On his role in the locker room this season:
"It's going good. I got kind of used to everything, the way the year goes. Kind of figuring out my schedule, which will help a lot for next year. Now I kind of know how the offseason looks, how the summer looks, what to prepare for in the locker room. I mean, it's really just helping out the younger guys. I was where they're at last year. I told [T] Josh [Conerly Jr.], I told really all the whole rookie class if they have any questions about on field or off the field, where you look at something to eat, what's the best thing for recovery? How to you transition your on field to what you do after practice? Really any questions they got, they can come to me with it."
On the vibe in the locker room overall:
"It the first week, I mean, everybody's excited to be back, man. Everybody loves to play this game. We all love each other. It's like a brotherhood. I was excited to be just around the guys, to get back to what I love to do to people. I love to be around."
On playing on the inside versus the outside:
"I feel pretty good. It's going to be a building block every day, but I have a bunch of guys that I can work with. Obviously having guys like LT [T Laremy Tunsil] who have past experiences with guards to tell me how he wants things to be played. Having guys like [G] Nick [Allegretti] and everybody else to kind of ask questions to adjust my game is big, but I'm just a big practice guy. Going against guys like [DT Javon] Kinlaw, like [DT Daron] Payne. DA [DE Dorance Armstrong], comes inside sometimes, that's stuff that builds my game up and gets me prepared for the season. That's just stuff that get me better every day."
On how going against Kinlaw and DT Eddie Goldman helps him improve:
"I mean those are great talents, in my opinion, one of the best guys to do it right now in the league. When he gets a good move and Kinlaw's an exceptional athlete, but he is also big inside. In the run game yesterday I was struggling a little bit to get a fit, so I asked him what is he seeing? What is he doing? That helped me today to kind of attack a different angle. Same with the past game, it's just stuff that we can communicate about in the locker room, which we're comfortable doing and then kind of transition on to the field the next day."
On how his experience playing guard in college will help him in the NFL:
"I kind of already have a little mind tap on what my aiming points are, my landmarks, what's difference in terms of mindset, when it comes to the running pass game and now it's just really about feeling it back out, like getting my body back used to it. Building kind of that muscle memory. Quicker hands, quicker feet. You're not as elongated as at the tackle. You're not waiting and being patient. It's more like attack and then just starting to basically like a wrestling match right then and there for five seconds. That's kind of where pads, when we put them on was going to be big because that's when I can actually work on those things and getting my body adjusted to that."
On the improvement with pad level:
"I've been working on it during the summer, but I know I can work on it even more. It's just we're tackling it. I'm already kind of playing high, I'm relying on my feet, so inside that's something I can't really do. It's not a premium, that's something I'm going to be working especially in the run game to staying low with my fits, anchoring quick in the pass game and just keeping my hat under his."
On the checks with C Tyler Biadasz:
"It is good. I mean, me and Ty, we were both in Dallas, a bunch of the other guys too so we have a great relationship. He comes in with all the information that he sees and when I have questions, I always ask him what he thinks, what he's thinking and kind of building that connection and gelling really good on the field."
On learning to be a guard again:
"It's something that I already knew. It's kind of just like riding a bike. If you don't do it for a while, you know how to do it. Now it's just about getting reps back, getting my body back comfortable. My body was so used to playing tackle, beating those positions. Now just kind of readjusting everything like my muscles, my joints, everything to be able to last in those positions and be comfortable. That just takes reps, I'm not going to stress about that because that just comes with putting the work in throughout camp and that's what camp is for. That's just what I'm going to do every day.
On early thoughts about Conerly Jr.:
"I mean, first time dude came through the door, he was cool. He already knew. He seemed like he knew what was going to come at him through camp and OTA's. He's very open-minded in terms of like this, every day is a new day to learn to work. He doesn't get hung up on reps, if it's a good, a bad one, he always wants to improve what he can improve on. It's just a student of the game. He asks a lot of questions, he knows what he's doing and that's just what you want to see out of the young guys. Especially coming in, having the role that he has potentially. That's great to see."
On the speed of the game slowing down in his second year:
"For sure. I kind of saw that last year when I started playing a lot more during that second half of the season. Now guard, everything happens a little quicker. Now during camp, I can kind of see like I said, those timings knowing like where my eyes going, all that stuff, kind of adjust a little more, but being able to play last year as much as I did is going to be a big help going to this next year."
On what he learned about himself through switching positions:
"I kind of found things out during the offseason, that summer I found out that my stance was pretty wide and it was hard to move out of that just through tackle. It was more about learning how my body functions and how to get my body comfortable to play that different position because like I said, I kind of know what I have to do, the aiming points now it's just about making my body do it, that mind kind of body connection. That's kind of what my focus was during July, during June. Just kind of get myself tuned to be able to come into training camp and be comfortable and then keep working on that stack in those days."
On how his versatility can give him confidence this season:
"I think kind of knowing what happens out there lets me adjust what I have to do inside. A lot of times when you set a guard sometimes you might not know what the ends are doing, the way their stance, where their eyes are. Kind of having that experience lets me see everything and kind of include everybody on the line into how I set maybe like what I'm thinking. It was also like a group effort last year. There were a bunch of guys who helped me out with that and even when we were playing the things that we were doing, how we were communicating, it was more what kind of helped us be as successful as we were rather than just like being talented. Obviously, we're all great players, but the way that we're able to communicate and kind of come in every week and work together and gel and have those reps will just let us like contain the guys that we did as a group."
