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Leonard Williams: "Every Week We Are Finding Ways To Grow" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Was that the PROPS UH Water Mission. Uh, that's the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: foundation I'm supporting this uh year for my cause, my cleats.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I met them through PAO, which is a off season program,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: And what they do is they pretty much go around
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the world and help places that don't have access to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: fresh water. Uh. They build wells and things like that
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  Speaker 1: to help, you know, small villages and things like that
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  Speaker 1: get access to to fresh water. Have you ever been
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to a place. I know you travel internationally, have you
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  Speaker 1: been to a place you'd like to help directly with that?
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  Speaker 1: This is something I've been in communication with them. Unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: I haven't been able to uh fit it into my
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  Speaker 1: schedule yet, but you know, we've donated money and support
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  Speaker 1: it in other ways. But I'm definitely looking forward to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: going on the trip and like actually helping them with
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: like hands on labor, my building the wells, and like
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  Speaker 1: meeting the people and all those things.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Is there a story of the painting at the cleats
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  Speaker 2: or whatever?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Uh? No, not too much.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Will start you just listen to Cooper talk. I know
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: that you guys are in meetings together, but when you
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: hear him talk about the details or explain football the
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: way that he does, what stands out to you about
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: your teammate.
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  Speaker 1: Just his vet, just the fact that he's a vet.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And uh, I think he's right when it comes to details.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I think the mindset, the effort, the want to all
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of those things are you know, at a premium on
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  Speaker 1: this team right now. But I think where we can
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: take it to that next level is just cleaning up
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: on the details. And that's onlike all phases that special teams, defense, offense,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we also talked as a team
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that you know, Decembers, you know, leading into the playoffs
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and things of that nature, like heading into the end
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of the season is when teams need to you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: keep progressing as a team. And I think that's something
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that we want to focus on as the details.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: It's easy to say that sounds like it'd be easy
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  Speaker 3: to do. Is it hard, though, to not do too
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: much right? And is it hard to believe that? Truly
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  Speaker 3: it's that much of a difference between.
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  Speaker 1: Success and yeah, I mean it really is such a
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: small margin. And uh, you know we see that every
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: every weekend. You know, it comes down to the last
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: two minutes of the game a lot of times, regardless
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of how the game is being played out. It can
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: be really one sided almost all game, and then you know,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, it comes down to those last two minutes,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: It comes down to a last second field goal, things
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  Speaker 1: like that, and you know, if we can clean up
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that that small margin, you know, it can put us
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  Speaker 1: over that hump.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: It's just coming off a game that had a lot
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of visibility, a lot of eye eyeballs on it, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: now you're playing a team that's struggling a little bit more.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: How do you like sustain your standard week to week
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: regardless of that you're playing.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Just going back to our process, which is, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: something we've been talking about since Ota is just uh,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you know, it's about us. Obviously we're studying the other team,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we're finding out ways to attack them and things of
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that nature. But I think the major focus right now
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and this week is just focus on on like how
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we can clean up those small details, how we can
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  Speaker 1: get better as a team.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: They've only won one game, but they've been in almost
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: every game all the way into the second half. What
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: have you seen when you looked at this tightest team?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, what I'll see is they have great players,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: which is you know, every team in the NFL. You know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: every team in the NFL has first rounders, Pro Bowlers,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: all pros and things like that. And I think if you,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you know, sleep on any team in the league, that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: they have potential to beat you. So you know, like
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I just said, you know, we're focused on us and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: focus on getting better this week, and we're never gonna,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: you know, overlook a team.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Guys obviously went to Nashville last summer for the drag practices.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: What'd you get out of that trip besides just the.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Football practice, but just being a young team with new
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: coaching staff, being being.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Away for a while. I mean, from my experience, I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: just love joint camps. I think it's one of the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: best times your team has a chance to grow with
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: connection and things like that, especially on an away trip
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like that. You know where all we got and we're
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: in enemy territory, competing against another team, in another team's
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: facilities and all those type of things, and you could
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: just feel the energy of people just coming closer together.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: And you know, we did it again this year and
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: felt the same way.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, he looked at some of the tape
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  Speaker 3: from that and he was so he's glad nobody else
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: is looking at it because it come a long way
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  Speaker 3: since that Does it feel like that was forever ago?
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  Speaker 1: You're that new team, Yeah, I mean that does feel
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: forever ago. And just as a whole, I think we
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: got better. You know, individually, you know, players have gotten
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a lot better, But as a whole, I think our
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: standard has gotten better, and the way we play for
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: each other and what we stand for and our identity
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  Speaker 1: as a team has changed a lot.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Earlier in the season, when the team loss is kind
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: of winzea exacter after the over he won three in
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a row.
