of the sport and then playing them twice a year for the last four years. So I thought being in the facility, kind of seeing the ins and outs of everything and being a part of it for that short stint of time that I was there, was a learning opportunity for me. And I’m very appreciative of that and the time that I spent there; but like I said, I’m kind of just happy to be back.”
(Two questions for you. One, what was it like on the field Sunday? Were you and some of your old teammates in New England saying anything back and forth? Did Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick give you a stare? Anything like that? And secondly, the biggest difference between the Patriot Way and the Dolphin Way is what?) – “It was fun being on the field with those guys and the short time I was there, they were all extremely welcoming in helping me get acclimated with everything that was going, whether they were meetings and how things were structured and how things were done that way. It was good talking to all those guys. They were all happy to see me back on the field, so I thought it was good to see those guys and kind of speak to them. I think the difference, the biggest difference is probably the weather. (laughter) The weather up there that they practice in versus the weather that we practice in down here would probably be the biggest thing in my opinion.”
(I’m curious, going from I guess the beginning of November, the Dolphins trading you away, to coming back and logging 54 offensive snaps a month and a half later for a team in the thick of the playoff race. What did that tell you about yourself and the nature of the National Football League?) – “It’s a business. We all knew that when we signed up for it. I would say I’m just extremely grateful that this organization would allow me to come back. I think that speaks on how I’ve tried to carry myself on and off the field and how I’ve worked on and off the field as well, so I’ve always tried to be as good a teammate as I can and always worked extremely hard as I could and tried to learn and soak up as much knowledge and information as I could. But you’ve got to love this game. You’re going to endure ups and downs and go through adversity and obstacles, but the beauty of the game is when the opportunity does come like Sunday, you get to play and just to be out there with the guys that you’ve bonded with and things like that.”
(You’re obviously a little bit more maybe mature than some other players who might harbor some tough feelings about the situation, especially for a player like you where you’ve been promoted then dropped, then added back to the practice squad, promoted and dropped for your first couple years before even being traded. How do you kind of stay mature about it and not hold any ill-will after everything?) – “I think throughout my entire time in the NFL, the biggest thing that I’ve learned is to control what you can control, right? Because at the end of the day, whatever happens is going to happen and you can drive yourself crazy, you can have anxiety or a lot of stress built up if you focus on the things that you can’t control. The things that I can control are how I carry myself and how I work on the field, the information that I learn. I’ve tried to do that to the best of my abilities and I felt a lot better with the outcome and with just my general well-being, going throughout the days, of how I carry myself when I do that. The biggest thing for me is just going to keep my head down and control what I can.”
(If I remember this correctly, the Patriots seemed to indicate that they would have liked you to stay around, presumably on practice squad. What were the factors that went into the choice, if in fact there was a choice there, to come back to Miami as opposed to staying on the Patriots practice squad?) – “I just think the familiarity with being here. I think this is a special place in Miami – not to say that it’s not a special place in New England, but a lot of my guys are here. So to have that opportunity to be back with DeVante (Parker), Jakeem (Grant), ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick), (Patrick) Laird, Myles (Gaskin), Mack (Hollins), all those guys. I can keep going on and on and pretty much name everybody on the team, but it’s a special bond that I have with these guys down here. They’re all great people in Foxborough as well, but there’s just something about being home, you know? And I think that was the biggest thing that went into the decision.”
DT Zach Sieler
(The sack you had yesterday, it looked like you came off of the edge of the defensive line. I was curious how have you been able to incorporate your skills to be able to rush both from the interior of the defensive line as well as off the edge like that?) – “I think the biggest thing for me is just the planning. Obviously things on the edge are much different than on the inside. For me, preparing for each game as if I’m going to be outside, inside or for both. Just knowing that going into the game, preparing for which I plan on getting my rushes at.”
