DT Perrion Winfrey (4.30.22)
On his draft weekend experience and if he potentially expected to be selected on Day 2:
“I expected to go early, but to be honest, I needed this. This was a wake-up call, and this gave me all of the fuel and all of the fire I needed to come into the league and dominate so I would not change a thing.”
On why he believes he was still available today:
“Because the Lord saw fit for me to be there today. I am a dawg now, though. I am a dawg now. I can’t complain.”
On what he brings to the Browns:
“A dawg mentality. Come on now. I am coming in to kill right away with my boys. I am lined up next to (DE) Myles Garrett, the best defensive end in the game. We are fixing to take this over. It is over with. I am telling you, it is over with. I am going to come in and work every single day until I can’t work anymore. They will feel me every single day, sir. I am going to give it my all on and off the field. Anything that is a negative in my game, I will turn it into a positive by the beginning of the season.”
On the source of his work ethic and mentality:
“It comes from having nothing. I come from nothing. I have never had anything. Anything in my life that I have to get, I had to go and get it. Nothing was ever given to me. That is where this comes from – this grit, this passion and everything about me. I have never had anything. Anything that I have ever had to get, it had to be taken so that is why I live my life the way that I live it.”
On his community college experience and how it impacted his development:
“I am a JUCO baby like (Packers QB) Aaron Rodgers. It turned me up another notch. It brought me to a place that I probably would never have been able to go to if I had not gone to JUCO. It just let me know that there is always going to be adversity in your life, and what are you going to do to let that adversity shape you? Are you going to let it shape you in a positive way or a negative way? That adversity shaped me in a positive way.”
On how his energy will help him in the NFL, including when playing with teammates like DE Myles Garrett:
“On another level. On another level. I will look to the left of me, and I have No. 95 right there. Oh, it is over with. Oh, it is over with. Every third down, every second down, every first down, man, we are going to get that ball – I am telling you.”
On if he has previously met Garett:
“Never met him. I am going to meet him soon though. One of my best friends is on the team though, (CB) Greg Newsome (II). We are about to have a blast down there in Cleveland.”
On his relationship with Newsome:
“I have known Greg since high school. I played Greg a couple of times in high school before he went to IMG. We have always supported each other’s careers. We have always been close friends. He texted me yesterday, and he said, ‘I want you to be a dawg.’ Come on now. I am a dawg now (barks). It is over with.”
On if he has always had a high-level energy:
“This is me. 100 percent concentrated. No smoke. This is how I wake up – juiced up. To be honest, I just woke up at 10:40 a.m. It is 11:30 a.m., and I am juiced. No coffee needed.”
On NY Giants DE Kayvon Thibodeaux comment that he lifts the mood wherever he goes:
“I take extreme pride in being able to encourage my teammates around me. If I am not juiced up, my teammates are not going to be juiced up so that is one thing that I do everything to make sure that I am bringing the juice, the intensity and the energy so the rest of my boys could go live.”
On what the draft experience has meant to both him and his mom:
“Not just my mom, but obviously my dad. My mom and my dad are the first two dawgs I have been around for my whole life. I say that because throughout any adversity that they ever went through, they showed me that you can get through it with a little hard work. That is why I am the way that I am. That is why I was born into being a dawg because my parents were already dawgs when I was conceived. That is why I play the game the way I play the game. That is why I come the way I come because of where I come from.”
On why his juice and energy are so important to his game:
“If you are not playing juiced up, why are you playing this game? I love the game of football so it is nothing for me to come in there energized and ready to go every single day.”
On where he is and what he is doing at the moment:
“I am in my house. I am pacing back and forth because I just can’t believe it. Guess what? You asked what I am going to do next: it is time to work. From this point on, I am going to work because once I get in there, they are going to have to drag me up out of there. I am coming in every single day and putting my best foot forward every single day from this point on.”
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