September 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing sit down with rookie OLB Mike Green to talk about his mindset going into a big game vs. the Lions, how he's grown as a rookie, meeting Ray Lewis, the emotions of draft night, and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink
here with Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit
down with rookie Mike Green. Mike, my first question here
is how'd you get so good at ping pong?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's crazy? We played literally every day after practice, so
that's probably what.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
So you didn't grow up playing you just picked it
up since you've been here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I mean I used to play with my brother
while we're doing the combine training in Arizona. But besides that,
like we we literally play every day here.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So yeah, you're you're pretty good. Who's the best player
in the locker room so far?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh? Probably Teddy Teddy. Yeah, Teddy, he's real good. I
don't know how, but uh yeah, he's really good. Like
nobody could be Teddy.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
For interesting, I was gonna take for viewers or listeners
who don't know, there is a ping pong table in
the locker room and Mike was kind of running the
table this week. I've seen you like holding court on
that you're You've.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Been taking that fub a little bit. Looks like you're
getting the best.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah. Me and Fudb we go back and forth every
single day, back and forth, back and forth. But uh,
I think I'm definitely better than fuck though.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, you're you're developing as a ping pong player, developing
as a football player both those areas and on the
football field, this week you may end up having a
big opportunity. As we know, Kyle van Noy is dealing
with a with an injury, so that could end up
creating an opportunity for you. Just how are you approaching
this game against the Lion is a really important primetime
game for you and for this team.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, and I kind of mentioned this in one of
my other interviews, is like when you're the next guy up,
you're expected to be ready, And uh, I think I've
just been prepared to be ready when when my name
was going to be called. And I think this week
is a good opportunity for me to go out there
and showcase my talent. So we're all excited, we're all
ready to go, and uh we're we're fixing up a
(01:46):
little tweaks here and there, so we're actually ready. So
we're really ready to uh to face the lines one day.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm sure when when you come into the league, like
any rookie, you're itching to make plays. You know, obviously,
like Kyle is a great player, you don't want to
see any you may go down for any period of time.
But like when you do have this opportunity kind of
presented to you, what are the emotions with that?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
First Well, of course, you have to to keep it cool,
you know what I'm saying. You have to make sure
that you that you're honing into the to the details
and that you know what you're supposed to do in
certain situations and things like that. And then you also
got to be grateful for the opportunity as well. Kyle, Like,
he's great, he's a great guy, and he's a great
player as well. Unfortunately he's down right now, but uh
(02:30):
but hopefully he has a speedy recovery and he's back
very fast. And uh, like I'm ready for this opportunity
and it did presented itself, so so I think I'm
ready to go.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
You look at the Lions, good offense are coming off
a week where they put up a fifty burger last week,
They've got good tackles and just a really talented team
across the board. How do you size up the challenge
going into this matchup?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, very good offense, very good quarterback as well. We
know how what we're supposed to be doing and and
how we should attack them. And I think this week especially,
we're our attention to detail is a little is a
little bit more on edge because we want to continue
to have this snowball effect on winning and we had
(03:16):
we got our first win last week, and we just
want to continue to win, continue to win, continue to win.
So this this week was was very important that we're
locked into our details, and uh, I think we're going
to be ready to go.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
As a rookie. You learned so much like you from
the time that you get here, Like it is steep,
there's a steep learning curve and you're taking a lot. Yeah,
and so like, could you describe to me how much
of a different player you are today compared to when
you arrived here after the draft.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, it's two totally different types of ball college ball
and NFL ball. And it's just crazy because because what
I first realized, these dudes are huge, Like dudes in
college are are are big, But when you gets an
NFL is like everybody's huge and everybody's very talented. So
(04:07):
there's never going to be that that weaker fish or
that that's going to be that you're going against, like
everybody's going to be a great competition. And that's something
that stuck out to me when I first got here.
And uh, and just like the speed of the game
is just so fast, and you got to make sure
that you're on top of your stuff so you can
compete at the highest level that your cap of competing
that and and I think just my rookie experience so
(04:31):
far has just been great. Of course, like I'm just
continue to learn and continue to build and get better
and better and better, but I also want to take
a moment and step back and also just learn and
just just see how the older guys go about their
days and what helps them out. And I always make
sure that I'm asking older guys like Kyle and t
(04:51):
Rob like questions that I that I need to get answered,
and they're always there to answer the questions. And and yeah,
so I think it's very important to to have a
good room of older guys that can also lead and
mentor youth.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You were you were this close to getting your first
sack against the Browns, had Joe flacken by the angles
when you when you kind of turn around and see
that he got rid of that ball as he's going
down the ground. Are you like, come on, man, that
should have been my first NFL sack.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, it's crazy because I didn't really realize that he
threw it away until a few seconds after the play
was over. Yeah, but it's gonna come. The time's gonna come.