(How helpful has it been that you guys have been good this year with what’s been going on in the external world with all of the protocols you guys have been through? I’d imagine if this was a 5-9 instead of a 9-5 team, it would be a rough season.) – “I think honestly with this COVID stuff, as hard as it’s been on us, I think it’s almost helped bring us closer. We’re almost in a – we’re in it together kind of thing. I think that’s helped and helped get us to where we’re at in the season now.”
(We saw CB Xavien Howard get his first forced fumble of the season. That gives him 10 for the season as far as interceptions and forced fumbles. Have you ever been around a guy that’s been around the football so much? Is there a skill to that? And how does he change the defense with his ability to always be around the football?) ]- “It’s huge. That flips the field. It gives automatic ball position. It’s a huge asset to have. You’re right. I don’t know if it’s a special skill he’s got, but he definitely fins – I think it’s the hustle. He’s always hustling to make sure he’s near the ball and wherever he needs to be.”
(It’s a short week and it’s early in the week so I don’t know how much, if any, you’ve gotten to see of the Raiders. But what, if anything, have you noticed, whether it’s on film or highlights, of their running back, Josh Jacobs?) – “I think they’ve got a very good offense and a good running back obviously – No. 28, Jacobs. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us defensively. We’ve got to prepare for this week and like you said, it’s an accelerated week. It’s on a Saturday night instead of Sunday. Just prepare as much as we can and get ready for this week.”
(If you could, I was hoping you might be able to expand a little bit more on the answer you gave me about how this pandemic has brought you guys together. One thing that comes to mind is there are not many social activities beyond your house. These might be some of the few people you might see on a day-to-day basis. I’m curious, how has it brought you guys together?) – “Yeah. We’re going through daily testing, changes in protocol each week every week. Instead of just getting frustrated or discouraged by it, guys are rallying behind each other like ‘hey, we’ll get through it.’ Or if somebody gets it, ‘hey man, we hope you’re feeling alright. We’ll see you when you get back.’ Then someone else steps up and takes that role, filling in when someone is missing. I think that’s really brought us together.”
C Ted Karras
(How surprised were you about QB Tua Tagovailoa’s holiday gifts to the offensive linemen and what does that notion mean coming from a rookie quarterback?) – “I think it’s an amazing gesture. I think it shows how good of a leader he is already. It’s a pretty sweet gift and I’m very grateful. We’ve already made several of the sausages. We haven’t set up the grill yet, but I’m very thankful. It’s an amazing gift and obviously a very large gift. We’re going to set it up and smoke some meats here this offseason. I’m looking forward to it.”
(I wanted to get your opinion on what was the biggest factor leading to the Dolphins’ 250 rushing yards in the game?) – “I think everyone stepped up and did their job really well. I think as a o-line, we had a hat on a hat and got to the second level, and our backs had great vision and hit the hole fast. Our tight ends – Adam (Shaheen) and Durham (Smythe) – really had some key blocks that sprung us to some big gains. We’ve been working on that for a long time. It felt really good to get a bunch of yards on the ground and continue our push here in late December.”
(Not only did you have your best rushing day of the season, but you did so without a couple of the key pieces. How did you feel C/G Michael Deiter played down the stretch, and G/T Jesse Davis filling in at guard? The moving pieces didn’t seem to miss a beat this week.) – “No. obviously you never want to see anyone go down. With Mike (Deiter) coming in, like you said, we didn’t skip a beat. I was very happy for him to come in and play and play in a big moment and play really well. I think the film really speaks to the preparation and the hard work that he has put in these last five or six months in a different role. Coming into a game and playing really well, I was really happy for him.”
(I don’t think I’ve ever met an offensive lineman who doesn’t enjoy run blocking, especially when things are going well. I’m wondering while that is happening, while you guys are having great success run after run and they keep calling it, what was that like for you and your offensive line teammates emotionally and from a psyche perspective?) – “Well, we want to continue the success we’ve had. I think we had a lot of long drives and I think that can wear you down here in South Florida as an opponent. We did enough execution-wise to have a really big day and we do want to run block. Obviously it’s a little bit less higher stakes than pass blocking; but it’s just as challenging and probably a little bit more exerting. I think our conditioning held up and for us, we’ve been waiting on that for a while and we’ve been working really hard and putting in the time. I’m glad that we all got to share in the rewards here last night.”
