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Leonard Williams: "We Take A Lot Of Pride In Stopping The Run" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, So quarterbacks don't necessarily have is tough of recovery
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe between Sunday and Thursday. For defensive linemen, how
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: does it differ.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: It's definitely tough to recover from you know, Sunday to
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Thursday so quickly. But luckily being a vet, you know
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of veterans in our d line room especially,
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  Speaker 2: we know we know what it takes and we're trying
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  Speaker 2: to teach some of the younger guys to do it
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Run game numbers way down from last year for you
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: guys have three games. How much pride do you guys
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: taken a year defend on the run right now?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I mean a lot of pride. I think it opens
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: up the defense if we're allowed, if we're able to
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  Speaker 2: stop the run, especially on first down. It allows us
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to get into our pass rush, allows us to use
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: all our pass rushers up front, and it allows Mike
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: to dial up all the pressures and blitzeres that he wants,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: so everything starts upfront in the run game. You want
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: to play as well as gay as gamers play. I'm
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: not sure what years are you in right now. Eighteen? Yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure He's like thirty nine or something like that.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's impressive though, because when I'm watching film,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: he's still one of the top d linemen in the
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: league right now. So you know, it's definitely a blessing
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to be able to play that long and still you know,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: play at his level. But it's hard to say if
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I want to play ten more years right now?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: When you sat out of this journey, what was the
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: realistic goal career?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: My goal when I first got drafted was to play
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: ten years. I think at the time that's like the
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: goal for a lot of young guys. You know, we
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: come into the league knowing that it's a short term
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: for a lot of people, and I think when you
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: make it to ten years, that's like a big goal.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Once I made it to ten and I'm still feeling
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: really good, you know, I keep setting new goals. Now,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: what's your current I'm not sure right now, just trying
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: to take it year by year.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: What's it like trying to rush a quarterback?
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It can be with like Caligory, it's tough. I think
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: with a guy like him, you have to be really
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: aware of you know, how we're Russian has won. You know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I think this is one of those games where that
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: statement and phrase comes to together more than ever. Russian
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  Speaker 2: as one, we talk about it all the time, whether
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: we're rushing with four people or five people, of just
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: like not opening up lanes and pockets for a guy
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: like Murray to run. He's super fast. You see him
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: out running DB's on the sideline and stuff like that.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: So for us, it's really important to just collapse the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: pocket and just I think, just put the pocket on
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  Speaker 2: top of him.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Colonel's have some question marks about who's going to play
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: on the offensive line. Curious like how much does it
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: change your planning for an opponent based off of who's
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: expected to be in.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Front of you? It changes somewhat. You know, I'm mostly
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: looking at scheme and their plays. After that then I
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: look at individuals. But you know, once I kind of
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: understand their scheme and their go to plays and you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: certain parts of the field, I think that's most important.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Do their games feel a lot different than Sunday or
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Monday or whatever because of the quick turnaround in terms
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of physicality or what you seek wise or yeah?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I think so. I mean, you know, it's obviously a
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: lot harder to game plan today. We'd be having a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: day off and then we would have, you know, four
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: or five more days to game plan, whereas now we're
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: already traveling tomorrow. So definitely limits, you know, the amount
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: of information that we can get on another team. Luckily
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: it's a divisional opponent, so we you know, we know
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: them pretty well. Uh, not too much has changed, I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: don't think on the offensive side, at least, I feel
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: like they have. They brought in a lot of pieces
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: on defense, has changed, but you know, their offense hasn't
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: changed too much.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: They lost James Connor last week, you know, a big
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: part of their offense. What what kind of losses that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: for them? And what what have you noticed from him
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: as a player.
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  Speaker 2: Over the years. I mean, I think he's a great
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: running back. I think he's a great player. Like you said,
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  Speaker 2: their offense revolves around him a lot. I feel like
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: he's a bruiser type of running back. You know, when
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: he gets to the second level, he's very physical back.
