S Grant Delpit (9.21.23)
How is this team good on third down, defensively? What has been the secret to you guys’ success so far?
“Pass rush. You know teams have to chip our ends a lot, and that gives us an opportunity to be tighter in coverage in the back end. They help us out a lot, the D-line.”
“My bad. Let’s talk about Nick Chubb man. Talk about a dude that come to work every day, put his hard hat on, go to work. He’s the model Cleveland Brown. Heart goes out to him and his family. It’s the second time having a crazy injury like that. He’s a model teammate and best back in the league for I don’t know how many years now. But he’s one of the hardest workers I know, the most humble guy ever. So he’ll be back for revenge next year, I’m sure. Shoutout to Chubb, man, the team is with you.”
Back to that interception. What did you see on that? It seems like you were all over it.
“Yeah, he was kind of staring at his receiver. Just got a good jump on the ball, was able to secure it man. Wish I stayed on my feet, get a touchdown, but put the offense in good field position. So it’s a good play.”
What do you see when you look at that, besides Derrick (Henry) what do you see when you look at that Tennessee offense?
“You know they want to run the ball. It’s kind of an offense similar to ours. They rely on their run game a lot. Top three back in the league. Derrick Henry’s a monster. They got two good receivers outside, tight end that’s good, second year coming up. He’s going to be a good pro. They have a good defense. So it’s going to be a challenge for us. We got to stop the run and make them one-dimensional.”
What kind of challenges does Ryan Tannehill bring?
“He’s a vet, man, he’s been around the league for a while. He’s seen it all. He’s been around the league for a while. He’s a good quarterback, man, experienced. He has weapons. He knows that offense, knows how to use his players and his back. It’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
At the Greenbrier you talked about wanting to be great this year. Fumble recovery, interceptions. Is that what you were talking about, making plays like that?
“Yeah, of course, you know, like I said, we want to be the best in the world, man. Best in the league on defense. And of course, that means individually, everybody on the same accord, so plays like that are amazing. (Denzel) Ward coming up and making a play on them. I got to pick it up. I can’t fumble, though. That was a good play for us. Keep making those plays, we gonna win some games.”
What did you think of do you think of Minkah’s (Fitzpatrick) hit? Do you think that was an okay hit?
“Yeah, it’s football, man. I can’t say what I would have did in that moment. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm to Nick (Chubb) or anything like that. It was just a crazy football play, to be honest. Plays can go a thousand ways every play. You never know, but it’s just tough playing this sport sometimes.”
Do you think the defense can carry the load until the offense gets things going?
“Yeah, we will focus on what we need to do every week. We have a standard to uphold, man. I don’t play that side of the ball. I have full confidence in them guys, though. Sometimes games don’t go your way, but we will keep doing what we’re doing and we can’t let up any slack.”
Another one on (Ryan) Tannehill, a veteran quarterback. Is it difficult to fool him with disguises or whatever?
“Maybe. But we do what we do. We’re not too worried about what they do. We’re going to focus on what we do and our strengths. What we’re good at disguising and what we’re good at doing. So I don’t think it should be a problem for us in that aspect because we are going to do what we do.”
You know the touch play for the defense with that touchdown, what happened there? Was it communication or?
“No, we just, you know, the coverage we were playing and it was a good play against the coverage. We got to be tight in our assignment and really more sound, really with that. But they were just better than us on that play.”
You’re leading the team in tackles this year. Got off to a really hot start kind of continuing from last week. Is this the year for you to put the league on notice that you’re one of the best safeties in the league?
“I’ve been saying it offseason, man. We try to be the best in the league. Individually, for me of course, it means that. We can’t let up, though. We’re in a good spot right now on defense. We lost the game though. No matter how well we think we are playing, we could always play better. We left that one play, a 70-something-yard touchdown, and now the QB throwing for 200 some yards. We got to tighten stuff like that up. We’re on the right track.”
When you tackle a guy like Derrick Henry, do you have to almost I mean, how difficult is that, you know, obviously you have to almost put him just right to bring him down?
“Yeah, man. I think going up against Najee (Harris) last week helped us because obviously they’re physically alike, but they kind of run in a similar way, kind of high runners, like stiff arms, stuff like that. But better bring some thump when you try to tackle Derrick Henry.”
###