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  Speaker 3: After the second loss, you want four in a row.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: What is it about this team the ability to kind
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: of band together, regroup and bounce back in that way.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, I think it's just it comes down
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to every week we're trying to find ways to grow
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  Speaker 1: as a team. Every week we're trying to find ways
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  Speaker 1: to be better individually. I think every individual we talk about,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you know, the tip of the spear on this team
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a lot, and I think every individual wants to be
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the tip of the spear in their position group. Every
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: position group wants to be the tip of the spear
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  Speaker 1: on you know, their side. Of the ball, you know,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and then every side of the ball wants to be
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the tip of the spirit of the team, and I
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: think with that it just creates a growth mindset where,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you know, especially after a loss, where our biggest critics,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: we're watching film and you know, we're grading ourselves harder
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: than you know, any other critic or a person out there,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and you know, that's what gives us our edge to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: just get better every week.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: That was one of the only time this year you
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: guys have been outscored in the first quarter.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Was there anything about the start of that game that
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: was different at all?
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, they obviously have a good offense. I think
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: our defense did a good job of a you know,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: they had a pretty long drive on that opening series,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: but we did a good job getting off the field,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and then we were obviously putting in some tough situations.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: You know, starting off already in the red zone, it's
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: going to be hard to stop good offenses from scoring
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: when they're starting in those positions.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Have you ever played all but four plays in a game?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I think you played all but four plays and you've
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: heard done that maybe in college. I think I remember
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: playing against Arizona and I had like one hundred and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: two plays or something like that, Like those West Coast offenses,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, run a lot of plays, and I was
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: obviously younger at that time, so it wasn't as much
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: on my body. But you know, luckily, I think they
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: only had like fifty something total snaps, so I think
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I average around that much a game anyways, even when
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I do take plays off. So it worked out.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: You realized as it was gold or is it just
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: kind of happening.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize it as it was going. But you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: DeMarcus Lawrence and Jay Reed and some of those you know,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: older vets in our room do joke about how I'm
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: always that type of guy that like wants to be
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: on the field in every situation. Like there's times in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: practice and walkthroughs and stuff like that where you know,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: coach are giving the younger guys opportunities to go out
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: there and like take you know, pressure off of the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: older guy's legs and stuff like that, and when they
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: call up the defense, I'm still like running out there,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: just you know, not really aware that I'm supposed to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: be off the field. I just always want to be
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: on the field.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Like in the days after a game, if you play
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: ten fewer snaps, can you really tell the difference?
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, not really when it comes to snap count. But
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I think in the way offenses play against us, you know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the way we play the rams. We were watching film
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: and it was pretty much just hard double teams almost
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the whole game. You know, Jay was watching film with
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: us and he was like, Man, I'm tipping my hats
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: off to you guys, cause all you guys did was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: play double teams all game. And uh, you know, in
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a game like that, I definitely feel like it was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a pretty physical game.
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  Speaker 2: Afterwards, when you go back and look at that film,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: were the parts of it that maybe weren't to your
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: standards or things that that that stuck out to you.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think every person, especially in this building,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: has players that they wish they could take back. Players,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you know, they wish they could have played with a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: little better details, a little better technique. And that's the
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: beauty of this game is like, no matter how many
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: games you played, no matter how many years he been
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in the league, You're never gonna play a perfect game.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So I think that's something that's so special about this
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: game is like you're always chasing perfection that you will
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: never really reach. Pass rush on Sunday, the pass rush
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: from us. I mean, I think for the opportunities we had,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: we didn't do too bad. I think overall, we just
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: didn't put ourselves in enough situations uh where they had
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to like truly drop back and pass. But in those
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: times where they did, I think we got pressure to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the stafford and he had to throw the ball away
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: a few times.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: For you to be in every rep in practice, even
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: when it's time for their pets to sit.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's just a part of my leadership,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to show the young guys, you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the work ethic that I have. You know that you
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: know this is a type of game where you know,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: what have you done for me lately? Type of league
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: And I never want to be lackadaisical or you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: taking time off, taking plays off. And that's something that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I believe in how I get better. If I'm not
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: putting myself in situations to learn, then I'm not going
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to get you know, grow as a player.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Going back to your place for a second, you've talked
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: about your journey for the league and growing up, how
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: you moved around and stuff like that.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Do you kind of just empathize with people who don't have,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: whether it's food, clothes, water, or whatever. Yeah, for sure.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And I mean I think that's another interesting thing about
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the NFL's from my experience, a lot of NFL players
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: didn't come from much, and it kind of shows me
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the reason why they have such a you know, strong
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: work ethic and grind and grit about them is because
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys in that locker room have been
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: through a lot. And it's definitely something that motivates me
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: every year. Something I don't forget. When I was in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the Giants, I did a lot of stuff with you know,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: people experience homelessness, and you know, I've experienced that growing up,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: so I definitely sympathize with that
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Anything else