WR Lynn Bowden Jr.
(I wanted to ask you about last Sunday. What did that performance that you had mean to you?) – “It meant a lot. Just getting the ball and stuff like that. It felt good. That’s what they brought me here for.”
(I wanted to ask you, how would you put your rookie season in your own words and what has this process and journey to become a receiver – I don’t know if that’s what you consider yourself – what’s it been like?) – “I wouldn’t say it’s a process. I played three years of receiver at Kentucky, so I’m bettering myself. I’m bettering the guys around me … My rookie season, I could describe it as a lesson. A lesson for life.”
(Earlier this season, Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey had talked about getting you more involved with just the basic install that you missed by not being here in August. I was curious how your progression in the offense has gone from the time you got here in September and kind of playing catch up throughout the course of the season?) – “That’s a Coach Chan question, for real. That’s not really a question for me. I don’t really like to talk about myself. I’m here, I’m learning. I’m just trying to contribute the best I can and as much as they let me.”
(Obviously you’re a player that once you get the ball in your hands, you can obviously make some plays and make some magic happen. What excites you about having the ball in your hands? What excites you about making plays and being a playmaker?) – “Sometimes it comes natural. It’s a God-given ability with the ball in my hands and it just feels good to have the ball in my hands and being able to make plays.”
(What’s that like in terms of – that ability that you have, I would say it’s a rare trait where you generally can make the first guy miss. I know you say it’s instinctive, but what goes through your mind when a defender is coming to you?) – “To be honest, I really don’t know. Sometimes I look at the film and ask myself how I did it, so it’s just instinct.”
(A minute ago, you mentioned that you would describe this season as “a lesson. A lesson for life.” What did you mean by that? What have you learned through this season?) – “Things will change fast.”
(Can you take us back to a little bit of when you first started playing football? What was that like and what kind of joy does playing football bring to you?) – “I started at the age of 5 in my grandma’s yard with my cousins and my brothers and them, and it just really developed me into who I am today.”
(Earlier you mentioned that you were at Kentucky initially then you had that year as a quarterback. I’m curious, what does seeing the game from that quarterback position do to help you gain more perspective as a receiver?) – “Moving from quarterback to receiver and then receiver to quarterback, you get the best of both worlds because now as a receiver, you’re seeing how the quarterback looks at it and as a quarterback, you’re seeing how the receiver is seeing it. So I have the best of both worlds of being able to read coverages and seeing the different disguises and stuff like that.”
S Bobby McCain
(What goes through your mind when WR Tyreek Hill motions and shifts like he usually does in Kansas City’s offense? How many calls do you have to make to make sure that everybody is on the same page?) – “Depending on the game plan. That’s just my role being on the defense – getting guys in the right place, understanding where we’re at and understanding the things that beat us is something that comes with it. I’d love to tell you how many checks I’d have to make, but I’m not. We definitely do a great job as a defense and as a secondary understanding that when things move, things can change.”
(You’re going to have to make decisions on the back end with guys like WR Tyreek Hill coming up the seam or other players like WR Sammy Watkins and WR Mecole Hardman. When you have to make the decision between two guys and what side of the field you’re going to defend, how difficult is that in general?) – “You just have to play football. You have to play good football, rely on your fundamentals, you know the ball is going to be in the air. As a defender, as a free, as a corner, as a safety, you know the ball is going to be in the air, so you have to do what you know and attack the football.”
(How much as a defense are you guys looking forward to seeing how you matchup and measure up against this KC offense that so few teams have been able to slow down?) – “I know everybody outside of the building is excited about the game, and we’re excited about the game too – it’s a good challenge for us, and a good challenge for them as well – but you’ve got to take it week to week. This is our week’s preparation. We know they are a good team, we know they’ve got really good players, and so do we. At the end of the day, I’m not looking at matchups. I’m looking at we have a job to do. Everybody knows we have to play well and the goal is to come out with a ‘W.’
