RB Raheem Mostert
(I wanted to ask you about the resilience that the team showed yesterday. Obviously CB Jalen Ramsey isn’t there, T Terron Armstead isn’t there, back and forth game. You guys showed this resilience last year, this fighting spirit. What does that do for a team? How do you acquire it, how do you use it and what does it do for you?”) – “It’s apparent, just to see the guys that can go out there and step up and make the plays. Even in a shootout game with the Chargers, it was a little bit of – not revenge, but we were still thinking about last year and how that game turned out with some key guys that we missed at the time. To be able to go out there in Week 1 and get the win that we did, that team was really good in all aspects of the game, especially with how their offense was rolling on all cylinders and it just seemed like we had to come back and fight even more so on our side. The resilience by all the guys is second to none. You could just see how it all played out, especially with the win that we got. Fairly happy, I know it’s Week 1 and we still have some wrinkles that we need to iron out but all in all, you can’t be more impressed.”
(What was it like in the huddle there on that final game-winning drive? What were you guys talking about and just going through mentally in that last drive?) – “Just act like you’ve been there before. It was one of those things where we knew we were down by however many points and then all of a sudden, just got to go down the field and make the plays happen and connect. Obviously you see what Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill were able to do on that last play. That’s something that we’ve been working on this offseason and even into training camp. It paid off fairly well I could say and it’s just awesome that we were in that position. No team wants to be in that position in the last few minutes of the game, but for us, it was one of those things where you just have to get the job done so we were able to do that.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said a month ago that he thinks that QB Tua Tagovailoa looks like the best version of himself the explosiveness off the top of the drop, different clubs in his bag on different types of throws. Have you noticed that in a second year with Tua?) – “I even mentioned during training camp when I was being interviewed. He definitely has that mindset of going out there and getting it and being dominant. He’s a guy that puts a lot on his shoulders, but at the same time he can handle it. You see what he’s doing out there and it’s just amazing. I mean, to go from Year 1 to Year 2 in the way that he’s doing it, he had a good start at the beginning of the year, last year, but yesterday was an even better start. You can only grow from there. Whether that be in the pass game, in the run game, he’s going to do what he has to do, and he’s going to make the right calls and we believe him.”
(There was obviously a lot more attention national attention on Tua after his performance yesterday, but it seems like in talking to Head Coach Mike McDaniel and teammates, this is what you got to expect from Tua. I was curious, as somebody who came in as a new player to the team last year, at what point did you realize like, “Okay, we’re going to be alright,” because obviously you didn’t know to up from afar, but at what point did you know?) – “Being a player in this league, and for me, I’ve been fortunate enough to go into year nine and just watching the surrounding league and just witnessing different quarterbacks and of course, offenses and stuff like that. But when I first got the impression of Tua, I knew that he was a sharp young man that was ready to take on any challenge. I know that prior to me coming here that he had some setbacks of his own and I don’t know necessarily what that entailed in regards to the other coaching staff, but at some point it does have to kick in for yourself as a player. It doesn’t matter what offense that you’re put in, you just got to go out there and try to put your best foot forward and he’s been able to do that. I watched tape with him at Alabama. He stepped into a role when a quarterback got hurt and he took that role on with nothing but conviction and full confidence. And that’s what’s happening right now. You see the confidence that he has, and the ability that he’s able to – alone, just the simple fact that he threw a ball in a tight window to Braxton (Berrios) and the way Braxton caught the ball, it was just, you don’t really see that on a day-to-day basis, let alone in the NFL. So for him to make that type of throws just yeah, you want to you want to believe he can do it. We all believe that he can make those throws and we all believe that he has that capability. Tyreek even mentioned it when he first got here that he can throw the ball with precision. It’s no shock to us, but at the same time, he’s really taking that step forward and you could just tell the confidence in the in the build that he has.”
(The offensive line, as you guys watch the tape or discuss it today how admirable of a job against that front T Kendall Lamm at left tackle and OL Isaiah Wynn first start at guard for this team?) – “Oh yeah, look at what happened yesterday. We put up a stat just a few minutes ago, Frank (Smith) did, about between two players on that defensive line, there were seven Pro Bowls. And a guy that’s won – has been a sack leader in the league and stuff like that. And we didn’t give up one sack. That just tells you the growth that this line has. To be able to go out there and just to dominate and move the line of scrimmage and to be able to protect and then it just reflects on what Tua can do in the pocket. It just – everything is clicking, but still there’s is always going to be some work to be done to improve and man, I’m excited. That’s very compelling that that happened yesterday and more so, you’re just ready to roll for the rest of the season.”