The time is going to come. I don't know when,
but it's gonna come. I just got to make sure
that I'm doing I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You did you did the arrow kind of celebration in college?
Do you have an NFL celebration Plans you carry it over?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna carry it over. I'm definitely gonna
carry it over. But I told myself it's going to
be situationally, so it's it's like it's not going to
be on every single sack that I get that I'll
do it. It has to be big sacks. It has
to be meaningful plays and and things like that which
will make the celebration. You know what I'm saying better,
(06:04):
you know right exactly? They just do the same celebration
every single time. It's like the way.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I feel that I feel that we had Wiggs on
he does the box celebration, and he said that like
he doesn't want to overdo it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's the same thing.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You overdo it and then all of a sudden, it's like, man,
this guy just does have one drink.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, he's just always drawing a box.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So I know that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You know, goals are an important thing. Setting goals, you know,
defensively the meeting rooms and whatnot. Can you share any
what were your rookie season goals?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah? Well, of course, Ricky Defensive Player of the Year
was was my mindset throughout my whole pre draft process
as well, and still up to this day. That's just
something that I take a lot of pride in and
I feel like it is achievable for me, and I
just got to continue to to just to just chip
(06:55):
away the days and make sure that I'm stacking my
bricks and everything else is just going to fallow along
with it. So yeah, long term goal, yeah, just short
term goal, just I guess, just I guess, fulfilling my responsibility,
regardless like what it is on the field or or
how big of an impact is going to be. I
(07:15):
just want to fill my role and and just be
a service to to not just the team, but but
the Ravens community.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
When you talk about that kind of a goal, I
mean defense player of the Year obviously a big goal.
You're not setting like a low bar here like axe.
Does that Does that speak to the vision of and
the confidence that you have in yourself and what you
can become?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, for sure, I put I put a lot of
pressure on myself to do well, and there's also a
lot of outside pressure that's that's on me to do
well as well. So of course it's good. It's good pressure.
And I just gotta make sure that that I'm just
playing up to my capability. And yeah, it's just something
(08:03):
that I always I wanted to to do and achieve,
So uh, I just got to keep on shipping at it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So I tweeted this picture.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
There's this photo of you in the preseason game against
the Colts, this photo which is a good photo, right,
and I tweeted this photo out and it kind of
blew up because of your bend. I mean, that's preposterous
bend and like that the ankle flexion on this how
do you get so low? We'll even do that's broken
zoom in my ankle.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Look like this, I'm on the shelf for more. That's
a broken ankle for me.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
How do you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
How do you do this?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Okay, it's it's actually a good story. So when I
first arrived here, they have us do like these tests
to figure out your mobility and and things like like that,
and it was like you stay in this room and
you're just like moving around and give you certain things
to do to test out how good you move, if
(09:02):
one side is more uneven than the other side, and
things like that. So in somewhere in my report it
was saying that my left ankle was tighter than my
right ankle. Yeah, yeah, which was which is crazy because
I realized that at at some point, like earlier in
my football career. I think it was like high school
or maybe the just the beginning of college, like I
(09:25):
tweaked my ankle. So when they told me that, I
was like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Well, I guess
these little cameras are working and and uh so then
I went to my strength coach. Well, my strength coach
came to me and was like, hey, there's some things
that we can do. Yeah, and I just been working
(09:45):
on it, like even just at home before I go
to sleep or after practice, I go in the weight
room and just do like inkle mobility and just stretching
out and things like that. And I got like a
little ankle program that he literally sent me that that
I just stick to, and I guess it's been.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Speak but I mean the bend beyond just like that ankle.
I mean your ability to bend at your size, I
think is part of what makes you such a great
pass rusher. Is that just hey, you were blessed with
great cheese? How like is that something you can make?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think is the mix of two things. Yeah. First,
I think just that's just what I've been blessed with.
And second, I actually wrestled in high school for a
few years, and uh, that was probably one of the
best decisions I've ever made in my life. Interesting, my
older brother, Uh he introduced me in it to it.
He's like, hey, like, let's just go out one day,
(10:41):
and we actually really liked it, and uh it was
very beneficial for us, and a lot of things that
we did and while we were wrestling carried over to
the football fields, such as leverage and core strength and like, yeah,
like all those types of things. And so yeah, I
actually I placed like second and third in the state
(11:06):
the last two years of uh that I wrestled in
high school. Yeah and uh yeah, like it paid off
very well.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know what we need to do.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
We need to set up the in locker room wrestling
match between you and Tyler Linderbaum. I don't know if
you know this, but Tyler Linderbaum was also like a
state level wrestler at Iowa when he was in high school.
