Thursday Media Transcript: Wide Receiver Golden Tate

Wide Receiver Golden Tate -- April 18, 2019

Q: What’s the first week around the building and your new teammates been like for you?
A: “It’s been fun. Really just trying to focus on how to get to my locker, how to get to the cafeteria, where to park, all the things that will hopefully become natural in a few weeks. It’s been great. You can already tell we have a really, really good, solid locker room. Speaking for receivers, who I’ve spent most of my time with working out and in meetings, those guys have done a phenomenal job of welcoming me, trying to help me with any guidance I need, with living situations, or understanding the material that we have so far. It’s been great. I just look forward to keep building relationships with these guys, because these are the guys I’ll be spending most of my time with over the next four years. We have high expectations for our group individually. We’re just going to work.”

Q: How much pride do you take in being able to play all three receiver positions?
A: “I’m a strong believer in the more you can do, the better off you’re going to be. That’s what I like about this offense, is that all of us are going to be interchangeable. We all can do a lot of things the way it sounds. Early on, I’m just trying to stay ahead of the work I have, the playbook as much as I can. Just try to not only make myself the best receiver I can be, but also help the younger guys around me. We’ve got some tremendous young talent here. I want to see everybody do well and catch a bunch of balls, and help us win. If that’s going to make it easier for (QB) Eli (Manning), we’ll be a better overall team.”

Q: Do you feel any extra motivation after how it went for you in Philadelphia? How they struggled to incorporate you in the offense, as their offensive coordinator even admitted. Do you feel any pressure to make a strong first impression here?
A: “No, not really. I’m going into my 10th season. I’m just going to be who I am. I have a lot of confidence in my ability and what I can bring to a team. I think I’m in a better situation here, because I have an entire offseason to learn the offense. I’m not hitting the ground running in the middle of the week having to prepare to play Sunday. It’s kind of a different scenario this time around. I’m excited to be able to play ball, and get out here and play for a great fan base, a great city. I guess representing two states is kind of cool. Just win a bunch of games. I know my expectations are high for this organization, and I just want to keep help build those championships that I used to watch.”

Q: How much does that interchangeable part of your game help you? Do you feel as if you play better when you’re in multiple spots on the field?
A: “I’m excited, I’m going to have an opportunity to line up in a bunch of places. Just looking at the Giants over the past years, we have some incredible guys in our meeting room who can be moved outside, inside, at tight end, whatever it may be. When I got into the league, and specifically when I got to Detroit, in two-receiver sets, I was the ‘Z’, and in three-receiver sets, I was ‘X’, and I was all over the place, which required me to learn it all, and have high endurance, and hopefully have the opportunity to just be moved around. I’m going to trust that Coach (Shurmur) is going to put all of us in the best situation to win ball games, and also to allow us to be the best individuals that we can be. We’ll see what happens.”

Q: As a player, does being traded put a chip on your shoulder at all?
A: “No, I just kind of move forward with life. I haven’t even thought about it enough to be honest, because everything just happens so quickly. I think my entire career, I’ve kind of had a chip on my shoulder. A lot of people have try to downplay my ability and what I’ve achieved in this league, which is fine with me. I just continue to show up and play ball. As far as I’m concerned, I feel like I’ve been one of the more reliable receivers over the past decade, and I take a lot of pride in that. I think it’s important to be available and durable. I think I’ve done a good job of that. I don’t need the team to do that. I feel like my hands and my routes have been pretty good. My statistics have been pretty consistent for the most part. So, I’m just going to continue to do that, in addition to help winning games.”

Q: You said after a few days here, that this is a very solid locker room. How does a veteran know that after only a couple days being here?
A: “Just speaking with the receivers, those guys just absolutely welcomed me in. Sometimes, you deal with envy and instant competition within the group. Everyone in the locker room I would introduce myself and right away I’m having chats with guys that lasted two or three minutes, because we didn’t have enough time. You can see the guys who want to be here, the guys who want to win, and that’s important. That’s just what I can sense after four days.”

