Speaker 1: Official Jets Podcast is presented by win Beat. Betting is
Speaker 1: a team sport, but together it went bat Eric Allen
Speaker 1: here with Jets middle linebacker Mike Linebacker CJ Mosley. CJ,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for join us in the studios always.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So let's start with New England. I know at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, it can't carry over things from
Speaker 1: season to season. But with that being said, how important
Speaker 1: was it for this team, this organization to put that
Speaker 1: streak behind you.
Speaker 3: Just one less thing we have to worry about. At first,
Speaker 3: it was beating the Bills. We got over that hump
Speaker 3: last year or the year before, whenever it was. And
Speaker 3: now every time we play New England, it's twelve Game Street,
Speaker 3: thirteen Gay Street, fourteen Gain Street.
Speaker 2: Be able to check this haste. The Jets like all
Speaker 2: the stories.
Speaker 3: So hopefully now we can just quiet down and we
Speaker 3: can bring some order back to our to our division.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we we just want to be able to compete.
Speaker 3: We want to have our name mentioned and we have
Speaker 3: to earn that, and I feel like we've been taking
Speaker 3: those right steps. So yeah, it's it's hard to carry
Speaker 3: it the end of the season win over into.
Speaker 2: The next year.
Speaker 3: But understanding that momental, understanding the reason why we won,
Speaker 3: how we won, that's what's important. Want penalty the whole day,
Speaker 3: you know, we was harping on playing penalty free football.
Speaker 3: Obviously we got turnedovers on defense, offense ran the ball
Speaker 3: really well, obviously, but the weather helping that too.
Speaker 2: But you saw a complete football game.
Speaker 3: Special teams did a great job, great the leg out
Speaker 3: there kicking in that crazy conditions, can barely see.
Speaker 2: So it was fun to be a part of. And
Speaker 2: we played winning football.
Speaker 1: How much did you enjoy that atmosphere playing and which
Speaker 1: was basically a snow globe, that kind of game, And
Speaker 1: had you experienced one like that?
Speaker 3: So this I would this would take over my number
Speaker 3: one snow game because last year was my first ten
Speaker 3: snow game when we played Buffalo at the end of
Speaker 3: the year.
Speaker 2: But that was like rain, sleet and snow for a bit.
Speaker 3: But just being in that environment under those circumstances, you know,
Speaker 3: with you know the story with Coach Belichick and the Patriots,
Speaker 3: you know, just sitting that snow go down, it just
Speaker 3: reminded me as a kid, and obviously as a player
Speaker 3: now just watching those those old school Patriots games and
Speaker 3: the snow, watching those those big time games, and you know,
Speaker 3: just to be a part of that opportunity even though
Speaker 3: everything that was going on, and I'll never take it
Speaker 3: for granted. So I mean, anytime we can get some
Speaker 3: crazy weather, you know, it might be cold or rainy
Speaker 3: and all that. At the end of the day, man,
Speaker 3: it's an opportunity for us, for us to go out
Speaker 3: there and be our best. And obviously playing in the snow,
Speaker 3: it just brings a kid out of you.
Speaker 1: How do you want this twenty twenty three Jets team
Speaker 1: to be remembered?
Speaker 3: I mean, it was so many stories you can you
Speaker 3: can put on our team, starting from again and all
Speaker 3: the way to the end. So I would say, when
Speaker 3: when the versity hits, it shows who you really are.
Speaker 3: And I can I can sit here today and say
Speaker 3: that I'm happy that this the year went the way
Speaker 3: it did because there was a lot of a lot
Speaker 3: of hype that a lot of people not used to
Speaker 3: around here. It was all cool and dandy, but when
Speaker 3: the stuff hit the fan and the and the real
Speaker 3: people started to show who they really were. You know,
Speaker 3: we didn't we didn't change who we were, you know,
Speaker 3: from from the coaches all the way to the players.
Speaker 3: Cosala every week had a mission Costal every week had
Speaker 3: a plan, had a goal in mind for how we
Speaker 3: wanted our team to look and it was up to
Speaker 3: us to bring that vision to the football field. And
Speaker 3: you know, starting with practice every single week. You know,
Speaker 3: it was some tough some tough weeks where we have
Speaker 3: to come into work and swallow, swallow the peal and
Speaker 3: you know, take that, take that punch to the face
Speaker 3: and just key rolling. But you know, that's that's what
Speaker 3: this league is about. It's a long season. You have
Speaker 3: to do it. You have to you have to understand it.