So I think we need to set up this match
here between the two of you guys to see who
can best man win.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, it's it's crazy because we actually already wrestled. We
actually already wrestled, and I want Tyler, if you speak
to a few al Alignment, they will tell you it's
gonna be hard. It might be hard for him to
admit because he was such a great wrestler, but leverage
(11:52):
has a lot of a lot to do with how
good you are in wrestling, and the lower guy always
went and the guy that's able to to move around
faster and and get you in certain situations faster and better,
it's typically the ones that is the one that wins.
So I got Tyler.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You go, yeah, well done.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well my last question for you, Mike is you know
we all saw on Draft weekend how emotional you were,
you know, with your family.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
It was just it was just really cool to see.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You know. Can you go back to Draft Weekend and
take us inside the emotion of that moment when you
were picked by the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, it was great. It was the best experience that
I've that that I've been a part of in my life.
It was so great that all my family and my
friends were there, of course, and we got to share
that special moment together. And I didn't really care too
much about where I got drafted, whether it's going to
(12:54):
be the first round or the seventh. I just really
wanted to get drafted. That's something that I've been dreaming
about since I was a kid. And uh, it was
just such a great experience. And uh yeah, it was
just just the whole experiences as as the experience as
a whole was just unforgettable. And it's like it's like,
(13:15):
you can't really like explain how Draft Knight is. You
have to be at Draft Knight in order I'll never
experienced that in order to know how Draft Knight feels.
But yeah, I would have trade I wouldn't trade that
moment for anything. And uh, I've been blessed to get
picked up by the Ravens, and I'm always going to
(13:36):
be blessed to be a part of this organization.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
You grew up not too far from here, like a
few hours away in Virginia, Did you grow up like
with an awareness of of who the Ravens are, the
history of this team, the culture of this team, great
defensive players, whether you're a fan, like, what was your
feeling towards the Ravens when you found out you were
getting picked by him?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So I didn't really know too much about the Ravens
before I got drafted. When I got here and settled
in and and just like all our meetings and things
like that, like I started to learn more and more
and more and more. So, Yeah, I didn't really know
too much about like the Ravens history and the culture
until I got here. And it's like it's it's so
(14:20):
unique that you can't even really put words together to
explain how like the like the culture and and just
how the organization is like rand because it's just so
unique and special. But there's a lot of great players
that came out of here and it's just like guys
(14:42):
like Ray Lewis, h Terrell, Suggs and and so yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Well you like just in the last one for me,
you mentioned Ray Like Ray's been around this year, Like
he's been out here in practice, he was he's been
at both games. Like what has it been like for
you to be around greatness? Like he's one of the
best ever? Uh and to be able to see Ray Lewis.
I feel like everyone has a Ray Lewis story, but
like what was what's your feeling being around him?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It's great because it's just like he's so powerful. When
he speaks, it's it's insane, like it's actually saying like
like we're done with practice and he comes up and
he's talking to us, and we're so like dialed into
what he's saying, and we're so motivated. We're like, shoot,
(15:28):
we can practice again. Honestly, let's just go right now.
But he's he's so powerful with his tongue and there's
the things that he say just gets you routed up
and and like he's lived through what we want to
live through. So when you have somebody that's special like that,
(15:48):
it's easier and it's it's more comfortable, comfortable two listen, Yeah,
you know. And uh, and so maybe I need to
find Ray Lewis next game and have him give me
a little pep talk. You will have me ready to
run through a wall if he comes speak to me
(16:09):
before the game.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
That happened.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, yeah, we gotta make that out, make that awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Well, thank you, Mike, really appreciate it, of course. Man,
thank you, thanks for coming in.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
You're listening to the Lounge podcast. We're coming to you
from the Seakik studio. We want to mention our partners
at Draft Kings sports Book. They are an official sports
betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draft King Sports Book.
The Crown is yours. Well, thanks to Mike for joining us.