(I’m not going to ask you to compare what the system Head Coach Mike McDaniel runs compared to 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shannahan ran when you were there, but how has it evolved? It seems like guys just get open, obviously talented people, but the scheme is tailor-made for guys getting open.) – “The scheme is tailor-made for guys to get open and you see what happened with Tyreek yesterday, he had a 200-yard game. And then also Jaylen Waddle and then even getting River (Cracraft) and Braxton involved as well. It just shows you that this team is very dynamic. We got a lot of playmakers on this side of the ball and we’re going to try our best to expose the defense one way or the other and just try to make plays when the plays need to be made. It’s nice to be out there, I’m not going to lie. The speed is crazy. You got a lot of guys out there.”
(At the risk of sounding crazy, why is WR Tyreek Hill so difficult to defend?) – “This man, he’s literally like a little jitterbug out there just running around just going crazy. You just see the separation that he’s able to have against these DBs and to be able to get in these windows. Then like I said and I alluded to Tua (Tagovailoa), to be able to make those throws, they’re rolling right now. They’re on these high ceilings, man, that can’t be stopped. Once everybody else gets involved, man, you see what we were able to do yesterday. It’s just going to carry over and hopefully it carries over in a plentiful way.”
(Two areas you guys worked on in the offseason – penalties and getting the play down to the huddle – seemed to be great yesterday. Six penalties for 38 yards, which is good. I don’t recall any issues, delay of game or anything like that. In your point of view, how did those two areas go yesterday?) – “Yeah, we improved in those areas, but I will say, we still have to understand the game of ball. At the end of the day, that’s what you have to do as this job, to understand the situation, understand clock management. I know the time of possession wasn’t in our favor, but obviously that’s what you want as well, is to win the time of possession ratio. There’s still a lot of work to be done and we’re just going to go back to the drawing boards and get those things corrected, too.”
S Jevon Holland
(You guys didn’t blitz a ton yesterday, but when you did give me an account. Just take us through that last possession and what the importance that was to this team.) – “We needed that to win the game. Bar none, that’s basically it. We needed that to win the game and we went out there and executed.”
(What does it tell you about this team that no CB Jalen Ramsey, no T Terron Armstead, you’re on the road in the opener against the team that beat you last year and you come out with a gritty victory, what does that say about this team?) – “We’re a gritty team. We needed that to go out there and win. It feels good to win that Week 1 even though we’re not satisfied with our performance as a defense. We got stuff to build on and everything is easier when you’re building off of a win, not a loss. It feels good.”
(What was the message from defensive coordinator Vic Fangio today when you guys were watching film?) – “We need to be better. Plain and simple.”
(Any challenges moving to a defensive coordinator who calls games differently – there’s clearly a question in terms of the number of blitzes, the math would show you that. Is there an adjustment for players when moving from one coordinator to another when it’s a different approach like that?) – “Yeah, it’s completely different. It’s in a completely different defense with a completely different person with a philosophy, completely different defensive coordinator, so obviously there is going to be an adjustment period and it’s going to be different because it’s not the same human that was calling the defense last year.”
DT Christian Wilkins
(This is not a question meant as an excuse because you all are a no-excuse team. But is there a natural adjustment in terms of playing for a coordinator that calls games much differently than the previous coordinator? Is there a feeling out period or adjustment that you all are going through?) – “I’d definitely say the first thing, to your point, no excuses need to be made. We all know that wasn’t our standard. We’ve got to play better defense and that starts with me as an individual, as a leader. As the leader of the defense, it starts with me. We’ll definitely be better this week and moving forward, we’ll definitely be better. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it. We’re about business moving forward and about improving moving forward, so that’s what we’ll do. But just naturally, there’s obviously a little bit of adjusting but that’s no excuse. We’re all professionals so we all have to do our job regardless of how plays are being called, what’s being called. If there is a good play called, we’ve got to execute it. If there’s a bad play called, we still have to execute. Regardless, there’s no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. We just have to be better.”
(What did the film show you?) – “Again, just that there are a lot of improvements to be made. There’s just a lot of areas that we weren’t so great at. But at the end of the day, we did get the win so I was excited for that. And I was excited for what the offense was able to do and how they were able to have our backs through it all. That was definitely good and we definitely needed a full 60-minute game and full team effort.”
(Was the in-game operation any different like with Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio calling plays from the booth? I think Linebackers Coach Anthony Campanile was kind of running things down. Does it change anything as far as communication?) – “Not for me because I’m not the green dot. That doesn’t really do anything for me. I get the calls from the linebacker and then line up and get ready to play.”
(What was the biggest issue in the run game?) – “We just have to be better technique, fundamentals and just executing the plays that are called. Each one of the 11 doing their job.”
(Can you take us through that last drive?) – “I would say those last two series, maybe the last 10 plays or so – obviously it wasn’t great, wasn’t pretty for most of the game, but we can build off of how we finished moving forward. Guys playing at a high level when we needed it the most. Jaelan (Phillips), Zach (Sieler), we were all able to focus in a little bit more. We know we needed it. The offense did their part. We couldn’t let them down. We were able to pull it together and do a good job.”
