Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Press Pass | Foye Oluokun: "We Have a Beautiful Opportunity as Leaders Here, so if They All Trust Us To Do It, Let's Go Do It."

Transcript

Press Pass | Foye Oluokun: "We Have a Beautiful Opportunity as Leaders Here, so if They All Trust Us To Do It, Let's Go Do It." · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Gonna be different though, for sure, gonna be different not
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: watching NBA guys, But I think watching guys play more
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the right way will benefit the program and hopefully stay
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: longer than one year. No, no, not on that side
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the play is very exciting. But trying to actually
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: build a program and win games, you know, when they count,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I think that'll be exciting for Kentucky.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Nico, So why now on the contract ascension, what
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: do you mean by that?
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Why now? Like why you know you sided like a
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: year or left.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: Why was the timing right for you guys?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean initially with the with the contract, you know,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the the guarantee was up after two years. So it's
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: really depending on what the team wanted to do. So
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I talk to my agent and say, if you know,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: they're trying to keep me around, I'm playing, you know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: pretty good football right now. I want to stay at
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Jaguar and uh, you know, I talked with coach Nielsen
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: before this, before the extension everything, I had a lot
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of confidences where you could take my game personally. I
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: just wanted to play for coaches who trusted me, in
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: an organization who trusted me rather than you know, hitting
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the whole market again after this year and stuff. So
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: kind of gives me some security, helps the team out
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: with cap space probably, But at the end of the day,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: it's it's about if you guys respect me and.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Like me around. I definitely want to be here.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: A little Nielsen so far, did you hear much about him?
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Him? But anybody who still in Atlanta?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I knew a lot of the guys in
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Atlanta hit him up right away about you know, the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: kind of guy he is or how he coaches and stuff. Uh,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: pretty hard. Knows a lot of good energy coming from him.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Uh you know already, you know, kind of rest a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: straight ship. I think the guys who will respond very
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: well to that, keeping guys accountable, and we're all gonna
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: play as hard as we can for him.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Scheme team.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: We really haven't gotten too deep into schematics, but there's
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: just watching the way that Atlanta played last year and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the Saints before that. I think he got a lot
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of his defense from that, just watching the where they play.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: They play aggressive, they attack their downhill, they play fast
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: all over.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: It's all about effort now.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I think that's where he's gonna keep our standard to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: playing hard, playing aggressive. If we just take those outside
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of scheme, just take that style of play, I think
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: a good deal of things will happen for us.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Wait how much just the freshness of a new voice,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: new style, those kind of help a defense.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Just can it get.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know about stale the NFL, So like every week,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you know, you're playing for your life, you're playing for
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: your job, you're playing for a lot of things, whatever
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: your why is. I don't think anything ever gets stale
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and monotonous. I think you know a new guy coming,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you know, with his energy and passion, you maybe feel
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that that might give you a little jump start. But
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what we were doing
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: last year wasn't working. So now that's why you have
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: this new coach, and we're all excited to get this
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: thing jumped off on the right way and improve ourselves,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: improve our defense. And we got new guys coming in
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: who've played on you know, high caliber defenses. So whatever
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: they're seeing, you know, we're all receptive to it. Whatever
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the coach wants us to do, a receptive to it
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: because we know we have to be better than last year.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: You look forward to getting back in the building and
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: getting the team together.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: I get excited. I get excited just that first workout.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: You know, people start breathing lungs heavy, like we're getting
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: back to you know, being athletes, to how we're supposed
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to be.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: You know, it's part of the job description.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And then everybody coming in and doing it together just
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: makes it all exciting. But I like, I like being
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: around my boys and stuff. Uh, this makes the job
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: so much more fun. Bring the kind of like what
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I was saying earlier, Uh, played play great defense and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: he was part of a great defense.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Great player, part of a great defense. So uh, not
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: only his.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Abilities on the field, but his leadership as well, holding
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that whole room to a standard. Uh, being able to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: be an example and then coming you know, seeing what
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: he sees needs to we need to do differently and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: try to implement things that he knows works the whole defense.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: What you kind of focus on for your game this
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: time and.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: This time just right now, is getting my body back
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to to where to play in shape. Obviously it's a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: progress or you know, a long ways away, but you
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: want to make sure you're doing it the right way.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Put those building blocks in, not trying to go too fast.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, making sure you're you're still up to speed though,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: moving right, and then just learning the game. We got
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: new coordinator, new schemes, learning the game, watching the film,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: being able to play fast when when your numbers called,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: when we start getting back out there, to.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Take for the way it ended last year, to go
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: in the rearview.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Or yeah, yeah, it'll never be in a rearview maybe
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: next year after the season. I mean, I got a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: lot of questions on it throughout the off season, and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: it's hard to think about just winning even started. We
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: started off winning, but we weren't winning convincingly. How maybe
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the score might have showed it, but we knew that
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: we weren't playing our best football. And I think a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: lot of those things caught up to us. And then
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: trying to right our wrongs a little too late in
