Tight End Daniel Bellinger
Q: How did you come out of the game? They certainly did not ease you into anything. Do you feel bad about missing two snaps?
A: I knew going in I was going to play a lot and I was comfortable with it. I felt good physically. I know I did a good job with the training staff keeping in shape, so I don't feel bad about missing the two snaps, but I wish I could be in there every play.
Q: Do you find yourself thinking about the eye? Any issue at all? Comfort with the visor things like that.
A: No. Originally, I thought maybe going in I might be hesitant thinking about the eye and stuff, but it wasn't like that at all. I went in and felt confident with it, didn't really think about it all. Took a couple big hits and didn't feel anything, which is good.
Q: What was the feelings like pregame? Were you nervous almost like your first NFL game again? Butterflies? Was it just like picking up right where you left off Week 8 and how were you like pregame?
A: There's always butterflies before every game, but I was anxious to get back out there. The last few weeks (I) kind of just watched on the sideline. I was just anxious to get back out there and try to help the team as much as I could. So, I was more excited than anything to just get back out there and start playing again.
Q: (Tight ends coach Andy Bischoff) Coach Bischoff said that, and obviously I don't mean to demean your injury, but you had like a four-week bye week where you just got to like get the playbook and learn, stuff like that. How did you make the best of what was an obviously ugly difficult situation. What benefits did you get out of it?
A: Yeah, of course as a rookie I still have a lot of stuff to learn and improve on. A a big part of that is the mental side of the game and the smaller stuff outside. Like learning how to keep my body right even though I'm not involved too much because of the injury. Kind of being mentally locked in and helping my teammates as well. Trying to be a leader in the future on this team it's going to take a big role that even when I am out on injury to help my other tight ends and helping anyway I can; Anything I see on the sideline that I can help communicate with them. The biggest part was really just being locked in mentally and still growing my mental game. Definitely reading defenses and seeing how defenses adjust to our different tight end personnel's and stuff like that. So, definitely being locked in mentally was the biggest part of the four-week bye week for me.
Q: Who did you rely on away from the facility? Obviously, you have trainers. When you were going through it, after the surgery, and when you needed people do you have a roommate? Did your parents come out at all? Siblings? I think you have a sister. Did anyone come out and stay with you, make you meals and help you get through what was a difficult time off the field?
A: Yeah, the team helped me out a lot. I was able to bring my girlfriend in and my mom in to help me out and kind of just like you said just make some meals for me. I couldn't drive with one eye, so they helped drive me around and run errands for me, I guess. But really just my mom and my girlfriend helped me out a lot.
Q: When you left the locker room last night and really you weren't the only one, the mood it was just a strange feeling leaving after that tie after 70 minutes. It seemed like it was an unfinished feeling. A day later when you guys were in the building today, I know there's direction from the coaching staff to push forward, and it's onto the next week, but how would you describe the mood even before you guys got into meetings today?
A: Of course, there's a sour taste in my mouth, we want to win. There's a lot of things that we did personally that could've helped us win, and it wasn't so much what they did to stop us it was what we did and our execution that could've helped us win that game. So, we just came in with a positive mindset because we still have work to do, and we still have a good chance to keep fighting and keep winning. We just came in with a positive mindset to attack to the film and look at anything that we messed up on, and basically try to figure out how we need to execute better to grow as an offense and as a team.
Q: From a mindset perspective you have the second game against Washington that you know is coming up, so there's that continuation to make up for what happened yesterday. Does it help reset you guys now and not look ahead because you have such a daunting challenge against the Eagles who have really in (head coach Brian Daboll) Dabs' words have run through just about everybody in the league this year.
A: Our mindset on it is just take it one day at a time, one practice at a time, one play at a time. That's what we're going to do, just take it one day at a time. We're going to focus on the Eagles now, got to get into the film and start setting them up and game planning those guys. Just take it one day at a time, get better each day, and once we get back to the Commanders, we'll attack them and take that one day at a time as well.
Q: You mentioned the visor, how was it catching the ball with the visor? Does it appear darker and what not? How did you adjust to the visor?
A: The visor for me was kind of like wearing sunglasses. It kind of helped block the sun a little bit but didn't impair the vision too much, which is what I was worried about when I was told that I first had to put on the visor. Especially right after the injury because I wore one in high school, but I couldn't remember what it was like. I knew it got foggy, and I knew sweat got all over it, but definitely getting adjusted to it still with the sweat and fogginess. Really the vision side of it, I honestly feel like helped me more because it's kind of like wearing sunglasses on a sunny day.
Q: So, do you now have to get a cool design on your visor or some sponsorship? Like (Chiefs wide receiver) Kadarius (Toney) had those joker things on his visor. Are you know going to have to capitalize on it?
A: I don't know about that yet. I wouldn't say I'm the flashiest guy, so I'll probably just keep it as it is, but I like how it just helps my eyes overall. I don't know about the designs and stuff, but you never know, we'll see.
Q: How about physically? How did you stay in shape for lack of a better word? How did you stay conditioned to go and play that many snaps when most injured guys are on a pitch count?
A: I think the training staff helped me out a lot. They did a great job of keeping me in shape physically and mentally with my legs in the weight room. It was difficult at first. There was a lot of stuff that we couldn't do with my eye just because of the pressure of weightlifting, and we weren't sure about the bleeding inside the eye when I first started getting back into the conditioning. We took a slow approach at first, but then we started ramping it up once it was safe with the eye. After that, it was ramped up and the training staff I feel like just helped me the most with keeping in shape.