Speaker 3: You have to be able to reset your process after
Speaker 3: every single week, whether it's a win, a loss of tie.
Speaker 3: But that's just the mental the mental focus and the
Speaker 3: mental toughness that that we have to have going for it,
Speaker 3: knowing that no matter if we start slow or fast
Speaker 3: or different, no matter if we're down about ten fifteen points,
Speaker 3: we always have a chance because of the man in
Speaker 3: our room.
Speaker 1: So you said that, hey, I wouldn't want to have
Speaker 1: it any other way. As far as like embracing the adversity,
Speaker 1: you think that ultimately this group is going to get
Speaker 1: better because of what happened this season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we after all in said and done,
Speaker 3: we still won seven games. Put us at another conference,
Speaker 3: puts in another division another year. No, that's seven games
Speaker 3: might win us a division, might win us, might get
Speaker 3: us in the playoff birth. But you know, this is
Speaker 3: the cars that we were dealt this year, and I
Speaker 3: feel like, for the most part, know we did our
Speaker 3: best to handle it to the best of our ability.
Speaker 3: And you know, we tried every single week I feel,
Speaker 3: to put our best foot forward now even though it
Speaker 3: didn't turn out the way we want it. You know,
Speaker 3: that's just something that you have to believe. You know,
Speaker 3: we come to work after a loss. You know, how
Speaker 3: does that look for me versus when we come to
Speaker 3: work out the win? Like, are we trying to improve?
Speaker 3: All we okay with the satisfaction of just that one win?
Speaker 3: Or can we be even or can we learn more
Speaker 3: from the losses that we have and why we lost
Speaker 3: and how we lost compared to the reason why we won. So,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's all it's all mental for me, man.
Speaker 3: Like the physical part is going. It's always going to
Speaker 3: be there as long as my body can hold up.
Speaker 3: I've been running and hitting people my whole life, so
Speaker 3: I can always do that. But being able to understand
Speaker 3: this game and understand what's asks from us every single week,
Speaker 3: day and day out. Understand the vision that we want
Speaker 3: to we want to instill into our organization, the standard
Speaker 3: that we want to have. You know, that's that's the
Speaker 3: steps that we have to start taking to become a
Speaker 3: championship team.
Speaker 1: Do you take pride in the fact, since you are
Speaker 1: a leader on this team, since you are a veteran,
Speaker 1: the way this group stuck together, like because I think
Speaker 1: on other rosters, maybe defenses and special teams might be pointless.
Speaker 1: Offense feel like you're not pulling your rope here. I
Speaker 1: didn't feel that at all this season, despite what was
Speaker 1: happening at times. You know, you're talking about the continuity
Speaker 1: issues along the offensive line and you guys playing with
Speaker 1: four different quarterbacks bottom line, there were going to be
Speaker 1: struggles on that side of the ball, and there were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and all that being said, at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, man, we still dominated as a defense.
Speaker 2: We stuck together.
Speaker 3: It was a certain time where we felt like we
Speaker 3: were trying to do a little too much when things
Speaker 3: were going a little sideways, but you know, that's what
Speaker 3: that's what our coaches is for, to help us get
Speaker 3: back to our place, help us make sure that we're
Speaker 3: doing the right thing, to keep the main thing the
Speaker 3: main thing. And like that small stretch where we was
Speaker 3: giving up a few more points in yards than we
Speaker 3: usually did, we had a defensive meeting like we always did,
Speaker 3: say hey, control what you could control, and I like
Speaker 3: click for everybody. Actually it was a hearty Hardy said
Speaker 3: it control what you could control, and that's defense and
Speaker 3: special teams. And once he said that, man, I feel
Speaker 3: like we just just said forget all the extra stuff.
Speaker 2: It's called to play line up and let's go. Let's
Speaker 2: go play ball.
Speaker 1: What did the defense become this season in terms of
Speaker 1: you've been here for a while now, what kind of
Speaker 1: jump did they take? And then also, what do you
Speaker 1: think the future holds.
Speaker 2: For this group? We'll start with the future.
