DE Emmanuel Ogbah
(You’re doing a lot of standing up. I don’t know, does this go back to anything you’ve done previously in your career, I know you’ve played in a lot of schemes.) – “I would say similar to Cleveland. I got drafted as an outside linebacker, so I stood up some in Cleveland. But yeah it’s definitely new again. I’ve got to do a lot more of that just to get accustomed to it.”
(Did you expect to be standing up as opposed to hand in the ground in this scheme?) – “I knew Vic (Fangio) was a versatile coach so he puts his best players in the best position available. I’m learning the three point and two point stances just to be able to do multiple positions.”
(LB Jerome Baker told us yesterday when asked what’s something surprising about Vic Fangio… for someone that age he’s actually really funny. Is that something you’ve noticed about him as well?) – “Yeah. You can tell he’s a no non-sense coach, but he does bring energy to the room, and he does make some jokes here and there just to keep us entertained.”
(What has LB David Long Jr. meant to the defense both in the meeting rooms and on the practice field?) – “He’s a good leader for us. He’s fast – fast off the ball. He moves very well. Yesterday he had one play where he came down, dipped on Liam (Eichenberg) and came downhill and smacked the running back. We like that from our linebackers, especially the d-line. We want those guys to come get those double teams off of us.”
(You’ve seen this offensive line with T Terron Armstead. What does he bring to that offensive line?) – “That leadership. That vet leadership. He does a lot for us. When healthy, he’s the best he can be. We definitely need him this year. I know he’s doing the best he can to get back. I can’t wait until he’s out there with the group to teach the younger guys.”
(Yesterday TE Durham Smythe said that this is the best front seven in the NFL. From the pass-rushing standpoint, how good will you guys be?) – “As good as we want to be. We have definitely a bunch of talented rushers. We’ve got outside, inside, Christian (Wilkins) doing his thing, Zach (Sieler) doing his thing, Raekwon (Davis) is even rushing good too. We all can rush at different positions. Vic (Fangio) is going to make us …”
(You’ve been through this experience that a lot of these guys who are going into free agency have done before – finished out a contract, you’ve played on a contract, wanted an extension, didn’t get it, then you eventually got the extension. What’s that mindset for a player when they are in that business point of their career?) – “Like I was during my situation, I was just focused on the team. Focused on getting better. Control what you can. It’s definitely tough in that player’s position, but you just got to keep your head down and keep working. You never know what can happen at any time.”
(What was it like having CB Jalen Ramsey out there with you guys?) – “It’s been good. It’s unfortunate what happened to him. We’re definitely going to miss him, but I know he’s going to attack that rehab and come back fast. We’ll definitely miss him.”
T Terron Armstead
(For starters, how did it feel to finally get to be back out there?) – “It was great. It was great. It was fun being back out there with the guys and cross the lines. To be right there, talk with them, do some drills, some handwork stuff, get ready to get going.”
(What can you tell us about your offseason? We understand you had a right knee procedure. How tough of a decision was that? Were there decisions to make about surgery on other body parts?) – “Yeah, it was a process. It was a process. I wasn’t trying to get any procedures done, but that one in particular, I really had no other choice. It was by far the best decision to go ahead and get cleaned up. I feel great.”
(How is your toe feeling at this point? I know you dealt with it a lot last year.) – “Yeah, it’s good. It’s good. I’m good, ready to roll.”
(How much work do you anticipate getting in over the next several weeks ramping up?) – “They’ve got a plan for me, program for me. I’m just trying to stick with it. We’re progressing, kind of going through a little bit of a slow progression in my opinion, but I’m not arguing or combatting. I’m here to play, so I’d love to get out there and compete. I’m also in Year 11 and I’ve been through 10 training camps before, so it’s a little bit of a balance.”
(As a follow-up, how much do you need?) – “It’s kind of hard to say, really, until you get out there and do it. Everybody is going to have rust. Even with experience and muscle memory, you still have some things to work out – timing, hand placement, getting the feel for certain things. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to grasp quickly when I’m in, but we’re sticking to the plan.”
(You say it’s a slow progression. Slow progression for you is probably a lot faster than what they want, right?) – “Yeah, for sure, but I’m being disciplined. I’ve been a professional, just taking it a day at a time.”
(How tough is that?) – “It’s challenging. It’s challenging, but working with my guys though has been great. I’m seeing so much progress from them, the intent, attention to detail and the execution has been great. So today, just being able to be on the field and be more hands-on in a sense and help out more than being off to the sideline, today was great.
(Have there been any takeaways from watching some of those team drills in the trenches before you got back?) – “It’s been a bit of a battle, some highs and lows. We want to kind of even it out more on a more consistent basis. We don’t want explosive plays and then big negatives. We want more consistency. So staying on that task and keeping that the focus – the goal of o-line play is consistency, that’s what you always want to see.”
