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Leonard Williams: "Playoff Games Here Are Going To Be Incredible" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Yours is the highest for talking back. What's up y'all?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: H what's the what's kind of the origin of the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: whole dark Side thing.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I think throughout the season we were just feeling like
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: we had a really special defense, uh, you know, special players,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: and then we were also just doing special things and uh,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: you know, we always hear of lesion to the boom,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: especially being here, and we were like starting to get
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: to a point where we were like, hey, maybe we
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: deserve our own name, you know. And uh, I think
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: guys started coming up with names and stuff like that,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: and I think the dark Side kind of just stuck
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: with us.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Sounds like that was last year that that came about,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Uh, it was more like the beginning of this year. Yeah.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I think a few of us were on the bus.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I remember, like me jay Ree d Law, uh, some
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of the older guys, and I think it was uh
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we were talking about how it's like dark here and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we always talk about a style but wants to play
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: and like shows like Lumenfield with the needle in the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: atmosphere here, and I think the dark Side just kind
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: of represents.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: That actually keping up with you.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I don't think one person would want to take credit
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: for it. Honestly, it was kind of a group effort. Yeah,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I definitely brought it up to some of the guys,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't necessarily my idea of saying dark side.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Some of the guys have talked about that. In the
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: last game against the Rams, the crowd noise was challenging
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: for communication on defense. You know, how do you guys
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: go about addressing that, know, and that's where're canna be
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: playing in the playoffs and you know, not giving too
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: much away with with hand signals and things like that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's something that we already addressed
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: early on. We were doing a great job of winning
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: on the road, and you know from last year in
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the beginning of this year, that's something that we wanted
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to work on as winning at home. And that was
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the challenge for us on defense is how do we communicate?
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: How do we dial in when the crowd is so noisy?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And we've learned to communicate nonverbally and things like that,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and uh, you know, been winning at home. So I
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: think luckily, uh, you know, we've addressed it early on already.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: What that home playoff atmosphere is going to be like.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited. I love playing in Loomitfield. I mean,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: even from outside perspective, it's one of the best stadiums
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to play in. And being h you know, part of
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: this organization and now actually playing in the stadium as
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: as a home team, Uh, it's even more electric. And uh,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: you know, bringing the playoff games here is going to
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: be incredible.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Do you hear from any old teammates about, you know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: the way that game went on on Saturday and abou
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: getting the everyone seed? What's that old teammates reach out
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: to you, give.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: You a Yeah, my boy, Dexter Lawrence hit me up.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: He's probably going to be in my suite for the game.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: He's flying out here next weekend to come support me,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: and it's gonna be awesome to see him and his
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: wife and is his new baby. And he definitely hit
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: me up and was just saying like, congratulations, and he
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: was happy for me because he's obviously seen me through
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of my journey as well.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: You guys, based off Sunday's results, ended up with the
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: top scoring defense in the NFL. Does that mean you
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: to allow the fewest points in the league for a season?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I mean it means a lot. I think we worked
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: really hard. We value so many things on defense, stopping
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the run, blitzing, getting to the quarterback, rushing with four,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: stopping the run with four, you know, all these things,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and it led to us being, you know, not allowing
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: teams to score too much. And uh, I think that
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it means a lot to us, and especially it's, you know,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: a defense that wants to have our own name with
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: the dark side. You know it, you gotta you gotta
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: show it.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: What do you attribute that you ended up allowing like
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: almost a yard fewer per play this year, I think
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: zo point seven whatever, but.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: So a lot of improvement from last year. What do
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you kind of attribute that to.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: To me stopping the run? I think early in the
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: beginning of the season last year, we weren't doing a
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: great job stopping the run. You know, the the guys
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: upstairs made some great moves and calls and brought in
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Ernest Jones and DeMarcus Lawrence.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: A few other players.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Uh, you've seen the media impact from those guys, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: you know, I think we've just been sound at stopping
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the run and it's it's pretty much opened up the
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: rest of our defense. When when we can stop the run.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Its tackling has been really good, but you're tackling in space.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: What what makes a team good at tackling, especially as
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: the season goes on when that's not something.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: You want practice for Wan, Yeah, I mean, honestly, it
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: is something we practice all the time.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: We talk about it every day in meetings. We call
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: it EAT.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: And it's just effort angles and tackling, and we we
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: talk about how we uh swarm to the football, all
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: eleven of us. You know, when we pause the frame
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: when the guys tackled, we want to see, like how
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: many of our helmets are in the picture because that shows,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you know, the effort getting to the ball. And then
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: we also practice angles a lot in practice, and like
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: how to attack near hips and if you're the second
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: man in or the first man in and things of
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: that nature. So I think that's something we actually practice
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: and work on a lot, which is a small fundamental
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: that you know a lot of players probably forget about,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: but it's something that we harp on a lot.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Here.
