WIDE RECEIVER STEFON DIGGS
What does it mean for you guys to get a win here for Vrabel?
Just having your coaches back. Obviously, it means a lot in this league. I've been at a lot of different places, but it's kind of a sensitive topic for everybody. We've kind of had that storyline throughout the year with guys on the team going back to where they were at one point. Coach Vrabes (Mike Vrabel), as players, you want to play for him, go hard for him, you damn sure want to win for him. He's a humble coach. He's not going to make it about himself. It's always going to be about the players. But for us it is always personal, especially if it's one of our guys. It's part of having our guy's back.
Do you have the sense that you guys have something special going here?
No, I feel like right now, we are just meshing really well. We're still growing and going in the direction. You don't want to put the carriage before the horse and jump out there with statements and stuff like that. But I know that this team is growing closer day by day, not just on the field, but the more time we spend together, makes you want to go out there and play hard for your brother. And the closer you get that team camaraderie, football kind of breeds that family environment. You spend a lot of time with a guy. You get to know him personally. You know, you want to go out there and play hard, and you want them to do well. You want guys to play well at a high level. You know I just think, to say something special, we'll figure it out at the end.
Only two incompletions today for Drake. What can you say about the level that he's been playing at for these last couple of weeks?
He's playing at a high level. I mean, he's being a quarterback. It's easy to say that, but he's finding an open man. Guys are making plays for him. Tight ends are playing well, running backs catching the ball. Receivers, everybody's just doing their job. Try not to give it too much, but you want to give to the media to kind of figure that thing out. But when you see a guy in practice, put a lot of time in it, approach this thing the right way, there's no surprise to us. Hopefully, you go 22-for-22. So try not to give it too much, but we know that we're going in the right direction, but it's a lot of plays we left out there too. So, we get back to the film room tomorrow. That's the fun part about it. When you winning, you can easily let a lot of things slide, but I think Coach (Josh) McDaniels and our staff kind of adds another layer that when you win, how many plays did we leave out? Did we play our best ball? Everybody on this team can give you an honest answer and say no.
Is it important to kind of keep unsatisfied or still wanting to strive toward being better even though you're winning?
Yeah, I mean, kind of like what I just said. Like, when you lose, you can find a million reasons as to why you lost. But when you winning, if you go back in the film room and try to get back to getting better and hitting some of the plays that we didn't hit or running a better route here, or that kind of stuff helps you down the line. That's why earlier in the year when I said we lost those two games, it wasn't just a loss, it was a good lesson for us. We learned a lot and kind of tried to get back on the right track and make some of those plays that we missed. So going in the right direction is just, that's part of the job. You see good things happen. Of course, everybody wants to be, I guess overzealous in a way, or kind of excited. But us, we just want to get back to what's going on. We left some plays out there. We want the young guys to come in and play at a high level too, so, yeah.
I apologize if someone has already asked you about Rhamondre Stevenson. His performance today, I know that Coach Vrabel said that the game plan was to run the damn ball. To be able to have a performance like that from him given what he's gone through over the course of the year.
It's not surprising. I mean, I feel like I have a decent relationship with Dre (Rhamondre Stevenson). I feel he can play at a high level and we all mess up. Having turnovers or stuff like that. It is not just all about him. We got to protect the guy with the ball as well. If you're not finishing a block and your guy makes the tackle, it's just as much your fault as the guy that is running the ball. But we got 100 percent confidence in him. We see he can play at a high level and just reiterate, and I kind of try to give him that positive energy on the sideline, like, 'We got your back.' Right, wrong, or indifferent, I say we got you, just know that we got your back, and you see him when he has that confidence, he's a hell of a back
When you were coming off the field, you said that's five, but there's a lot more left in the tank there. What do you see the potential of this group being now as you guys enter the middle part of this year?
Trying to get six. Easy to say, we want everything and all these things. Right now, we just want six. Getting back in, I think they [Cleveland Browns] had a hell of a game, they just beat the Miami Dolphins. And that's a good team, so enjoy this for six hours. I'm not even going to give it half a day. And then when we get back to the film room, we got to get up early. So, I just think that it's a lot more out there. It's not so much about the other teams. It's much more about us. If we can play better ball and play better team ball, complementary, I think you don't know where this team can go from here.
It's rare in the league to play three straight games in three weeks without a bye or anything. on the court. What did you learn about your group during this three-week stretch?
Road warriors. Road warriors. Competitive, competitive stamina, going into hostile environments and excelling and playing exceptional football. I think the biggest thing is not turning the ball over. Drake (Maye) is doing a great job at that and then the defense getting TOs. We need those and giving us those short fields and stuff like that. It's just everybody, special teams, offense, everybody feeding off each other. Going in the right direction and where we it want to go. We're taking steps.
Did you at least enjoy the Vrabel chants at the end and what did you make of them?
Good for him. He'll be back to work tomorrow though. Pretty sure he's just feeling the same way. He said something to us that was like, every week is personal, he wasn't lying. Whether it's individual or a team, you want to win each and every week, and if you don't want to win, it doesn't add another layer if you, I guess, feel a way or feel a way about a team. But he came in with the same mindset. He didn't change, he didn't do anything extra. He was just his same usual self. I can appreciate that from a player standpoint. Knowing what kind of guy you're going to get each and every week. I don't care what he says, we wanted to win that game for him.
