CeeDee Lamb & Quinnen Williams Talk Vikings Week | Player Interviews

CeeDee Lamb & Quinnen Williams Talk Vikings Week | Player Interviews

C just talk about first and foremost how you feeling and um obviously you have to clear the protocol. Are you cleared and if not what’s your trajectory for Sunday against the Vikings? Um process has been cool. Obviously it’s been a lot of like eye work and eye discipline and trying to I guess frustrate myself essentially to to see like if I have any more like you know residuals of the concussion and like if I have like any type of symptoms. But, uh, as for me now, it’s just been heavy on rest to be honest. Um, doing everything, meeting all my requirements, kind of getting ahead of everything, especially with the extra two to three days that we had off. Uh, I feel like that was big. Are you still in it right now? Yeah, I think I still am. I think I still am. How do you feel about the whole process that’s in place? Um, obviously when you had to go to the tent, it was very clear you did not want to leave the game, but is is there also a part of you that’s glad that those are in place to, you know, maybe protect you from yourself and and your future beyond football? Well, yeah, absolutely. Um, they’re doing their job and obviously me as a competitor, I want to do mine, but it’s times where they do have to protect me from me. Um, and that was a situation to where like those are one that was that was one of them. I felt like I was having a pretty good game. when I was just kind of getting started and um getting to cooking and for me to really take myself out just kind of playing reckless and not really so much reckless, just putting myself out there and I feel like just giving my guys my all. That was kind of one of the I guess disciplinary actions to say the least. But again, I’m happy for the training staff. I’m happy for everybody that has reached out. I’m happy for um really just another opportunity of waking up and doing what I love again. What did you have to do for, you know, you spend a full half in a visiting locker room? You obviously can’t leave the stadium. You can’t go back out. Well, for starters, I was pissed off. So, it wasn’t really much happiness going on. And, um, we didn’t come up with the win. So, that kind of pissed me off even more. Uh, really just wanting to put myself and my guys and my team in the best position to win. And I feel like I was starting to do that, but then it was cut short. So, like now it’s just all about putting myself again making sure that everything about myself personally is good and um I I’ll get back to feeling feeling like myself and doing what I do best. George was taking George took a lot of criticism from that game and you guys are close. How upset with you about those good that criticism he took? I just feel like they were waiting on him to have a bad game. It was quiet all all season when he was averaging 100, 110, you know, doing crazy things, but like the one opportunity that he get, he didn’t step up to the to their appreciation and and I feel like for us to come out victorious, it wasn’t just all on him. I mean, once one of us go out, the coordinators are very smart. It’s not it’s not like I go out and they stay playing the same coverage, you know? It’s it’s I mean, they’re going to lean coverage for us and they’re going to they’re going to cheat. They’re going to do different things. is I mean people are smart. People understand football. I don’t know why. It’s like a like a I don’t know. People just act like it’s just night and day, you know? It’s it’s it’s they got jobs too over there. Like them people don’t want to get fired and they know if they let Gpan by himself, somebody’s getting fired. Have you talked to him about just the reaction and kind of what he’s felt about it? Man, I’ve been in that position. I know what he’s feeling and I mean I’ve talked to him and I’m not gonna tell y’all what we talked about but as far as it it just kind of get annoying man as a player because like you do everything for your team. You go you mind you we here 10 and 12 hours a day we putting our work in every single day. Every day we work hard at practice you know trying to get the timing down and everything and you get in the game and then the coverage just switch or you get a sudden change somebody get taken out. You can’t prepare for those things. That’s not something that you could just weekly, all right, well, what if he goes down? What if he do this? This is where this No, that’s not how it goes, bro. As a football player, you know, you got to adjust. And defense, a defense did a great job. They did a great job of cutting three out. That’s it. That simple. Go ahead. Did it surprise you that when you see Richard Sherman, a former player who you would think would know what you’re going through, the biggest critic of of George? It’s 2023. Richard Sherman Richard Sherman says something about me too. CD Higgins had a concussion came back his head a couple times. Is there any apprehension about playing one game after getting hurt? Man, no. I just in a situation like that, bro, as far as getting hurt or getting a concussion, it’s not like you’re thinking about um oh, what if what if I get hurt again? you know, because I feel like you live in that realm and you feed that fuel, it’s gonna happen. Um, and you don’t want to live in a realm to where like, oh, that’s never gonna happen again. So, like, it’s really again staying level, just being positive about each and every opportunity that you get. And just staying blessed, man. You got to keep God first and go play your game. Don’t really think too much on it. And I’ve never like I’ve been hurt a couple times and I don’t I don’t I don’t dwell