Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Leonard Williams: "We Have An Eagerness And Hunger To Be Great"
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: What's up? Where'd you get the from? Julian? Unfortunately?
- 0:09Speaker 2: Yeah, we did a little friendly rivalry competition thing when
- 0:14Speaker 2: the USC was playing Notre Dame and it was supposed
- 0:18Speaker 2: to be for a gear. So I'm expecting, like there's
- 0:20Speaker 2: gonna be a hoodie or a shirt in my locker
- 0:21Speaker 2: or something like that. And I walked into my locker,
- 0:24Speaker 2: what was this yesterday? And there was a whole costume
- 0:27Speaker 2: in my locker And at first I wasn't gonna do it,
- 0:29Speaker 2: but then, you know, I respected our our competition that
- 0:33Speaker 2: we set and.
- 0:34Speaker 1: There was a few other guys that had to wear
- 0:35Speaker 1: it as well, So I did it.
- 0:38Speaker 3: How did Sham get out of that?
- 0:40Speaker 1: I don't think he talked.
- 0:42Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was just me, Chenna and Peelee
- 0:45Speaker 2: talked to It was like a little friendly wager thing,
- 0:49Speaker 2: you know.
- 0:49Speaker 1: So if won, would you have put Julian in?
- 0:52Speaker 2: Like I mean, honestly, that's clever of Julian to have
- 0:56Speaker 2: done that, because I was just thinking about giving him
- 0:58Speaker 2: like a really large shirt, you know, like one that's
- 1:01Speaker 2: going to like be on his knees, make them look
- 1:02Speaker 2: like my girlfriend or something.
- 1:03Speaker 1: But that's about it.
- 1:06Speaker 4: How did you how did you spend the buyer week kind.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Of treat you.
- 1:10Speaker 2: Oh, it was great. I went to Hawaii, got away
- 1:12Speaker 2: from football for a little bit.
- 1:16Speaker 1: It was great. It's nice.
- 1:17Speaker 2: It's always nice to just clear my mind, get away
- 1:19Speaker 2: from football for a little bit. And I think it's
- 1:23Speaker 2: good for me because it kind of makes me eager
- 1:26Speaker 2: to like finish the season after getting a little bit
- 1:29Speaker 2: of break.
- 1:30Speaker 1: The Commanders do.
- 1:31Speaker 4: A lot of no huddle, and you guys have a
- 1:33Speaker 4: lot of communication you do pre snap. How do you
- 1:35Speaker 4: kind of prepare for a team that doesn't give you
- 1:37Speaker 4: as much time to communicate.
- 1:39Speaker 2: I mean, it's definitely something we've been talking about this week.
- 1:42Speaker 2: We know that they're, you know, one of the top
- 1:44Speaker 2: offenses in no huddle. We know that we have a
- 1:47Speaker 2: lot of pre snap communication reads and things like that
- 1:50Speaker 2: on defense. So it's something that you know, we're gonna
- 1:53Speaker 2: have to dial in throughout practice, getting the calls out early,
- 1:58Speaker 2: getting the checks as early as possible, and just you know,
- 2:02Speaker 2: something we elaborated on is just getting our cleat set
- 2:04Speaker 2: and going in the end of the day. Leonard, you
- 2:08Speaker 2: saw what China went through last year trying to get
- 2:11Speaker 2: through his injuries and stuff to kind of see what
- 2:13Speaker 2: he's doing now that he's back.
- 2:14Speaker 1: What does that kind of mean for you?
- 2:16Speaker 2: I mean, it means a lot to me. I know
- 2:18Speaker 2: it means a lot for him obviously, but you know,
- 2:21Speaker 2: he was the main guy that I was excited to
- 2:24Speaker 2: play with when I got traded here, which it feels
- 2:27Speaker 2: like a long time ago now at this point, and
- 2:30Speaker 2: it's you know, it's finally happening, and it's happening in
- 2:33Speaker 2: the way I always envisioned it. And you know, it's
- 2:35Speaker 2: like me and him run games really well together. We
- 2:37Speaker 2: communicate well together. He's a VET, and I love having
- 2:40Speaker 2: him standing up outside of me because sometimes my hand's
- 2:43Speaker 2: in the dirt and I can't really see things that
- 2:45Speaker 2: he's seeing, and he will say like something really quick
- 2:47Speaker 2: to me that it just allows me to play really
- 2:49Speaker 2: fast because he's seeing something that I may not be seeing.
- 2:52Speaker 2: And I've known him since college, so you know, he's
- 2:55Speaker 2: a brother to me, and it's great to see what
- 2:57Speaker 2: about his game is allowing him to do this now.
- 3:01Speaker 2: I mean, I think just him being able to be
- 3:03Speaker 2: a VET. He's been in the league so long. He
- 3:06Speaker 2: understands football, he understands what the offense is doing. He's
- 3:11Speaker 2: a great communicator and leader. He's been a great leader
- 3:14Speaker 2: on the team even when he wasn't playing, so you know,
- 3:17Speaker 2: now that he is playing, it's even heightened. And like
- 3:20Speaker 2: I said, it's just I like how he communicates on
- 3:22Speaker 2: the field.
- 3:23Speaker 4: You've talked about the past that your time with the
- 3:24Speaker 4: Giants under Patrick Graham was very different than some of
- 3:28Speaker 4: your later years to Giants, and now you come back
- 3:30Speaker 4: and you're in a little similar style. How much do
- 3:33Speaker 4: people not understand the effect that the scheme has on
- 3:36Speaker 4: players and their performance on the field.
- 3:39Speaker 1: Hmm, that's interesting.