(Head Coach Brian Flores talked about you guys being in position to be in some meaningful games here. What does that mean to you at this age of your time being with the Dolphins to be in this position right now?) – “It’s big. It’s a really good chance for teams to recognize that it’s serious and these are big games. Every game is a big game. This week is a big game, next week – each week is a big game, especially at this point with everything being so tight. We are taking it week-to-week, understanding that these games are going to be tighter, these games are going to get harder – it’s going to get harder to win these games – and that’s December football. We’re happy to be a part of it.”
(I wanted to ask you about CB Byron Jones’ role, not just on the team football-wise but his palce in the locker room and kind of that community of the locker room. I know that he is the head of the Dolphins’ social impact committee and today he was announced as the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Can you talk about Byron’s role and that aspect of the game and of this team?) – “Byron does a great job in the community, putting forth his best effort. Even if it’s not getting the entire thing done, just taking small steps, we appreciate that. As a teammate, he’s a great teammate. He’s smart, he’s a good player and we all appreciate it, and he knows that.”
(What do you remember about the 2016 playoff run and what it took to get there?) – “The one thing I remember – the big thing is being in and finishing the close games. We had so many tight games that year that finished like the last play or the last two or three plays. It’s not like you’re sitting on the sideline with three minutes left and you’re holding a two-possession lead. These games were 3-yard line, it’s fourth down and you have to get a win. That’s what I remember the most about it and understanding that it’s a fun time to go through with your brothers, with your teammates and with your family because it means something. These games, when you win them in December, it means something.”
CB Byron Jones
(Congratulations on the nomination. Can you put into words for us what it means to you?) – “Thank you. It’s just, when I came to Miami, the support staff that we have here and kind of how they help us, we reached out to community leaders and really made a difference. I think that’s what made the biggest difference. I know that when I come to work, I have a group of people that is really helping me pursue things that are important off the field and the Miami Dolphins since Day 1 have been doing a good job at putting me in contact, and my other teammates in contact, with people that can really make a difference in this community.”
(I know obviously this has been a year with a lot of social justice, and you’ve been part of the social justice impact committee. What about your background do you … to be active in that respect?) – “I think in – it’s really early 2020, where I looked myself in the mirror and asked myself, ‘am I doing enough?’ And that answer was no. And I never wanted to get back to that point. I just made a commitment to myself that I’m going to be a part of positive change instead of just being on the sideline and really waiting for someone else to do it. I often think everyone kind of knows what to do, but everyone kind of expects someone else to do it and I’m just taking the responsibility and holding myself accountable to really help. I’ve been blessed my entire life, so it’s really time to give back to people who are not as fortunate as me.”
(Congrats on the nomination. I do have a football question. Obviously the defense has played such a critical role here this season. What are your thoughts on the Chiefs and the threat they possess with all their weapons?) – “They have one of the best offenses I’ve seen in a long time – really weapons across the board. It’s just for us defensively, it’s really just sticking to our fundamentals – cover, rush, tackle. Just cover, rush, tackle; it’ll be okay.”
(If I could ask you about your part of that whole equation, there’s been a lot of conversation about you and CB Xavien Howard being the best cornerback duo in the NFL. You’re the highest-paid cornerback duo in the NFL. Is a game like this an opportunity to prove all that, to pay dividends on all that?) – “’X’ (Xavien Howard) and I, our main goal is to just play good, solid football every single game. We want turnovers, we want to put hands on receivers, we want to stay patient at the line of scrimmage. Regardless of who we’re playing against, our goal is always the same thing and that’s what we wish to accomplish and we’ve done a pretty good job to this point. But December football is where it really counts, and this is where teams really separate themselves, so we both have to step up and really perform these next couple of weeks, especially this week.”
(How would you say the level of community engagement by players in the NFL and professional athletes in general has changed over your time in the league and why do you think it has changed?) – “Truthfully when I came in, I didn’t have a really good pulse because I wasn’t really doing much in my community back in Dallas. But just to see coordinated efforts across different teams and different sports is – that’s what I think is really impactful, is when people organize and really push and pressure officials to make changes. And I think that’s where it’s most important, is getting everyone on board and really pushing them to step up to the plate essentially. I think that’s what has changed a lot in the past year, so that’s exciting. That’s definitely exciting. We know that it’s not a perfect country. There’s things that we can fix, so let’s fix them.”
