Friday, September 6, 2024
T Terron Armstead
(Now your center has been out with a hand. He’s been taking mental reps, but mental reps we all know it’s not the same thing.) – “Yeah, ’AB,’ (Aaron Brewer) he’s a pro. He’s a pro. He’s somebody that comes to work every day full throttle, full intent. He loves being here. He loves this environment and what we do together as a unit. I’m not worried about ‘AB,’ he’s a terrific young player. Excited to have him, excited to see him move around.”
(Would you describe right now the healthiest you’ve felt since coming to Miami?) – “I’m ready to roll. We don’t need to get into any of that, because it doesn’t matter. When we get into Sunday, we’re all going 100 percent.”
(Were you able to watch the game last night? What did you make of all the illegal formation calls on the offensive tackles, and is that going to be on your mind for the game Sunday?) – “No, it’s tough for sure. I’ve been in a spot where it kind of felt like the ref was messing with you. It can affect your game because you’re used to being in a certain spot. O-line is a very technical position, so it’s tough trying to make an adjustment. Moving up another yard or a couple of feet, it can change your spot. That was tough. I was glad like second half they got away from making that call and they let them guys play. It’s a tough spot to be in.”
(After a couple of times they call it on you, it’s got to be hard because they called it four times, right?) – “Yeah, I’m looking at Ronnie Stanley. Like I see him move up, it’s tough. It was tough.”
(How far do you want to be off the line of scrimmage? What is allowed?) – “You really just want to lineup on your guard. If you line up on your guard, you’re legal. If you look across the center is always going to be about the other four as long as those four are on par. I can’t say too much; I’m trying to keep my munyun, so I’m not going to talk about the refs at all. That’s a tough spot, because I’m sure Ronnie (Stanley) was trying to correct himself and still getting called is frustrating.”
(Has offensive line coach Butch Barry had a conversation with you guys, you and OL Austin Jackson specifically, about they are emphasizing this, be very conscious of this?) – “Yeah, we know it’s a point of emphasis for sure. It’s kind of like I was saying earlier, those first four weeks across the league, rust, you’re trying to get back into a groove and find that sweet spot, it’s the same as the refs. They’ve been off the same amount of time, so we’re all trying to get back into it and play this beautiful game that we all love. The point of emphasis for sure, I don’t want to cause my team any type of negative plays by being off the line. We’ll be paying attention to it.”
(How quickly does word of a big-time contract get around the locker room?) – “That’s my dawg right there. We talk every day, on the field, off the field. I’m pretty close to (Jalen) Ramsey now. I’m happy for him. He’s deserving. He’s an incredible player, athlete, and one of the best ever at his position. It’s only right, it’s always a great day to see that.”
(How quickly does word get around?) – “Maybe I know a little sooner than you. Maybe not. But we don’t have to talk about all of that.”
(What do you think about DE Josh Hines-Allen?) – “He’s nice, man. He’s nice. Relentless, full throttle all game. He has a very elite ability to bend the edge with power, somebody you got to stay on the whole time. Every rep, try to finish with two hands on, body in front of him every rep. It’ll be a battle. DH’s an exceptional player, for sure.”
(All of those guys are tall, DE Arik Armstead, DE Josh Hines-Allen, DE Travon Walker, I’m curious if that’s a factor at all for y’all, height or length?) – “No, not really. Not really, that’s more so – That could be more so on paper. It’s about pad level. Josh (Hines-Allen) specifically, he plays with a low pad level, so you’ve got to kind of get up under him. (Arik) Armstead, he plays with length, Roy Robertson-Harris, he plays with length. So the height don’t really mean nothing. If they are standing straight up, it would be an advantage for us. You got to have them pads down.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel called himself today mister load management in terms of making sure he got the aged veterans ready and healthy, especially with a game in five days. How important is those load management programs to guys like you?) – “I’m blessed to be in a place where they are paying attention to the science, to the numbers, and not just for me but for the rest of the guys, too. They track the load, they track the potentials, or the possibilities of pulling something and all of that. It’s kind of hard to go against science. It’s scientifically proven, there’s some factual information there. So the fact that they pay attention to it, like I said not just for me but the rest of the guys on the team, is a great thing. It doesn’t mean that it’s the magic to everybody being healthy at the end of the season, but you just try to put your best foot forward.”
