(On the season’s highs and lows)
“Coming back from 1-6, I think that was pretty special for us, finding our identity half way through the season. That’s something we can hold our head up to. As far as low points, we just have to be able to learn from those and make them learning lessons, not things that we just let go by.”
“It’s just everyone buying into what we are coached to do, and I think that was just the turning point. It’s just everyone making that decision to go all in on the coaching, techniques and just what we’re about, so it led to that. So, it was good to see it.”
(On his performance this year)
“I don’t know. I think I’m always looking for improvement. I’m very hard on myself and I always expect more, so I don’t really know. I know I’m going to keep getting better and this is just a start.”
“I think that with the staff that we have I hope we keep building, and we have a really young team, so with the same staff we have right now, just going to the same thing next year, and just keep learning and jelling as a team. We are going to get new pieces obviously, but with this staff I think we can do special things.”
“It was a close fought game. Then, we came out in the second half, we let it slip from under us. We just really repeated from what we’ve been dealing with all season: coming out in the second half slow, and coming out with mistakes. Making that many mistakes in this league, you’re bound to get the results that happened tonight.”
(On building off the offense)
“You could always build off that. This offensive line was a bunch of young dudes, new dudes rotating in, had injuries. So, we have to try to stay healthy, and this offseason, we got that relationship built, and a foundation built. We just need to continue to grow that relationship. We know each other now, so we have to build off it. There’s no going backwards.”
(On what happened in the second half of the game)
“I have to watch the tape. It wasn’t what we wanted. It’s kind of like what’s been plaguing us all year, that third quarter, and, just came to life again today. You just got to learn from it, build on it. We got a whole offseason to think about all the lessons that we learned this year. Got to turn those losses into lessons and just be better from it.”
(On the learning lessons)
“Like I said, the third quarter, how to start fast in the second half. How to start the season fast, how to finish the season strong. Just all the different things that we didn’t do well. Playing three phases of football consistently, all those different things. It’s just about looking in the mirror. Everybody, as a man, taking their mistakes, going into the offseason, working on themselves, as a man, as a player. Then coming back to work.”
(On what he would advise his teammates)
“What would I advise them? Just get better from it. Watch the film, learn from your mistakes on the field, become a smarter football player situationally. Just be a better player, a better person from it. That’s all you can do, just take everything from the season, positive and negative, and grow from it.”
(On problems they had in the second half)
“We’ve just had troubles all year in the second half and especially the third quarter. We have to figure out a way to come out of halftime faster, just creating takeaways and making the offense turn the ball over. We’ll see how we can get better next year.”
(On how he would put the season into words)
“I don’t know. It’s beautiful and ugly I guess. This is my first season losing this much and I found myself – sometimes you have to learn how to lose as well – I found myself more of a man, leading when things aren’t going good, leading through adversity. I think wins and losses don’t determine a positive season for me. I’ve learned so much this season than I ever learned in a previous season, so that’s what life is all about. Learning and experiences.”
(On where the franchise will go in the offseason)
“I think that’s something for Mr. [Stephen] Ross and Tom [Garfinkel]. I play ball, so any coach who coaches me, any play that’s called, I go out there and make plays and just try to execute my job. I don’t really have an answer for that.”
(On what he learned this season)
“I learned a lot this season, from Coach to everybody around me, the players, all the coaches, everybody. They’ve helped me to get to this point to where I am today, but it’s night and day from when I got here to where I am today.”
(On where the team will go in the offseason)
“As a player, I try not to focus on that. Personally, I try to focus on my peace and be the best at my job and then go from there. They’re going to figure all that out and they’re going to be the best at their job. You just have to trust in them, whatever happens in the offseason, I think it’s God’s plan.”
(On being able to play young players)
“I think that was a good thing that these young guys got time because you have to mold them. You don’t want to get a young guy and throw them in a fire. You want to get a young guy and mold him and let him prepare himself for the fire because this is the NFL. There’s a lot of talent all over the field and you don’t want to kill a guy’s confidence. This league can do that to us. It’s just about getting a guy, molding him, controlling his rep count, letting them ball out, letting them play free so he doesn’t have to think too much.”
(On how the game got away from Miami)
“I’m not sure. We had a little trouble in the third quarter and I’m trying to figure out why that was. We just couldn’t stop the run. I myself missed a couple tackles. Leaky yardage and missed tackles.”
(On the team not giving up this year)
“We hung in there. We were 1-6 and didn’t lay down. A lot of belief and a lot of fight in this team. I’m proud of everything we accomplished this year. Obviously, it wasn’t good enough. But, yeah, I love these guys. There are no moral victories. At the end of the day, we’ve got to get wins on the scoreboard and find a way to win those close games. I like that we fought, of course, but like I said, there are no moral victories at the end of the day. Wins and losses are what determine a successful organization, and we’ve got to find a way to get more wins.”