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  Speaker 2: I think thirty three, the guy that's you know, playing
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  Speaker 2: in place of him, is pretty good running back as well. Though.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: He has a great contact balance and great speed.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Earlier in the year you had mentioned you and Julian
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: were talking, You're like, the great teams go through something
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: at at least two things. Doing season and having a culture.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Having a culture and identity is how you can push through.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: You have something to lean on. Is there anything about
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: your guys's culture and identity that you leaned on after
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: week one to respond the way he did in weeks
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: two and three.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. You know. I think what
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: me and Julian talked about is, you know, facing adversity
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: at least twice in the season. And I think for
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: us it was good to kind of face it week
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: one because you know, we kind of fell back on
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: our training and fell back on our culture, and I
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: think it almost made our culture and everything that we
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: believe in come to life even more. And I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we we really had a chip on our
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: shoulder to show the twelves and show the fan what
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: it means for us to play at home. And I
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: think this past Sunday was a great example of the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: type of standard we want it to look like when
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: people come to our stadium.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: Anything specific about your training or something that you guys did.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Fall back on you uh, yeah, I mean, I think overall,
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  Speaker 2: just our style of play I think even though we
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: lost that game against the Niners, we knew that we
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: played a physical game. And I think that's the type
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of play style and culture that we are trying to create.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Here's just a very physical team, you know, special teams
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: offense and defense. You know, on defense, we want to
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: make them pay for every yard, like if they get
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: five yards of one yard, you know, however much exupposed
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: to play like, we want to make sure that they
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: feel it. And you know, I think our special teams
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: came to live last Sunday. Offense played great all three levels,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and overall, I think it's just our style of play.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: You gets played last two games without spoon NICKI min
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: worried you didn't have doally last What do you say
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: about the way the guys in the back end have
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: stepped up with you know, getting guys in practice, squad guys,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: backups playing big roles.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Another great question. I mean, I think that's something that
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: coach has pretty much harped on since OTA's as well,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: is that you know he used you know, Josh Job
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: as an example of somebody who you know, wasn't you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: starting when he first got here, Uh, somebody that got
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: here mid season and things like that, and you know,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: he kind of had a step into a role and
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: kind of took over, and he was showing guys who
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: are in that position that you know, it's always next
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: man up, and we take pride in having depth in
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: all positions, and you know the rest of the team
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: is also going to support and have faith in whoever
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: has to step up into those roles as well.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: This way in the streak of good questions, but what
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: does your body feel like on a Thursday when you're
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: about to play compared to a Sunday?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Is it Are you still like sore from the previous
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: game or you just don't feel as fresh and what
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: is it?
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Definitely more sore, I would say, But being in this
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: business for so long, I've you know, I've just trained
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: myself not to listen to my body all the time.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: If I listen to my body, I probably it would
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: be hard for me to wake up every day. Sometimes
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: probably it'd be hard for me to just keep pushing through.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: But you know, that's the nature of the game. We
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: know that they are doing the same thing. So that's
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: another part of it, is like, you know, we're not
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the only team that's playing on Thursday. They have to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: do the same thing. And we want to be the
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: team that prepares better, takes care of our body better,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: and just get better sleep and all those small things
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: that are going to add up to us feeling better
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: on Thursday.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: In terms of stuff, Mike McDonald seems very process driven.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: How does that help responding to when things don't go
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: your guys way?
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: I think that helps a lot, just because you know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: it's not about the win, it's not about the loss.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: It's about the process. And you know, it would be
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: bad for us to come in after a win and
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: you know, be feeling ourselves and and not go back
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to what got us to win, which was the process.
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  Speaker 2: And it would also be bad on the opposite and
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: if we lost the game and came in hanging our
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: heads and and tried to, you know, change something to
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: get a win the next week. And we always talk
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: about process over results, and I think that's just continuing
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: to show up. It's keeping us just right here instead
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: of getting too high and too low. H