On his first impression of Coach John Harbaugh: "First time with Harbaugh, this might be my third or fourth. It’s good, man, it’s good. It’s exciting, lot of guys flying around. The guys are having fun, they’re having fun. John is a great guy. He’s a person that likes to have fun. He just likes to have fun. His energy is incredible. He loves football. He’s running around most of the time always teaching almost as much as your position coach does. It was kind of exciting out there. I just love the tempo. I’m just excited about football. Change is always good. Any time you go through change you look for the bad things to come in, but when you have someone who really relates to the players the way John does, I just think practice is going great."
On whether he senses a renewed team spirit: "[With] John, you have a new personality, we have a totally new coaching staff and we have a lot of new players coming in. You don’t want to let them come in and hear you talking about [last season]. Last year’s done; last year’s done. There was one Super Bowl champion at the end of that year and that was the New York Giants -- bottom line. So, we have to come back, and I think everybody has that same mentality. It’s not just me talking about it. Everybody has that same mentality of 'here we go again.' It’s a new season, new era."
On how the veterans feel about the tougher training camp rules under Coach Harbaugh: "There’s no attitude. Football is football. Training camp is training camp is training camp. There is no person you’ll ever find [who says] ‘I love training camp, training camp is the greatest.’ There is nobody who’s going to do that. Most people like to sleep in their own beds and things like that, but training is training camp, man, so I think we are all prepared for that. Like I said, the change that [coach Harbaugh] brought in is a great change. The change of character and integrity, and it’s really all about the team concept. For veterans, that’s what you can appreciate more than anything.”
On his impression of Joe Flacco in practice and the Ravens trading up to get him in the draft: “Joe Flacco, I’m a fan of Flacco’s. I’m a fan of whatever we do, bottom line. But, if you’ve met him, and I’ve been playing with him and messing around with him, his personality is incredible. I know they’ve done their research behind that and really investigated on how good he was as a quarterback and things like that. But, if you watch the guy on film, and you watch the guy outside the film room, he’s just a great person overall. We’ll find out, sooner or later, how good he’s going to be as a quarterback. But whatever we do as an organization, I just think we had a pretty good draft overall.”
On whether he has talked to coach Harbaugh about building the offense back up quickly to be successful: “I talked to him about just building our team up. Defensively, we still have a lot of things to do as well. So the bottom line is, I just think we’re trying to get better as a team overall. I think we understand that we’ve got a defense that’s been the cornerstone of what we had for the last 12 years since I’ve been here, but at the same time, we have a chemistry that we’re trying to understand each other. Everybody’s trying to flow together with this team concept. [We’re saying], ‘We’ll all win together.’ There’s no offense, there’s no defense. Once you put all that together then you have a complete team. And I think that’s the kind of the direction that we’re heading towards instead of trying to separate that offense to catch up. There’s no catching up. We’ve got to get there just like you all got to get there. We understand that when we come to work we all come to work for one common goal.”
On the rookies being impressed with playing on the same field as him: “It never gets old, and it’s because when you walk up and you see a lot of young guys and a lot of them have probably watched many years of your career. [A lot] of the young guys walk up to you. Ray Rice [said], ‘Man, I’ve watched you for so long.’ [I said], ‘You don’t have to tell me the first time we meet.’ It’s kind of a different energy. It’s a different energy because it’s just exciting to see all these young kids who, actually, I’m a fan of. I’ve always been a fan of Ray Rice since seeing him in college and how he appreciates the game. [With] Tavares Gooden you’re bringing in another young guy from Miami. So, when you do get these young guys around, you do understand that being an older guy there’s so much they have to learn and so much you can teach them. But, at the same you know you have to teach them on a fast, fast learning curve.”
On whether it feels a little strange to be here without J.O.: “Always. I came into the league with J.O. He’s the guy I walked into the organization with. J.O. not being here [is strange]. We have to move on very quickly, [and] I think we have. We have moved on very quickly, but for me personally not seeing J.O. is always [strange]. Absolutely.”
On what he feels about his contract situation: “I’m going to keep talking about football. That’s irrelevant for what we’re trying to do right now. The bottom line is whatever we’re trying to do as a team, that’s the focus on where we’re trying to stay as a team and if we keep that team concept there then the team concept stays there. So, if you go out talking about an individual -- what I want to do, what I want to do -- it means nothing. There’s so much we have to do as a team to get better from last year and teach all of these young guys what not to do and what to do. Then, everything else -- everything else -- takes care of itself. Everybody knows this is a business. Everything can take care of itself. I’m just excited to be back playing football all over again.”
On if he sees himself being a Raven next year: “I see myself playing, getting ready for the next practice. I see myself getting ready for the season and just getting ready to play football. Like I said, once you ask me if I’m getting up in that side of things, you lose your passion about why you play this game. I’ve never got caught up in that. If anybody has ever bothered to check with my career, everybody knows there has never been a camp where I’ve held out, there’s never been a contract problem with me. There has never been that, and it will never be that with me -- bottom line. The bottom line is I strap on my cleats like everybody else, I put on my helmet, I carry my own out there. I’m under contract this year, and here we go for another year.”
On what he has seen in LB Tavares Gooden that compares to his style of play: “Aggressiveness, aggressiveness. He’s aggressive, he just wants to fly around and hit everything. I was telling him the other day, and I [said], ‘If nothing else, I just want you to touch the ball every play. That’s what I want you to do. I want you to touch the ball every play.’ So, understanding that, once you actually channel what he has inside, he’s going to be a great player. He’s going to be a great player. He’s over there itching on the sideline [saying,] ‘I want to be in, I want to be in.’ And I say, ‘Your time is coming; your time is coming.’ But all of these young guys are like that. You have to pick and choose what you want to teach them and how fast you want to teach them, and they’ll go from there.”
