Anthony Weaver meets with the media | Miami Dolphins

Anthony Weaver meets with the media | Miami Dolphins

The depth chart that we got on Tuesday listed Ashton Davis as a starter, listed Jack Jones as a starter. Can you confirm if that is indeed the case for Sunday? Am I allowed to do that? You’re in charge. No, we’re still a lot of those things, they’re still in flux a little bit, right? I I never get concerned much about who’s starting. I think I’ve told you guys this before. I just care about who’s finishing. So, who’s finishing plays, who’s who’s finishing tackles? That that’s all I’m looking for. who starters, whatever. I’ve started 99, 100 games. Nobody cares. Win the game. One competition where one guy was in early while the other guy was recovering from something. That guy goes down and the other one comes in and that’s what I’ve seen him. Yeah. Wally pip, right? Waldip. Joe Deaggio. Yeah, it happens. Come on, man. [Laughter] I I think we got a we got a really good room of safeties. Who’s going to start? We We’ll see. What I do know is that at some point they’re all going to play because they all deserve to be on the field and can be impactful. So depending on on who they tried out there, that’ll depend on on who starts for us. Anthony, you have your share of rookies on this team and rookies in particular on the defensive side who could play an important role Sunday as well as the whole season. So, my two-part question would be number one, what do you tell them in terms of managing their emotions for their NFL debut? And second, what do you remember from your NFL debut? Oh, man. Was it did it involve throwing up before kickoff? Fortunately, it did not. Um, let’s start with when my NFL debut first and foremost. So, on I remember like like it was yesterday. I missed the entire preseason because I had a high ankle sprain. And fortunately, Rex Ryan and that staff still saw something in me and and started me. First game we were playing Carolina. So, he calls this Sam Mike pressure, right? And I’m like, “All right, yeah, my numbers called. I’m going to jam inside. I’m going to make a play,” which I did. Awesome. TFL, first career NFL play. But I wasn’t to the side of the pressure. It was a mental. So, it was one of those things was like, “No, no, no. Weave. What are you doing?” Yes. Good job, Weave. Good. Cuz I thought I was supposed to be the contained player. So, uh, so that like and that’s going to happen with rookies, right? They’re they’re going to make some rookie mistakes and we understand that. We’re going to have to live through it. I think collectively as a group, we have to understand that we can’t get frustrated with that. And we have to understand they’re only going to continue to get better the more they’re exposed. Right? I’ve said it before, like repetition is the mother of skill and they’re constantly in catch-up mode. The one thing I know about every rookie that’s going to see that field for us, they’re incredibly conscientious. They all care a lot. I just got to make sure that that internal pressure that they put on themselves doesn’t slow them down. It’s still just football. It’s the game they’ve been playing since they were little kids. Go out, enjoy the moment. You know what to do. The training’s been put in. And now be like a golfer. Can’t be out there like thinking about your have all these swing thoughts right before you get up to the first te. You’ve put the training in, trusting it. I’ll go play him. Uh, is Rasul’s physical conditioning and his picking up of the playbook at a point where you feel like he could play major snaps free Sunday? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see. Right. I think that’s a lot to ask of of anybody who’s been here for what, week and a half, two weeks. His football acumen is is so high. So, he’s he’s gotten a lot of what we’re trying to do already. Um, in terms of conditioning, right, it’s it’s different. like you’re out there and you’re practicing, but you, as you guys know, like once you’re in a game, like all all that changes a little bit. So, how much he’ll play, we’ll see. To be determined. But I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if you saw him on the field. Who do you feel comfortable using at the nickel position? Which guys? Which guy? A lot of guys. A lot of guys, you know, you could see uh Willie Gay out there, you know. We’ll see. Want to get real big, maybe throw Bonito out there and nickel, pressure him. No, but we we have a lot we have a lot of guys that can that can do that job. The one thing about us and and I think it’s reflective in the depth chart is is we’re we’re a little bit positionless, right? In terms of like who we are and what we do by by trait, I guess you would say we have a lot of tweeners on the defense, but that also that also gives you a lot of flexibility. So, you can see Minka out there, iffy, right? Bunch of different guys, Jason Marshall. So, we’ll see. I wanted to ask you about um uh Dodson uh T Dot being the green dot player. How much time do you have and of an opportunity to tell him, hey, if it’s this, it’s this. Look for this or give him direction uh before before the snap. Yeah, I try not to do too much of that