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Leonard Williams: "It's Been A Great Battle So Far In Camp" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know there. What's that? Oh? Yeah? Me and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: d Hall just rough house a little bit. I always
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: call him nephew. He called me unk, So gotta put
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: him in his place sometimes, you know, Yes, sir, yes, sir.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: He still he keeps challenging me, and I gotta let
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: him know I still got it. How is this for you?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Training camp? Obviously been through a lot of these. Now
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it's kind of starting another one and still build the same,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you know, the same every year. How's a feel? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I mean my father in law, Ronnie Lot, I think
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: maybe year four for me. I asked him for some
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: advice going at the training camp, and he said, treat
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: every year like your rookie year. And I think that's
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  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do now. Uh. You know, even
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  Speaker 1: though this is my twelfth year, I'm coming into it
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  Speaker 1: still willing to learn, still willing to like gain information
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  Speaker 1: and gain knowledge and just get better as a player
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: like I did when I was younger. He has good Uh,
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  Speaker 1: fortunate for your Yeah, how much dold you already taking
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  Speaker 1: advantage of crowd A little different things you can in
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the offer. I mean, it's not to see something I
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  Speaker 1: recommend to every rookie I meet. Uh, you know, seasons
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: are long. We're away from our family a lot. Were
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: pretty much our home away from home here in the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: facility and on the grass with each other. So when
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I have those opportunities to be around my family and uh,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: explore my life outside of football, I try to do
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  Speaker 1: as much as possible. And I got to take my
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: son on a vacation this offseason and took them to Hawaii.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It's awesome. I think said you went to a World
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Cup game, right, Oh, yeah, we went to I was
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: out here most of the off season training and uh,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: it was really cool to see like Seattle hosting some
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of the World Cup events and I actually went to
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  Speaker 1: Belgium versus USA, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, seeing
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: grass grass at LUMAN, does that make you wish they
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: had grass for you guy? Yeah? Sure, I think the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: whole NFL felt that way. You know, we obviously prefer
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  Speaker 1: to be on grass is just less impact, better on
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  Speaker 1: the body and things like that. I understand there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things that go into having grass on the
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  Speaker 1: on the in the stadium that I don't fully understand yet.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, if it was up to a player
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  Speaker 1: and it just came down to having grass or a
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  Speaker 1: turf wield obviously preferred grass players get work on something
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of the off season, get better. Mike McDonald, he's the same.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But what have you seen now in relationship with him
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: as the years going. I would just say confidence, his
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  Speaker 1: trusting himself and his trust and the way he's leading
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  Speaker 1: the team and the direction that he's taking the team.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you you see him finding his bearings a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: little bit his first season, and then he starts to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: understand like what he wants to do and where he
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: wants to go his second season, which is crazy to
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  Speaker 1: say because we won the Super Bowl last year, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: I think this year he knows who he is, he
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  Speaker 1: knows the direction of the team, he knows what type
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  Speaker 1: of personality and you know persona that our team has.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And I think we're just stacking on that. What your yeah,
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  Speaker 1: now that you're lighting out, I would just say a
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  Speaker 1: lot faster. The way they're attacking the ball, Like the
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  Speaker 1: way they're having pre snap communication is on another the level.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I feel like oftentimes, you know, I've been a part
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  Speaker 1: of great defenses, especially here where the defense is like
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  Speaker 1: the more loud, rowdy ones we're like getting to the
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  Speaker 1: ball really fast and stuff like that. And our offense
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: is really challenging us this camp because they're getting on
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  Speaker 1: the ball fast, sometimes catching us out of the stance
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  Speaker 1: and things like that. So it's been a great battle
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  Speaker 1: so far in Carent. Does it feel like there's more motion,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: pre sas. Oh, yeah, there's a lot more motion, like
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  Speaker 1: fullback motion and tight end motions. Sometimes the tight end
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: is in the fullback position and vice versa. So it's
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: definitely keeping our defense on our toes and they're switching
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  Speaker 1: it up a lot. You know, sometimes they'll motion two
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  Speaker 1: tight ends to one side and they'll run the ball
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  Speaker 1: that way, and sometimes they'll motion to to one side
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  Speaker 1: and run the ball the opposite way. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: you can't really guess. You got to really just read
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  Speaker 1: your keys. Look familiar to what like you've seen with
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  Speaker 1: the forty nine ers the last few year, Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 1: pretty similar, but I think you know, they have their
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: own spin on it here. For sure, there's there's some similarities,
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  Speaker 1: but it's obviously a whole different offense. Inte that's blinking
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: where this guy's near the light stream makes the different
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  Speaker 1: down the field with you. I mean oftentimes it gives
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  Speaker 1: you a read and a tail on like what the
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  Speaker 1: offense is doing and whether which direction they want to run.