Enjoyed having a conversation with him and getting to know
him a little bit more. And I do think that
he's going to be a guy here who we see
make more and more of an impact. And you know,
(16:43):
he got close for that first sac against Joe last week,
and maybe he's able to break through this week against
Jared Goff and the Lions.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, past Rush is going to be really big, you know,
and disrupting this Lions really talented Lions offense, and Mike
Green's gonna get his snaps that, you know, if Kyle
van Noy can't suit up, and so yeah, is this
the week?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Certainly? Hope so could be.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And you know, Golf is not the most fleet of
foot scrambling. He's a pocket quarterback. So like the Ravens,
if they can shut down the run, I think then
you're gonna be able to kind of tee off a
little bit on that on that passing game, that dropped
back passing game. So Mike Green's gonna be an important
player in this game. And not just you know, we
talk about pass rush, but the run defense as well
(17:26):
gonna be huge against the Lions, and you know Dr
Kaimira Gibbs, Dave Montgomery, it's gonna be a big part
of it. So but I'm encouraged from what I've seen
from Mike Green. I think that he comes into the league,
you know, coming from Marshall, you wouldn't think like, Okay,
this is going to be a guy who's like pretty
polished up.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
But Mike has a wide assortment of moves.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He can win in a ride of ways and then
when he can bend like he can you know the
wrestler and Mike Green comes out. You put that all
together and with his athleticism, and he has something special there.
You know, He's got a lot of work to do
to for that ultimate materialize and to achieve his goals
of defensive Rookie of the Year and whatnot. But it's
(18:05):
there and now he's gonna The biggest thing in my
mind was opportunity, you know, because he had so many
guys in front of him, with Kyle Van Noyoe and
all these guys like, but hey, he's gonna get an
opportunity here until Kyle van noy is on the field.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I didn't know that he was a high school wrestler
until you said that.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But like the Ravens, if you actually go back, there's
been a number of guys who the Raves have had
in the trenches who wrestled in high school and and
the Ravens like, I'm sure the Scouts knew this as
they went through the process and evaluating him, like they
actually care about that stuff like that type when you
have like a really world class wrestler, high end like
guy in the trenches like that is something that I
think that they care about.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well, now, all I'm envisioning in my head is the
ping pong table, the wrestling. It's WWE. We got Mike
Green and tyre linnen Baum going through the table. It's
got we got to get to the bottom of this.
We got to track down Tyler Lindar bob Oh his
version of events.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We're asking him that question.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I wonder if Tyler's gonna have any different perception. I'm
sure he may have a different view on who ended
up winning that match, I'm sure, But just just going
back to Mike and his ability to get after the
quarterback like he was a guy in training camp. Once
the pads came on, I just felt like he elevated yep.
And he has a good arsenal pass rush moves. A
lot of times, I think what you see in a
(19:17):
young player who comes in at that position, they kind
of have like one trick their speed or their power.
They have one move.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Mike can win with speed or power.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
He can do it in different ways. And so in
the in the preseason, he really flashed. I mean you
showed that picture against the Colts, Like in that Colts game,
he jumped off the screen like this guy's like the
best player on the defense in that preseason game, and
then you go to Week one and like it's another jump,
Like the Week one was a huge jump. You're going
up against one of the best offenses in football, one
(19:48):
of the best quarterbacks in football, and two of the
best tackles you know for their positions, and so like,
that's that's a challenging assignment. And I think that we
saw him breakthrough a little bit again last week against Cleveland,
and I think that he's just going to keep making
strides and keep making progress. So I'm eager to see
what kind of production he has in this game against
the Lions and where it goes from here.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, I am too. I also will give him credit.
He is the best at picking crabs among the rookie class.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I witnessed this first.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
He's not far too far from here, Virginia guy, right son,
He's like between Richmond and Norfolk was where he grew up,
and so he was a little experienced, but I'll gi him.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He was pretty good anyway. He was right in there.
You dove in well.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Ryan's referencing when the rookie class. Jamial McClain, who runs
the rookie development program here, does a great job. One
of the things they did during the off season is
they go around and just got to learn about Baltimore.
That's one of the things that they learned, like off
the field, like skills, but then also part of it
is just getting a feel for the city and the
environment here and what it's like. And so there was
they did today Jimmy Seafood and they did some crab
(20:52):
picking there. When we talked to ma Alchi Starts on
the podcast earlier this offseason, Malchi was like, it's good,
but like I wasn't really into the crap. We're just
doing a crab cake. He just wanted the crab cake.
He didn't want to do any of the work. But
I guess Mike was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Mike's a worker on those crabs, so credit that's right,
that's right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
So anyway, we're excited to see him this week. As always,
we'd love to hear from you. Email us at the
lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net. Again, it's Monday
Night football this week. It's dark Our Darkness Falls game
is going to be a great atmosphere at Mt bak
Stadium on Monday. We can't wait for that, we are
going to have a podcast that comes out Monday morning,
just our final preview for this game and this matchup
and this we we'll really dive into some of the
(21:31):
specifics in that game to make sure you check that
out on Monday. Thank you so much for watching and listening,
and we'll talk to you again for that Monday night
football game coming up next week.
Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink
here with Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit
down with rookie Mike Green. Mike, my first question here
is how'd you get so good at ping pong?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's crazy? We played literally every day after practice, so
that's probably what.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
So you didn't grow up playing you just picked it
up since you've been here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I mean I used to play with my brother
while we're doing the combine training in Arizona. But besides that,
like we we literally play every day here.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So yeah, you're you're pretty good. Who's the best player
in the locker room so far?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh? Probably Teddy Teddy. Yeah, Teddy, he's real good. I
don't know how, but uh yeah, he's really good. Like
nobody could be Teddy.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
For interesting, I was gonna take for viewers or listeners
who don't know, there is a ping pong table in
the locker room and Mike was kind of running the
table this week. I've seen you like holding court on
that you're You've.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Been taking that fub a little bit. Looks like you're
getting the best.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah. Me and Fudb we go back and forth every
single day, back and forth, back and forth. But uh,
I think I'm definitely better than fuck though.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, you're you're developing as a ping pong player, developing
as a football player both those areas and on the
football field, this week you may end up having a
big opportunity. As we know, Kyle van Noy is dealing
with a with an injury, so that could end up
creating an opportunity for you. Just how are you approaching
this game against the Lion is a really important primetime
game for you and for this team.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, and I kind of mentioned this in one of
my other interviews, is like when you're the next guy up,
you're expected to be ready, And uh, I think I've
just been prepared to be ready when when my name
was going to be called. And I think this week
is a good opportunity for me to go out there
and showcase my talent. So we're all excited, we're all
ready to go, and uh we're we're fixing up a
(01:46):
little tweaks here and there, so we're actually ready. So
we're really ready to uh to face the lines one day.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm sure when when you come into the league, like
any rookie, you're itching to make plays. You know, obviously,
like Kyle is a great player, you don't want to
see any you may go down for any period of time.
But like when you do have this opportunity kind of
presented to you, what are the emotions with that?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
First Well, of course, you have to to keep it cool,
you know what I'm saying. You have to make sure
that you that you're honing into the to the details
and that you know what you're supposed to do in
certain situations and things like that. And then you also
got to be grateful for the opportunity as well. Kyle, Like,
he's great, he's a great guy, and he's a great
player as well. Unfortunately he's down right now, but uh
(02:30):
but hopefully he has a speedy recovery and he's back
very fast. And uh, like I'm ready for this opportunity
and it did presented itself, so so I think I'm
ready to go.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
You look at the Lions, good offense are coming off
a week where they put up a fifty burger last week,
They've got good tackles and just a really talented team
across the board. How do you size up the challenge
going into this matchup?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, very good offense, very good quarterback as well. We
know how what we're supposed to be doing and and
how we should attack them. And I think this week especially,
we're our attention to detail is a little is a
little bit more on edge because we want to continue
to have this snowball effect on winning and we had
(03:16):
we got our first win last week, and we just
want to continue to win, continue to win, continue to win.
So this this week was was very important that we're
locked into our details, and uh, I think we're going
to be ready to go.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
As a rookie. You learned so much like you from
the time that you get here, Like it is steep,
there's a steep learning curve and you're taking a lot. Yeah,
and so like, could you describe to me how much
of a different player you are today compared to when
you arrived here after the draft.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, it's two totally different types of ball college ball
and NFL ball. And it's just crazy because because what
I first realized, these dudes are huge, Like dudes in
college are are are big, But when you gets an
NFL is like everybody's huge and everybody's very talented. So
(04:07):
there's never going to be that that weaker fish or
that that's going to be that you're going against, like
everybody's going to be a great competition. And that's something
that stuck out to me when I first got here.
And uh, and just like the speed of the game
is just so fast, and you got to make sure
that you're on top of your stuff so you can
compete at the highest level that your cap of competing
that and and I think just my rookie experience so
(04:31):
far has just been great. Of course, like I'm just
continue to learn and continue to build and get better
and better and better, but I also want to take
a moment and step back and also just learn and
just just see how the older guys go about their
days and what helps them out. And I always make
sure that I'm asking older guys like Kyle and t
(04:51):
Rob like questions that I that I need to get answered,
and they're always there to answer the questions. And and yeah,
so I think it's very important to to have a
good room of older guys that can also lead and
mentor youth.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You were you were this close to getting your first
sack against the Browns, had Joe flacken by the angles
when you when you kind of turn around and see
that he got rid of that ball as he's going
down the ground. Are you like, come on, man, that
should have been my first NFL sack.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, it's crazy because I didn't really realize that he
threw it away until a few seconds after the play
was over. Yeah, but it's gonna come. The time's gonna come.