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the season. Then it's a little bit more stressful when
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: teams are hitting their stride and we're trying to find
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: out how to do things right. Yeah, that hurt for sure,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and I think it a few of us. Everybody's committed
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to doing things right this time around. You know, you
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: don't want to say we don't want to get in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that position again, and it starts from the first game
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: all the way to the last, you know, but just
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: keep it improving every week, no matter where this coreboard is,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: you know, keeping our standard every week. Because sometimes you
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: win games that you didn't play your best. Now you
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: don't learn from them if you're not trying to get better.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I think that kind of happened to us, and we're
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: not going to do that this year.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: How much does your job role change scheme to scheme.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: As a linebacker, you pretty much have the same job description,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you know, be the captain of the defense, lead them,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: call out what you see. Now the techniques and stuff
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: might change in terms of how you play a play,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: but kind of always the same like being a linebacker.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: So I have the most confidence of.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Myself to be able to adapt to whatever the scheme
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: change is going to be. But there's going to be
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a scheme change, for sure.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: Do you think, like I think.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: You might have mentioned already a couple of weeks ago,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: this this one could allow you to make more plays
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: just based on this style the scheme.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Right, So everybody has a part in the defense. I'm
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: trusting everybody's going to do their part. We talked about
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I'm sure if you watch the film playing in lighter boxes,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: but dominating in lighter boxes as well, not just being
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: able to get through rundowns in a lighter box, be
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: able to you know, make your plays and stuff. So
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I think I talked about earlier keeping our like matching
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: your coverage is more. It's just the way you know
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: his defense is set up. But I'm excited to play
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: in it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: You could change this off season. Does this feel like
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: a breath fresh air first sharp for you guys.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm definitely excited to get rolling breath of fresh air.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I'm still I'm not literally caught up on last year,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: but I know I have to get better from last year.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: The defense has to get better from last year. And
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I'm very happy that everybody kind of has that intensity
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: from this first day anyway about you know, making the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: right strides towards the rest of this offseason.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: You mentioned earlier you wanted to be here. Some of
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the other leaders on the team that have had free
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: agent like Evan Ingram Josh Allen have said the same thing.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: That's not something that players with that logo have set
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: a lot over the course of the history. How much
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: does that speak to the buy end that's on this
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: team in this locker room.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we have a great locker room versus
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And foremost, a lot of the guys always have a
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: chip on their shoulders. So when you come here and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you're working with other guys, the chip on their shoulder,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: like it's just infectious. How how much you want to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: play with each other, for each other, always for the brothers.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And then when things don't go our way like last year,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of weight kind of you know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: we carry a lot of the weight, you know, those
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: guys that you said mentioned earlier. So we just want
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to get a right together. And I feel like, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: not getting the right let you kind of let your
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: brothers down a little bit. You let the guys in
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the organization down, you know, up top and stuff, because
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: they feel that same pain that we do just the same.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Like it hurt a lot.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: So bringing new guys in, you know, we're they see
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: how hard we're working trying to right our wrongs and stuff.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: But I think the reason why we wanted to stay,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: if we wanted to get a right.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: We have a.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Beautiful opportunity as leaders here. So if they all trust
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: us to do it, let's go do it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Josh Allen was in here talking about he wants to
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: leave a legacy here and that's a big thing with him.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Does that kind of resident with you and how do
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you see that sort of man fast.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: With him resonate with me, like leaving a legacy here.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, I mean that's as soon as I stepped in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the league, I always wanted to take the next step,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: get a little bit better. You know, Coming up to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: this point of my career, it's always about the next step,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: next step, becoming a better player. I feel like last
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: year I didn't take as much as a step as
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I wanted to me personally, So it's all about for
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: me becoming a player I always wanted to be. I know,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I always knew I could be.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And then you know, coming into this year, like you said,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: leaving a legacy, leaving a mark, I want to be
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: respected around the league and then you know, for me, unfortunately,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: individual stats and stuff don't leave that mark for me.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: So I know I need my boys to play their
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: best and I need to play my best. If we
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: keep winning games, then I'll, you know, leave that legacy,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have that respect that I feel like I want, you know,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Josh Huge drafted here, so his looks a little bit
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: different than mine, just being a Jag for so long,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you know, being that kind of face to the franchise
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: look on defense and stuff like it's I'm all happy
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: for him, and you know, his goals may look a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: little bit different than mine in that way. But now
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: he's earned his contract, so he's kind of on the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: same path as me. Now play his best, get the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Jags more wins. That's how to increase his his legacy left.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: You know here in Jacksonville, do a lot of guys
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: in the lean or locker room and stuff talk about
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: legacy as well.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Is that I think it's kind of just felt. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: then you know, when you.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Get third contract for me, like what keeps you going?