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  Speaker 1: But with them moving and motioning and like changing up
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  Speaker 1: which type of runs they have, it's actually keeping us
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  Speaker 1: on our toes and like, I can't like pre anticipate
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  Speaker 1: players anymore, so I have to just like play with
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  Speaker 1: in front of me, which in a way is slow
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  Speaker 1: slowing us down a little bit. Like if I know
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  Speaker 1: that they're motionally two tight ends to one side and
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  Speaker 1: they're gonna run the ball that way every time, I
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  Speaker 1: could just like widen out is the three technique and
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  Speaker 1: just take off and I know the balls coming that
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  Speaker 1: way every time, set the edge from a three technique spot.
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  Speaker 1: But now I can't do that because they're switching up
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  Speaker 1: the runs, you know, position exactly number one pretty play
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  Speaker 1: that reason. Get that? I mean, I think that was amazing.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's awesome to get that recognition, especially like
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  Speaker 1: later in my care I feel like I've always trusted
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  Speaker 1: and had confidence in the type of player I am.
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, having light around our season and
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  Speaker 1: our team from going to the Super Bowl has kind
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: of shed more light on individuals as well, and Uh,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's an honor to be able to
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  Speaker 1: get that recognition from my peers. Especially it's not like
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a fan voting. It's like something that's from like league
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  Speaker 1: executives and coaches and things like that, which means a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: lot more so. But you know, I'm definitely not letting
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  Speaker 1: it gets to my head or anything like that. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm out here competing. There's a bunch of young guys
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  Speaker 1: still trying to take my spot, and the offense is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, doing a good job challenging us and making
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: me better. You can be a free agent at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the season. Is that anything you think about
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  Speaker 1: or anything it's on your mind at all? I mean,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I'm trying not to think about it, Honestly. I've always
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  Speaker 1: been that type of guy, you know that. I've obviously
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: had a lot of contracts at this point in my career,
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  Speaker 1: and I've always noticed players that really focus on their
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: contract end up not playing well. They end up having
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: their head in the wrong place. And I've noticed that,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you know, when I just focus on being where I'm at,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: focusing on my team and how I can get better individually,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: things always tend to work work themselves. Out does the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: team all about that and said, well, you're just gonna
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: table that draft and they mentioned it at all. I
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  Speaker 1: mean there's been a few conversations, but nothing said. And
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  Speaker 1: so you know, I think we're I think we're all
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  Speaker 1: focused on you know, the season starting right now, and
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  Speaker 1: uh you know we know that that's towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of the season. We have time to figure that out
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  Speaker 1: when the time comes back to the grass. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think it's an issue that the graphs you could be
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: collectively bargain the players will be willing to do that,
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  Speaker 1: or you're not a for you personally, you're not a
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  Speaker 1: point able to make it that bigger than the alta.
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  Speaker 1: I mean me personally, I just don't know enough to
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  Speaker 1: make a statement on that because I know our stadium,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we share with like concerts and all types
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  Speaker 1: of other things that go on in the stadium that
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about. So I think, you know, without information,
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  Speaker 1: it's hard for me to make a statement on whether
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  Speaker 1: or not we should have grass. I'm just I just know,
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  Speaker 1: like as a player, if we just had to choose
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  Speaker 1: grass or turf without any other insights involved, like we
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: would obviously choose grass, which is I would say the
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  Speaker 1: same thing that coach Mike does a good job of
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  Speaker 1: relaying the message to the rookies and the whole team
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: is don't worry about the outcome. I think right now
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we have like three four weeks of training before season starts,
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  Speaker 1: and now's not the time to think about, you know,
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  Speaker 1: getting a sack or making the tackle. It's more about
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  Speaker 1: working on your process and kind of just like being
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: comfortable and playing having fun out there. It's usually is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: as much of Nishier and training camp in Seattle, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: some of these cities can get really obvious time of years.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: How do you balance that? You stop? It's been beautiful
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  Speaker 1: here and uh, that's one of my favorite things about
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: playing here, honestly, is this beautiful weather all year round,
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  Speaker 1: even during camp. Even on the hot days, we're kind
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: of we're right on the lake, so we always kind
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  Speaker 1: of have a breeze. But it is tough sometimes. And
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  Speaker 1: I actually enjoy when we do joint camps other teams
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: because that's when we actually enter some of these more
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  Speaker 1: hot areas, like we're going to Tennessee this year and uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know last two years ago, I believe you know
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a few guys cramped up and stuff like that. So
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  Speaker 1: it taught us, you know, two years ago, that we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna have to be more prepared going into some of these,
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  Speaker 1: like more hot places. Thanks right, thanks, thank you, Letting