C Nick Gates
June 4, 2021
Q. I would like to ask you a non-technical question. How has your life changed in personal terms, being a player of your size means dedicating yourself 100 percent to football. How do you handle this with your private life?
NICK GATES: That's a good question. I probably -- football is my life, so I don't really have a private life really outside of football. Football is kind of who I am and as long as I'm playing for the Giants or any team, that's going to be my whole life.
Q. Your first impressions of [Offensive Line] Coach [Rob] Sale?
NICK GATES: He's awesome, he's a good teacher and good coach and good person. I can't wait to keep working with him and keep learning and picking his brain and seeing what he can teach us throughout the year.
Q. You've had a lot of experience with different coaches. You've probably had four in the last year and a half or so. What's that been like having so many different voices leading your room?
NICK GATES: It is what is it. In college I went through I think it was what, two or three o-line coaches. So, I'm used to coaches coming in and out. You've just got to build a relationship with them and trust them. [Head Coach Joe] Judge hired them for a reason, so if he trusts them, I'm going to trust them.
Q. You guys didn't get to go through an off-season program last year. How much of an advantage is that as a group to be able to do some off-season work together?
NICK GATES: It's huge, especially as young of a team as we are right now. I think it great for us to get in the building and be able to -- quarterbacks throw routes to wide receivers for timing and the o-line getting in here and working technique and having a new o-line coach and learning what he likes, different plays and his technique that he likes.
Q. You have a lot of coaches working with you guys. Is there ever any confusion about who to go to with a certain question?
NICK GATES: Definitely not. All four of them are all on the same page, and if one doesn't know the question, he's going to ask the next guy and vice versa. As long as they are all on the same page, it's not that difficult at all. They are all great guys and I love working with each one of them.
Q. What's it like having Nate [Solder] back? You were teammates when you were much younger. Having Solder back with the group, what does he bring?
NICK GATES: He's a veteran, been in the league 10 years now, and he just brings that knowledge of being in the league for so long. I think it helps the group, especially as a young offensive line, I think it helps us tremendously.
Q. Last year you had your first year in the offense. How much new stuff are you working on already and wrinkles are there to what you guys basically had as your base offense last year?
NICK GATES: Pretty much the same as it was last year with JG [Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett]. Other than that, learning the new techniques and what Rob likes on specific plays and what he likes to do in different situations and different fronts and things like that.
