Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Foye Oluokun: “Elevate My Game, Elevate This Defense.”
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What did I do. I saw some friends, kept up
- 0:04Speaker 1: my Yale connections, saw my family, obviously, my brother, my parents,
- 0:08Speaker 1: went back to Saint Louis, just chilled out there, good
- 0:11Speaker 1: calm headspace, and eventually started working out a little bit
- 0:14Speaker 1: here lightly. Then I went to Denver to really start
- 0:17Speaker 1: moving again. That's kind of my routine. Saw some friends
- 0:21Speaker 1: on the weekends if I if I felt like I
- 0:23Speaker 1: needed to see some people. But you know, just stuck
- 0:25Speaker 1: to my routine, always about being better than I was
- 0:28Speaker 1: last year, going forth to the end of my career.
- 0:32Speaker 2: What was the biggest thing that you learned last year
- 0:34Speaker 2: that you said, maybe I need to do a little
- 0:35Speaker 2: bit more.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Yeah. First, it's gonna be understanding our scheme, how people
- 0:40Speaker 1: attack our scheme. I think that when you play more
- 0:42Speaker 1: years in the scheme, then you can understand, you know,
- 0:46Speaker 1: where people are going to be sitting down or exactly
- 0:48Speaker 1: like down in the distance, where I should be looking
- 0:50Speaker 1: at what plays I can make, what plays I didn't
- 0:53Speaker 1: make last year. I mean we already started looking at
- 0:55Speaker 1: and I'm moved here kicking myself. But you know, when
- 0:57Speaker 1: you take some time off then come back to it.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Now you're kind of coming back to it as a student,
- 1:01Speaker 1: and you want to be able to apply what you
- 1:03Speaker 1: learn going in the next year so I can play
- 1:04Speaker 1: faster and make more plays for this team.
- 1:07Speaker 2: You're a teammate with Calvin Ridley. He just talked about it.
- 1:09Speaker 2: You know, you guys get to know each other in Atlanta.
- 1:11Speaker 1: Can you talk about what he brings to this locker
- 1:13Speaker 1: room into the jets of the team. I mean, first,
- 1:16Speaker 1: he's a good dude, you know, very respectful dude. I
- 1:19Speaker 1: heard him talking about that. But you know, he respects
- 1:22Speaker 1: the game. For sure. He's gonna come in. He puts
- 1:24Speaker 1: that work in and even with all the talent that
- 1:26Speaker 1: he has, he's a hard worker. And he came in,
- 1:29Speaker 1: you know, even though it's oka, he looked ready to go.
- 1:31Speaker 1: I talked to some people running routes with him and
- 1:34Speaker 1: they said he looked ready to go. So I'm very
- 1:35Speaker 1: excited for him, and I hope he has all the
- 1:37Speaker 1: success that he needs here. It gets all the success
- 1:40Speaker 1: that he needs here, because I definitely believe in all
- 1:42Speaker 1: this his talent and ability. But obviously he's gonna be
- 1:44Speaker 1: a weapon for us on offense, and whenever he gets
- 1:47Speaker 1: the ball, you know, he can make a big play
- 1:49Speaker 1: out of it. So I'm excited to see what the
- 1:50Speaker 1: offense does with him. I know your suret.
- 1:53Speaker 2: What's up about the shirt?
- 1:54Speaker 1: The shirt man, that's what the defense believes in. Right here,
- 1:56Speaker 1: we was down and out and then we started talking
- 1:58Speaker 1: about thinking takeaways. Coach Bob Sutton said, if you want
- 2:02Speaker 1: to become, you know, an effective defense in the lead,
- 2:04Speaker 1: we gotta take the ball away. So we all came
- 2:07Speaker 1: back this OTAs and this was in our lockers, think takeaways,
- 2:10Speaker 1: and me personally, I want more takeaways, you know, elevate
- 2:13Speaker 1: my game, elevate this defense, and you gotta be thinking
- 2:16Speaker 1: it at all times. So you go to sleep thinking that,
- 2:18Speaker 1: you wake up thinking it's gonna happen for you. So
- 2:20Speaker 1: we're gonna get more takeaways. I think we was top ten,
- 2:22Speaker 1: top five in the league, maybe maybe number four. We
- 2:25Speaker 1: just went over takeaways. Man, get that ball in your hands.
- 2:29Speaker 1: Good things happen.