(With the science, you’ve been in the league long enough. I remember years where players were wearing GPS trackers on watch and it was tracking your sleep patterns. How has that been and adjustment to you guys to actually get used to it and believe the science?) – “It’s grown, for sure. I’ve been in for a while, so when I came in, we didn’t track sleep or none of it. None of it. I walked on the field – I got to the building five minutes before practice, walked out there and did my thing. No warmup, nothing. I can’t do that now. I need a full slotted time for me to warm up to be able to go out and perform. It’s just the evolution of the game; being smarter, athletes getting bigger, faster, stronger, so you see more catastrophic injuries. You try to prep the tissues, try to get the joint moving, all the mobility work. It’s an evolution, and it’s going to have to continue to evolve because you see guys like this shirtless bandit, not many people in the world are built like him. So you just got to pay attention to that science, because that’s a freak.”
(Obviously load management is a thing in the NBA. As we get more games in the NFL do you guys talk about it?) – “It won’t happen.”
(You don’t think it would be like, “Hey, do you want to play half this game?”) – “No, that would never happen. Never, never.”
(You and DT Calais Campbell is there anything you guys do similarly or together?) – “Listen, I’m not in Calais – he’s in another tier of veteran. I am not there. Whatever he do, that’s what he do. What I do is what I do. He is in his own world. That’s the OG, triple OG.”
(What do you learn from him?) – “What I admire about him is his true love for the game, man. He loves this (explicit) for real. Calais, he breathes football. To have somebody that is that excited to play this game after so many years, so many battles, so many double teams but he still he wants to come out and play this game, fly around, just have fun – that’s incredible. It gives you energy to see that.”
Friday, September 6, 2024
CB Jalen Ramsey
(How does it feel to earn that contract extension? And apparently it was settled a few days ago but you wanted to hold off until you were back on the field?) – “Yeah, I feel like that was the right thing to do. Been out for a little while, just with a little hamstring injury. It’s tough because this is my first time ever having this type of injury. I ain’t never had no hamstring, so even in times where I felt like I’m good, I had to just trust the training staff to know, ‘Eh, even if he feels like that, we can’t have him go crazy and reaggravate it or anything like that.’ Yeah, it got done a few days ago, but I just felt like it wasn’t right to have it out there and me not be out there on the field with the guys, so just tried to hold it for a few days.”
(Why is this contract extension important to you?) – “It’s always important to feel value, first of all, and get paid for all of your hard work and dedication and sacrifices and everything that you put into an organization, and them reward you with it, so it’s always important, obviously. It’s money. I got kids and my kids are happy. Our family is happy, so it’s all good.”
(What does this say about your relationship with this organization and trust they have in you?) – “Ever since I’ve gotten here, I feel like it’s been a great relationship, it’s been a growing relationship. They’ve learned a lot about me, who I am not only as the player but the person. And same, I’ve learned a lot about them and how real they are, the men and women we have around this organization, so it’s been nice.”
(What does it mean to you to reset the cornerback market again?) – “I wouldn’t say that I reset it again; I would say that ‘P2’ (Patrick Surtain II) did his thing in resetting it the other day. And then I got to the mark where I guess they were working to get to so I could become the highest paid defensive back again. So it’s all a blessing, but I’m blessed regardless. Every day I wake up and got my beautiful kids and my family and all the support and all the love from my teammates and everything, I’m blessed regardless. I think it’s cool. It’s a cool accomplishment not only for me, but also for my support system. All the people who work with me, my agent of course, David Mulugheta and everything he’s been able to accomplish in just this year. It’s just a cool moment for everybody involved, I think.”
(Do you anticipate being ready to go on Sunday?) – “Man, I always want to play football. Whenever I get the opportunity, I never take it for granted. I think if there’s one thing y’all learned from me last year it’s like, any timelines I get, I try to break them. I try to be out there on the field as much as I can in any type of capacity, but I also got to trust the training staff and the coaches. I got to hold myself back, I guess, sometimes and be smart. It’s a struggle, but that’s what we’re working through right now. We’ll see, you know what I’m saying? We’ll see. We’ll see when game day gets here what will be my availability and in what capacity or whatever that may be.”