(What seems to be the point of emphasis for the new o-line coach?) – “Speed, velocity off the ball, controlling the line of scrimmage. We want to dominate and dictate that line of scrimmage as much as possible. If we do that, if we knock people off the ball a yard or two, we have a great chance to win a lot of games.”
(I’m sure if I asked any player in that locker room, they would all say that they would love to play 17 games this year. But for you especially, how much would that mean?) – “That’s goal No. 1, man. Goal No. 1. I’m going to keep going for it, doing everything I can to make it a reality. I’m here to play. I’m here to play, so that’s goal No. 1. All I’m focusing on right now is today and then the next one and then the next one. I’m not going to look too far ahead.”
(Last year when you and QB Tua Tagovailoa were on the field versus when you weren’t, this offense was just clicking when you guys were together. Was that a realization that “Hey, we’re two pretty big parts of this offense, we both need to be available?”) – “That’s not a secret. That’s not a secret. You need your best players to play and play their best. Especially when you’re getting down into the stretch into the playoffs, we’re going to need all our players to be playing our best football. So me, Tua, Tyreek (Hill), (Emmanuel) Ogbah, David Long (Jr.), Christian (Wilkins) – we’re going to need the best players to be the absolute best.”
(I know you spend so much of your offseason kind of working with younger players, instructing o-line masterminds and things like that. I’m curious at this stage of your career, do you still find things to add to your game at this point of your career?) – “For sure. For sure. I think how I’ve been able to do it for a long time is continue to evolve and add tools to my toolbox. I learn things from first-year, second-year players just by watching them. The cool thing about o-line play is we’ve got all the answers on film, so you can go back and see what do guys do to combat this move or combat this stunt. So you’ve got the answers on film, so you can go back and watch and then you try to go execute. Try to add more tools to the toolbox.”
(Do you get your most beneficial work in joint practices or in preseason games?) – “Joint practice.”
(Why is that?) – “It’s been a minute since I’ve played a preseason game, for sure. I’m not against it of course. I’ll do whatever I need to do. But those joint practices, you get a chance in a more controlled setting to continue to practice and work on adding tools to your toolbox. So in a joint practice, I feel much more comfortable taking a jump set or switching up a set than I would in a game. In a game, you want to go through what you know works the most. In practice, we’re finetuning and we’re perfecting our craft. That’s more an advantage and a time for you to really work and perfect your craft.”
(I noticed you boxing on the sideline. I know it’s something you’ve been doing for a while, but what exactly has boxing done for you in your career since you took that up?) – “Just cardio, low impact on the joints as opposed to running as much. So just getting a lot of cardio, then precision with the hands and once you get tired, just that mental fortitude that it builds, that mental toughness.”
(Are there things that carry over from that to your initial punch when a play starts?) – “I try to make it correlate as I’m training, but it’s two different worlds, two different sports. I box from a left-handed stance because I play left tackle even though I’m right-handed. So I try to make it correlate as much as I can, but not necessarily because (Emmanuel) Ogbah is doing all this (moves his arms). If he’s boxing like that, I’m going to knock him out. (laughter) Doing all of that, you feel me?”
(Your boxing or QB Tua Tagovailoa’s jiu-jitsu?) – “I’d whoop Tua. (laughter)”
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Opening Statement) – “I think the team looks really good thus far. There’s a lot of things that still need to be done as far as work. Special teams is looking good out there. I was going to say great but they look good. Still working to great. Good back-and-forth offense and defense.”
(About 15 minutes ago, T Terron Armstead said he would whoop you. No context needed, but no he’s talking about jiu-jitsu versus boxing. Your reaction?) – “I give respect to him. I give respect to the OG. That’s it.”
(Staying with that physicality topic. We’ve heard a lot about the jiu-jitsu, but that itself didn’t help you bulk up this summer. I’m curious, what was your workout routine? What went into the pounds, the muscle that you put on over the offseason?) – “Just a lot of heavier weights. A lot more reps with the heavier weights, things like that. But everything that I did this offseason entailed to what would keep me on the field for the entirety of the season. We understand that freaky things can happen. It’s football. It’s a physical sport. Not everything that you prepare for is what you’re going to get. So, I did the best that I could to get myself ready and prepped for this season as far as injuries go.”
