Q: How are you looking to fill any remaining holes in the team?
A: I think evaluation is the key word in any addition that we make to the club. The key is how well we evaluate the players that we bring to the team and how they are going to impact our success. This is true whether it’s in the draft, in free agency, in the June 1 cuts, or even in the fall, because you are always trying to improve your roster, not just starters, but individuals who can develop into good players. My old coach, Don James, told me once, if you look at the bottom half of your roster, that will go a long way in determining how good of team you have. If you have good players there, you are going to have lots of depth, you are going to have good special teams, and you are going to have pretty good players on the top half of your roster.
We are always trying to make good evaluations of the players we bring in here. Obviously when players have injuries, that makes it very, very difficult because one of the most difficult things as a coach that I have ever experienced is coaching guys when they are hurt. Regardless of what anybody says about their injuries, it’s the player himself who always has to make the decision about what he can and can’t do and how confident he feels about the progress he’s making with that particular injury. That’s what we will continue to do. It makes it really, really difficult when a guy is coming off an injury to try to make a prediction as to what his productivity could be and what his health in the future is going to be. That all affects the contribution he can make to your team.
Q: How are you looking for your draft choices to develop?
A: I think it is important that our top draft picks, especially the first four round guys, make a positive contribution to our team. I think to do that they need to be good football players. We don’t need to make unrealistic expectations for them. There is no reason to make comparisons with anyone else. They need time to develop and make improvement. These guys are all talented guys and we selected them in a place where our team needs them to make positive contributions. If they are good football players and play with consistency, they are going to have an impact on our team.
I think it is very, very unfair to start saying, “This guy is the second pick in the draft, so he should be as good as Peyton Manning.” If we are going to make those kinds of comparisons, make sure we make them apples to apples. Let’s compare that guy’s first year to the other guy’s first year, not to where that player is now after he has been in the league for seven or eight years. Those expectations, just like the sophomore jinx that I mentioned, really make it hard for players to feel good about what they are trying to do. We want our young guys to feel good and confident and enhance their development and not think they have to prove to the world that they have to justify where they got drafted.
Q: What affect do injuries have on your plans for the season?
A: I think that injuries make it even more important that you try to add a quality football player to your team at any position. I think we have some areas of concern, not necessarily with the ability of the players that we have, but in some cases with the health of those players. An example would be the defensive tackle position or nose guard. We have two outstanding players here at that position. Both have been injured. Both missed a significant amount of playing time last year. This is just one example. Just as there is a concern for a player coming in to our organization coming off an injury, there is also a concern for players that we have on our team who are coming off an injury -- how they can respond, when they’ll be ready, and how much practice they’ll be able to get in their preparation to get ready for the season. That’s an area of concern at that particular position, which is a good example of how you evaluate and look at every position on your team and how injuries can affect your team’s preparation and performance.
Q: Is it true that you’re an avid golfer?
A: I try to keep low expectations for what my golf game is. First of all, I don’t play that much. I do enjoy playing. It’s a lot of fun to play. Playing golf is probably the best metaphor for life for anybody who plays it. You stand on every tee, and it’s a beautiful hole. It’s like a day in your life. You hit the ball, you have a nice green fairway down there, you have a rough that you can hit it into, you have the woods that you can hit it into, you have a hazard you can hit it into. You have to deal with the good shots and the bad shots. The most important thing is that you focus on the next shot. When you hit it in the sand trap, you have to make a great shot to get up and down. That’s a lot how competition goes. That’s a lot how life goes. That’s one of the reasons that I like golf so much. I really do have to focus on the next shot because when you are always in the rough, when you are always in the trap, when you are always in the hazard, you really learn how to overcome adversity.
やっぱり新装開店ドルフィンズスタジアムに応援に行きたい
A: I think evaluation is the key word in any addition that we make to the club. The key is how well we evaluate the players that we bring to the team and how they are going to impact our success. This is true whether it’s in the draft, in free agency, in the June 1 cuts, or even in the fall, because you are always trying to improve your roster, not just starters, but individuals who can develop into good players. My old coach, Don James, told me once, if you look at the bottom half of your roster, that will go a long way in determining how good of team you have. If you have good players there, you are going to have lots of depth, you are going to have good special teams, and you are going to have pretty good players on the top half of your roster.
We are always trying to make good evaluations of the players we bring in here. Obviously when players have injuries, that makes it very, very difficult because one of the most difficult things as a coach that I have ever experienced is coaching guys when they are hurt. Regardless of what anybody says about their injuries, it’s the player himself who always has to make the decision about what he can and can’t do and how confident he feels about the progress he’s making with that particular injury. That’s what we will continue to do. It makes it really, really difficult when a guy is coming off an injury to try to make a prediction as to what his productivity could be and what his health in the future is going to be. That all affects the contribution he can make to your team.
Q: How are you looking for your draft choices to develop?
A: I think it is important that our top draft picks, especially the first four round guys, make a positive contribution to our team. I think to do that they need to be good football players. We don’t need to make unrealistic expectations for them. There is no reason to make comparisons with anyone else. They need time to develop and make improvement. These guys are all talented guys and we selected them in a place where our team needs them to make positive contributions. If they are good football players and play with consistency, they are going to have an impact on our team.
I think it is very, very unfair to start saying, “This guy is the second pick in the draft, so he should be as good as Peyton Manning.” If we are going to make those kinds of comparisons, make sure we make them apples to apples. Let’s compare that guy’s first year to the other guy’s first year, not to where that player is now after he has been in the league for seven or eight years. Those expectations, just like the sophomore jinx that I mentioned, really make it hard for players to feel good about what they are trying to do. We want our young guys to feel good and confident and enhance their development and not think they have to prove to the world that they have to justify where they got drafted.
Q: What affect do injuries have on your plans for the season?
A: I think that injuries make it even more important that you try to add a quality football player to your team at any position. I think we have some areas of concern, not necessarily with the ability of the players that we have, but in some cases with the health of those players. An example would be the defensive tackle position or nose guard. We have two outstanding players here at that position. Both have been injured. Both missed a significant amount of playing time last year. This is just one example. Just as there is a concern for a player coming in to our organization coming off an injury, there is also a concern for players that we have on our team who are coming off an injury -- how they can respond, when they’ll be ready, and how much practice they’ll be able to get in their preparation to get ready for the season. That’s an area of concern at that particular position, which is a good example of how you evaluate and look at every position on your team and how injuries can affect your team’s preparation and performance.
Q: Is it true that you’re an avid golfer?
A: I try to keep low expectations for what my golf game is. First of all, I don’t play that much. I do enjoy playing. It’s a lot of fun to play. Playing golf is probably the best metaphor for life for anybody who plays it. You stand on every tee, and it’s a beautiful hole. It’s like a day in your life. You hit the ball, you have a nice green fairway down there, you have a rough that you can hit it into, you have the woods that you can hit it into, you have a hazard you can hit it into. You have to deal with the good shots and the bad shots. The most important thing is that you focus on the next shot. When you hit it in the sand trap, you have to make a great shot to get up and down. That’s a lot how competition goes. That’s a lot how life goes. That’s one of the reasons that I like golf so much. I really do have to focus on the next shot because when you are always in the rough, when you are always in the trap, when you are always in the hazard, you really learn how to overcome adversity.
やっぱり新装開店ドルフィンズスタジアムに応援に行きたい
英文を翻訳して載せていただくわけにはいけないのでしょうか？？と私の知り合いのNFLファンが申しておりました。英語が大の苦手でさっぱりわからん…ということでした。