- 3:42Speaker 2: I mean, I think it plays a lot into a
- 3:45Speaker 2: player's performance, you know, his environment, a lot of things
- 3:48Speaker 2: going off off the field with the player, can you know,
- 3:53Speaker 2: make or break what they're doing on the field. And
- 3:55Speaker 2: then also just like scheme and things like that. For me,
- 3:58Speaker 2: it's just like having fun. I feel like if I'm
- 4:00Speaker 2: having fun wherever I'm at, then I feel like that's
- 4:03Speaker 2: when I'm playing my best. If I start to put
- 4:06Speaker 2: too much pressure on myself and you know, start to
- 4:08Speaker 2: focus on all these external things, like that's when I'm
- 4:12Speaker 2: not playing is free and I play best when I
- 4:15Speaker 2: play free.
- 4:16Speaker 3: Mike talked earlier this week about this team having an identity,
- 4:20Speaker 3: and I ask my last year and this time of year,
- 4:22Speaker 3: still kind of looking for it, being this first year,
- 4:25Speaker 3: how much different does it feel coming out of the
- 4:26Speaker 3: buy where you really know who you are?
- 4:29Speaker 1: I mean, you could really feel it. It's we talk
- 4:31Speaker 1: about it.
- 4:32Speaker 2: We say certain quotes and things like that that I
- 4:35Speaker 2: don't even know whill to actually, you know, saying those
- 4:38Speaker 2: things and putting the words on it won't even help
- 4:41Speaker 2: kind of describe it. It's almost like a feeling that
- 4:43Speaker 2: we just have. It's like we talk about it on defense.
- 4:46Speaker 2: It's just like I think, what makes our defense so great?
- 4:49Speaker 2: It's easier for me to speak about defense because I
- 4:50Speaker 2: obviously play on the defense. I think it's the whole team.
- 4:52Speaker 2: But you know, we talk about on defense what makes
- 4:54Speaker 2: it feel so great. It's just like the mindset we
- 4:57Speaker 2: have to just want to get better. It's just like
- 4:59Speaker 2: we'll bring up one point early in the week of
- 5:02Speaker 2: something that we might have not done so great the
- 5:04Speaker 2: last week, and then it's like that week we eliminated,
- 5:06Speaker 2: and it's like we just have an eager miss and
- 5:09Speaker 2: hunger to be great.
- 5:12Speaker 3: He spent half a season with Bobby Wagner here after
- 5:14Speaker 3: you got traded here. What what stood out the most
- 5:16Speaker 3: about him in the time year.
- 5:17Speaker 2: He miss Uh, just how he was a pro. I
- 5:22Speaker 2: think he showed up. He was like probably one of
- 5:24Speaker 2: the first guys in the building, last out of the
- 5:26Speaker 2: building type of guy. Just how he treated everyone the same,
- 5:31Speaker 2: you know, from a rookie undrafted guy to the starting quarterback.
- 5:35Speaker 2: I think he treated everybody the same.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Uh. He was just a great guy, a great leader.
- 5:40Speaker 4: You guys have got too kind of dominant performances the
- 5:43Speaker 4: last two weeks on the defensive line, after maybe performance
- 5:46Speaker 4: that wasn't up to your standard against Tampa Bay. Was
- 5:48Speaker 4: there something you guys learned in that Tampa Bay game
- 5:50Speaker 4: that turned things around?
- 5:52Speaker 2: I mean that's part of what I'm saying about our
- 5:55Speaker 2: defense being so great. You know, we didn't live up
- 5:57Speaker 2: to our standard as a defensive line. We spent mornings
- 6:01Speaker 2: together before meetings even started, communicating with each other, like
- 6:05Speaker 2: how can we pastor us better? How can we play
- 6:07Speaker 2: off of each other, how can we communicate better? And
- 6:10Speaker 2: then how can we not let certain things be an
- 6:12Speaker 2: excuse for our d line? Meaning like you know, I
- 6:15Speaker 2: think halfway through, you know, the start of the season,
- 6:19Speaker 2: we started realizing we were getting you know, seven man
- 6:21Speaker 2: protection chips and screens and things like that to slow
- 6:24Speaker 2: us down, and instead of just saying like, okay, that's
- 6:26Speaker 2: going to slow us down, We're just like, okay, how
- 6:28Speaker 2: can we still show up in these How can we
- 6:31Speaker 2: still show up against the screen? How can we still
- 6:33Speaker 2: show up against play action and those type of things?
- 6:36Speaker 2: And I think we just attacked the head on.
- 6:39Speaker 4: Do you what do you think there is that It
- 6:40Speaker 4: sounds like there's a collective buy in there, and it
- 6:42Speaker 4: sounds like.
- 6:43Speaker 3: That isn't necessarily always the case.
- 6:45Speaker 1: Why do you think that that is the case?
- 6:46Speaker 2: What's that that buy in of everybody being committed to
- 6:51Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's just a part of like
- 6:52Speaker 2: the depth that we have in our d line room
- 6:55Speaker 2: and knowing that, you know, if I'm not going to
- 6:58Speaker 2: do my job, I know somebody behind me is more
- 7:00Speaker 2: than willing and eager to do it and it's capable
- 7:02Speaker 2: of doing it. So there's a sense of accountability and
- 7:07Speaker 2: there's just a sense of driving want to because it's
- 7:10Speaker 2: like we have so many guys that you really can't
- 7:12Speaker 2: slack off because it's like the next guy is going
- 7:14Speaker 2: to be willing to take your spot essentially, you know
- 7:17Speaker 2: what I mean. And we rotate and things like that obviously,
- 7:20Speaker 2: so we all have a spot in the end of
- 7:22Speaker 2: the day. But it's just I think we just hold
- 7:25Speaker 2: each other accountable anything else.
- 7:28Speaker 4: Thank you, Thanks Sider.