- 2:30Speaker 2: After you've been able to sort of see what happened
- 2:33Speaker 2: during the season last year on defense. That what gives
- 2:35Speaker 2: you the confidence. I guess that this team might take
- 2:37Speaker 2: a bigger leave on defense this year.
- 2:40Speaker 1: It's really understanding the scheme, understanding my teammates, next to me,
- 2:44Speaker 1: and then we can all communicate together. So it's not
- 2:48Speaker 1: you know, I've been in the league a long time,
- 2:49Speaker 1: it's not me communicating what I'm seeing, what I'm anticipating.
- 2:51Speaker 1: This kind of bouncing ideas off each other before the play,
- 2:54Speaker 1: seeing what we're seeing even during the play. So all
- 2:56Speaker 1: these guys coming under expect this guy coming over, you
- 2:59Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So kind of the experience that
- 3:01Speaker 1: we all have of playing together and then within the
- 3:02Speaker 1: same scheme being able to play faster, being one step
- 3:05Speaker 1: ahead of what we were was last year. Because I
- 3:07Speaker 1: definitely want to improve on what I did last year
- 3:09Speaker 1: as a defense, what we did last year, We got
- 3:11Speaker 1: to make more things happen.
- 3:12Speaker 2: You guys have three players that will be going into
- 3:15Speaker 2: their second year, Trayvon, Chad, Yeah, and Devin. What was
- 3:18Speaker 2: that like for you going year one to year two?
- 3:20Speaker 2: And how big of a jump can a player make
- 3:23Speaker 2: in that time?
- 3:24Speaker 1: A big jump just because you understand where you're supposed
- 3:26Speaker 1: to be on every play. You're gonna go watch all
- 3:28Speaker 1: this film, all these cut ups of you know, plays
- 3:30Speaker 1: that you might have messed up on technically, but now
- 3:33Speaker 1: it's like all you're gonna see the same formation next year.
- 3:36Speaker 1: So now it's like, all right, I know I'm going
- 3:37Speaker 1: to be here. I remember from last year they ran
- 3:40Speaker 1: these kind of plays out of this formation. Just being
- 3:44Speaker 1: as I said, one step ahead of the game now,
- 3:46Speaker 1: making sure you're retaining that information, learning from your mistakes,
- 3:49Speaker 1: and kind of just applying that to be a better
- 3:51Speaker 1: second year player. I think this is just how it goes.
- 3:54Speaker 1: How do you look at these workouts?
- 3:55Speaker 2: So it's just a good time to kind of get
- 3:57Speaker 2: most of the team together and kind of start the
- 3:59Speaker 2: gelling process.
- 4:00Speaker 1: Generling process, culture, keep that culture up. Obviously, we enjoy
- 4:05Speaker 1: being together. We definitely have fun out there, but everybody's working.
- 4:10Speaker 1: We don't take the workouts lightly, I'll put it that way,
- 4:12Speaker 1: but we have a lot of fun out there, kind
- 4:14Speaker 1: of guys drawing back and forth at each other. Make
- 4:16Speaker 1: sure we're keeping the camaraderie up. But we definitely you know,
- 4:19Speaker 1: lifting our weights and stuff, and then if you need to,
- 4:21Speaker 1: you know, get a little extra. Eventually, as this OTA
- 4:23Speaker 1: period goes on, seeing what you know, you feel like
- 4:26Speaker 1: you need to improve on working that work that into
- 4:29Speaker 1: your workout as well.
- 4:30Speaker 2: The culture not automatically carry over if it's most of the.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Same guy Atlanta wanted won a Super Bowl to you
- 4:38Speaker 1: before I got there, I'm pretty sure like the brotherhood
- 4:42Speaker 1: and stuff when I first got there was very similar,
- 4:44Speaker 1: but we weren't winning. So I just want to make
- 4:47Speaker 1: sure we're keeping up that same standard that we always
- 4:50Speaker 1: tried to preach about in Atlanta when I was first there,
- 4:52Speaker 1: That same standard that we had going in the end
- 4:54Speaker 1: of last year, how we approached things, how we making
- 4:57Speaker 1: sure no excuses about things. Uh, same thing gotta come
- 5:00Speaker 1: to anybody new coming to the team, anybody who was
- 5:02Speaker 1: on the team last year, remember what got us there?