Speaker 3: The future holds a bunch of a bunch of young
Speaker 3: and some young great players and some craft evets and
Speaker 3: just that mixture. Especially when the guys have been together,
Speaker 3: we're going well now, we just finished our third year together.
Speaker 3: As far as coaches and players, you can just you
Speaker 3: can just feel the camaraderie that we have as a unit.
Speaker 3: To watch this last game, every play if someone celebrated
Speaker 3: with somebody, it's not just dbs and dbs and.
Speaker 2: Linebacks and linebackers.
Speaker 3: To play that the ad made on that fourth down
Speaker 3: and one you see a d line and running down
Speaker 3: the field thirty yards say he's so excited. So man,
Speaker 3: that kind of love that we have for each other
Speaker 3: when we make plays, when we're going through those tough
Speaker 3: times where we need to make a justins on the sideline,
Speaker 3: us being able to talk it out, you know, me
Speaker 3: the linebackers looking at the tape and saying, hey, we
Speaker 3: need to look at this run because we haven't seen
Speaker 3: this shit. And then that message get spread across the
Speaker 3: whole defensive side of the ball. And it's just amazing
Speaker 3: to be a part of it. And it's fun just
Speaker 3: to learn and experience and pick up on our defense
Speaker 3: and and know what we're capable of every single day.
Speaker 1: How much pride to take in the fact of here's
Speaker 1: Quincy Williams. The guy was a waiver claim a couple
Speaker 1: of years and now he's voted team MVP by your group.
Speaker 1: Those guys inside the locker room, you're the guy who's
Speaker 1: been playing alongside him since he entered this building. How
Speaker 1: much Yeah, like pride in terms of this teammate next
Speaker 1: to me, the guy that I'm with every day battling,
Speaker 1: who's learned to study, who's learned the game inside and out,
Speaker 1: is taking that jump.
Speaker 3: I said it earlier. Man, he makes my job a
Speaker 3: lot easier, especially been on the field with him. The
Speaker 3: whole linebacker corps, including no coach, Rudy and Nathaniel.
Speaker 2: The way they.
Speaker 3: Approach approach work every day, the film work that the
Speaker 3: coaches give us, the notes that they give us, the
Speaker 3: deliberate work that they put in. It makes us better
Speaker 3: players and men because you know there are leaders as well.
Speaker 3: You know, even though they're they're coaching, as we see
Speaker 3: them every day now, we look up to them, We
Speaker 3: listen to them. You know, they're teaching us every single day,
Speaker 3: talking life, talking ball, talking all that stuff. So the
Speaker 3: respect that we have for our coaches that makes us
Speaker 3: play harder for them when we do get a call, like,
Speaker 3: we want this call to work because you know that's
Speaker 3: your vision for us to be great, So we want
Speaker 3: to provide and like Brick always said, you know, we
Speaker 3: give you the keys to the car once once it's Sunday,
Speaker 3: and they just try to put us in the right position.
Speaker 3: So when you when you playing with that kind of love,
Speaker 3: that kind of respect for your teammates and your coaches,
Speaker 3: it makes you want to keep going that much more harder,
Speaker 3: no matter what the result is.
Speaker 1: Three straight seasons for you, one hundred and fifty plus tackles.
Speaker 3: What's the significance, No significance, just just what I do.
Speaker 3: I mean, be funny, man, Like I said, I've been
Speaker 3: playing football my whole life. I can run and hit
Speaker 3: any time in the day. But you know that's to
Speaker 3: win a championship. We need more than that. You know,
Speaker 3: we got that mental that mental toughness part. And like
Speaker 3: I said, that's why I won't take anything away from
Speaker 3: the season, because I learned so much as a player,
Speaker 3: but also as a leader, you know, how to approach people.
Speaker 3: Just every year, man, I feel like I just I
Speaker 3: just grow so much as a player as a leader.
Speaker 3: I never take you know, being voted as a captain
Speaker 3: for granted, So any chance I get to to just
Speaker 3: give anybody some type of motivation, advice, belief, vision, whatever
Speaker 3: it is. Like that's that's why I'm here because, like
Speaker 3: I said, I can. I can go out there and
Speaker 3: call plays and make a tackle. But if nobody believes
Speaker 3: in what we're doing or they don't see.
