On Dwayne Haskins:
“He’s a big guy. He has a big arm. He’s relying on that right now and you can see his mobility as well in the pocket. He has a lot of intangibles, like I said before, to be a great quarterback in this league. It’s just up to him. It takes time, as in everything, to be groomed and to see pro-style defense. So he’s seeing it now, here in training camp and he made a couple mistakes, but he’ll get better from it.”
On when he can tell that a rookie quarterback is really improving:
“Well, not making the same mistake twice, kind of. Picking your points, or your targets that you want to go after and trying to actually thread the ball in and there and when not. I think there was a play where he (Haskins) ate the ball and before he did that, he ended up throwing it into double coverage, so that shows a sign of maturity at a fast point, but he’s still growing. It’s our third day, so he’s still got a lot more to go.”
On what the secondary can build off of from last season:
“Well, obviously it’s turnovers. You can never not have enough, no matter if you lead the league in turnovers, so we got to get the ball out no matter what it is. If it’s on the run game, we got to be a force there, stripping the ball. If it’s in the air, we got to take it away with an interception. So, whenever we can get our hands on the ball and create turnovers, that’s what we need to do. But, communication has been excellent. Everybody is just getting along. We got a fresh crop of guys that’s in there. It’s just shoring up everybody. It’s fun to play to with right now.”
On how an event-filled offseason can help clear his mind heading into the season:
“Well, it showed I can tackle anything, literally. But at the same time, I might run out of the way of it. But it’s all fun and games, I feel like, for me, it’s back to backyard football. Kind of see-ball, get ball. I feel so loose and relaxed just because I’ve been through a rollercoaster offseason. So coming in here now, I think I’ve put a lot of things in buckets. I know how to turn the switch on and turn the switch off. A lot of people don’t have that ability. So, they have to do certain things for a long period of time, but for me, when it’s go-time it’s go-time, let’s suit it up. Let’s get it going. When I’m not, then I’m not, trust me. So, now that we are, I’m having fun with it. It’s go-time.”
On the meaning of opening up the Josh Norman Teen Center in Greenwood, SC:
“Well it means everything. I wear it today – Starz 24, my non-profit organization – it means literally the world. I’ve done so much. I’ve pretty much did every thrill-seeking thing I can think of and pretty much helped out so many individuals and not even individuals, just company and people in one sense. To build a team center, in my hometown, that pretty much takes the cake for me. That is the pinnacle of what I’ve worked for all this time and what I’ve been able to obtain through God’s grace and his blessings. Being able to give back to a kid, from their dreams, they can actually go out and live their life through it. They can do that at Starz 24, the Boys and Girls Club of American Teens Center there in Greenwood, South Carolina. It’s a big thing for me. It’s pretty much everything I’ve worked up to thus far.”
On the cost of the teen center:
“Ah man, it costs kids’ faces to be lit up. That’s what it cost. If you can do that, that’s a big check that I’ll take. I’ll take that every time. I don’t know there’s records for that stuff. Sheesh.”
On being a veteran leader in the secondary with S Landon Collins:
“Oh my gosh. Just letting the guys be them. You can’t – I don’t pretty much be an enforcer or anything. They know but I don’t like try to overstep my bounds and be a dictatorship or anything like that. I let those guys be themselves and we have fun. Don’t nobody get out of line or anything like that. It’s just everybody is talking, everybody is on a cool level with each other. We can have a conversation and if something doesn’t work out then guess what? We talk about it and we fix it. I want to work with those guys more than I think they want to work with me. It goes hand-in-and with playing with a guy like that. Along with our group, it’s just a tremendous feel this year, it really is.”
On the defense as an overall unit:
“Oh man, we smashing this year. I think just the pinnacle of rising up from what we built from four years to now. Oh man we cooking, we really are. Just to see us out there and how we flying around, linebackers playing down hill and cracking. Like safeties and corners actually breaking on the football; Dunny [Quinton Dunbar] had three today. I mean come on you can’t make this stuff up; Fabian [Moreau] is looking sweet. You look at the whole entire crew right now; I mean 25 [Jimmy Moreland] that kid is looking special. Shoot, you can’t say enough about our crew really. How we have been able to evolve. I don’t even want to talk about D-line because I get [excited] just talking about those guys because they are just so freakin phenomenal – they really are. Those bulls up front really makes everything go for us. If they can thread through the offensive line like they’ve been doing these past three days; oh man we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with, for sure.”