- 5:04Speaker 1: Even improve on that because it's easy to say, all right,
- 5:07Speaker 1: we got it now. We surprised some people then, but
- 5:09Speaker 1: they're gonna be ready for us. So it's like we
- 5:11Speaker 1: got to have that same standard to even improve on it,
- 5:13Speaker 1: to make that same to make a leap from last year. Yeah,
- 5:16Speaker 1: you definitely preaching that.
- 5:17Speaker 2: Sorry, when you watch the tape back from last year
- 5:19Speaker 2: as a team, what was the biggest thing that the
- 5:21Speaker 2: Jaguars need to improve upon on.
- 5:23Speaker 1: We's got to finish finish plays, finish tackles, tackle better,
- 5:28Speaker 1: better communication pre snap and then you know, just trust
- 5:33Speaker 1: your your brother and their assignment. A lot of that
- 5:35Speaker 1: was a new scheme. A lot of times we're going
- 5:37Speaker 1: in the weeks with kind of new variations of plays.
- 5:41Speaker 1: So that now that like if we had the same
- 5:42Speaker 1: place from last year, maybe tweak some stuff up, but
- 5:45Speaker 1: we understand where we're all supposed to be, so now
- 5:47Speaker 1: we can disguise better. Now we can kind of, you know,
- 5:49Speaker 1: maybe tilt this safety down or bring this safety on
- 5:51Speaker 1: the blitz because you know, week in week out we
- 5:54Speaker 1: run the same plays. They kind of know how we
- 5:56Speaker 1: line up to it. Now, when we get like some
- 5:57Speaker 1: more comfortability, if that's the word, some more wildness and
- 6:00Speaker 1: stuff in our call, we can kind of play with,
- 6:03Speaker 1: play with a little bit, try to disguise a little bit,
- 6:05Speaker 1: make sure we can make our play at the end
- 6:07Speaker 1: of the day, but not be so not have a
- 6:10Speaker 1: tell for ourselves. Teams obviously change your year. This team
- 6:14Speaker 1: you kept most of or running tacked the core.
- 6:16Speaker 2: Do you guys feel like this is a little bit
- 6:18Speaker 2: of a.
- 6:19Speaker 1: Running back situation. Let's let's run back and be a
- 6:21Speaker 1: little bit.
- 6:22Speaker 2: Better than last year.
- 6:23Speaker 1: I mean, I hope we do better than last year
- 6:25Speaker 1: running back. We got the same guys, but we know,
- 6:27Speaker 1: we got you know, steps to take. I don't think
- 6:29Speaker 1: we can have success with how we played last year.
- 6:32Speaker 1: I think we have to be better than last year.
- 6:34Speaker 1: And I'm gonna keep preaching that to the guys who
- 6:36Speaker 1: were definitely a young, malleable team, and we can be
- 6:39Speaker 1: molded to any way we start going. So we got
- 6:41Speaker 1: to make sure we're going in the right direction. We
- 6:43Speaker 1: can't just line it up how we was last year.
- 6:46Speaker 1: We got to be better and we're gonna have that
- 6:48Speaker 1: that attitude the whole offseason.
- 6:49Speaker 2: From a leadership at the standpoint, what was the challenge
- 6:51Speaker 2: that you had last year coming in as a free
- 6:53Speaker 2: agent versus now where you've led this team and tackle
- 6:56Speaker 2: let the league and tackles and establish yourself.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Last year I was I'm kind of a naturally kind
- 7:01Speaker 1: of shy guy. When I get comfortable around people, that's
- 7:04Speaker 1: when I kind of, you know, I won't say exert myself,
- 7:07Speaker 1: but I'm comfortable people, people comfortable with me. Lead by
- 7:12Speaker 1: example at first, make sure I take care of, you know,
- 7:15Speaker 1: how people view me, and then I can start you know,
- 7:17Speaker 1: leading them. But you know, the whole bunch of young
- 7:19Speaker 1: guys too. On top of that, I kind of had
- 7:21Speaker 1: to start talking a little earlier. Now I got more
- 7:24Speaker 1: comfortable with those young guys. I start trusting those young guys.
- 7:27Speaker 1: They are taking accountability within themselves to get better, to
- 7:30Speaker 1: understand the defense and stuff. You know, the sky is
- 7:33Speaker 1: the limit for us, as long as we stay on
- 7:34Speaker 1: the same page and just stay comfortable with each other,
- 7:37Speaker 1: keep working on our connections that way. On the field,
- 7:39Speaker 1: it's the same way. It just seems seamless like we're
- 7:41Speaker 1: best friends out there playing for each other.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Thanks for