Speaker 2: Why we're doing it, then I'm not doing my job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how would you describe your Jets to I mean,
Speaker 1: you come in here, you have one of the best
Speaker 1: two plus quarters I've ever seen against the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately have the injury. Then you got a COVID year,
Speaker 1: and then it's the past three years where you're trying
Speaker 1: to set the foundation for something.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Once again, everything's happened for a reason, you know, coming
Speaker 3: coming here as a free agent, you know, got a
Speaker 3: pretty decent contract on paper, were looking like we can
Speaker 3: be a really a really good team contending. And one
Speaker 3: thing I told myself, like you know, obviously as a
Speaker 3: as an athlete, when you signed somewhere, no matter what sport,
Speaker 3: the work, two things you don't want to happen is
Speaker 3: coaching changes and injuries and looking for me. I got
Speaker 3: those my first two years as a Jet, so I
Speaker 3: was was humbly blessed to have that happen to me.
Speaker 3: I got the opportunity to to revamp my mind and
Speaker 3: my body as a as a man and as a
Speaker 3: football player, and looking for me, you know, my the
Speaker 3: injuries have been very, very light, and I've been able
Speaker 3: to perform out a level obviously with the work that
Speaker 3: I put in the off season and through the season.
Speaker 3: But you know what, our great coaching staff and you know,
Speaker 3: the people of the men and women that we have
Speaker 3: in this building to keep our minds and our bodies
Speaker 3: in the right right mind space every single day.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So the last few weeks of regular season, Aaron's out
Speaker 1: there practice, run scout team. What were those experiences.
Speaker 2: Like, Man, I felt like we were back in training camp.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I honestly forgot we used to we used
Speaker 3: to make our have a little period where we used
Speaker 3: to call it so the Aaron, We'll call the offensive
Speaker 3: plays and I'll call the defensive plays. So I think
Speaker 3: maybe like a week or two after he kind of
Speaker 3: got his footing back and was really out there throwing
Speaker 3: the ball, we kind of got back to that and
Speaker 3: the competition went right back to where it was.
Speaker 2: And like, you just.
Speaker 3: Appreciate, appreciate those things because when he's there, it's like
Speaker 3: part of it. You know, we go to work it's
Speaker 3: like a daily routine. Then when he leaves and come back,
Speaker 3: it's just with Modrea, like how really high impressive this
Speaker 3: guy is and making throws on a surgically repaired achilles
Speaker 3: and still throwing the ball twenty yards down the field,
Speaker 3: forty yards down the field, throwing dots off that leg.
Speaker 3: It just inspires you because you know, you could have
Speaker 3: hung it up, you could have did his training and
Speaker 3: took his time and stayed away, but you know, he
Speaker 3: wanted to be here, and he wanted to be on
Speaker 3: the sideline, and I'm obviously I'm sure he wanted to
Speaker 3: be helping coach the younger guys and keep the offense
Speaker 3: in order. And he raises the bar like even though
Speaker 3: he was on scout team, you know, it's been the
Speaker 3: same guys on scout team that we've been going against
Speaker 3: all year. Yeah, as soon as he get in there,
Speaker 3: they're going a little bit harder. They catching a couple
Speaker 3: more passes, they running rounds a little bit more, chrisp
Speaker 3: scout offensive line jump outside. He cussing them out. So
Speaker 3: like that's that's the leadership that we need, and you know,
Speaker 3: you love to see it.
Speaker 1: Were there moments out there the past few weeks where
Speaker 1: you're like, damn, what if this guy was out here
Speaker 1: during the season.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to happen. It's we have to
Speaker 3: play our part. We understood, We understood, like, you know
Speaker 3: why the injury happened. We had a lot of injuries
Speaker 3: on the offensive side, you know, obviously the offensive line,
Speaker 3: So you know what next steps officers are like, what
Speaker 3: can we do to make sure we can stay healthy
Speaker 3: as possible for him? Because we know him on the field,
Speaker 3: we can be really dangerous. And like I said, at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, with everything that happened, we
Speaker 3: still won seven games and we still had the opportunity
Speaker 3: to win a lot more. Those losses that we had.