The time is going to come. I don't know when,
but it's gonna come. I just got to make sure
that I'm doing I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You did you did the arrow kind of celebration in college?
Do you have an NFL celebration Plans you carry it over?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna carry it over. I'm definitely gonna
carry it over. But I told myself it's going to
be situationally, so it's it's like it's not going to
be on every single sack that I get that I'll
do it. It has to be big sacks. It has
to be meaningful plays and and things like that which
will make the celebration. You know what I'm saying better,
(06:04):
you know right exactly? They just do the same celebration
every single time. It's like the way.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I feel that I feel that we had Wiggs on
he does the box celebration, and he said that like
he doesn't want to overdo it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's the same thing.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You overdo it and then all of a sudden, it's like, man,
this guy just does have one drink.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, he's just always drawing a box.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So I know that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You know, goals are an important thing. Setting goals, you know,
defensively the meeting rooms and whatnot. Can you share any
what were your rookie season goals?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah? Well, of course, Ricky Defensive Player of the Year
was was my mindset throughout my whole pre draft process
as well, and still up to this day. That's just
something that I take a lot of pride in and
I feel like it is achievable for me, and I
just got to continue to to just to just chip
(06:55):
away the days and make sure that I'm stacking my
bricks and everything else is just going to fallow along
with it. So yeah, long term goal, yeah, just short
term goal, just I guess, just I guess, fulfilling my responsibility,
regardless like what it is on the field or or
how big of an impact is going to be. I
(07:15):
just want to fill my role and and just be
a service to to not just the team, but but
the Ravens community.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
When you talk about that kind of a goal, I
mean defense player of the Year obviously a big goal.
You're not setting like a low bar here like axe.
Does that Does that speak to the vision of and
the confidence that you have in yourself and what you
can become?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, for sure, I put I put a lot of
pressure on myself to do well, and there's also a
lot of outside pressure that's that's on me to do
well as well. So of course it's good. It's good pressure.
And I just gotta make sure that that I'm just
playing up to my capability. And yeah, it's just something
(08:03):
that I always I wanted to to do and achieve,
So uh, I just got to keep on shipping at it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So I tweeted this picture.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
There's this photo of you in the preseason game against
the Colts, this photo which is a good photo, right,
and I tweeted this photo out and it kind of
blew up because of your bend. I mean, that's preposterous
bend and like that the ankle flexion on this how
do you get so low? We'll even do that's broken
zoom in my ankle.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Look like this, I'm on the shelf for more. That's
a broken ankle for me.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
How do you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
How do you do this?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Okay, it's it's actually a good story. So when I
first arrived here, they have us do like these tests
to figure out your mobility and and things like like that,
and it was like you stay in this room and
you're just like moving around and give you certain things
to do to test out how good you move, if
(09:02):
one side is more uneven than the other side, and
things like that. So in somewhere in my report it
was saying that my left ankle was tighter than my
right ankle. Yeah, yeah, which was which is crazy because
I realized that at at some point, like earlier in
my football career. I think it was like high school
or maybe the just the beginning of college, like I
(09:25):
tweaked my ankle. So when they told me that, I
was like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Well, I guess
these little cameras are working and and uh so then
I went to my strength coach. Well, my strength coach
came to me and was like, hey, there's some things
that we can do. Yeah, and I just been working
(09:45):
on it, like even just at home before I go
to sleep or after practice, I go in the weight
room and just do like inkle mobility and just stretching
out and things like that. And I got like a
little ankle program that he literally sent me that that
I just stick to, and I guess it's been.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Speak but I mean the bend beyond just like that ankle.
I mean your ability to bend at your size, I
think is part of what makes you such a great
pass rusher. Is that just hey, you were blessed with
great cheese? How like is that something you can make?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think is the mix of two things. Yeah. First,
I think just that's just what I've been blessed with.
And second, I actually wrestled in high school for a
few years, and uh, that was probably one of the
best decisions I've ever made in my life. Interesting, my
older brother, Uh he introduced me in it to it.
He's like, hey, like, let's just go out one day,
(10:41):
and we actually really liked it, and uh it was
very beneficial for us, and a lot of things that
we did and while we were wrestling carried over to
the football fields, such as leverage and core strength and like, yeah,
like all those types of things. And so yeah, I
actually I placed like second and third in the state
(11:06):
the last two years of uh that I wrestled in
high school. Yeah and uh yeah, like it paid off
very well.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know what we need to do.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
We need to set up the in locker room wrestling
match between you and Tyler Linderbaum. I don't know if
you know this, but Tyler Linderbaum was also like a
state level wrestler at Iowa when he was in high school.
