G/T Robert Hunt
(I wanted to get your thoughts on the move from tackle to guard. When did the coaches let you know? Have you been preparing your body as if you’ll be a guard this year? What have you done differently and how do you think that transition is going?) – “It wasn’t a set thing. I think all of us train to play all five positions, and I’ve been training that way since college, and I’ve been training that way since last year. Just like the next man up, or wherever the coaches need me to play specifically, that’s where I’ll go. I’ve been working at a couple of positions, and it doesn’t feel bad. It’s not bad.”
(You just mentioned playing many positions since college. I was wondering what type of influence did Rob Sale play in your development early on in your career?) – “He played a lot. Coach Sale taught me a lot. I love Coach Sale. Me and him still have a really good relationship to this day. He influenced me and always told me that I would be able to play all five positions, and that’s what I’ve been able to do. I’m just trying to perfect my craft any way I can.”
(I have a question with regards to what Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre calls as I guess the principles of the offensive line with detailed, disciplined, and nasty. I’m wondering how do those traits kind of fit what you bring to the game?) – “I think that is football honestly. I love football. I love playing football. I think at the position that we play we have got to be tough, smart, and nasty, and disciplined. I think that’s just a part of the game and especially for o-linemen. I think that I bring all of those aspects to my game.”
(If I could follow up with you real quick you’ve got G/T Jesse Davis in the room, OL DJ Fluker, I mentioned Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre. They’ve all played multiple positions in their career, and you’re listed as guard/tackle. How have they kind of helped you in terms of learning multiple positions?) – “Like I said, everybody is training different positions, so everybody is always helping each other with everything. Like I said, since college I’ve always been playing every position. I kind of already got the idea of how to switch because I played in college left guard, right guard, right tackle, left tackle. So like I said, whatever I’m needed to do, I’m willing to do that just to help the team.”
(A few minutes ago, Josh mentioned Rob Sale and when I spoke to Rob, this is what he said. He said “Rob can play tackle for a long time in the NFL or he could be a Pro Bowl guard.” So Sale is very high on your projection as a guard. What is the guard mindset, and what about your size and power do you think can translate when you’re at the guard position?) – “This would be my first year playing guard since my sophomore year in college if I do play it. Like I said, we’re all moving around, but it’s football at the end of the day and … (inaudible) whatever I’m needed to do, I hope my body will hopefully allow me to do that. I’m super blessed to be playing this game and to be in this position. Whatever I’m needed to do, I will definitely do that. I know that my body should work with me to help me do that.”
(After you were drafted all of us were informed about your upbringing and the fire at the house and all of that. What has last year kind of meant to you and your family maybe more than financially, but having that stability of an NFL paycheck in your life now?) – “I’m extremely blessed. I wouldn’t take this for granted. I would tell – me passing along to the people in my city or whatever, it’s just a blessing. It’s an honor to be here. Whatever I can do to maintain and keep playing just to do this – I love the game of course – I’m doing this for the game, but it’s definitely a blessing to know where I’ve come from to be here, and to actually be doing what I have to do to and compete for a spot or compete for a job. Just to be in this facility and everything and the NFL is a huge blessing.”
(Just the fact that you’re grateful for it, I mean it probably shows a different mindset than the tackle/guard, where I’ll play and all of that stuff. For you to be here, are you kind of pinching yourself kind of every moment that you have that you kind of reflect that I’m here, and I’m making it, I’m doing something for myself?) – “A little bit. Like I keep saying I’m extremely blessed, but the end of the day, I think it’s going to happen regardless. You never know what’s going to happen in our life. It happens for a reason. God always puts it in our life for a reason, so it was meant to happen regardless since birth. I didn’t know about it, none of us knew about it, but it was going to happen regardless and I’m extremely blessed, like I said. I take it day by day.”
(I wanted to ask you, your fingernails, is that for fashion? Is that for football? What do you have going on?) – “I wouldn’t say for football. It’s definitely for me. This pair’s kind of old, but this is what I like. I think it’s groovy. I think it’s different of course, and I like different.”
(What’s the – I can’t get a great view of it. What do you have going on there?) – “Just a different style. I got a little lightening bolt, I got some stars, I got a heart, I got the moon. Just different things. It just came to my head, and I wanted to put it on my nails. I think it’s fun.”