Speaker 3: While did they happen, it wasn't because of Aaron. We're
Speaker 3: not gonna blame it on injury. We're not gonna blame
Speaker 3: it on the adversity is always going to be you know,
Speaker 3: what do we do to make this happen. I'm sure
Speaker 3: if you look at those games that were close that
Speaker 3: we lost, I'm sure penalties play the factor, turned overs,
Speaker 3: play the factor or third down, and that's always gonna
Speaker 3: be a key to victory. So how can we improve
Speaker 3: and how can we be as good as we can
Speaker 3: be for when he does return, Because my mottol is,
Speaker 3: you know, he needs us more than we need him.
Speaker 3: So if we all come in with that mindset, like, hey,
Speaker 3: let's do everything we can, especially in the offensive mindset,
Speaker 3: let me do everything I can. Let me run this
Speaker 3: route as far as I can, just to draw off
Speaker 3: this one person so he can make this throw. Like
Speaker 3: just that stuff. Listen, that mental toughness like I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: If he can do that and continue to do that
Speaker 3: and spread that through our locker room in this organization,
Speaker 3: that would build a championship mindset.
Speaker 1: Speaking like the ultimate leader that you are. But if
Speaker 1: he comes out here next year he's healthy, have you
Speaker 1: thought of how that directly impacts the defense because oftentimes
Speaker 1: here this year you're playing from behind, so that means
Speaker 1: teams are going to be attacking you in a totally
Speaker 1: different way. Flip it on the other side, we haven't
Speaker 1: seen this defense for long stretches where like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: playing with the lead, well we're tied late. Have you
Speaker 1: thought of what that's going to look more.
Speaker 3: In the moment, Obviously, when teams start running the ball
Speaker 3: forty times it's all right. If we had to lead
Speaker 3: just a little bit, then it might change things up.
Speaker 3: But you know, that's it's just it's part of it
Speaker 3: that it's how the games go. Like I said, we're
Speaker 3: not gonna make any excuses. They want to run it
Speaker 3: forty times, let's stop it forty times. Make them earn it.
Speaker 3: So it doesn't matter how they try to attackers. We
Speaker 3: always have an answer, and we have the right people
Speaker 3: in our building, in our locker room to answer those
Speaker 3: answer those calls. So, like I said, man, when you
Speaker 3: just keep keep staying healthy, keep getting better, and we
Speaker 3: know he's going to be ready when he comes back,
Speaker 3: and as a defensive player, as a linebacker, as the
Speaker 3: lad going to work, ready to ready to go.
Speaker 1: Can you speak about the importance of continuity. You touched
Speaker 1: upon it before as far as early on in your
Speaker 1: tenure here there was a coaching change. But with these
Speaker 1: guys coming back now year four, how helpful is that
Speaker 1: for you guys as a growth It's great.
Speaker 3: You know, to think about all the any championship team,
Speaker 3: you know, the core, the core guys and the core leaders.
Speaker 3: That's the foundation of the team on all sides, offense, defense,
Speaker 3: and special teams, and I feel like we've done a
Speaker 3: great job of bringing in the right people and keeping
Speaker 3: the right people. So I have all the faith in
Speaker 3: our upstairs department to make sure that keep happening. So
Speaker 3: I have to, like I said, we just have to
Speaker 3: control what we can control, and that's make sure that
Speaker 3: we're ready to go when it's when our name and
Speaker 3: our number is called. So no for me, no, I
Speaker 3: feel like obviously we wanted it this year, but these
Speaker 3: these are these are those small windows opportunity in this
Speaker 3: league where we can really do something.
Speaker 1: So you fit, you fit, you fit because you've been
Speaker 1: part of winning organization before. You feel like maybe last
Speaker 1: summer you were entering that window and then you had
Speaker 1: to kind of maybe press pause on it even though
Speaker 1: you're trying to win every game. But here we go,
Speaker 1: we're entering that window again.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean the doors, the door has been open. We
Speaker 3: just got to kick it down. It's there's something behind it,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's blocking it. But we we just got
Speaker 3: to knock that door down. And I mean, it's just
Speaker 3: we was talking about it in our meeting. Man, I'm
Speaker 3: ready to play again, Yeah you are. It's tough but
Speaker 3: you know, I understand, you know what what goes on,
Speaker 3: and I understand the wins and losses of things and
Speaker 3: the disappointment and now people thinking like a higher draft
Speaker 3: pick is going to change things. But it don't matter
Speaker 3: what number of draft pick we are. It's going to
Speaker 3: be about the man that we already have in this
Speaker 3: room and this building. So I think physically we're ready
Speaker 3: for that challenge. Mentally, we were tested a lot this
Speaker 3: year and for the most part, we held we held
Speaker 3: it down. But it's going to take a whole other
Speaker 3: level to get to where we want. It's gonna be tough,
Speaker 3: as we know, it's not gonna be easy, it's not
Speaker 3: gonna be fair.