(Can you describe the difference that you’ve felt on the field so far with the jiu-jitsu? Coach mentioned a backflip during OTA’s, stuff like that and what you foresee this doing for you in games?) – “Yeah, so let me give you context. I did not backflip. I got hit from someone in front of me. I have no idea who it was, but I sort of hit a little somersault going backwards and I flipped backwards. No backflips over here though. But I think to that, it was cool to see because now, in a weird way, it’s like the quarterback room cheers when we start to do that. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing that we’re doing jiu-jitsu falls. But it’s hard to gauge that because that was the first time I’ve done it. It’s hard to gauge it because these guys on the opposite side of the ball have got to stay away from the quarterback. No one can really touch me. So, the only time you can really put that to use is in a real, live situation game.”
(What is an example of some of the instinct and muscle memory that jiu-jitsu training can do for you?) – “Yeah, I would say with the muscle memory thing of it, it’s not to where it’s something that’s muscle memory yet for me. I don’t think that’ll be something that, you know, become muscle memory unless I do it for like a year or two years. And I think that’s for anything. You’re very conscious of it. It’s in the back of your mind when you do end up doing it. But it’s not like, ‘Oh, if I’m falling this way, I know exactly how to fall right here.’ Unless I’m actually thinking of doing it that way. So I’ve just got to continue to work on it and practice it.”
(You’ve talked about staying healthy for the course of the season. Your helmet looks a little bit different this year. Was that designed? Did it come from what happened last year with the concussions. Was that part of it?) – “Yeah, definitely took into consideration the helmets. It was like a percentage better than the helmet that I had. Everything matters and so I’m going to play that percentage. So if you look at it last year, it wasn’t anyone really hitting my head. It was really just the ground.”
(Do you plan on wearing that helmet?) – “I think I’ll start out with that helmet. I feel very comfortable with that helmet. The helmet feels good. So, we’ll see how that goes.”
(Are you one who needs preseason work? You haven’t played since December. Is that something you’re looking forward to or do you think maybe it’s best to just wait for the regular season?) – “I think whatever work we need as an offense, whatever Mike (McDaniel) thinks we need, I’m for it. Whether I play in all the preseason games, I play in none, I play in one, it doesn’t matter.”
(I wanted to ask you about the back-and-forth at practice and we have seen a lot of that except for that 12-sack performance. What does that do for you guys from a corrections standpoint and from a progression standpoint?) – “I would say the way we look at it is not result-based. It’s basically letting everyone finish with whatever technique they got, so regardless of if it was a sack, our defense gives us the opportunity to continue to read it out, to extend plays. It also gives the guys on the back end an opportunity to continue to play within a broken-down play or if a quarterback escapes the pocket, they’re going to have to move around and maneuver how they’re going to cover guys. So I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily result-based, although there are things that we have gotten corrected in every area whether it’s a blocking scheme, a route, how the guys are running the routes, how we’re looking at reading certain routes, our progressions in the plays, then where the checkdowns are, all of that. I think it’s really good when we’re able to look at it like that and not ‘oh, I got sacked.’ Next play.”
(We’ve seen what happens when T Terron Armstead is out there before our eyes. What are some of the things that we don’t see that Terron does for this offense and this offensive line?) – “He’s a coach. ‘T. Stead’ is a coach. He’s in the offensive line room. He’s coaching them after practice. He’s grabbing a lot of guys. He’s helping them with their technique. He’s in the back there coaching them, although he’s not in. He does a lot. He expects a lot out of those guys up front regardless of who’s in and he’s just a great teammate.”
(We’ve heard a lot about the complexity of this defense from some of the guys on defense. I know it’s only six days of practice so far, but how is that work against that defense on the field and the film room kind of helped you so far?) – “Very tough. It’s very tough. It’s hard to distinguish what’s going to happen pre-snap and post-snap. I think Vic (Fangio) does a good job with his defense and aligning guys where they need to align and making everything look the same for both run-action, pass-action and I think what I see a lot more this time, this year with the defense is there’s a lot of communication. So I know everyone sees the camera that we have on our head. When we watch it, we get to see when we’re motioning guys, there’s a lot of communication going on in the back end and up front. It’s a lot more than what I’ve seen the past couple years.”
(For you as a quarterback, how tough is it to live to see another play? Just throw the ball away it isn’t there. How tough is that because you like to extend plays?) – “It’s always tough to live to see another play. It’s always tough. We want to do good. We all want to have the big play. We want to get the ball completed to the right guys, the open guys. But that’s tough. It’s just tough. I don’t know how else to explain that.”
(I know you said it was a good back-and-forth throughout the first week-plus of training camp, but I saw the way you were celebrating on the RB Chris Brooks run. It seemed like you guys were really executing. Do you think this was the best day of practice for the offense so far?) – “Like I (said earlier), it’s not result-based for us. It’s really how can we all get each other better and we’re looking at what everyone did right, what everyone did wrong at our position, and it’s not just me being in there, but it’s also the other guys in there, things that I can learn from them and other guys are doing the same with their positions as well.”
