LB Oshane Ximines -- August 23, 2020
Q: What do you expect from yourself in year two? What was the biggest lesson you took away from your rookie year?
A: Rookie year was great and I learned a lot of things. In year two I’m just looking to do whatever I have to do to help the team win. Coming in learning the playbook and doing whatever I have to do every single day. Getting better and being an asset to the team.
Q: How do you feel like you have connected to this scheme and this coaching staff?
A: I feel like its going great. We come in every day, everybody is competing, and everyone is going hard. I feel like we’re learning and getting better every single day.
Q: How much different does it feel? I know at this point last year, there was a lot of talk of making that jump from Old Dominion to the NFL. Do you feel more comfortable and more confident?
A: Definitely, after playing a full season I kind of already know what to expect when it comes to camp and different schemes on the field and things like that. It’s good going into year two, you feel a lot more comfortable.
Q: That room got a little but more crowded in the offseason. You bring back Markus [Golden], you bring in Kyler Fackrell. What kind of influence have those two guys been in terms of helping you develop? For you personally, how do you separate yourself from everyone else in that pass rush room?
A: In our room its’ great because we all push each other, and we all motivate each other every single day. We learn from each other. We all have different skillsets and we understand that. We try to take from each other as much as possible. As for separating myself, I’m not really worried about that right now. I’m just coming in every single day and doing whatever I have to do to help the team. It’s been going good so far.
Q: How much of your offseason was you digging into details and kind of watching a lot of the stuff you did last year and trying to hone in (inaudible) maybe some philosophical pass rush stuff. Was there a lot of that for you or was a lot of the focus just on training?
A: I would say both. I always watch my film, it’s what you put out there, that’s what other people watch, and it’s what defines you as a football player. It’s very important to always go back to the film. During the offseason I spent most of my time up here just working out. I looked at the film a lot because you have to improve, and you have to be better than what you put out last year.
Q: Did you see a player, watching over the course of last season, that got better in the things you wanted to get better at?
A: Yea, I did progress as the season went on. I feel like I did progress. I still have a long way to go though. When I turned off the film week 17, I wasn’t satisfied with that. I still have a long way to go and I’m trying to get better every day.
Q: There’s three weeks to go until the first game, by this point you would have played a couple of preseason games. You would probably have an idea about the team. As you guys prepare for the season, are you sitting there thinking what kind of team do we have?
A: Not at all. I feel like our team is focused on what we’re doing in the current situation. Right now, we’re at camp just getting better every single day. When you do the little things right, things tend to fall in place. That’s what we’re focused on right now, just making sure that we have all the little things right and we’re learning and getting better every day.
Q: Your position coach when we talked to him a couple weeks ago talked about linebacker DNA and the attitude that comes with that position. Do you feel like you have that? How would you define that?
A: It’s something that we stress in our room. It’s something that we always want to have on our mind when we are out on the field playing and when we are evaluating ourselves on film. Coach Bret came and that’s basically one of the first things he told us when he walked into the room. All the guys have bought into it and that’s something that we always carry with us when we are stepping on the field. It’s been going well and we are getting better at it.
Q: What does that mean to you? How do you define linebacker DNA?
A: Going out there and making sure you are doing all your assignments and things like that. Having good edge awareness and playing with an edge. I can’t go into detail about scheme and stuff. Just going out there and making sure we are doing what we need to be doing.
Q: There are 50 guys on this team that are 24 years old or younger. Do you just have to grow up fast here because there are so many young guys? There is no this is my second year I’m still learning curve?
A: Yeah, we have a lot of young guys on the team. I feel like we are all learning from each other. We all realize that. We’re just coming in, we’re bought into what the coaches are saying and what they are trying to bring to us. We’re just getting better every day.
Q: Do you get to keep the “X-man” nickname or does [Xavier] McKinney get that now?
A: We both have it. We’re both the X-man. X is a good guy, I like him.
Q: You actually call him X?
A: Yes, I do call him X.