(From what we saw today, you looked pretty sharp.) – “I think I always look pretty sharp. If I put myself on that field I’m going to try to do as well as I can for the team. But yeah, like I keep saying, this is a different thing with the hamstring. I’ve never dealt with hamstrings, so it’s completely different for me. I can be feeling good, but they know. They know how certain things go and they know how I can go out there and push it to the limit, and I may not need to push it to the limit at certain points. Like I said, we’ll just see. We’re really taking it day by day for real.”
(Plus with the short week next week, that factors into it.) – “Yeah, I think that’s a big key to this whole equation is two games in five days. So maybe people not realizing that but that’s huge. Never trying to look ahead like that, but obviously the opponent, a divisional game, you know just taking everything into the equation. You got to think about it all and be really smart.”
(If you do get to face your former team, what kind of feelings will that bring up? And what are your numbers playing Jacksonville?) – “It won’t bring up any. I’ve played them once already when I was in L.A., and it didn’t bring up any feelings. I’m grateful for being drafted by them and the Khans, I appreciate them. I don’t know – there might be one person left on the whole roster who was there while I was there, so it doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t think anybody from the front office is in there from when I was there, so it’s like none of that really matters to me, it don’t matter.”
(You talked about your trust in the training staff. What about your own confidence in your ability to run at full speed and not have to think about whether you might be aggravating your hamstring?) – “Yeah, I think that’s a part of the issue is I don’t think about that and I always do have that confidence. I think y’all know me well enough by now that my confidence is through the roof. So yeah, that’s part of the back and forth a little bit is like when I step out there, I’m on go; I’m on 100 percent. Sometimes that might not be the smartest thing for me and for the team later down the line. So that’s why I really do have the trust in them, and they’re the best training staff in the whole league, so that’s where that comes from. But me personally, no I don’t think about it. I’m just me at all times.”
(I think I saw SportsCenter post a conversation or interaction y’all had where they asked what advice you’d give to young athletes, you said to really embrace the journey. I’m curious, how much time did you spend early on in your journey visualizing moments and days like this where you can sign contracts like these?) – “I don’t, really. I don’t really think about that. Part of embracing the journey is not thinking about that – not thinking about what the result might be and just handling your business in the way that you would be proud of, your family and peers would be proud of and trying to go out there and get it every day. For me, that’s a faith thing. That’s between me and God. Every time I’m out on the field, I don’t want to feel like I’m letting him down or being ungrateful for the gifts he’s blessed me with. So I feel like I got to go out there and give it my all and turn those gifts into skills. Yeah, 100 percent – like they say, audience of one, that’s kind of what it is for me. Obviously, I love the fans and everything, don’t get it twisted. That’s all added juice, but me, like my internal motivation is, I ain’t going to let him down from all the gifts he blessed me with. That would be wrong of me.”
(What would you say about the younger cornerbacks on the depth chart for the event whenever you can’t play?) – “They’re ready, they’re good. They’re good. They’re good. They’re going to hold it down. They’re going to do their thing. They’ve been preparing for this all week. We’re confident in them. They made this team for a reason, right? They’re good, and they know we’ve got their back, regardless, whatever.”
(When WR Odell Beckham Jr. signed here, did you lend him the suit? Or you have the same style?) – “No, he copied me, for sure. He copied me, for sure. That’s my dawg though, so it’s all love. It’s all love. (laughter)”
Friday, September 6, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Will CB Jalen Ramsey practice today and will he play on Sunday?) – “He had a good walkthrough today. I think we’re going to be smart, but we are eager to get him out there. So I anticipate him to, in some way, shape or form, practice. I don’t know the level yet – that’s how these things work, you just kind of go with the process. That and whether or not he can play in the game, it does matter to everyone, both teams and whatever. I do understand that and regard it. Quite honestly, I don’t know. But if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you, but I really don’t know.”