(I know on the field in Dallas, you guys played a lot of national TV games, marquee games. This one feels like maybe the bigger game for the year for you guys. I know probably the talk is it’s just another game, but I’m sure as players you guys got to feel the levity of maybe an opponent like this. What do you maybe tell the guys about how to keep their cool but still show up to the moment?) – “We haven’t had a single conversation about that, to be honest. We’re just here to play football; so we practice at the same time every day, we meet at the same time every day. We know what the challenge is, but it’s nothing to get yourself overworked at. Just do what we’re coached to do, stay on our X’s and O’s and then we’ll be okay. That’s how football – if you get yourself all riled up, you start doing things that are outside of your character, so we haven’t had discussions like that to be honest.”
(How does one go about competing and contending with the speed of a Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill?) – “He’s got a special gear and they’ve got a couple guys on that offense who can really run. You’ve got to understand how he’s used on a weekly basis and truly try your best to limit his impact on the game. He’s going to get some – there’s no question about that – but our job defensively is to limit that as much as we can. So that’s the challenge. That’s the fun challenge for us. We probably haven’t seen speed like this in a while, so just play good ball and chips will fall our way.”
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to ask you about the barbecue care package Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid sent you after the season last year. He spoke a little bit about it with us on a conference call. Just what was that like to get that gift from them and what were some things in it?) – “It was good barbecue. It went fast. I had my brothers over. I’m not sure – we had a ton of people over and we enjoyed it, so I was very thankful to Andy (Reid) for that and it went very quickly. Kansas City barbecue is very good.”
(First, I wanted to tell you I was running yesterday and I listened to a song from 2 Chainz called One Day At A Time and I thought about you. I thought that would be a good song for you to put on your playlist because of the title.) – “I’ll write that down.”
(I actually do have a real question. We saw that QB Tua Tagovailoa shed that splint or the tape that he was wearing over the last week or so. How is he progressing and I guess it’s a good sign that he doesn’t need to wear that in practice anymore?) – “I think he’s feeling better from that standpoint. I think he’s got, like everyone else, bumps and bruises that he’s handled over the last few games that he’s been playing. But yeah, I think he’s feeling a little bit better as far as that particular – the hand – and I think he, like everyone else, is trying to prepare as best he can for a very, very, very strong opponent and a very good defense. They really do a lot of things from a disguise standpoint, from a front standpoint, from a coverage standpoint. He shed the whatever he had on his hand, but he’s got other issues as far as dealing with the Chiefs, so that’s kind of where his focus is and our focus is.”
(I was curious, you guys have a lot of championship pedigree on your roster. You have players that won championships in college, certainly in the NFL How do you look for that sort of personality? Do they have to be a winner in the past for you to even consider them a champion or can you sense those things going in? And how much can that pay off in huge games like you have now?) – “I don’t think really any of that – anything that’s happened in the past – really matters right now. Those are different teams, different years, people change over time for a myriad of reasons – on the field, off the field. Every team, every year is a little bit different, so college, pros, different teams; I guess I don’t look too much into that. I’m just focused on this particular team, this particular week against this particular opponent. I don’t think really much of that is – I don’t think it has much to do with this week. So I like the guys we have here. They’re tough, they’re competitive, they’re smart. Football is really important to them. They’re team-first. If you want to take those qualities and put a label on that, then to me that’s just what we’re looking for in a Dolphin.”
(I know we talked a lot about the pressure that you guys bring on the defense, but I guess I was looking and the Chiefs bring a lot of pressure as well. How do you prep the o-line and QB Tua Tagovailoa for that, knowing they’ll probably bring more against a young o-line and a young quarterback?) – “I know people talk extensively about the offense, but this defense and special teams is – they’re for real. I don’t think they get enough credit. This is a, I would say, top-level defense from my standpoint. I think ‘Spags’ (Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) does a great job. I think those two safeties are very good – really three safeties including (Juan) Thornhill. The corners are very good in press and man coverage, and obviously we know about Frank Clark and Chris Jones and (Anthony) Hitchens makes a lot of tackles. This is a good team, so this will be a tough – and they bring pressure. They bring pressure from a lot of areas like you mentioned. I didn’t mean to kind of go off on a tangent there, but the corners blitz, the backers blitz, the ends drop; they’ve got guys coming from all over the place. They do a good job of disguising. Yeah, this is a good group. This is a very good group.”