on it, you know? Uh, like I’ve hit my head a couple times. I don’t dwell on it. It’s just you got to move on, man. It’s it’s it’s it’s part of the game. That’s why playing football is very important. That’s why taking care of your body is even more important. So, you didn’t look at a replay to see what happened mine? Yeah. I mean, it was all over my phone. I couldn’t miss it. Like, but I will say it was I mean, I I I remember everything. I I wasn’t I don’t know. I can’t say I wasn’t knocked out cuz clearly I was, but I remember everything. What was it like to to look at that moment? Because I think for millions of people watching on TV, seeing your reaction really were Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy, man. It was a surreal moment for me and myself and really just a quick experience. Um, it was like a it was a opportunity for me to grow up. It was opportunity for me that this game could be taken away from me at any given time. So give it the credit and my all that it deserves and my brothers that it deserves and overall just always be grateful for each and every opportunity I can step out there. Can this be a successful season if yall don’t make it well? Yeah, it can. Cuz I mean as far as as far Okay, so like being a successful season, man, you get better. I feel like for us as a team, we’ve gotten better. We’ve learned. We’ve gotten over a hump in this in this building and we all know what it is. You know what I’m saying? And I feel like us as a group, we gel together. We’ve gotten better. We build great bonds and we set ourselves up for the future. And even if that doesn’t count this out, but if we don’t make it, that’s cool. We know for sure like we know we know what we got. We know what we’re dealing with in the future. And when we do make it, them boys know what’s going to happen in them peace. So, uh just just getting ourselves together, playing continuing to build this bondhood, fight for each other, fight for one another, fight for our families, and let’s play the game that we love together and enjoy it. to Vikings defense blitzes more than any team in the NFL when you are entering a game as a receiver knowing that and I know the ball’s going to come out pretty quick. How does that play into the prep and play into y’all’s game this week? Um be ready to make some people miss. I mean as for us in this room we don’t have no problem doing that. So I mean if you do blitz well they like to blitz a lot. So when they do blitz we just got to have an answer for it be on our keys and um when they don’t whatever they drop to be able to find the zones and get open and make it clear for Dak. I feel like for us it’s just being on the being where we supposed to be when we supposed to be there and taking as many hits off Dak as we can. Why do you think Dak has been one of the best quarterbacks against the Blitz in his career? Seems not it’s no surprise, man. He’s comfortable back there. If you think you’re going to blitz Dak, it’s probably because he broke a tackle and expanded or we we connected. You were you were wearing this question, the soft helmet today. It looks like everybody was wearing it out there. Say it again. the soft helmet you were wearing out there today. Is that Have you guys been wearing it all year? The receivers also or Well, I just got a new helmet. Not Well, like I had it when I got concussed in like a couple week like I just switched into a new helmet. So, I didn’t have it I didn’t have it on my helmet prior, but I’ve had it since I switched helmets. Yeah. Would you ever wear it in a game? No. Why not? It’s not comfortable. Thanks to Q. after the uh the loss to the Lions, you said that you guys were better than allowing four to four. What have you guys seen on the film that can help you fix that going against the Vikings and going forward? A lot of self-inflicted wounds. Um a lot of things, a lot of technique issues that we had to get fixed. Um a lot of things that we can do better at um especially in the defensive line room cuz we got a lot of great playmakers in there. So, it’s um watching the field hard, being critical, and um holding each other accountable, be playmakers. So, how you seen the guys kind of respond to that last loss? Obviously, the next four games are huge. How have you seen the response? Well, it’s been unbelievable, man. Like I said, we got great leaders on this team, great players on this team, and game changers on this team, especially on the defense. So, um taking constructive criticism, taking accountability, and uh watching the fan harsh um with the me mentality, and u doing the things that we can do individually to help this team win, and um especially on defense and as a defense to do it, things that we can do as a unit, as a group to help this team win. So, why did you come in here so quickly and a lot of folks talked about when you first got here, you showed a lot of leadership. Why do you think you messed with everybody so fast? Uh, just because this is a great room, man. It’s a great team. It’s a great got great guys, great leadership, and um me opening open the doors for me to come in to be myself um to the respect that I have outside of this locker room, outside of in this league has um been unbelievable. coming in and just having guys that I respect and that respect me has been been great. So, was that something that you that you developed with time, especially when you first got to the Jets and that people respected you or did you come right in like game busters and say, “Hey, I’m going to be one of the leaders here.” Uh, no, it’s definitely over time, man. Like I said, like I I I’ve played with CJ Mosley, especially at the Jets and helped me become a leader. You got um Frank Gore, I was