(You guys had a hamstring situation with Rob Hunt last year. What did you learn that you guys can apply here?) – “You get in these situations where you have to treat each player individually and who they are, and so you can’t just rush to judgement about, ‘OK, this happened to this person, so this is going to happen.’ However, you can educate and have the only person who truly knows, who is the player, be able to give us feedback beyond what we can scan or assess from science. So those things aren’t lost, that’s a great example of someone that had every positive intention and just to understand the residuals, the ramifications of decisions and how you can’t be short sided. These are the nauseum conversation to make sure guys understand the consequences of their actions, and then we communicate with the same intentionality as everything else. When you have people working together, hopefully you get to learn from situations – understand that each situation is independent.”
(Despite how long CB Jalen Ramsey has been here, and obviously he’s a great player nobody’s disputing that, what is the value in giving him this contract or signing this extension with him now? Compared to, I guess, letting the rest of it play out.) – “Has it been confirmed? It has because I’m confirming it. (laughter) I think it’s awesome for me to have fundamental beliefs and foundational beliefs on what we’re here to do as an organization. As coaches, the players that we get, we’re supposed to maximize them in hopes of when players are maximized, they can be compensated appropriately in however fashion that is. As a coach, you’re supposed to add value to a player. So in that process when people lean in, whoever it is, every single contract is important to me because that’s a part of our jobs to do and that’s why I stay out of the books and let people handle that stuff. In an organization you can do that when the owner, (General Manager) Chris Grier, (Senior Vice President, Football & Business Administration) Brandon Shore, all understand how to prioritize what our roles are here and positively reinforcing the stuff that we want. I think he fits into – there’s been a ton since I got hired here when you look at it, and all those things are part of the business, but for us and really the team, I think they are happy that their guys are in good positions to play football and do it knowing that it’s the best place for them in all way, shapes or forms. So I’m happy organizationally for everything we’ve done this offseason because I think it fits what we’re about.”
(What has, in the 17-18 months since he’s been here, what has CB Jalen Ramsey brought to this organization?) – “Everybody knows – when everyone knows the name of someone that’s joining the team and that name is based upon a reputation of talent and skill, everyone is excited. You don’t know what you’re totally – you think you know, but you’re always excited to see how that person is going to fit in within the overall complexion of things. Since he’s been here, it’s almost felt mutually purposeful in that Jalen (Ramsey) saw a different level of player and leader this team could benefit from, and so he seized that. I think the team has definitely benefited from it – to the point that much was made about the team’s speech that he gave on a sweaty July day, maybe early August. And then unfortunately for him and the team, he got hurt. But the real leaders, the real influencers on a football team don’t have to play to positively affect their teammates. And when I tell you adversity is an opportunity and the opportunity for our defense was to facilitate the vision that Jalen had for the way we play and actually bring it to life against two different joint practices and against ourselves as we’ve prepared for the season. I think that’s a little caveat to what’s been unique about elite players. There’s several of them in the league that have that captain mentality, and when you have that captain mentality and are a competitor that wants to dictate the terms, you have a rise in everyone’s competitiveness and that’s an overall win for the Miami Dolphins.”
(Has anybody talked to S Jevón Holland at this point? Because he’s probably wondering, “When is my turn going to come?”) – “I talked to him today. I talked to him yesterday and the day before that. I talk to him every day and we talk about football. And again, all the stuff that’s not fun about the business, that’s the great thing about (General Manager) Chris Grier, I leave him to do his job and we talk football, that’s what he wants. He doesn’t want us to be master of all thing’s life skills coach. He wants football and stuff that – I think players appreciate the fact that it’s not on my mind because I think it’s a disservice to what I should be doing that day for that player and all the players. So we have great conversations; dapped him up this morning. He was really fired up about the team meeting. I think he laughed at a couple of my jokes.”
(OL Aaron Brewer told us yesterday he’s good to go for Sunday with the hand. Will OL Liam Eichenberg be your right guard on Sunday?) – “I usually don’t answer these questions, but man, you’re just smiling at me today and I think you’re going to see Liam (Eichenberg) at the right guard on Sunday. The opponent thanks you as well.”