because again, he’s out there trying trying to make calls, give the call to everybody on the defense, have his own like pre-nap inventory and process that he needs to go through and if he’s listening to me say all these things and god forbid I’m wrong, like I just screwed everybody. Okay. So, what I do try to to I have I try to tell him situational kind of thoughts, right? what we’re thinking here based on what we’ve seen, what he can relate to the defense. Maybe it’s the third down D and D. We’re in fringe field goal where we’re playing like a third and 10 like it’s third and five to try to protect the three, things of that nature. But um but I try not to talk too much because I I always right I always try to put myself in their shoes. Like if I’m out there trying to play, like I don’t need the voice of God coming into my headset, you know, talking to me like let me put let me go play coach. But I I love T dot and and he is he’s another guy like him, Jordan Brooks and we’re fortunate where in in all of our rooms we have like veteran leaders who are ball guys who care with high football IQ and and he’s one of them. So when he gets the call because of his work ethic and process throughout the week usually he knows what I’m thinking as soon as I send the call in. How do you identify that green dot player and why isn’t it a safety for instance? Yeah. Um, I’ve been in defenses in the past when I was in Baltimore where Chuck Clark played safety for us and was the green dot. Uh, it’s really the the person you rely on the most to relay the information in a fashion that that where they can get it to all levels of the defense and then have the overall FBI to to maybe give them a little bit more based on what the offense presents to you. What Jason Marshall that makes you feel like he’s going to continue to grow the way you want to? is it’s his he has a very quiet confidence about him, right? He’s not he’s not overly boisterous, right? He’s he’s not out there. He’s not flashy, but what he is is consistent and he very rarely makes the same mistake twice. So when you combine that, right, with obviously his his physical traits terms of change of direction, size, straight line, speed, he has all the traits to to be a very good nickel and outside corner for that matter. We just know like you have to do with all rookies, like you’re going to live through a little bit of growing pains. We coach them through it, right? You you you take that rep, whatever it is, when the mistake inevitably happens, and try not to make it again. And so far in our in our exposure to him, he’s been great at that. Quinton Nelson. Did I cut you off? You’re follow. Go ahead. Go ahead. No. No. Tell him. Get on him. Come on. Follow up with that. So, you mentioned he’s pretty quiet with you. He’s pretty quiet with us, too. Has there been any point in time where he’s kind of showed a little more personality? No. No. It’s in there. It’s in there. Like, I I I make the rookies get up and and sing or tell a joke. We don’t have a very good singing rookie class. Um but but but it’s in there. But I think it’s just something that comes out through through comfort. As soon the more comfortable he is with you, obviously the more that you get out. When it comes to Quinton Nelson, what makes him so good? And what is kind of the the power or the danger of a Quinton Nelson, Jonathan Taylor combo? So first off, Quinton Nelson went to the greatest school on the planet. I know we had I know he had a rough a rough Sunday. Sure did. All right. did. I know we had a rough Sunday, but it doesn’t take away from our lady. Okay. Um, I have so much respect for Quinton Nelson as a player. I was in that division with him for a number of years in Houston. I saw him and DJ Reer just have have battles, just look like two Rams running into each other, fighting every snap. U, so he he’s incredibly physical. He’s really smart in terms of like pass protection and pickups. like he has a good he does a good job of making guys right and then just his athleticism they do some pull schemes with him that are truly unique to him uh that you wouldn’t ask a lot of a lot of other guards to do those things. So uh have a tremendous amount of amount of respect for the guys. Then you talk about the running back. I mean God bless him. I mean he is he’s a stud, right? He’s a stud. He can he can dip in and out of gaps and make you look foolish if you try to do more than your job. Um, and he can run behind his pads. If if he needs to run with physicality and break tackles, he can do that, too. So, we’re obviously cognizant in all those guys and know it’s going to take all 11 to have success in the run game. We I have a question about the edge defenders, but before I ask though, I have to speaking of edge defenders, I have to ask you how much crap Jaylen Phillips gave you about that game Sunday night. Oh, man. So, I we had a we had a small wager on the game. Part of the wager was I I’m supposed to wear a Can’s shirt now. I don’t know when that that is being delivered to me. I I it it honestly should have been and I hope it’s not an extra smidium because uh because that’ll look I would look foolish. But um yeah, we there’s been a lot of trash