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: It's not money no more.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You know, my financial advice will call me about how much,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And I was like, the contract, you know I didn't
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: he's probably gonna here the first time. I didn't even
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: crack a smile for real. I was kind of drab
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in my response, like, yeah, we got the deal done,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: but like, what am I here to do? You signed
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: me here to win more games? And I think everybody
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: around me is gonna feel that attacking this offseason, trying
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to do that when I'll be happy when we make
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the playoffs and win these games.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: That's what I'm here for.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Those lines.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, Josh just had a monster season. You've had
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: big years, Like how hard when you set that standard?
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Is it to go duplicated or surpass?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I think you can't be looking in the rear view
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: trying to trying to do what you did last year.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Your body gets older. You gotta be able to improve
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit every day, you know, starting with it,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Let's say OTAs again, get your body feeling how you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: needed to feel. But you should be going back instead
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: of saying I need to do that. How do how
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: can I get better at that? Because your body might
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: slow down, there's ways to play better still, and Josh,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you know he's still young and everything. His body will
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: probably feel the same. So how do I improve on what
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I did last year? Maybe in a new scheme? What
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: can I do to to one play the scheme right,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: but to make my players as well for the team?
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Is there without processes?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: You get to know some living coaches like coach House.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: For sure, for sure, but they they attack right away.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: So like even that first defensive meeting, Like you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: it's it's uh, pretty intense. I think they're gonna say
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: how they want stuff done, and we're gonna have to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: do what they want. Now, we'll get to some flexibility
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: when we're all confident in the scheme and stuff, and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I'll be able to bounce ideas off of them. But
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I think that they have a way they want to play,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a standard that they want to be us to play at,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna have to match that.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Can He described the improvement we saw out of trade
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: on Walker his second season.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: A lot of confidence in his own ability, I think,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and then you know, trusting his techniques that he's been
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: practicing the off season, and then Josh's playing well on
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: top of that, and then them playing off of each
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: other definitely did well. I think a relent less motor
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: he's always had, you know, when when things got tough
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: in games, we told him we need sax and we
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: need pressure on the quarterbacks. I think he's always be
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: able to pressure the quarterback about finishing. And I know
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: some games they had a lot of pressures in those sacks,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: they would be on the sideline kicking themselves. I'm like
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Bro we're winning, they'd be kicking themselves. So I'm liking
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that out of them. But I think just that that
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: pressure they put on themselves in order to be I
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: won't say perfect, but play at the higher highest level
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of football that they know they can propel them to
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: play that well.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: You talk about not wanting to forget what happened last season?
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Why is it important for you guys to sort of
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: carry that forward with you in terms of how an
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: envid Why you need to get better?
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Why is it important?
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Because if we do what we did last season, will
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: be exactly where we were last season.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: It's no joke. The AFC South got better.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: So if we want to be able, it's like we
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: got who we got a in a locker room right now,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and that's what we're gonna take to war with this.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: So if we want to be able to come on
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: top in the AFC South, like all of us, are
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: gonna have to get better. You know, we can't squeak
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: by games where we're not playing well. You're gonna have
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the team that plays the best in the conference is
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to win these games. I don't really
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: care what the roster looks like when you go in
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: on Sundays, you play better than the other team and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: you win.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Like, that's got to be us playing better.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: So let's get better every day so that when we're
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: there on Sunday we have the confidence that we know
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: we can play.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: You appreciate