(Obviously last year you made the transition being a rookie. This year the rookie is T Liam Eichenberg. First of all maybe you can make him carry your pads in training camp – I don’t know if anybody actually made you do that last year. What can you tell Liam? What have you told Liam about making the transition to the league and being a pro?) – “I think that, not just Liam (Eichenberg), but all of the rookies, I think we’ve got a good group first of all. All of them want to learn. All of them want to be really good, I think we’ve got good coaches in ‘Lem’ (Lemuel Jeanpierre, (Erick) Wren, ‘Flats’ (Shawn Flaherty), and we’ve got the older guys. We’re still – second year guys, of course we’re not rookies anymore – but we’re still learning. We’re still very young. We’re just trying to teach them, and we’re still watching the older guys as well. He’s watching and he’s learning just like everybody else. He’s a great kid just like the rest of them. Rob Jones and Larnel (Coleman), all of those guys – really good kid.”
(I promise I’m not trying to get into your financials or anything like that, but was there anything you did like maybe for your family back home like get a new house or buy something or provide for somebody along the way that showed maybe how much you’ve been able to help?) – “No. I definitely haven’t bought a house for anybody. I haven’t bought a house for myself. No, I definitely haven’t done that. I’m still young in my career. I still – like I said, this is a huge blessing for me. I want to take full advantage of it for myself, and of course my family and my future family. Just being smart with my financials. I’m taking it day by day, of course nicks and knacks there. If somebody needs help, of course that’s my family, but nothing serious, nothing too crazy. Nobody has gotten a house yet or anything like that, like myself.”
DT Christian Wilkins
(There’s a lot of talk, especially among the coaching staff, about second-year leaps that players can make in the NFL. You’ve already had your second year. What do you believe you improved on from your first year to your second year?) – “Yeah, definitely that’s a big thing that’s talked about. I feel like for me personally, I just try to hone my overall craft and game. The biggest thing was first trying to get into proper shape to be a pro. I feel like that helped me a lot and then I was able to work from there, just work on my technique, improve as a teammate and as a leader and just everything. I feel like I made a lot of strides in a lot of different areas.”
(If I could follow up on that, I didn’t think you were out of shape as a rookie or anything like that. What do you mean by being in better shape?) – “Well, I’m my biggest critic, so I’m just working on everything. But definitely, I want to be able to feel like I can play at any time, as many snaps as I’m needed, anything like that – run to the ball, get out of the stack, those kind of things. Those things I pride myself on, so that’s where it starts for me.”
(I wanted to congratulate you on being part of the first graduating class from the HBCU Florida Memorial University construction trade program. I wanted to ask you how much pride that brings you, the graduation for that; but also, a little bit about the experience, if you could tell us about it.) – “That was awesome. Obviously last year with everything going on in the world, a group of us just decided to form the social justice impact committee and we’ve been able to make some strides and help out our local area, our community and everything. So I’m proud of all the guys and all their work, and that was great to be a part of. It was better than I could have imagined, just being able to help out our community and get people graduated and things like that, so they can go off in the world and do great things. So that was awesome to see.”
(I saw some video on the Dolphins Twitter of LB Benardrick McKinney walking out there today. He looks like a relatively large man. And LB Jaelan Phillips looks like he’s put together pretty well together too. How do you think those two guys, as sort of newcomers, might be able to have an impact coming from behind you?) – “I feel like those guys, just being around them for the short time that I have been, they’re just guys who soak things up, listen and work hard, from what I’ve seen. I haven’t gotten to play with them or anything like that; but just from what I’ve seen, it’s all looking positive, so I’m excited to see what they can do.”
(What did you think of Marion Hobby’s departure and what approach is Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark taking?) – “I definitely think Coach Clark is a great coach and he’s going to have our d-line ready to go, so I’m excited to see what he can do this year for us and just continue to – it’s the second year with him so I think he’s going to do great and help us out a lot.”
(How did you and DT Raekwon Davis kind of work together last year and where your relationship and comfort level is with him on the d-line next to you is now?) – “Raekwon is my guy. That’s my little baby big brother. (laughter) Nah, me and him are real tight and I’m excited to see him, definitely, in Year 2 because he’s a good player, he works hard as well and is fun to be around. He’s a fun teammate to have.”
(When we were talking to Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark a couple of weeks ago, he said your two-week bout with the COVID-19 protocols may have hurt you. He felt like you were coming on right at that time. Did you finish last season how you wanted to? Do you feel like you kind of left anything out on the field that you wanted to accomplish?) – “Like I said earlier, like I kind of talked about, I’m my biggest critic so I’m always going to be hard on myself. Even if I finished with every stat, every category and every award, it still wouldn’t have been enough. I just look forward to this year and improving this year, and try to be the best player I can be.”
