Linebacker Lorenzo Carter
July 29, 2018
Q: What was it like yesterday to finally get out there with pads on?
A: It was fun. Finally get a chance to play football again. We’ve been running around with helmets on and shorts, but now the pads are on so it’s time to go out there and do what we came here for and play the game we all love.
Q: Do you know when you got it right? Do you know when you’re doing the right things? There were a couple plays yesterday where it seemed like everything went right for you, you were in the quarterback’s face. Do you feel that coming? Does it almost kind of get you going?
A: Yeah, you can feel it. You definitely can tell when you’re doing it right just the way things happen. You can tell when your eyes are in the right place and your movements are doing the right things. I just try to keep doing what I’m doing. Try to keep getting that feeling because that’s the thing you just want to let the coaches know that you can continuously do it.
Q: Do you also know when you’re doing it wrong, you get that “uh oh?”
A: You definitely know when it’s going wrong, that’s when you just turn around and put the jets on, try to keep running. Everybody’s going to make mistakes, especially as a rookie, but you just have to make mistakes and you don’t lose, you just learn lessons.
Q: How was playing in the defense at Georgia helped make this transition a little bit easier?
A: I was talking to my old teammate, Devin Bellamy, he’s in Houston. We were just talking about how Georgia really prepared us well for this stage and just the style of defense we play. They taught us a lot about playing outside linebacker and setting the edges and also being able to drop. I’m grateful for all the coaching tips they gave us there.
Q: At the same time, you did so many different things in that scheme in college. I’m guessing here, as a rookie, they have you focusing more on one type of linebacker. What is that and how well is that working for you to have one focus instead of many?
A: So I had a lot of focuses back in the day. Here I’m playing straight outside linebacker, strong side. My job is simple: set the edge, affect the passer and lastly I have to drop, but dropping is next. That’s an after thought. In the front of my head is pass rushing and being aggressive going forward. I love it.
Q: What about your style of game suits you well for what they’re asking you to do?
A: The coaches ask me to go for it and go for it fast, I can go for that. I can do that.
Q: Is the hardest thing with the edge rusher, I mean I assume getting to the pass is the easy, but protecting that edge?
A: Protecting that edge, it just comes, I say, kind of natural. You just have to get off the ball and just try to get some knockback. That’s the thing coach is telling us, we don’t have to really – you can set the edge by knocking somebody back and forcing them to get in the hole. Just playing physical, playing very disruptive.
Q: How quickly did you and Connor [Barwin] click?
A: I love Connor. Once he got in here I just saw… He’s a tenured vet. I’ve learned as much as I can from him. He knows the recipe, he has the formula so it would be ignorant of me not to follow him and do everything he does.
Q: Do you guys have similar skill sets?
A: I think so. Connor [Barwin] was showing me a little bit of his quickness and his agility the other day. We were just watching film and I was like okay, I could do some stuff he does. I love learning from him.
Q: You guys were out there on the practice field after everything broke down yesterday, right? You and Connor [Barwin] and Jordan [Williams] and Avery [Moss], too. Is that something that he brings up, you guys talk to him about, or does it kind of just happen organically?
A: It just happens organically. Like I said, he’s a tenured guy. He’s where all of us want to be, all of us want a chance to get to. If you see that he’s doing something, then hop in. He’s going to workout, I’m going to workout with him and anything he does; try to get that edge.
Q: And that’s happened already in the five or six days together?
A: That’s happened within, I think that was his third day here with us. I’m definitely going to ride his tail.
Q: You had an inside rush yesterday. Is that something you feel you can do?
A: I feel like I could do a lot of things: inside rushes, rush the edge. I don’t want to be known as a guy that’s going to keep juicing the edge because you guys know it, the offensive guys know it, the offensive coordinators know it, so you got to switch it up. I have to have the ability to do different things.
Q: Little bit more aggressive in there, right? Little bit more pounds in there.
A: Just a little bit more heavier guys in there, but I mean you got to use what God gave you. God gave me quickness, so I’m not going to run in there and try to bang with those 300-pounders, I’ll use my quickness and get around them, really work that edge.
Q: Once the pads are on, is at some point for a rookie you want to think I played a high college level but I want to see if my physical stuff can do it here. Did you get that sense in the last couple of days?
A: That’s been the thing. Like I said, we’ve been running around in shorts and helmets, that’s not football. Football is when the pads come on and when you got to go strike a man so that’s what I’ve been looking forward to. Went out there yesterday and we got after it so I’m going to continue to get after it with my teammates, we’re going to keep pushing each other.
Q: Any particular hit or collision that made you think I got the better hit, not him?
A: Not really. I’m just going out there trying to work