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  Speaker 3: We know you guys are having a lot one hundred
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: yard rusher in twenty six games. You're doing that playing
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: a defense where you're playing nickel most of the time.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: How much pride do you guys kind of have as
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: a front to put that together knowing you're playing two
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: deep nickel defense and still nobody is able to really
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: kind of cut you guys up up front with the run.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: You yeah, I mean, as much as it feels good
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: to get a sack, that feels just as good to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: hear as you know, when we can play with two
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: hot safety and beat and stop the run with just
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: four down linemen knowing that you know, at least two
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: or three of us are getting double teams, that means,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know, not only are we stopping the double team,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: but we're beating the double teams. Murphy is one of
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the best in the league that I've seen do it
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: in my career, and he's a young guy. So uh,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to see our front be able to stop the run
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: with just four guys is a you know, a testament
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: to you know, how we how we value and take
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: pride in stopping the run.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: A lot of folks, you know, notice athletic ability for
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: for teams out in the field.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It seems like you guys gotta.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: High football IQ on the defensive side at every level.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: You know, how much is having that aspect elevate the
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: overall player for the defense.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Uh, that helps for sure. I mean I think the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: effort and all that type of stuff erases, you know, mistakes.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I think, like we we talk about high effort just
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: because if someone does happen to mister tackle, we have
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: like you know, ten other guys swarming to the ball.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But you know, this year we've been doing a great
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: job tackling. We've been ahead of plays, like you just said,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: like the knowledge of football has been there as well,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and you know, like I think it's I think that's
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: when you really see big plays, like when you see EJ.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: You know, e Man making TFLs like big players like that,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: it's because they are of the player.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: They've they've studied.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Film, we've been locked in on on small things, small
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: details throughout the week of studying and things like that
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: that you can actually go out there and still you
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: know a player two.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Defensive side that are most common to come up to
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: you or you going to someone else.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And say, hey, I saw this.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: You guys should be thinking about that.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: EJ is one of those guys. Spoon is also another guy.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I hear him and Julian talking a lot in the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: back end about you know, small things that they see.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: You know, DeMarcus Lawrence, we talk about him and Chenna.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: We we try to find like who we can see
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Delta on and Delta keys on on, Who's which old
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: line is giving it away?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And things like that.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: You played in the playoffs and two did it feel
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: different than a regular season game when you played the
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: playoffs and the playffs feel different than a regular season game?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: If so, yeah, it did feel different.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: It was my first time in the playoffs, so it
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: was obviously a bigger a bigger game. We were excited
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: to be there. But at the same time, even that
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: playoff time feels different than this playoff time. I think
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: when I made it before, we we kind of and
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: almost like we kind of just like like we were
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: almost kind of like how do we get here a
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: type of situation, whereas I now it's like we're we
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: look at each other like, yeah, we were meant to
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: be here, this was our destiny, Like this is like
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: what's supposed to happen, Like we worked hard for this,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: like things like that. So even both of my playoff
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: experiences have already felt different.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Down this week for a playoff by week something you
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: never had before.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's definitely something I haven't had. But I
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: appreciate the way the guys are going about it. We're
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: not treating it like a regular season by a week,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: where guys are you know, flying to Mexico and Hawaii
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: and like enjoying their time. I think we we really
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: celebrated that win against the Niners, but immediately that next
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: day you could tell guys that, like, hey, the job's
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: not done.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: We got a lot of work to do.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And that's still the same mindset right now is where
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: you know guys are going to take a few days
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: away mentally, physically, take care of their bodies and things
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: But I think we're all focused right now.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Practice in the rain today too, Yeah, how was that?
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't practice today, but it was a pretty competitive
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: practice just from watching the guys were going at it.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: And again that's a testament to our team. It would
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: be easy to go out there and kind of, you know,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: be lackadaisical and relax, be chill on a bye week,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: but guys are out there compete and trying to find
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: ways to get better. And that's what's been getting us here.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: As someone who plays with Nick and has going against Gray.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: What if those two rookies meant to the team success
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: this year? Huge?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I mean not even just their playmaking ability, but their energy.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Seeing young guys being able to you know, show their energy,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: show their personality, show their enthusiastic you know, personalities is huge.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing Gray during games like coming up to me
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: and like hyping up the d line, like saying, hey, guys,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: like get us a play like we got you guys,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and like just having a young guy be able to
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: have motivation like that is big. And you know their
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: play also just speaks high volumes.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Legion of boom.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: When you were talking about the dark Side nickname, if
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: you're a great defense in Seattle, obviously that comparison is
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: gonna get made.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: How do you kind of weigh that?
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Like, obviously you're a different team, different players, different scheme, everything.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you like comparisons.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Like that or you just kind of hate?
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, I personally don't like comparison to them, especially
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: because you know they were there were a great defense,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: they had great players, but that was years ago, and uh,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: you know it's hard to compare. It's like you don't
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: want a new team and a new staff and a
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: new player, you know, coming in trying to chase a
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: shadow of something else. It's like, we want to have
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: our own identity. And uh, to me it makes sense why,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: you know, fan bases and people outside of here make
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: comparisons like that because they were a great team that
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: was here before. But for us inside, we always knew
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: we wanted our own identity.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Sam obviously he plays on the other side of the ball,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: But what do you think, say MS defining trade as
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: a leader is Uh?
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: To me, it's the way he works. You know, we
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: talk about it.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we're flying on the plane and guys are hanging
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: out and having a good time, shoutout, boxing, messing around,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: and uh, you know, you just see Sammy. He's just
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: sitting there watching film, taking notes like he's studying up
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: until like the last second. And uh, I think that's
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: just the way he approaches work every day. And it's
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: it's impressive.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: They recite Charles Contract.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: What's he like going against in practice and just you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: kind of in the locker room in.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's another one of those guys that's just
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: very consistent. The way he works his work ethic is incredible. Uh,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: he's a great player and he's a great leader in
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the old line room, so I'm happy for him.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Everything else, thank you, thank you.