(They say that you have to be able to run the ball in December and January to win. Do you think that’s still the case? Do you think this could be the key to you guys making a run here?) – “I think it’s definitely the case probably all the time in the National Football League. If you have a good ground game, it will definitely up your chances to win. This was a great performance for us. We’re going to have to keep grinding and keep working. We have a good opponent coming up here the day after Christmas in Las Vegas, and we’re going to have to do it again. That is the task of an NFL o-lineman. Now we have the next challenge coming up and it’s going to be a big week of preparation, a little bit of unique week, but I’m looking forward to going on another west coast trip.”
(We saw C/G Michael Deiter get some NFL action for the first time this season. I was curious to get your reaction on how excited you were to see him out there because after the QB Tua Tagovailoa scramble, he seemed to be pretty excited. How did you feel to see Michael get back on the field?) – “I was very happy for him. I’ve been in that kind of sixth-man role for several years of my career. To come in and make the most of the reps that you get and put good film out there, I was very happy for him. He’s put in a lot of hard work and every day he comes to work and is ready to go, and it definitely showed Sunday afternoon when he came in the second half and we had our best rushing performance of the year.”
(Offensive linemen can help really make running backs look good. After you looked at the film or even was thinking back to the game. What in this game did RB Salvon Ahmed and RB Matt Breida do that helped you guys look good?) – “I think we had a great plan going in and the backs definitely I would say make the o-line look good more than the o-line make the backs look good; but they were hitting the hole fast. They had great vision. The cutbacks were there. I think our tight ends deserve a lot of credit for sealing off the back side on a lot of the big runs. As an o-line, we had an hat on a hat and playing good assignment-clean football, getting to the second-level quick. It was a complete team effort and it showed. The film looked – it was fun to look at that film with runs we have been repping now for six months. We came out of the gate strong in the second half yesterday.”
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to ask you about the job the offensive line did yesterday. It kind of got lost in the mix a little bit, but certainly down two starters in the fourth quarter, they were impressive. Your thoughts when you watched the tape?) – “I thought offensively, I thought (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) called a really nice game. I thought our staff did a good job of getting those guys prepared and then they went out and executed across the board – o-line, tight ends, receivers, the backs ran hard and we executed.”
(To what extent is a running performance like that something to build on the rest of the way?) – “I think we want to build on execution. That’s kind of been what we’ve talked about on a week-to-week basis. Every week is a different challenge, so it’s nice to have some success, but it doesn’t really mean anything in the next game. We have to prepare and execute in whatever element of the game we’re talking about – kickoff return, punt return, kickoff, field goal, field goal block, run game, pass game, drop-back, screens, run defense. It’s about execution.”
(I wanted to get some clarity and I hope that – I’m sure you can provide it. On the two special teams plays that you guys had called back the last two weeks, were the players supposed to declare themselves as eligible and doesn’t that negate the fact that it’s a trick play? What were you supposed to do?) – “Yeah, they were supposed to have reported as eligible to the referee or umpire. We didn’t. Those are the things pre-snap we have to do a better job of. Did we report, did we not report; it’s one of those things where we have to do a better job coaching that. Obviously that starts with me and we’ve got to execute it better. Does that answer your question?”
(It does. So every time somebody’s on the end of a special teams line, they have to declare themselves?) – “If you have an ineligible number, you have to report as eligible. If you have an eligible number, you don’t. That’s just kind of – rules.”