Speaker 2: Just got to do it.
Speaker 1: What is this climb meant to you? Because you're trying
Speaker 1: to reach the top, right, But we talked about your
Speaker 1: tenure here, and then you couple that with the fact
Speaker 1: that Jets fans they're starving for a winner. As you know,
Speaker 1: you're part of this community. It's been thirteen years without
Speaker 1: a postseason Earth, what has the climb meant to you
Speaker 1: and how are those scars going to help you once.
Speaker 2: You get there?
Speaker 3: For me, it means everything you know, you you get
Speaker 3: the most out of your you know, your players when
Speaker 3: when they playing for their coaches, they're playing for their teammates,
Speaker 3: but also when they have a connection with the city.
Speaker 3: And I got connected really quick my first two years.
Speaker 2: Like I.
Speaker 3: Knew the history of the Jets in the past, obviously
Speaker 3: just being a football fan, being in the league when
Speaker 3: they were I mean only played, actually didn't play against
Speaker 3: the Jets the year that when I was with the Ravens,
Speaker 3: I got hurt, so I missed Actually they played the
Speaker 3: Giants and Jets back to back, so I missed those games.
Speaker 3: But when you used to look on that schedule and
Speaker 3: used to mark those off the camera already. So just
Speaker 3: from my first year here to being in that experience
Speaker 3: to where we are now. You know, all the talk,
Speaker 3: all the hype that we had all sounds good, but
Speaker 3: it's just just a zepple managers the work that you
Speaker 3: put in and the vision that you have to have
Speaker 3: no matter what nobody says or what the results may
Speaker 3: say about you. Like I'm a champion that's in my DNA,
Speaker 3: A seven to ten record, not gonna have anything different,
Speaker 3: you know, losing the game is not gonna make me
Speaker 3: come of work any different just because that happened, So
Speaker 3: like I can care less about that. It's about how
Speaker 3: we approach it. It's about what we're doing to change
Speaker 3: those things to make it make it better. And that's
Speaker 3: just a mental part of it. Like like I said, man,
Speaker 3: we all been playing this game so long, Like that
Speaker 3: part is easy. Now we got to figure out how
Speaker 3: to win and know how to come back from adversity
Speaker 3: and not let it get in my way.
Speaker 1: Have you thought of your career in terms of being
Speaker 1: reflective and saying I'm past thirty, but your mindset keeps
Speaker 1: you playing at such a high level. Have you thought
Speaker 1: of your career in terms of, hey, down the line,
Speaker 1: I know I only have this many years or whatever
Speaker 1: things like that. Do you think big picture at all
Speaker 1: once you get to an off.
Speaker 3: Season sometimes even in the season, it's really not my
Speaker 3: fault because everybody else talks about the age. Yes, So
Speaker 3: that's when I like with my hand, like, well, I'm
Speaker 3: really not I'm really not old if you if you're
Speaker 3: talk in life, but if you want to go football,
Speaker 3: I'm older. But like I feel great, And you know
Speaker 3: that's just I give credit to this organization, know bringing
Speaker 3: the right people in when I come to work, I'm
Speaker 3: not coming if even if I do come in with
Speaker 3: a with an attitude or I'm not having a good day.
Speaker 3: As soon as I get my lineback of meeting room,
Speaker 3: and I'm good because those are my brothers.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: They share the same pain, the same passion, the same love.
Speaker 3: You just got a locker room full of great people
Speaker 3: and our coaches too. So I know when you can
Speaker 3: come to work after a tough game, after tough loss,
Speaker 3: after injury, but still find joy in it and still
Speaker 3: find a way to improve and get better.
Speaker 2: You know, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: What pres you the most joy as far as playing
Speaker 1: balls concerned, because your love is clear.
Speaker 3: Seeing my teammates have the same vision that I have.
