Dolphins Soundbites of Colts Week

Checking out the comments from Dolphins players and coaches that stood out heading into the Week 4 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts:

Head coach Brian Flores on how difficult it's going to be for the offensive line to mesh and take steps forward now that it’s going to be the fourth different starting offensive line: “It’s the way it goes in the National Football League. A lot of teams are dealing with injuries and COVID and that’s just kind of how it is. We’ve talked about that here, being able to shift guys around and move guys into different spots. We do that really early in the season in training camp because it’s more likely than not that will be the case during the season. We’re dealing with it. A lot of teams are dealing with it and the next guy has got to go in and execute. That’s why we practice and prepare and move guys around.”

CB Nik Needham assessing his performance in the first three games of the regular season: "I think I’m playing alright. I’ve got a lot more work to do. I would say I’m off to a better start than last season, I just feel a little bit more comfortable. Like I said, I’ve got way more work to do. I just need to focus on one play at a time. Like I said earlier about the one-on-one matchups, like last game, I gave up a catch. Me, personally, I don’t want to give up anything so just to have that mindset every game. I think if you stack those on top of week on week on week, you’ll just get better every week. That’s my goal and the overall focus for me.”

LB Jaelan Phillips on his increased playing time against Las Vegas and his thoughts after watching tape of the game: “Man, it was incredible. Just the experience as a whole. I don’t want to give the Raiders too much credit, but their stadium is whew. (laughter) Their stadium is crazy. We had a great experience as a team just going through adversity, staying together. It’s always good to get those kind of games. Obviously you always want to come out with a victory, but at the end of the day, I think it was really good experience for me personally and for us as a team. So yeah, definitely happy about that.”

G Robert Hunt on the improved performance by the offensive line against Las Vegas: "I wouldn’t say anything was different. I think we just had to step back and look ourselves in the mirror and hone-in and focus in on our individual selves and then as a unit. We just knew what we did. At Buffalo, everybody knew how that week went and we just wanted to improve on that week.”

LB Jerome Baker on how the run defense can improve: “It’s the same thing, just doing your job. You don’t have to try to make the play by yourself. Our defense is truly built on setting the edge, tackling well and playing your fundamentals and technique. That’s truly our defense. All of us are smart, all of us understand what we are doing. It’s about just doing that every single play, every down, every quarter. Not just doing it in the beginning of the game and later in the game it shows up. It’s truly about every single snap, locking in and truly doing it as a defense. Our defense is truly built on ‘together.’ We’ve got to do it together and nobody can just make the play by themselves so I guess that’s what we need to do.”

S Eric Rowe on the defense going from first in the NFL in stopping third-down conversions in 2020 to being last after three weeks in 2021: “Yeah. First, it starts on first and second down. Right now, we just aren’t doing that strong on first and second down. That obviously leads to a more manageable, for the offense, third down. Third-and-short. That’s a situation that we don’t want to be in. We want to get them in second-and-long, get them to third-and-long and then get to our exotic stuff and get off the field. Just right now, that’s what’s going on.”

WR Jaylen Waddle on his production after the catch in the first three games: “Honestly, I feel like I can do more after the catch. I’ll try to do more after the catch. That’s pretty much where I’m at. I’m not dissatisfied or anything like that but I feel I can do more.”

TE Mike Gesicki on whether there was increased optimism this week about the offense producing big plays in light of the positive finish at Las Vegas: "I think every week there’s a lot of optimism and there’s a lot of us out there working, trying to execute. I wouldn’t say this week there’s more or less or any week there’s more or less. We’re professionals. We go about our business professionally and that’s how – it starts from the top with our coaches. They handle things in a great manner and that trickles down to us. We’re excited to get back out here and have another opportunity.”

QB Jacoby Brissett on whether he can gain much from his familiarity with the Colts and vice versa: "Yeah, it’s that ‘chess match’ but obviously it’s different. I’m in a different scheme than I was when I was there. They’re a different team obviously. Different players playing in different positions. A lot of the same players are playing, obviously. But it’s going to be different. Yeah, obviously you have some type of familiarity with each other. I’ve been going against them for four years. But they know that as well, so obviously they’re not just going to come out and say, ‘Jacoby, do you remember this from training camp your second year? We did this. Beat us here.’ It’s not going to be like that. I’m sure they’re going to have their own wrinkle and stuff like that.”