(You’ve been an advocate for diversity on many fronts in the past, whether it be for matters within your team or advocating for other minority coaches in the NFL. What do you think of the potential matchup between QB Tua Tagovailoa and Raiders QB Marcus Mariota – both Polynesian quarterbacks – and regardless of who starts for Vegas on Saturday – I know there’s some questions there – how do you think both of these quarterbacks have represented their homes and made the most of their opportunities to reach the highest level?) – “I think they’re both very talented. They’ve had a lot of success throughout their careers, lives. From what I know about Marcus (Mariota) – I’ve never met him, but what I’ve heard just in talking to people, this is somebody who embodies a lot of the characteristics that we’re looking for in a football player. Tough, smart, team-first. Obviously Tua is that same way. So a lot of respect for Mariota as well as Derek Carr and that entire team and organization. This will certainly be a challenge this week.”
(Yesterday you had mentioned that the injured guys came close to being able to play yesterday and I’m wondering in the case of TE Mike Gesicki, when he went down, it looked at least to my eyes, it looked like it might be a serious injury, so I’m wondering was the injury just not as bad as maybe it originally appeared or is this a credit to his toughness that he is on the brink of returning so quickly?) – “Mike (Gesicki) is a very tough guy and again, I think for those of us who don’t have medical degrees, it’s hard to say it looked like – we just don’t know. We’re not looking at the X-rays and MRIs and things like that. So we leave that to the doctors and that combined with Mike and his willingness of wanting to get out there and fight through some things. He, along with a lot of our other players, are really trying to fight through and get out there as quickly as they can. Obviously we wouldn’t put them there or even practice them if we didn’t feel like they could withstand a practice or a game. Their health is first. He’s fighting through it.”
(I’m just trying to find out what the prep schedule is for this week with a game one day earlier.) – “We’ll walk through tomorrow. We’re still talking through the rest of the week as far as how we’re going to handle that.”
(There was a third-and-8 play at the end of the third quarter where you had a RB Patrick Laird run for 12 yards and a first down. I’m curious, is that something where QB Tua Tagovailoa has the autonomy at the line to check to that call? Is it something that comes into the headset? I’m just wondering how you got into a running situation on a play where traditionally it’s more of a passing situation?) – “Key word: traditionally. It’s a good call by Chan (Gailey). I think it’s honestly one of my favorite plays in the game. They play some multiple fronts there. Let’s call it dime, 7- and 8-DB packages. Chan felt like there was an opportunity to stick a run in there and we got it. We blocked it up well. (Michael) Deiter came around and pulled on the safety, who was in a linebacker-kind-of-position. Laird made a real good run and picked up a first down there. I thought it was a really, really nice call by Chan.”
(I just wanted to get an update on G Solomon Kindley’s situation and also, are you guys planning to leave after Christmas morning after everybody gets to spend a little time with the family or are you guys leaving before Christmas?) – “We’re going to leave on Christmas Day. Obviously the game is on the 26th, so we’ll leave on Christmas Day. Solomon, he’s still being evaluated. He was in here this morning. He’s going to do everything he can to get out there. He’s a tough kid. We’ll see where this is. We’ve still got to kind of do some more tests. Obviously he’s treating and things of that nature, but we’ve got to run a few more tests here.”
(We know well your laser focus. What would your reaction be or what is your reaction if you overhear a couple of your players talking about the playoffs?) – “I don’t have a problem with people talking about whatever they want to talk about, but our playoffs are this week against the Raiders. That’s my – let’s call it the playoffs, this week against the Raiders. Let’s call it that. It’s one game at a time. That’s kind of where my focus is. That’s where we’ll try to direct their focus. If they’re talking about anything else, it’s about the Raiders. It’s one game. It’s a one game season. Let’s call it a one game playoff season.”
(I wanted to piggyback on that. You have the second youngest team in the NFL. I think your average age is like 25 years old. This month, it’s experiences that a lot of these guys have never had before. How invaluable is it, not just for this year but what you’re building, to be in a playoff race, to make the playoffs and to make some noise?) – “We’re in a one game season. That’s kind of – I think it’s hard to play in this league. Whether it’s September – obviously in December, when you’re playing in meaningful games, there’s a little bit of added anxiety or stress, if you want to call it that; but it’s good to kind of go through that and realize you’re just still playing football. But yeah, it’s a one game season for us.”