On his post-practice work with WR Kelvin Harmon:
“Well yeah, for him you know, he wants it. You know what I’m saying? He wants it. And for a lot of cats, for a lot of guys, you see they come in and they just – they are guys, you know? But for him, it seems like he wants take that next step and that next approach to being not just a guy, but a playmaker. Somebody that’s a star that sticks out and he wants to learn because you know on the line, I think that’s where needs more work at. So, that’s where he wants to work and get better and for somebody that young to actually want to come in and get work, man that says a lot for him. Not only him, but that’s his character because he’s able to form up and he’s able to go against someone that is more superior. I just want to show him some tips here and there where he can get off and he can actually be better on the line than before. Everything he’s able to do – I think he got me on like two-on-two earlier. I told him ‘Quick,’ he hit me with a quick and I didn’t even know it came. He came down, and he ended up catching the ball, and now it’s one on one you know, and it’s just like ‘Okay, that was nice.’ So he’s formed up, he’s actually learning, and it’s a good thing to see.”
On his seven essential items to get through training camp:
“Oh my gosh, what is that? Soap. Soap. Soap. Soap. Soap. More soap. Like literally. All day.”
On if he still thinks he can raise his game to another level this season:
“Yeah every year is a rise. Every year is a rise. No matter what it is, the obstacles that we face is always to rise above that and be something that’s more that you were the previous year. I’ll be better than I was last year. Last year I was better than the year before that one and it’s just going to continue to go forth because that’s how I prepare, that’s how I push myself. Outside voices are what they are. I can’t control those. They’ll be that for the rest of my life.”
On CB Quinton Dunbar’s absence last season giving him more matchups against opposing No. 1 receivers and if that helped him coming into this season:
“Well probably the same thing. It might be the same thing – I don’t think anything else will change because you obviously want that challenge no matter who it is. So I think just working within the defense and the scheme of what is being called, it’s going to benefit everybody.”
On his impression of the WR position group:
“My impression of this group is they are fast, these guys are fast. They caddy, they scaddy – that’s J’s Crop [Jay Gruden], though. He likes those little guys though that can get in and out and get going when they can get the ball and get vertical. You’re seeing a lot of that being able to change and they do a really good job. They really do, not as much credit as they getting. If you are hanging out their covering them you will see different. They actually are playing pretty well right now for us, if only they can get the ball off. Our [defensive] line’s just animalistic. They are just that good.”
On working with defensive backs coach Ray Horton:
“Man, it’s fresh. It really is. You cannot – no matter what you do – substitute pretty much everything about veteran leadership than that guy. I mean, [he is] experience at its best. No matter where you go or what you do, you want to have that experience because I can pull from him to be like, ‘What can I change here?’ Because he’s played it, he’s coached it, he’s done it. So, he’s seen it all. It’s almost like, ‘Okay, what can I use or can I grab from him to put in my tool belt so I can go out there and defeat my opponent?’ Because if you don’t have that experience, it’s like, ‘What are we doing? How are we able to take from you?’ You know what I’m saying? It’s hard, because for me I’m at a point where we steady trying to grow. I didn’t make it yet. At least I don’t feel that way. I need more. And he can give me that.”
On CB Fabian Moreau’s improvement:
“Today, yesterday, the day before. I mean the way he is able to perform. He is working now where he is coming into his own. I mean you can even see that. Today he made a play on the inside – I think it was on the seven-on-seven. Fabian wouldn’t have made that play a year ago. This year, he making that play every time. I trust in that. You know what I’m saying. I trust in him making a play. I trust in him being where he needs to be. You can see his confidence rise. It exudes from him. I feel that. Everyone on the defense feels that. So it’s like, if we can depend on that, he’s stepping up big, look man, we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with back there. So, it’s just going to be good to see and not a lot of people are really talking about us and that’s good. That’s really good. That’s how we like it because we don’t want to be spoke on at this point in time. We still got a lot of work to do. But when we get them pads on, come that first game of the year then we’ll be matched up with our test.”
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