(Was it surprising because of obviously it’s not your standard and it’s surprising any time, but what you saw during training camp, did what happened yesterday completely throw you for a loop after – did you feel you were much better in training camp?) – “I would say no we’re not rattled, again, it just wasn’t the performance that we expected and when you put a lot of work into this, when you invest your all at this and when you know the guys we’ve got on defense and you’ve got the right coaches in the position; you never expect anything like that. But like I said, we will be better moving forward. We really don’t have a choice.”
(I don’t know how much you get to see of WR Tyreek Hill, but when you see him and when you see a game like yesterday, what comes to mind? How do you defend this guy?) – “He’s definitely a pretty damn good football player. I’m glad he’s on our side. Really a lot of the guys on offense, they all stepped up and played pretty well. That damn No. 1 was pretty solid, too. And just guys were making plays left and right and it was just fun to see and like I said it was just good that they’re on our side and they had our backs even with everything going on. So that was definitely a lot of fun to watch and just to see guys putting a lot of work and who it means a lot to and an underdog like River Cracraft goes out there and balls out, catches another touchdown. Just everybody. Just good to see the o-line step up and do their thing. Just a lot of respect for those guys on that side of the ball and what they did yesterday.”
(And what does that tell you about this team? All that stuff you just said – no CB Jalen Ramsey, no T Terron Armstead, hostile environment, team that beat you last year? What does that tell you about this team?) – “Just that we’re going to compete and that we definitely all care about each other and we’re not – as I started at the beginning – we’re not an excuse-making team and I won’t allow us to be that regardless of who’s on that field, what we’re doing, what’s going on, what’s happening – good, bad or indifferent. We’re all going to play hard and do our best to have each other’s backs through it all.”
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(What led to the decision to use T Isaiah Wynn at guard for this team now after four years at tackle for New England? And then on WR Erik Ezukanma, the idea of actually lining him up in the backfield, is that something you drew on a napkin one night? Drew on your iPad at 2 a.m. in March? What led to that usage for him?) – “Isaiah Wynn wasn’t new. I’m a young old guy, so when he was coming out, that’s how I evaluated him. I saw him as having some good skill sets there. I think the experience at tackle helps an interior player tremendously if they have the skill set to cross over because of the types of athletes that you face on the edge. He’s been a wonderful addition to the team and earned his opportunity to start through his play, which is the only way we accept it here, so I was pumped about that. What if I told you that Erik wasn’t even supposed to line up there? Just kidding. (laughter) That’s stuff that you try as a coaching staff to see and open your mind to the unique skillsets of certain players. For that game, it made sense to try to introduce that a bit. Whether that’s something that we expand upon just depends on the opponent and the pros and cons of what that does, if anything. We felt like that was a good way to get him the ball that way and get him some opportunities and get the defense talking a bit. I believe he was in the backfield during the go-ahead touchdown, right? I’m pretty sure he was lined up in the backfield, at least that’s what I called. It was a long flight. (laughter) Those are fun things that you’re able to do, especially in year two where you can move people around a little bit more just because of the inherit understanding of what words mean.”
(When you reviewed the tape today, there were a lot of QB Tua Tagovailoa completions. Which one was your favorite?) – “Well, which one presented as though adversity was an opportunity?
(The 35-yard touchdown) – “Boom. Those are things that are not easy to do. It was my favorite because it was more of a team moment. That was a series of plays, starting with the interception that he targeted Braxton (Berrios) on, because on that specific play, the Chargers got the ball on the four-yard line because they intercepted it, and (Jaylen) Waddle and ‘SA’ (Salvon Ahmed) didn’t stop playing, and got a tackle on the four. Got the ball back following a really good play by Kader (Kohou) on a well-timed blitzed that is rarely executed to be honest. Free runners at quarterbacks generally miss for whatever reason. We’ve been emphasizing some technique, he got the sack, and then we had a great punt return blocked up, but it was a short kick. So we had a short field and off that momentum, Tyreek Hill started making it very known that he was ready to make a play. I fancy myself as a great listener. That throw culminated a team effort that is very, very important playing off each other in the various phases that are important to winning close games like that.”
(I was thinking of the third-and-10 where he scrambles forward and…) – “That was another good one.”