(That was a sweet touchdown to RB Chris Brooks.) – “Yeah, that was crazy. That was awesome. He was running fast.”
(You celebrated that for a minute, you were high-stepping.) – “Yeah, I was excited. That was cool. Any more questions?”
(Your chemistry with WR Tyreek Hill – have you seen a little bit of an improvement so far in training camp compared to last year? Obviously the chemistry was really good last year, too.) – “Yeah, I would say my chemistry with Tyreek (Hill), my chemistry with Jaylen (Waddle), my chemistry with everyone on the field, it’s continuing to be a work in progress. You get comfortable at one point, but you’ve got to continue to work at it with their route depths, with where I’m expecting them to be, with where they’re thinking they should be, things like that.”
LB Jaelan Phillips
(Opening Statement) – “I know I spoke to a few of you guys (a couple days ago) but real quick, I just wanted to make a little announcement. DCC registration opens today. It’s going to be the 14th annual (event) on February 24, 2024. Obviously DCC is an amazing cause doing cancer research for Sylvester (Comprehensive Cancer Center). All of us have either been affected directly or have had a loved one, someone they know, affected by cancer. If you guys could spread the word for me, I’ll be serving as a board member for the second consecutive year and obviously participating in the ride this year, as well. A lot of fun things happening. A lot of money going to a great cause. If you guys could help share that information, that would be great.”
(Why did you decide to join the board and why is it so important to you?) – “Me personally, I’ve had several family members both die and be affected by cancer. So for me, it was important to join the board. I think it is a great initiative. To be able to represent my team and show what the Dolphins do as a community and the efforts that we make, it was just important for me to do. It’s really the least I can do, honestly.”
(I’ve heard you’ve ridden 100 miles the last two years. Is there training involved in that?) – “There’s a little bit of training but for me, it’s more of a mental thing, honestly. Obviously I want to do the ride because it’s a great cause but it was also a little bit of a challenge for me. When I told my girlfriend and my parents and stuff like that I was going to do it, they were like, ‘No way you can do 100 miles. You’ve never ridden a bike like that before.’ So I was like, ‘Alright, watch me.’ So yeah, it’s definitely intense. Funny enough, they’re actually changing the distances this year. They’re going to do 99 miles for Jason Taylor, 54 for Zach Thomas, (39 for Larry Csonka and 13 for Dan Marino) and kind of coordinating it with our Hall of Famers. It’s pretty cool.”
(When does your butt stop hurting?) – “(laughter) I think the better question is when does it start hurting. It starts hurting around mile 50 and then mile 60 then mile 80 is real rough. That last stretch you’re just absolutely dead and waiting for that finish line. Like I said, it’s such an amazing cause. Once you get to the finish line and see all of the people you rode with and all of the cancer survivors and stuff like that, it really is a truly fulfilling feeling.”
(This is a passing league and pass rush is kind of the counter to that. Tell me how you think this pass rush can control games or alter games, especially under Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio this season?) – “Yeah, I mean obviously pass rush is one of the major components of the game and being able to have a successful pass rush can really determine the success of the defense. Obviously everybody is important and marrying, like I’ve said before, the back end with the pass rush is important. But to be able to affect the quarterback play in and play out, whether it’s sacks, pressures, hits or hurries, it is really invaluable when it comes to – it definitely plays into the quarterback. I think with our team, we have incredible talent all around. We’ve got a lot of depth. We’ve got guys who can rush inside, outside, guys who can really do it all. So I’m really excited to see how we keep jelling together. A really cool thing about it too is I’ve played with a couple of the guys for three years now and they’ve played for four years, so we’re really cohesive as a unit. We have a lot of fun playing together.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel gave a good scouting report on the edges. He said you guys can basically do whatever you want so it’s hard to get a book on you. Is that accurate?) – “I mean not whatever we want. There’s limitations obviously. (laughter) But 100 percent. I think there’s obviously a little bit of freedom within the constraints of our defense. I think that’s one really cool thing about this year is being able to use our athleticism and really just attack them in different ways. I would also say the same thing for our offense, too. Not that they can do whatever they want but they’re very multiple and so it gives us a lot of challenging looks and really trains our eyes.”
(How do you think you’ve improved as a pass rusher? What is something that you’ve really gotten better that you are excited to kind of showcase when the season starts?) – “I think I’m trying to keep improving, honestly. But one thing I’ve been working on this offseason is keying on my hands, on my technique in general, my bend, top of the rush, things like that. This game is really a game of inches and I think a lot of my pressures last year, if I had just been a little bit better with my hips, with my hands, with my feet, I could have turned those into sacks. So that’s something I’m steadily trying to improve on and trying to be a technician and really master the art of pass rushing.”