(The football nerd in me has me going back and looking at some of the analytics about your pressures and how they come from multiple different positions along the defensive line. I know a lot of your game is creating chances for other guys as well; but I’m curious from your perspective, what does playing all of those positions do to kind of open up your game and give you more chances? Like how does it benefit you to play so many spots along the d-line?) – “Definitely something that I pride myself on is versatility. Our defense is based off a multiple scheme with multiple fronts and guys who can do a lot of different things; so that’s what a lot of us pride ourselves on. Really, the biggest thing for me is I just like to – wherever I am, I like to try to make an impact and help the team as best as possible. That’s my job. That’s what I’ve got to do and that’s what I try to do down in and down out.”
(You said something earlier about obviously stats not really defining what you are; but I’m curious because on the outside, a lot of fans see sack numbers and that’s how they decide whether people have a good year or not. I’m curious if you have an individual stat or multiple that you look at that maybe defines the best way of how you see, am I playing well or not?) – “The biggest thing for me is I just try to just be a good teammate. I pride myself on that first and foremost. So whatever I’m asked to do, whether it’s hold guys up, whether it’s to make a play, whether it’s to knock guys (down); whatever I’m asked to do, I just like to play within the scheme and be the best I can within my role and be a good teammate first. That’s the No. 1 important thing to me.”
(A lot of the veteran players on the defense – there’s been some turnover with some of the guys who had been there a while, so now as you head into Year 3, you could take on more of a leadership role. I’m curious, what to you being a defensive leader means?) – “Definitely for me it starts with just the work. You’ve got to put in the work in the film room, in the weight room, on the field and then hopefully guys will follow that. It doesn’t always have to be a vocal rah-rah guy or anything like that, but really just serving my teammates is a big thing for me. Whatever anyone needs – rookies, older guys, younger guys – they need someone they can talk (to), anything. That’s what I pride myself on, so definitely just the work, leading by example and then always being myself, bringing that energy, bringing that juice to every day because I really do love this game. As much as it is work, it’s a game and it’s a lot of fun, so bringing that energy and bringing that juice and just being myself.”
(And how do you get other guys – you talk about that energy, that juice. We see you celebrating other guys’ touchdowns. We see just energy that you bring to the sideline. How do you spread that to your teammates so they can sort of match your intensity?) – “Like I said, just being me and doing what I do from that standpoint; it really matters on those days where it’s the 12th practice of camp and everybody’s dead and tired and you’ve got a little bit more of a spark and you’re like, ‘all right, I’ll be the spark today, like I’ll get those guys going. I’ll try to make a play,’ or ‘I’ll try to bring a little energy or just pick it up out here.’ I feel like it’s hard but when the mood can be down or anything like that, you’ve got to always just be yourself day-in and day-out.”
(We just spoke to your teammate G/T Robert Hunt. He had some pretty stylish nails. I was just wondering if that’s a new trend that we don’t know about or is it just a Robert Hunt thing?) – “(laughter) I think that’s just a Hunt thing. I noticed the stylish nails; but yeah, that’s just him.”
(Is that something you can see other guys maybe picking up on and being just as stylish as your man Rob Hunt?) – “Maybe. (laughter) To each his own, I guess. I don’t know.”
(I wanted to ask you, how has it kind of been lining up against the offensive line this season? Obviously you have T Liam Eichenberg and G/T Robert Hunt making the transition. How has the offensive line kind of looked to you at an early glance?) – “I really like our offensive line group just because they’re good teammates and they’re guys who work hard and they’re very helpful. Just in between plays, ‘What were y’all trying to do here?’ Or ‘how can I service you guys?’ Or whatever it is. Like when we’re getting looks, just that kind of stuff and I know we’ve just got a hard-working group of offensive linemen and they’re fun to be around. Like I said, they’re good teammates so I really do like them.”
(We asked you about what you’ve done the first couple years. What do you want to accomplish this upcoming season?) – “Really just the day-in and day-out improvement. Just get one percent better and the rest will take care of itself. Just get better at the small things and the big things will come. So every day, just locking in on the little details, just trying to find ways to finetune my body, try to find ways to finetune my spirit, my game, all that. Like I said, the little things so those will lead to the big things.”