(We have seen QB Tua Tagovailoa off-platform a bit but that throw in particular, we haven’t really seen that. Was that…) – “I need to open more practices to you guys. (laughter) That’s really cool stuff from a developing quarterback that is finding his own footing in how he plays because he went through his progression, felt the pressure in a good interior pocket, utilized that and then did something that most people can’t do with their writing hand let alone their non-writing hand like he does it. That was a good one too, but I really liked him taking advantage of everything that he’s learned and really focused on and had a game application, similar to the preseason rep where you throw an interception and then what? And in a game like that, for all three phases to come together at that moment, and then for the three phrases to play off of each other, when the offense scores the final touchdown but leaves a solid amount of time left on the clock, Jason (Sanders) is one of the guys we count on most on the entire team and pushes one, and then the defense comes and saves the day and wins the game. Those ones, especially where he was participating in big team moments like that one, were the most important to me.”
(One thing that I noticed that was a wrinkle in Year 2 was instead of motioning WR Tyreek Hill and other pass catches across the formation, you kind of had him as a flex in the slot and then put him in motion. I’m curious if that’s a way to get pass catchers free releases, to prevent communication with the defense or maybe a little bit of both?) – “I was just bored. (laughter) We work hard here at the Miami Dolphins as a collective group. Coaches bring forth things. You see stuff on tape. Players bring forth things. I think it is important to be constantly pressing the envelope. I believe that players deserve schematic advantages. It’s hard enough to do their job and a coach’s job is to try to generate those. But man, I’ve drawn a lot of stuff on paper. It’s a lot harder doing it. So on the road, to execute that with the crowd noise on a silent (count) is a credit to a lot of people working deliberately. I think Tua (Tagovailoa) and Tyreek (Hill) did a really good job with that as well as the rest of the offense that’s doing it in a noisy situation.”
(The decision to go for points at the end of the second quarter, was that situation-specific or was that a general Mike McDaniel, here’s an opportunity, all points matter?) – “I think it’s important that you constantly evolve as a coach and a play-caller. At that point in time, I thought our guys would block them well enough to pump the ball down the field and see if our playmakers could do something with it. There had been a good amount of plays made by the skill positions in the first half so shame on me if I just mailed it in. It was great execution by a lot of people on those plays and a good job by (Jaylen) Waddle running fast and getting out of bounds, and then a good job with Erik (Ezukanma) putting enough stress on the defense that they had to hit him before the ball got there.”
(I know you do a lot of situational stuff but something like that, where a lot of people were confused at first when you did take the timeout, do you practice or go over those things outside of practice?) – “A little bit of both. I have situational meetings with our analytics department in the offseason then I do every Thursday night. You can’t rep enough situational football because what you don’t want is to be in a foreign situation for the first time when the box score matters. So that exact one, no. But I think you do enough situational reps, knowing how much time things take, and felt pretty good that we could get an explosive within six or seven seconds, with the proper execution. I hadn’t done that one. I think when I started the process of calling timeouts, most people knew what was going on but I was very aware it was going to be unusual and if it didn’t work, people would be like, ‘What were you doing?’”
(I can’t remember a time if a touchback with less than 10 seconds left would result in a field goal. Touchdowns obviously happen. But can you remember an instance where that happened?) – “No. But if you can’t remember an instance, you might as well create one, right? The players did a great job of executing crucial points. Then on top of that, for us to take advantage of it, means that the field goal team needs to properly do their job. Blake (Ferguson) and Jake (Bailey) need to operate and so does Jason (Sanders). That’s the type of stuff that if you can take advantage of every second and every yard, you have a chance to win. It proved very beneficial for us yesterday.”
(A couple of small injuries. I know you addressed WR Jaylen Waddle after the game. Any update today on him and his soreness or stiffness?) – “It was a positive interaction with Jaylen in terms of the soreness is where we kind of had hoped. We knew it existed but we didn’t want it to be something debilitating. That’s something that he’ll continue to work through. For him, he does such a good job of developing his game within practice, so it’s very important to him that he gets out there and we’ll just manage it accordingly. But he should still be able to get some reps in this week, which I know is very important to him.”
(WR Tyreek Hill went to the locker room early. Obviously he was ok. Cramps or was that anything…?) – “Preventative hydration is what we’ll call it. Well no, we weren’t preventing hydration. (laughter)”
(Preventive methods to keep hydrated?) – “Boom.”
(WR Tyreek Hill mentioned yesterday that some of the receivers have been getting together after practices to work on being in the right spot and things like that. I’m wondering as a coach, how is that helpful for you when position groups are kind of proactive in that way and get on the same page?) – “This is the difference between being average and good or good and great. It’s a very, very big deal when guys are able to communicate directly with each other. It lends for little to no gray area. You don’t know some questions or maybe uncertainties that players will have a lot of times in the environment of student teacher. The great thing about those meetings are there’s no federal agents, as they would call them (laughter) and they can just discuss stuff freely. That type of ownership gives you a chance to max out your current situation and your current locker room and phase of football. I think that’s something that I haven’t been on a team that’s done anything worthwhile that hasn’t had players do that. That doesn’t mean that it’s always done. It means it’s vitally important if you want your product of football to really meet your expectations.”
