Early is on time, on time is late and late is forgotten. Is it a rule? No. It's my personal mantra, and I feel like I have a lot of respect for time. I really do. It's precious. We shouldn't take it for granted.Collection: Respect
We're always looking for more improvement. We're always looking for more consistency.
The National Football League is an example to the world, it really is. People follow the lead of the National Football League - that's how powerful it is.
Football brings people together, from all races, nationalities; so yeah, I think the NFL does a good job of that - a great job of that - and I'm sure they'll continue to do that.
You're going to have hardships, you're going to have a lot of good plays, you're going to have bad plays.
The Rooney Rule is intended to give minorities an opportunity to sit down in front of ownership, but I think what it's turned into is an instance where guys are just checking the box. That's been the case. I've been on some interviews in the past where I've had that feeling.
Anyone who has a family member, son, daughter, brother, cousin who has special needs you understand what I mean about unconditional love. You're going to have some tough times. You're going to have a lot of great times, but you're going to have some tough times, some tough days. It's not easy.
Every decision is tough, letting go a player.
I come in, I work hard, I do everything I can to help the team win and wherever the chips fall they fall.
My mother's the toughest person I know.
Any time you pick third overall, there's a number of players and a number of ways we can go.
I think with an offseason, with some OTAs with more reps, more repetitions like any player, they develop and get and get better.
Look, that rookie year you got a lot going on. You got to get a house, you got to get a car, you have to move to a whole new city. I mean, there are so many things that are going on.
I try to be clear and direct. That's part of leadership.
I think everyone likes direct. They might not like it in a specific moment, but... I'm always gonna push 'em to do more. That's just me. I try to be truthful and honest and transparent, and if they don't like it, then so be it. And that's OK. I think they respect that and they know where I stand.
I think there's a discipline, a toughness, a respect for the game that I learned in New England that I think is just basic, the way football's supposed to be taught and practiced and preached.
Those things that are basically foundational - hard work, high standards, playing for your teammates, putting the team first - those things are ingrained in my fabric.
I'm gifted to coach. I know that. And the relationships I've built with players, coaches, support staff, I'm gifted to coach and I love coaching and I want to coach.
I have a belief that there's good in people. I just do.
I deal in truth.
I learned resiliency at a very early age.
I'm very prepared for difficult moments.
I'm black. I grew up poor. I grew up in New York during the stop-and-frisk era. I've been stopped because I fit a description before.
I'm the son of immigrants.
I think leadership is about being honest. It's about being transparent. I think it's about putting yourself in the shoes of others.
I think it's important to connect to people. When you can do that, I think you can get more out of them. That's part of my leadership style.
I think you can do that specifically with players - you can be tough on them, expect a lot from them, but not be somebody they despise.
We ask players to communicate - offensive, defense, special teams. Our staff has to communicate that way also.
I would say a lot of the things I learned in New England were about putting the team first.
Culture is very important.
You have to make sacrifices if you want to do what you want to do in this world. If you really want something you make the sacrifice. If you don't, you don't.
How I've always kind of approached everything is I take everything day to day.
I don't think about the future very often.
With your bad plays, you turn around and you forget them, you move on from them.
Well, it's always a goal to be consistent all the way throughout the game.
We want the guys to play fast. We want them to play free. We want them to play aggressive.
It's always good to win.
There is never been a perfect game played. That's just never happened.
Well, every down is important and every snap in the game is important. We try to let our players know that.
I mean, we never know what play the game is going to come down to, so we want everyone to be good. But yeah, first and second down are obviously very important.
You can't have a good play without good fundamentals.
You can say all you want about first down, second down, but it starts with fundamentals.
You know, that's kind of the discipline of playing defense is you've got to stay home when you've got to stay home, but at the same time, we want to be aggressive.
I'd say I love the challenge of game-planning for the opponent every week.
One play can change a game and one call can change a game.
I had poor ball skills and I tackled decently.
Well, I think anytime you can sack the quarterback, that's great. With that, when you're sacking him, you're pressuring him, and I think no quarterback likes having pressure on the edge or up the middle. So, yeah, I value pressures a lot, and I think that goes a long way toward marrying a rush and the coverage and playing really good defense.
I think you want to play complementary football - offense, defense, special teams.
Take it one play at a time. That's what we try to do.
You need discipline to play this game.