Q: Hasn’t that always been the case, regardless of the locker room? How guys want to be here and want to win, or is it just more noticeable here?
A: “Yeah, I would say that’s usually the case, especially in April, but looking at the work ethic and just hearing about what guys were doing before April, what they were doing to get better to come in and give themselves the best chance to compete at a high level. You can tell, for instance, (WR) Cody Latimer, one of the guys I was sitting next to, and he’s just absolutely worked his ass off this offseason trying to get back. You can just see it in his eyes. Before he does a set of exercises or reps in the weight room, or after he gets done, he’s like, ‘I’m not playing this year, I’m ready.’ You can see that fire. Some people you can just see the fire, and that’s what you can see with him, and a few other guys. (Sterling Shepard) Shep came in in tip-top shape, seems like he’s in tip-top shape, (WR) Russell Shepard has been awesome. If you ever get to talk to him, he is hilarious. Guys are just working. You can tell that they didn’t start working out just on Monday, which tells your ‘give a crap level’ is high.”

Q: Do you think you all have enough components offensively? Do you feel as if there are enough weapons there?
A: “This is still my first week, but I’ve seen some highlight films. We’ve got some serious talent. I think we’re going to surprise some people, but I don’t think it’s just going to happen. I think we’ve got to keep our head down and just work, just work and make it harder on ourselves so it’ll be easier come the season. I’ve seen teams with a lot of talent over the years, and didn’t do too well, and I’ve seen teams where, in my mind, that didn’t have the best talent, but had a winning seasons. I think as long as you’re working hard and showing up with a purpose every single day is going to be important for us, and not ever really thinking we’ve got it figured it.”

Q: How difficult is it to make sure everyone across the team has that same hard working mentality that you bring?
A: “I think in order to play this game, you’ve got to have a little bit of dog in you. Point blank, end of story, or else you’re not going to survive. That’s how I feel personally. There’s going to be some guys who are going to be the “hooray” guys, and some guys are going to be the ones who just go out there and make plays. Ultimately, I want everyone to be themselves. I want to them to be the player that they envision themselves being, and I want to help bring that out. I’m going to try to motivate guys. I’m going to, literally, pour all the knowledge that I have into them to give them the best shot, and I hope guys feel like they can talk to me about all of that. If we get into the psychology of it, I can give you how I address situations, and how I prepare, and what my mindset is going to practice and games, and let them pick and choose what’s important, and hopefully it helps them. There’s more than one way to be that dog, or to bring the fierce competitor out of each guy.”

Q: What’s your first impression of (RB) Saquon Barkley?
A: “I get caught staring at that dude, I’m not going to lie to you. This dude is, just over the last four days, over the top competitive, and I love it. I’m talking about -- we’re doing broad jumps, he’s over there, ‘How much you broad jump? Oh, I got you.’ Bench press, ‘Oh Russ, what did you do here? Oh, I killed that.’ We were playing Connect Four yesterday, and he beat me in five tries. I haven’t played in a while. I wanted a rematch, and he beat me again. You can see that guy is competitive with everything. It reminds me of a young me. It’s either you’re competing, or you’re not competing in everything you do. You can just see it. Hopefully, that catches on to other guys. We’re a team full of competitors. I think it’s great, healthy competition that he’s bringing, and that’s what you want. The guy is obviously a phenomenal talent. I think he has the potential to be one of the best backs to ever play the game. He’s bringing the mentality and the mindset that a championship type organization needs.”

Q: How much can your blocking help Saquon and the running game?
A: “Oh, yeah, my mentality is ‘not my man’ to make the play. There’s no doubt that we have a guy that once he gets to the second level, he might not be caught, and it would be a shame that my guy catches him from the backside, or my guy -- what should’ve been a 75-yard touchdown to a 30-yard first down. I think we all understand how important it is, and you don’t know which play is going to be the big one, especially with Saquon with the ball. Saquon with the ball in his hands, you just don’t know. So, always be prepared. Watching some of the film that I’ve see already, you see Shepard down the field blocking is just as important as catching a pass in this offense, I believe.”