DT Dalvin Tomlinson (10.19.23)
You feel like the unsung hero in the middle of that defensive line there? You’re everywhere making plays, but not everyone talks about you. They tend to talk about Za’Darius (Smith) or Myles (Garrett).
“I feel like I’m used to being the unsung hero you know. I guess you could say that. But, you know, as long as the team wins and the defense is doing good, I’m happy. You feel me? So, yeah, I don’t always look for the accolades and stuff like that. That’s what comes with being a selfless player, you feel me?”
How much pride do you guys take as a defense and being the unit that’s sort of driving the winning right now?
“Take pride in everything, especially up front. We want to go out there and set the tone every week, and this is it. The guys we have up front, I feel like we have everybody to do it every single play.”
Kevin (Stefanski) mentioned how disruptive you were on Sunday. Did you feel that during the game? Is that maybe one of the better games you played?
“I feel like your goal is to be disruptive every play, and I felt like I was blowing some stuff up. I just want to continue that trend, getting better and better, getting used to the defense. I feel like I got a grasp on everything like I want, and just us up front, just continue to be more disruptive every week.”
What is Jim (Schwartz) like on day to day? Meeting to meeting?
“Energetic. Coach Schwartz, you know, he’s a great guy, and he wants the best out of us. He wants everybody to be successful on and off the field, and just the energy he brings every single meeting, every walkthrough, every practice. We feed off of – especially up front, that’s the type of energy a defensive line wants, and he gives the energy every single day.”
If I recall correctly, it looked like you really embraced the whole boombox concept before the game. So just wondering, how much fun was it for you guys to do that, and are you becoming really close as a defense?
“Oh, yeah. I feel like this is one of the closest defenses I’ve ever played on. I feel like it’s a brotherhood from the nose tackle all the way to the safety. We always hang out together and go out to eat, stuff like that. I feel like it’s family over here.”
Is there any fear of all the accolades getting to your head?
“No, because we really block the noise. We really don’t know all the stats and stuff until it’s posted or something like that. You block it out because you have to go 1-0 every week. You have to restart every week as a new opponent, every single week. And this NFL, we know how hard it is to win games. So, you have to block the noise out and just keep focus on what the objective is.”
Does (Jim) Schwartz kind of send that message in meetings too? Don’t read the press clippings and all that?
“Oh, yeah, most definitely. Because Coach Schwartz, he’s never going to let his foot off the gas and he wants to improve every single week. So, we did well last week, we have to do better this week. There’s always room for improvement.”
Speaking of blocking out the noise, you guys you played a bunch of home games already. Now you got to go on the road and play a ton of games here coming up.
What do you guys have to do to really establish yourselves as a good road?
“Just have to go out there and like I said, set the tone. But defense is a little easier away games. You get to hear each other and our communication is going to be got to be on point and execution of the plays and just make sure we follow the game plan. Like how Coach (Jim) Schwartz wants.”
I know there’s eleven guys involved in stopping the run, but as the guy in the middle, how much pride do you take in the turnaround this run defense has had? Even though I know you weren’t here last year, but the fact that the run defense is so much better this year.
“I take a lot of pride in stopping the run. Because you can stop the run. You don’t have to worry about pass rushing, getting sacks and the quarterback hits because they just going to keep running the ball. It’s always a safer option. So I always take pride in stopping the run. I feel like everybody up front, front seven in our safeties too, they’ll come and hit somebody in the A gap like a linebacker, and I don’t think I ever been a part of something like that.”
You’ve talked a lot about how close you guys are as groups and how much this feels like a good situation for you. Just on a big picture level, what do you think of Cleveland?
“I’m liking it so far. I’m still trying to learn the area. People will be telling me places I don’t know where it’s at, so I got to look it up on the phone and stuff. But I’m liking Cleveland, family’s liking Cleveland, and I feel like it’s a good thing for me.”
I know Jim (Schwartz) encourages that personality, that swagger. Do you think a great defense needs to have that?
“Most definitely. Because if you go out there uptight not having fun, it’s like you can’t play your best ball, you’re not having fun.”
What’s your favorite part of playing for Jim (Schwartz)?
“Just the swagger part, probably. I feel like we’ll get in trouble if we don’t have swag after making play. And just got to have swag with it. Got to have fun. And he always preaches, you got to have fun with the game because the NFL is not for long. You don’t know how long you’re going to be able to play and just to go out there and make these memories with teammates and brothers and it’s amazing.”
Have you had a defensive coordinator that emphasized that stuff? Kind of to the level he does.
“Not to the level that he does, but I definitely have something that emphasized it.”
How excited are you to go against these two running backs? Jonathan Taylor’s working his way back. The other guy’s among the league leaders in rushing right now.
“Super excited. I like stopping the runs, like hitting people. So super excited. I always love the challenge with a good running back. They got a good running back group, and they’re one of 32 for a reason. So always embraces the challenge of going against good running game.”
What is the most underrated asset on this defense?
“That’s a tough question. I don’t know. I feel like the most underrated asset would just have to be just like for us, I feel like the asset is just having fun. You could feel the energy watching the film or watching the games of the defense going, taking the field, having fun, celebrating other people’s success. And I feel like that’s always undervalued for most teams because a lot of places you see a guy make a play and it’s just him celebrating and somebody else mad because they’ve missed a play or something like that. When we make plays out here, everybody’s going crazy and that energy transfers to the rest of the game.”
Schematically, everybody talks about the wide nine being pass rush, pass rush, but its roots are sort of in run stopping. What is it about it that makes it good against the run?
“I feel like it helps sets up a firm edge. And our defensive ends is some of the best players in the league and they always set the edge. And even when we run different stunts. And things like that, we have our DBS and linebackers coming down here super quick with it. So everybody’s just reacting to the ball. And everybody trying to hit somebody.”
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