Transcript: Guard Shane Lemieux

Guard Shane Lemieux

August 10, 2021

Q: How are you feeling?

A: Good. It’s one day at a time. It’s good to be back out here with the guys. I’m enjoying it. Training camp’s different now. I get to see faces of my teammates. I get to know the guys. Getting with (Offensive Line Coach) Rob Sale, (Assistant Offensive Line) Coach Ben (Wilkerson), Coach Flats (Offensive Consultant Pat Flaherty), it’s going good. Really enjoying this.

Q: When you got hurt, (Head Coach) Joe (Judge) said something like you would chew off your leg or something to be out there.

A: I like to practice. I like to practice. I like to work. I want to get better every single day and I’m just taking it a day at a time.

Q: How scary was that injury? Was there any thought that it might be serious?

A: No, it’s football. It’s football. Stuff happens and I just work my butt off to get better every single day. I might not be out there but I’m still trying to work.

Q: So it was a terrible ride right? When the cart takes you off it must have been awful?
A: Oh, I was mad. It’s whatever. It happened when it happened. I’m just trusting the treatment staff and the plan and the process to get back.

Q: Were you scared? Did you know that it wasn’t too serious?

A: You know, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect. I just trusted what the treatment said, and the doctors and our staff said. I was more concerned at that point about missing the rest of practice, you know.

Q: How do you look at how your rookie season went? I’m sure you’ve had a chance to break down the film. When you look back, what did you like? What didn’t you?

A: I think every single year through my football career, every offseason there’s highs and lows. There’s things you can take into the offseason. I had some struggles last year, but I think every single year since I was a little kid, I had struggles, so taking them not in a negative view, but saying, ‘OK, this is an opportunity where I can come in and fix my game this year.’ It’s not a negative, don’t put it in a negative. Take it next year and build off of it and there’s positives to build off of, too, so it’s keeping it even keel. Not taking the bads and not taking the goods, just staying right down the middle and continuing to get better. I know what I got to work on and that’s the biggest key right now is knowing practice to practice where you’re lacking, what you’ve got to work on that day. You can’t focus on 10 different things in practice, you’ve got to focus on one thing so you can get better at it every single day.

Q: You, (Tackle) Matt (Peart) and (Tackle) Andrew (Thomas) were all drafted in the same draft class. Is there added chemistry knowing that you all came in together, coming up together and knowing the same way?

­­A: Yeah, I think we’re a really tight group. I think all along the offensive line – me, (Center Nick) Gates, (Guard) Will (Hernandez), even (Guard) Kenny Wiggins now, (Tackle Nate) Solder, it’s nice having him back – I think we have a really tight-knit group. We really enjoy each other’s presence and we really enjoy working with each other. I think we hold each other really accountable this year and I think we’re growing together.

Q: What has it been like with this coaching structure you have? The four guys that are coaching you – (Senior Offensive Assistant) Freddie (Kitchens), Rob, Ben Wilkerson, Flats

A: They all bring in valuable experience. I think they all have sent the same message and I think it’s really good having more voices because they have different aspects of seeing things. We have great relationships with every single one of them and I’m just blessed to have such a great room full of coaches.

Q: What about Rob in particular? What’s he been like?

A: Coach Sale is awesome. He teaches nastiness. He teaches being smart. He teaches physicality. He teaches just being tough. His guidelines, we’re really buying into that and continuing to do that a lot better.

Q: How did you get hurt? Was it friendly fire or something like that?

A: It was a weird plant. You couldn’t even see it on film. It was just one of those things.

Q: Is that something you have to deal with moving forward or is it something that should just heal up and be fine and you’re good to go?

A: I think I’m just taking it one day at a time. I don’t know the timetable or anything like that, it’s just good being back out there today.

Q: Shane, as a young player you watch some of these older veterans retiring back-to-back like that. Those guys are learning to be teammates with you and then they leave. How do you react to that? How do you see that?

A: I think it’s not my place to say anything about that, but obviously Zach (Fulton), Joe Looney and all those guys, they’re respected veterans that were in our room. These guys played their butt off for ten, nine years. That’s a personal decision. I don’t even want to speak on that. I’m in year two, I can’t speak on that because those guys are vets, they’ve seen it all. I’m blessed to have those guys in my room, even for a short amount of time.

Q: How weird was the last year for you in the sense that Will gets sick. You come in to grab the job and keep the job. Was it difficult? Your job is to do your job, but taking over for somebody because they got sick.

A: Well, I think it wasn’t weird. I think that’s football. I come to practice every single day with a mentality that no matter what happens every weekend, every Sunday night game, no matter if I was playing or not, I was ready to go in. I took that approach and I had a really good group of veterans last year that taught me that mindset, and whenever my name was called, I was going to be ready and prepared to perform.

Q: Did Will ever come up to you and say, ‘No problem. Just go out and keep playing’?

A: You know, Will and I have a great relationship and I was just worried about this week to week process of getting better every single time.

Q: Shane, when you had to go off on the cart, I’ve had guys tell me that’s the loneliest ride you can have for about 45 seconds when you’re rolling off. Is that how you felt?

A: I didn’t feel sorry for myself at all. It’s not like that. I was worried about, crap, I didn’t get my other one-on-one rep or crap, I didn’t get in the last team period. In my mind I was thinking I’m missing valuable opportunities to get better at this practice. That’s all that was going through my head.

Q: Shane, do you like that label of being a nasty player on the field? Do you take pride in it?

A: I took a lot of pride in that as being my characteristic ever since I was a young football player and the way I was taught to play this game is through physicality and nastiness. But you can talk about it or you can do it, you know what I mean? If you watch tape, you want to see it on tape. You can’t just say you’re a nasty player and not do it. I’d rather walk the walk than talk the talk.

Q: Did you see yourself doing that on tape?

A: Obviously, there are highs and there are lows. There’s times where I’m not and times that I am, and you gotta keep that up. It’s not my job to name myself a nasty player.

Q: Did you change your appearance? I mean, you look different this year.

A: I had a mustache last year, it just wasn’t as good. I still gotta work on it a little bit.