So I think we need to set up this match
here between the two of you guys to see who
can best man win.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, it's it's crazy because we actually already wrestled. We
actually already wrestled, and I want Tyler, if you speak
to a few al Alignment, they will tell you it's
gonna be hard. It might be hard for him to
admit because he was such a great wrestler, but leverage
(11:52):
has a lot of a lot to do with how
good you are in wrestling, and the lower guy always
went and the guy that's able to to move around
faster and and get you in certain situations faster and better,
it's typically the ones that is the one that wins.
So I got Tyler.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You go, yeah, well done.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well my last question for you, Mike is you know
we all saw on Draft weekend how emotional you were,
you know, with your family.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
It was just it was just really cool to see.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You know. Can you go back to Draft Weekend and
take us inside the emotion of that moment when you
were picked by the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, it was great. It was the best experience that
I've that that I've been a part of in my life.
It was so great that all my family and my
friends were there, of course, and we got to share
that special moment together. And I didn't really care too
much about where I got drafted, whether it's going to
(12:54):
be the first round or the seventh. I just really
wanted to get drafted. That's something that I've been dreaming
about since I was a kid. And uh, it was
just such a great experience. And uh yeah, it was
just just the whole experiences as as the experience as
a whole was just unforgettable. And it's like it's like,
(13:15):
you can't really like explain how Draft Knight is. You
have to be at Draft Knight in order I'll never
experienced that in order to know how Draft Knight feels.
But yeah, I would have trade I wouldn't trade that
moment for anything. And uh, I've been blessed to get
picked up by the Ravens, and I'm always going to
(13:36):
be blessed to be a part of this organization.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
You grew up not too far from here, like a
few hours away in Virginia, Did you grow up like
with an awareness of of who the Ravens are, the
history of this team, the culture of this team, great
defensive players, whether you're a fan, like, what was your
feeling towards the Ravens when you found out you were
getting picked by him?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So I didn't really know too much about the Ravens
before I got drafted. When I got here and settled
in and and just like all our meetings and things
like that, like I started to learn more and more
and more and more. So, Yeah, I didn't really know
too much about like the Ravens history and the culture
until I got here. And it's like it's it's so
(14:20):
unique that you can't even really put words together to
explain how like the like the culture and and just
how the organization is like rand because it's just so
unique and special. But there's a lot of great players
that came out of here and it's just like guys
(14:42):
like Ray Lewis, h Terrell, Suggs and and so yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Well you like just in the last one for me,
you mentioned Ray Like Ray's been around this year, Like
he's been out here in practice, he was he's been
at both games. Like what has it been like for
you to be around greatness? Like he's one of the
best ever? Uh and to be able to see Ray Lewis.
I feel like everyone has a Ray Lewis story, but
like what was what's your feeling being around him?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It's great because it's just like he's so powerful. When
he speaks, it's it's insane, like it's actually saying like
like we're done with practice and he comes up and
he's talking to us, and we're so like dialed into
what he's saying, and we're so motivated. We're like, shoot,
(15:28):
we can practice again. Honestly, let's just go right now.
But he's he's so powerful with his tongue and there's
the things that he say just gets you routed up
and and like he's lived through what we want to
live through. So when you have somebody that's special like that,
(15:48):
it's easier and it's it's more comfortable, comfortable two listen, Yeah,
you know. And uh, and so maybe I need to
find Ray Lewis next game and have him give me
a little pep talk. You will have me ready to
run through a wall if he comes speak to me
(16:09):
before the game.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
That happened.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, yeah, we gotta make that out, make that awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Well, thank you, Mike, really appreciate it, of course. Man,
thank you, thanks for coming in.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
You're listening to the Lounge podcast. We're coming to you
from the Seakik studio. We want to mention our partners
at Draft Kings sports Book. They are an official sports
betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draft King Sports Book.
The Crown is yours. Well, thanks to Mike for joining us.