(Last night, there were an awful lot of illegal formation penalties; I’m not sure if you were watching but there were a ton against the Ravens. How much did that catch your attention? Have you and Offensive Line Coach Butch Barry perhaps had a discussion about avoiding that on Sunday since the refs seem to be looking out for it?) – “So what we do from, literally every Friday you guys talk to me, is we have a team meeting and a portion of the team meeting, the segment is ‘around the league’ and so you try to reemphasize things that are happening to other teams so it doesn’t fall deaf on – I don’t know what everybody’s doing. I’m certainly not watching the game live; I’m preparing for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and who knows what a lot of people on the team at that exact time if they’re all watching or not. So we take the unknown out of it and make sure from each and every week, things that are being emphasized or things that other teams are falling victim of, that we learn from it as opposed to learning from it the hard way like they had to. So we try to do that every single time. It’s, I think, an absolute that the foundational principle of offense for us is legal offense. So illegal formations and those presnap penalties are something that was – I think the first question that I had a year ago after the 2022 season when we were doing it a lot, didn’t matter what you do after the snap if the formation is illegal so cool play, effort, strain, all that. And you try to make that point very clear so that guys are trying to, if they want anything to happen after the snap that matters, you should have the appropriate amount of people on the line of scrimmage.”
(I don’t want to make Sunday too much about QB Trevor Lawerence vs. QB Tua Tagovailoa, but it’s difficult not to think about the 2019 college football championship game. Do you think he has any extra motivation to beat the Jags?) – “I think what’s an important feat of our team that it’s hard to have a team lean into anything if the leaders, the captains, the starting quarterback isn’t setting – Those things are real, those narratives are real. It’s what pushes conversation of our great game that we all benefit from. However, there is an art in the National Football League to properly prioritizing your motivations. You can have the extra ones that whatever, but if you want your team to be good, you better be focused on doing things for your teammates and welcoming achievement from team operation. All of those things of how we do our jobs together and the way that we play football is fortunately enough for us because of guys like Tua and countless number of other guys. That’s where we’re worried about because the leaders on the team have demonstrated how to appropriately focus on what actually matters. Because if you get caught up and literally you do not play one snap against Trevor Lawerence, Tua. I know for a fact that his motivations are far superior and they’re all motivated from within the organization, his family and his teammates.”
(You guys play two games in five days. You’ve talked about that a couple of times. In the NBA they have load management. I haven’t seen a ton of that in football. Is that something you guys start to think about?) – “Man, you’re looking at mister load management. (laughter) If you ask the players and you’re listening to how they are describing their day-to-day activities, veterans that have had a lot of success and been on really good teams around the league, new guys on the team, guys that have been here, they all talk about this is the hardest we’ve ever practiced. One of the main reasons guys are able to go above and beyond is because it’s very important to me to earn their trust and understand that we’ll push them while also managing some loads along the way in the course of the week. We do that strategically based upon when we have pads on, what we’re doing where the area of fields are and today is always a focus on timing of pass game and pass defense in the red zone, and then we take the load down; we change our speeds which is another skill for a team that you need to be able to do is how you are able to have intensity of a full-speed competitive practice when you’re trying to manage your bodies. All those things, vet management is an extension of what we do across the board for the team, because you have the science and data. You’re trying to prepare guys for game situations, you’re trying to push their bodies for the natural callus that you need for the National Football League for week-in, week-out football while having them be fast, physical, with elite technique. So to do that, you have to have a common ground. We do that week-in, week-out. Thursday night games are an extension of what a Friday is on a normal week. That’s very different, we’re practicing very different than we usually do because of the load.”
(There is an NFL game happening tonight in Brazil. What’s your take on the NFL trying to become a global brand and would you like to see the Dolphins play a game in Latin America someday?) – “Yeah, I think that sometimes we can’t get out of our own way when we look at our individual jobs and lives and what things require. I’m sure you guys – it’s cool to go to another country but it’s an upheaval in your lives. It can be the same for teams if you let it, and my thing is the growth of the game is paramount to everything that we want and everything that keeps our great game going. All of that, I think it’s an honor to get the opportunity to play a sport that is our country’s rock bed really at this point from a viewership standpoint and then be able to take that to other countries, around the world in particular. It will be very special to us. Hopefully, we’ll get the opportunity some time to play in Latin America based upon being in Miami. I think that is awesome. I lost a lot of sleep and it was uncomfortable in the moment when we went to Germany, but I was also really fired up and privileged, because I know the overall growth of the game is depending on us playing in those atmospheres. I think it’s really cool, and we will jump at the opportunity when given.”