talk for sure and there was a lot of buildup to the game. So yeah, that was rough. That was a rough one for me. And my my foot more football on the field question about the edge defenders is obviously have four highle guys there. Yeah. uh without giving away the game plan. You can’t use all of them on the field for every snap. Do you go in with sort of an idea of how you want to spread out the snaps? Does it is it a feel for who’s got the hot hand that day or sort of game plan? In a in a perfect world to me, if there was a 70 70 snap game, somebody leaves with 30 to 40, another person leaves with 30, right? However that shakes out amongst the four, we’ll see. But my goal for that room is that whoever is on the field that they’re playing full speed with no governor for every snap they’re on the field and we should be able to attack offenses in waves. Those guys, right? And I think you you can see by what these edge defenders are being paid nowadays like they got to be disruptors, right? And we’re looking for four quarters of disruptive football from that room. coach, with Eugene Brent, when you put the film on him for the first time, when you guys claimed him, I’m curious what stands out from a trade standpoint and also how he fits in your defense. Yeah, physicality, length, right? He he’s a guy that can he can match up on certain receivers that that offense has and he can take them away, particularly if he can win at the line of scrimmage. Um, not afraid to tackle, right? a lot of the things that that he does well carries over to what we’re trying to get done on defense. Michael Pitman Jr. is obviously one of the bigger receivers in the league. Um the current crop quarterbacks haven’t had as much experience with these guys with going against bigger receivers. Uh just how do you expect them to fare and what are some of the the teaching traits that you’ve kind of employed to them this week? Well, I think from from a movement skill standpoint, we should be able to you can run with bigger guys, right? It’s usually at the catch point. That’s where where you’re put at a little bit disadvantaged situation. So, we have to be strong at the point whether that’s that’s trying to get our arms not just through to the pocket on the catch point, but obviously getting through and then raking the arm to potentially break up the pass. You know that when I was with Hop, you know, that was him. It wasn’t about whether or not you could you could be sticky and be tight to him. You just knew the quarterback was going to try to throw him open and with his big hands and catch radius like he was going to make that catch. So, we have to be extremely strong at the catch point. What have you noticed about Tyler Warren, their their tight end? Yeah, he’s uh Oh, man. I I don’t want to slap slap this label on him, but he’s a little grunkish at times, right? Even from some of the plays they they ran they ran with him, but you know, he’s he’s strong once he gets the balls in the ball in his hands. He’s not he’s not trying to make you miss. He’s going to try to run through you. And he is he is a he is a willing blocker. Like, he’s he’s willing to stick his face in the fan. He’s going to stay tight to you and he’s going to he’s going to fight you right till the whistle. So, um have respect for that kid. Be interesting to see how his year goes. Hopefully he has a rough start though on Sunday. I want to ask you about last year you delivered a top five defense without turnovers without much pass rushing. Um I asked you all season like how are you guys doing it? We I came to the conclusion it was good situational football. Mhm. How much carryover do you think you can have based on players having a better understanding of the scheme, the concept of calls, and then also the addition of of the pass rushers? Yeah, I think we can we can be so much better than were a year ago just with the with the the unity, right, with the guys that have been here. We we got to start at a higher level than we did year one. And that’s what coaches and players alike, right? there’s an aligned vision of what we all expect it to look like and then and through that we’ve just been allowed to to do more, right? We can do more from a disguise standpoint. We can move guys around just because they all understand the scheme and the jobs more. So, um really excited about what we could potentially be, but potential means nothing until we go out there and execute. the start of training camp. Arujo talked about Jack Jones really having to improve um from a feet discipline standpoint, right? Just how has he grown in that area since the beginning of training camp? Yeah, I I love Jack Jones, man. He is uh he loves playing football and all the information you give him, he wants it and he tries to do everything he do to go out there and apply that on the football field. So, I thought he’s I think he’s done a great job. Again, I think I told you guys before, a lot of the jobs we’ve asked him to do are a little bit foreign to him, but but he’s attacked it every day on the grass, and uh I’m really excited to see him play this Sunday.

Anthony Weaver meets with the media.

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