LT Nate Solder -- December 31, 2018
Q: When you look back at this season, disappointment, progress, what do you think?
A: Well you’re disappointed in the wins and losses column. Obviously we had so many close games and so many close calls and we didn’t way the way we wanted to play for a lot of the season so those are disappointing I suppose, but then again that’s life and you grow and you’re getting better and you’re improving and you don’t get caught up in losses like you don’t get caught up in the wins and you move forward.
Q: Because of you coming from such a successful organization like the Patriots, you have seen and experienced what a winning culture is and how winning character is developed. Could you identify for us how far along this locker room has come and how close it is to becoming what it needs to be?
A: I don’t know what it was before, honestly. I wasn’t here last year and wasn’t a part of that, but the second I got here, there was guys that cared, guys that worked hard. I felt unified with the same cause, guys believing in each other and I think that’s what it is. It’s the guys in this room and this locker room that make the difference and hopefully your coaches put you in a good position to be successful, but in the end it comes down to how we work together and how we play together and how much we support and love each other.
Q: How are you going to spend your first January without football in your NFL career?
A: I don’t know, I’m working that out right now. I was just talking with the strength and conditioning staff about recovery and getting back into training and all the things I hadn’t dealt with before and last year was mid-February before I was talking about those things so it’s a little different, but maybe it’s another opportunity to get that much better and have a better season next year.
Obviously your body has more time to recover.
A: More time to recover, more time to build and strengthen and everything, yeah. Maximize that.
Q: Are you look forward to watching playoff games? You never really got a chance to do that either.
A: You know what, I’m really looking forward to spending time with my two kids and my wife. Those are the two groups of people that I want to spend my time with and we like football and we’ll watch it, but you know what, there’s more important things at this time of year.
Q: Not going to Times Square to stand out in the rain?
A: No, I’m not. (Laughter)
Q: Coach was talking about how the offense started to come along once the offensive line stabilized. Talk about after the bye week, did you have that same kind of feeling as well?
A: I think there’s more stability in our offensive line at the end of the season than there was in the beginning of the season and for whatever reason that’s true. I think that a lot of the offense is built off the success of the offensive line and how consistent we can be and how well we’re doing our job. If your offensive line is knocking guys off the ball you can make some yards.