there helped me become a leader. Tyron Smith, um, Morgan Moses, a lot of guys I played with just that helped me kind of mold my character and my leadership style because I was truly a leader by example. Um, and CJ kind of helped me bring that voice out and that opinion and different things like that out. So, it’s it’s been unbelievable to have the the guys I’ve played with um, to help me be leadership, but also the guys we got in this room now like we got Kenneth Clark also who’s great leaders and Dak is a phenomenal leader. So, learning still to this day from those guys and leaning on those guys. So, how did Tyron help it? Tyron Tyron Smith. Oh, he’s a Hall of Famer, man. So, it’s one of those things how he carry himself, man. You can just watch him, man. The things he do, how he take care of his body, how he work out, um, how he attack the weak, man. You can learn just off watching him, you can learn a lot of things, man. So, when he speak, man, it’s like you write down in your mental notes or write down in your book, man. So, cuz I know it’s gems. So, and speaking of leadership, Shotty said that he had challenged Donovan as a Rocku to be more of a bubble guy a few weeks ago. since you’ve come in, how have you seen him be a leader in that room and then also what he brings on the field? It’s unbelievable, man. When I first got here, I didn’t know he was a rookie. So, uh he the way he played, the way he carried himself, man, the things that he do on the field and off the field. Um I think I learned like a couple of probably last week that he was a rookie or two weeks ago that he was a rookie. So, um it’s been unbelievable, man. He going he going to be a phenomenal player and I just can’t wait to get a chance to continue to play with him and his development and things like that. So, do you remember your reaction to finding out he’s a rookie? I think he told me. I think he told me. I think they had to do some rookie thing for Christmas and he was getting dressed for it and I’m like, “Oh, he was a rookie.” So, so yeah. Four games in, what have you learned about Matt inclusive? What do you like about this? Uh, just the consistency every single day, man. It’s it’s one of those things, the consistency, the attack, the the the dominant mentality that he um try to instill in the defense every single um day. And um the the the willingness to make the game game changers going to be game changers, the playmakers going to be playmakers. Um, that’s kind of all you can ask for. That’s why I always say, man, it’s on us as the game the game changers and the guys that’s who who can be game changers and playmakers to go make plays on the field because he puts us in positions to do that. So, how do you feel like confidence has been for since you got here? Do you think it’s steady growth or a little bit up and down with this last? I I definitely think it’s been the steady growth even with the loss, man. You got guys, like I said, in that room, man, in that unit, who um who looked at the fam hard, man, who wants to do the things to to get that last stop in the Lions game so the offense get the ball, who want to be the game change, to make the sack force for them, to get the offense the ball, who want to do the things that like that to get the offense the ball. I’m speaking on the Lions game to uh to change games, man. So, like I said, man, that defensive unit, man, steady rising. U we definitely not where we want to be at. Um, but we definitely feel like we going in the right direction and learning from our mistakes too, going in the right direction. So, given that this is a new situation for you, how important is this game finish? Um, I just attack it, man. Every game is important to me. Um, every time I lace my CL up to go out there on Sunday in front of the crowd, especially the Cowboys fans is important to me. Every time I come to practice is important to me. Um, I want to win every single game. Um, so, uh, no matter what the outcome is, no matter what the situation is outside of winning football games and winning each and every day, um, that’s all I can control. So, Vikings lead the league in interceptions thrown and obviously interceptions come when pressure happens. How much of an opportunity is there for you guys to get some inside pressure and hopefully kind of force those turnovers for you? Um, I think the biggest thing, man, is just, uh, executing the play call. um doing what we can do um as as individuals and as a defense to be able to be the best that we can be u no matter what outcome it has from their side and what they do bad or what they do good. I think the main thing is just being ourselves and being the guys that we know we can be and executing the way we can execute. So you guys had some pressure early on against the Lions. How much of it after that was Jared Goff getting the ball out quick? Uh he definitely did a phenomenal job getting the ball out quick, checking it down to a great player like Jir Gibbs and u running that offensive scheme very well. So, how’s it guys? How’s the uh having the cameras around Hard Knocks and stuff like that? How’s that been? Uh, it’s I I’ve been on Hard Knocks already, so it’s it’s normal to me. So, it’s it’s pretty normal. And do you keep up with it? Do you watch the episodes? Uh, not really. I’m trying to kind of like focus and win football games right now. So, that’s kind of my only only mindset set on. So, thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

CeeDee Lamb and Quinnen Williams met with the media following Thursday’s practice to share their thoughts on the upcoming Sunday Night Football game vs the Minnesota Vikings and more.

0:00 Lamb
8:35 Quinnen Williams

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