Enjoyed having a conversation with him and getting to know
him a little bit more. And I do think that
he's going to be a guy here who we see
make more and more of an impact. And you know,
(16:43):
he got close for that first sac against Joe last week,
and maybe he's able to break through this week against
Jared Goff and the Lions.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, past Rush is going to be really big, you know,
and disrupting this Lions really talented Lions offense, and Mike
Green's gonna get his snaps that, you know, if Kyle
van Noy can't suit up, and so yeah, is this
the week?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Certainly? Hope so could be.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And you know, Golf is not the most fleet of
foot scrambling. He's a pocket quarterback. So like the Ravens,
if they can shut down the run, I think then
you're gonna be able to kind of tee off a
little bit on that on that passing game, that dropped
back passing game. So Mike Green's gonna be an important
player in this game. And not just you know, we
talk about pass rush, but the run defense as well
(17:26):
gonna be huge against the Lions, and you know Dr
Kaimira Gibbs, Dave Montgomery, it's gonna be a big part
of it. So but I'm encouraged from what I've seen
from Mike Green. I think that he comes into the league,
you know, coming from Marshall, you wouldn't think like, Okay,
this is going to be a guy who's like pretty
polished up.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
But Mike has a wide assortment of moves.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He can win in a ride of ways and then
when he can bend like he can you know the
wrestler and Mike Green comes out. You put that all
together and with his athleticism, and he has something special there.
You know, He's got a lot of work to do
to for that ultimate materialize and to achieve his goals
of defensive Rookie of the Year and whatnot. But it's
(18:05):
there and now he's gonna The biggest thing in my
mind was opportunity, you know, because he had so many
guys in front of him, with Kyle Van Noyoe and
all these guys like, but hey, he's gonna get an
opportunity here until Kyle van noy is on the field.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I didn't know that he was a high school wrestler
until you said that.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But like the Ravens, if you actually go back, there's
been a number of guys who the Raves have had
in the trenches who wrestled in high school and and
the Ravens like, I'm sure the Scouts knew this as
they went through the process and evaluating him, like they
actually care about that stuff like that type when you
have like a really world class wrestler, high end like
guy in the trenches like that is something that I
think that they care about.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well, now, all I'm envisioning in my head is the
ping pong table, the wrestling. It's WWE. We got Mike
Green and tyre linnen Baum going through the table. It's
got we got to get to the bottom of this.
We got to track down Tyler Lindar bob Oh his
version of events.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We're asking him that question.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I wonder if Tyler's gonna have any different perception. I'm
sure he may have a different view on who ended
up winning that match, I'm sure, But just just going
back to Mike and his ability to get after the
quarterback like he was a guy in training camp. Once
the pads came on, I just felt like he elevated yep.
And he has a good arsenal pass rush moves. A
lot of times, I think what you see in a
(19:17):
young player who comes in at that position, they kind
of have like one trick their speed or their power.
They have one move.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Mike can win with speed or power.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
He can do it in different ways. And so in
the in the preseason, he really flashed. I mean you
showed that picture against the Colts, Like in that Colts game,
he jumped off the screen like this guy's like the
best player on the defense in that preseason game, and
then you go to Week one and like it's another jump,
Like the Week one was a huge jump. You're going
up against one of the best offenses in football, one
(19:48):
of the best quarterbacks in football, and two of the
best tackles you know for their positions, and so like,
that's that's a challenging assignment. And I think that we
saw him breakthrough a little bit again last week against Cleveland,
and I think that he's just going to keep making
strides and keep making progress. So I'm eager to see
what kind of production he has in this game against
the Lions and where it goes from here.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, I am too. I also will give him credit.
He is the best at picking crabs among the rookie class.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I witnessed this first.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
He's not far too far from here, Virginia guy, right son,
He's like between Richmond and Norfolk was where he grew up,
and so he was a little experienced, but I'll gi him.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He was pretty good anyway. He was right in there.
You dove in well.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Ryan's referencing when the rookie class. Jamial McClain, who runs
the rookie development program here, does a great job. One
of the things they did during the off season is
they go around and just got to learn about Baltimore.
That's one of the things that they learned, like off
the field, like skills, but then also part of it
is just getting a feel for the city and the
environment here and what it's like. And so there was
they did today Jimmy Seafood and they did some crab
(20:52):
picking there. When we talked to ma Alchi Starts on
the podcast earlier this offseason, Malchi was like, it's good,
but like I wasn't really into the crap. We're just
doing a crab cake. He just wanted the crab cake.
He didn't want to do any of the work. But
I guess Mike was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Mike's a worker on those crabs, so credit that's right,
that's right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
So anyway, we're excited to see him this week. As always,
we'd love to hear from you. Email us at the
lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net. Again, it's Monday
Night football this week. It's dark Our Darkness Falls game
is going to be a great atmosphere at Mt bak
Stadium on Monday. We can't wait for that, we are
going to have a podcast that comes out Monday morning,
just our final preview for this game and this matchup
and this we we'll really dive into some of the
(21:31):
specifics in that game to make sure you check that
out on Monday. Thank you so much for watching and listening,
and we'll talk to you again for that Monday night
football game coming up next week.
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