Speaker 3: Wanted to be a champion here, wanting to change the
Speaker 3: way things I talked about the New York and wanted
Speaker 3: to be the reason why. You know, it definitely didn't
Speaker 3: happen overnight. My leadership that I that you see today,
Speaker 3: the captain that I am now the first when I
Speaker 3: first got the star, that person is definitely not who
Speaker 3: I am, not with four stars on my chest, you know,
Speaker 3: And it took a lot of scars took a lot
Speaker 3: of battle scars. Uh I go back to twenty one
Speaker 3: of those three wins that we had felt like everything
Speaker 3: because we put in so much work and even though
Speaker 3: we weren't getting the results, we didn't we didn't change
Speaker 3: and we kept fighting to was it was tough on
Speaker 3: our defense, but when we were rewarded with wins and
Speaker 3: with victories and you know, with the big plays, you know,
Speaker 3: it felt great. And that was because we put in
Speaker 3: the work and you can see it in our defense now,
Speaker 3: Like those are the same guys, you know, think about
Speaker 3: think about Huff, think about Brice, I mean Bryce Hall,
Speaker 3: think about Michael Carter the second, you know, think about
Speaker 3: all these guys that have the name for themselves. They
Speaker 3: started out with with nothing, they wanted to earn it.
Speaker 3: Think about Tha. Speaking about earning his first training camp
Speaker 3: in Rick asked people ask the guys like, like, what
Speaker 3: you want to do? What's your goal here? He say,
Speaker 3: I want to take somebody's spot, not look at them.
Speaker 3: So that's those the type of man that we have
Speaker 3: to have to get what we want.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna watch the playoffs?
Speaker 3: I probably turned it on and just flip through the channels.
Speaker 3: So we'll see it.
Speaker 1: Is it hard as a competitor or is it something
Speaker 1: that you can watch?
Speaker 2: Uh, it's definitely hard because I know we can.
Speaker 3: We can, we'll playoff team, well, we will playoff caliber team,
Speaker 3: but we didn't. We didn't earn it this year. You know,
Speaker 3: we didn't or we didn't take it away, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So it's like I could be salty,
Speaker 3: but can I really because it's a team sport and
Speaker 3: we didn't. We didn't play to our standard this year.
Speaker 3: Like I said, We're not gonna make any excuses. Every
Speaker 3: every team has to go through adversity. Every championship team
Speaker 3: has to go through adversity. So it's how it's how
Speaker 3: can we get over that hump or how can we
Speaker 3: handle this adversity and not let it mess up or
Speaker 3: not let it carry on a losing streak? So how
Speaker 3: can we fix it and get it right and not
Speaker 3: let it happen again?
Speaker 1: How are you gonna approach the off season personally?
Speaker 3: For me, thankfully, no no injuries, so don't have any surgery,
Speaker 3: no setback, so obviously take the small little break that
Speaker 3: we have. But for me, just just take another step
Speaker 3: in in this defense just reviewing. You know, myself goes
Speaker 3: obviously Number one is hands, jugs, one interception, fifteen pass deflection.
Speaker 3: So just work on just small things I can work on,
Speaker 3: man and with this defense, you know, I feel like
Speaker 3: every single every single game, I learned something new on
Speaker 3: our defense. So that's always the sighting for me to
Speaker 3: try to master something new on our defense. If I
Speaker 3: for offense, give us a new scheme or they a
Speaker 3: new blocking scheme. Soon as soon as that plays over,
Speaker 3: like I'm on the sideline, like, all right, bet, how
Speaker 3: can we fix it? What defense are we in? What line?
Speaker 3: I mean, what defensive line is going to make this cut?
Speaker 3: Which which nickelback of which safety is about to be
Speaker 3: in the box if they do this? So, I mean
Speaker 3: that's just it just gets me. It gets me decided.
Speaker 3: So yeah, just just grow.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna hit the jucks, hit your hands on
Speaker 1: a lot of balls. We're gonna have more interceptions for defense,
Speaker 1: for the defense, even though you guys have made a
Speaker 1: major step forward in terms of the takeaways this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good defense, good defense. I remember why they played,
Speaker 3: but great ones. I remember from scoring. Let's let's go
Speaker 3: some points.
Speaker 1: Let's score some points. I like that, c J as
Speaker 1: always appreciate your time. Looking forward to seeing man back
Speaker 1: here at the Spring for sure, excited for it.