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Leonard Williams: "I Came Here With A Chip On My Shoulder" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So everybody.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: So you didn't get Defensive Player of the Week when
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: your teammate had a pick six, you figured you just
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: get the pick six yourself.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Pretty much, I feel like I came out here today
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with a little bit of chip on my shoulder. Part
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of it is just still the energy from the team overall,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: treating every week like the playoffs. Since the bye week,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so I feel like we've been really playing cohesive and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: having a lot of energy. And then, like I said,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like I came out here with a chip
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: on my shoulder today, So that shoulder, I mean, I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: just feel like I played really hard last week and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: had a really great game. And uh, you know, I
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: don't want to take away from what Kobe did at all.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I'm really proud of him, really happy with where the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: defense is at overall. What really stood out to me
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: last week what was so cool is I feel like
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: if Kobe didn't get it, there was probably like two
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: or three other guys on our defense that could have
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: gotten it, And uh, that just makes me happy and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: proud of our defense. Even at halftime last game, we
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: were pretty much talking crap to each other, like, hey,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: like I got more tackles than you like, who's going
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: to be defense player of the game like stuff like that.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So I feel like that's when you really have a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: good defense, when it's not about the offense, it's about us.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like I came out here
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: today and wanted to do the same thing, just compete
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: against my teammates. You've got seventy facts now on the season,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: your most twenty twenty.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: What is it about this defense that's allowing you to
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: be that kind of player?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of it is just freedom
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that I'm playing with. I understand this defense. It's kind
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of similar to a defense I've played in before. And
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: then Mike and Ad just have a lot of trust
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in me to call the games up front sometimes and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: have one on one rushes and situations where we kind
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of force on one on one on most and I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: think overall, just from experience and being a vet, I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: kind of took the pressure of like making plays off me.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And you know, once I took the pressure off, it
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  Speaker 1: just allowed me to play fast and play.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Free, are able to call decide when there's a game.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: At the front. Yeah, there's times where you know, Ad
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: is like kind of given the defense in general, the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: keys to to pass rush if we see passing situations
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: or certain fronts that they put us in. If we're
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in like certain fronts, I don't want to call out
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the names or anything like that, but certain fronts where
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: we know where it's like a pass rushing situation, we're
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: allowed to like call up the games and stuff like that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: A lot of times they give me the leeway on that.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Did you just think Rogers didn't expect you in that
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: place at that time? I mean, that's pretty much what
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that drop is meant to be. We have our technique
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: is to like rush the touch. So I rushed the guard.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: As soon as I get hands on him, he thinks
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I'm coming. And then last second I pop out and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the ball just happened to be in arms reach and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I just pretty much stuck my arm out, poked it out,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and I got a lucky bounce. It went straight up
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the air and gave me time to catch it.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect to get that far with it, though,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to be honest. I mean, I remember running with it
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and I thought I was running fast, but you never know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean in the moment, But all
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: my teammates were hyping me up, saying I was I
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: was moving on the sideline and uh, you know, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: looked to my left and right, and once I crossed
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the fifty, I was actually looking to pitch it to somebody.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: But I've seen Spoon and you know, my whole defense,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the whole cavalry pretty much running down the field and
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: they were almost more excited for me to get that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: touchdown than myself. And that was awesome.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: How'd you feel by the end of it?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I mean I literally just laid down. Kobe came and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: like jumped on me and was like really excited for me.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And as soon as you jumped on me, I was like, man,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: let's lay down, you know what I mean? I was
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: like exhausted. I had to take a breath of that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Next series.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: You played, like, dont sixty seventy games in the stadium?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Was this year best wanting? Did you have any emotions
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: coming back here after playing for both these teams.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I definitely had a few sack games in the stadium,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Like I had like a three sack game in this stadium,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: But I think getting to pick six a block and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the two sacks in the last series, uh, this might
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: this might have been one of my best games. Uh,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: not necessarily, to be honest. It was cool for me
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to see a lot of the staff that they still
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: have that I remember, Uh seeing Q Williams. You know,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: he was a rookie when he came in with me,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and it was cool to see him.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: You told us last week that the tackle for the
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: loss he had against I think it was James Connor,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: that was something you saw on film. Uh, and you
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: had more time to study film because you missed the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: two days of practice. Was there anything like that in
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: this game where a play you made was you could
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: attribute it to that?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Uh, not necessarily, I don't think so. This week we
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: definitely studied hard. I you know, we knew their run
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: tendencies and and their style of run, and you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I knew how they protected and stuff like that, which
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: allowed me to play fast. That I mean, that's a
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: big deal of being able to play fast and understanding
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  Speaker 1: the off. But you know what was it was different
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: from last week because it was that very specific player
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: where I just knew if I did this, it might
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you know, be a good thing for me. And you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: there wasn't too much of that this game. They didn't
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: score after that, they didn't score for the second quarter.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Just what did you guys do today defensively?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, even the course they did have weird circumstances,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: But what do you guys feel like you did defense?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even noticed that they didn't score
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: through the second quarter. Like you just said, it was
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a funky game. There was a lot of stuff happening
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: in this game. But overall, I'm just happy with the way,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you know, the team played with grit and just kept
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: playing like because like I said, it was a it
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: was a you know, sloppy game on both sides, to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: be honest, and there's a lot of stuff going on.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And then at the end of the day we pulled
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it away.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Play before your pick six Rogers, they had a wide
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: open receiver that he just sort of overthrew there, just
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: kind of that both sequence sequence.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: How big do you think that kind of was. I mean,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you know, I have to see it on film, but
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I remember pass rushing and somebody almost got Rogers and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that's why he threw it, you know, too far for
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the receiver or whatever happened. You know, I think he's
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: an older guy, doesn't want to take big hits. Like
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that anymore. So sometimes if he feels a guy coming
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: full speed at him, he's just gonna chuck it and duck.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And you know, we we had him in another situation
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: where it might just called a great call and it
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: paid off.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Had to take away from this game. But one of
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: your best friends, obviously, Texter Lawrence, broke his or dislocated
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: his elb What was your thoughts on that and the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: season he was having up until.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's been having a tremendous season. He's I
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: don't know many guys that can do what he can do,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: to be honest, in this league. He's one of the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: best detackles I've seen play this game and since I've
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: been playing, to be honest, And uh, he's my best
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: friend too, so it's awesome. You know. I was sad
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to see him dislocate his elbow, and I've been in
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: touch with him since and uh, you know, just sending
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: them my wishes and prayers and stuff.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: The way you're playing right now, where do you feel
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: like that ranks among the best stretches you had in
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: your career.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's up there. You know, there
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was I can't remember which season it was, But there
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: was a season I had eleven and a half sacks
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and I think I won Defensive Player of the Week
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: two or three times that year, So it's it's kind
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: of close to that game, but I mean to that season.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: But even that season, I don't think was as dominant
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: as what I'm doing right now. Is just because I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: don't think necessarily the stats always say the full picture.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And I think now just being older, more mature, understanding
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: what I you know, understanding my strengths and understanding the
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: offense more just allows me to play it fast. And
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I just feel like I got more grown man strength now,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and I just feel like even when I'm not making
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: a play, I just feel like I'm more dominant on
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the field.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Win's the last pick six the field you've had herefore, that.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Was my first touchdown. But I did have two interceptions
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in college, and I had that was my like an
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: interception today. I had. My first one was on Drew Brees.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Are you aware that that was apparently the longest pick
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: six by defensive linemen in NFL history?
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Really, I'm not aware of that. That's pretty awesome history, baby,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you,