(Back in August, we talked about the offensive line makeup – how there was so much turnover. To be able to go back to that topic, what’s it been like having an G Ereck Flowers, a G/T Jesse Davis, a C Teddy Karras in the room to be able to kind of limit that rookie curve with those three primarily hoping to be options for you guys moving forward, in terms of the three rookies?) – “I think (General Manager) Chris (Grier) did a really nice job – Chris, (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore), the personnel staff – as far as having a feeling that we were going to have some young players and then bringing in some veteran players to help those young players along. So we had Jesse (Davis), we brought in Ted (Karras) and Ereck (Flowers) and I think those guys have really brought some leadership and good play to our offensive line and really helped these young guys along. We feel good about the entire group and hopefully we just continue to improve and get better. This week is challenging as a week as we’ve had all year, just from an opponent standpoint specific to players – individual players, but also an overall team defense that really communicates well, really disguises well, really gives you different looks in the back end but also different looks in the front. There’s a lot of, let’s call it … movement up front, so they really make you work from a communication standpoint across the board. That’s what good defenses do, and ‘Spags’ (Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) has done a great job. ‘B.D.’ (Chiefs Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line) Brendan Daly has done a really nice job. This will be definitely a tough test for our o-line, but really our entire offense.”
(I saw something on social media about a relief effort in Honduras with the Honduran Consulate. How’d that come about and can you give us a little bit more detail on that?) – “I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago as far as some hurricane relief for the people down in Honduras, so we just worked with (Senior Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs) Jason Jenkins and our community relations (staff) and got in touch with the consulate from Honduras and put some – with help from Publix – put some packages together and with Spirit Airlines, we a flew a plane down there and just gave them some support, some things that they needed – a variety of things. They needed some support and we were happy to help and I just think about the family I have down there – aunts, uncles, my Tía Chola, my Tío Bocho, Tío Paulito – all my family down there. So I just think about them and to them, I just tell them I love them and I’m praying for them. Te quiero mucho (I love you so much) and we just try to keep supporting them.”
(I wanted to ask you a question about WR Lynn Bowden Jr. Obviously you guys have had him for a while and developed him for a while and he’s been behind in your stuff because he got here after the trade. What’s kind of holding him back from contributing more, especially since I know you generally give guys who perform well in practice that opportunity?) – “I think he contributed quite a bit last week. I think he had a run for a good chunk and a few passes. I thought he played well last week. I don’t think he’s really being held back. Maybe you see it differently. He had four or five catches last week, he had a run, made some blocks in the running game, so I think he’s really improving and getting better. His progress over the past three or four weeks has been good. Hopefully he continues to be productive and help us. I don’t think he’s being held back. I don’t really see that. If anything, he’s going the other way. Maybe you see it a little bit differently.”
(We saw on the wire that WR Isaiah Ford begun the COVID testing process with you guys. What was the thinking in bringing him back? Also, we saw Tight Ends Coach George Godsey working with QB Tua Tagovailoa again last week. Have you changed responsibilities at all for Godsey and Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown? I know Godsey was needed with the quarterbacks when Brown was out.) – “I wouldn’t go too deep into it. The game day process, I think we wanted to keep that the same after Robby’s situation. As a staff, we all work together. Robby is still with the quarterbacks, George works with the tight ends, George works with the – we all kind of work together. The quarterbacks coach really works with the quarterbacks specifically, but there is so much conversation between the backs, the quarterbacks, the receivers. It’s really pretty much intertwined. From a game day standpoint, we just wanted to keep that where it was. You mentioned Isaiah Ford. That’s really more of a Chris (Grier), (Assistant General Manager) Marvin (Allen), Brandon (Shore) question. I know we brought him in for a visit. We’ll just see where it goes. There are COVID protocols that we have to go through and then we’ll take it from there.”
