Skip to main content
Advertising

News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

LaRon Landry Press Conference

HEAD COACH JOE GIBBS

On LaRon Landry's family:

"LaRon has an older brother, Dawan, that plays for another team up the road here and he also has an older brother Derik. His parents are Rhonda, who we expect to see a lot around this place because she is a very close follower and his dad, Frank, who came with him today. I was kidding everybody, when I said Frank looks like he's in such good shape that we should probably sign him before he leaves. He also coached LaRon growing up so obviously he's a very proud parent. They're a great sports family besides being a great family, so that's neat."

On drafting LaRon Landry:

"I think the biggest thing for us is that he started 48 games down there [at LSU] and was a playmaker. You can go down through a long list of things there, but it was interesting that at the Combine, where we have 500 people running, he ran the second fastest 40 time. I sat down with LaRon for quite awhile and really what I tried to do was tell him what a great city this is to live in, it's a great place to play sports. We have the biggest stadium in the league, and we set a record last year for the most people attending games in the NFL. It's a great place to have a great pro career. The other thing about it is if you go down to LSU they have got an exciting place to play football, but he's coming to an exciting place here and I tried to tell him that. He's going to see every bit of the excitement and everything here, and I think its going to be a fun journey for him."

On coaching Landry:

"I was talking to LaRon's dad and at one point he said to me, ?He can take hard coaching now' and Gregg Williams was standing there and I said, ?Well, he might get a little bit.' It's funny that was one of the interesting things that has started to pop up on the scouting notes, lots of times they put on there if a player can take hard coaching. I think it does make a difference when you grow up in an athletic family."

On if he will start as a rookie:

"I talked to LaRon about how we have veteran savvy guys; we have Pierson (Prioleau) coming back, Omar (Stoutmire) that we signed, and Vernon (Fox) so we have players that add depth there. We feel really good about our safety position now, and how we work those guys around and what packages they will be in is hard to say. I don't have any real preconceived ideas. We just want to go to work and I think LaRon feels the same way. We just want to go to work and see how it all fits and that will probably be a work in progress."

On drafting so many defensive players with the first pick:

"We wound up taking players and I think there were other players we were considering. It just so happens that each one of those draft choices ended up being the best player that will help us now. Having said that, we all know here that the first two years we were playing rock solid defense and we were knocking people around. We felt that last year, all of the coaches and everybody here from Dan on down were all disappointed and none of us liked the way we played on defense. My past experience has been that defense leads you, and if you are going to do something special in the NFL normally the defense will lead. Special teams is the heart of your team, and I think we have worked extremely hard there and I think we've gone from six core group guys to thirteen on our team last year. Special teams is a big deal for us here. Offense just finishes the deal; they put the points on the board and finish things. We have always said here that each part of the football team is a major part of what we are trying to do and having said that you have to play great defense. We went to the playoffs two years ago and that football team played rock solid defense and we need to get back to that. I think that we needed to make the top pick and the top draft choice of the player that could help the team the most, and we didn't have it singled out but it's the way it worked out."

SAFETY LARON LANDRY

On being a Washington Redskin:

"First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Snyder, Coach Gibbs, and the rest of the coaching staff for making me a Washington Redskin. I'm very happy to be here, it's a blessing, and I'm ready to go to work."

On his conversations with his brother, Dawan:

"He was very happy for me. He's happy I'm down here, since he's right up the road so we'll have time to see each other more often. He gave me some encouraging words and the advice that I just need to come here, learn the playbook and be ready to go to work. He's hoping to see me on special teams."

On playing with Sean Taylor:

"I'll be very happy to be back there playing with Sean Taylor. I'm just trying to come in here and help out the team any way I can and earn a job to get on the field."

On the advice from his brother:

"The main thing he talked about was coming in here and learning the system and getting the plays down. The hard work and effort that's up to you, that's just on a personal level that you have to decide that you have to do. But the main thing was to learn the playbook and watch tapes."

On family competition:

"Growing up, we've always been competitive. My father played football at Northeast Louisiana, my oldest brother Derik was a defensive end at Vanderbilt, and Dawan is now at the Ravens. So we've always had that competitive background--that sports family background--so it was very competitive growing up. It didn't matter what we were doing, whether it was outside playing basketball in the yard or playing video games it was always competitive. My parents bought us some boxing gloves because they got tired of us fighting so we went to war. I was about five years old and we used to always go to war with the Sugar Ray Leonard boxing gloves. I might have lost that battle but I won the war."

On how he ended up as a safety:

"When I was five years old, I really tried to emulate Ronnie Lott. Actually in the pee-wee leagues, the age group was six, seven, and eight and I started playing when I was five. I used to use someone else's ID to sneak in and play. I used to go out there looking like Ronnie Lott at linebacker with the white arm pads on and I played a lot better then the older guys."

On his attributes as a safety:

"I love contact. I love to be physical and as I got older my dad moved me to quarterback, but I would always play both sides of the ball. So when I played quarterback [he] used to tell me to go out of bounds but I always said no and tried to run over them."

On his mindset during the draft:

"When it came up to the sixth pick my heart was beating kind of fast so it got down to like eight or seven minutes and I said, ?Hey, they haven't called me' and I was looking at my agent like what's going on. When I got the phone call I was so happy. It was a blessing."

On going through the draft process:

"It's been a long process, but as far as looking at projections I never really paid attention to that because I knew what I was capable of doing so that's what I focused on doing. Soon after the Sugar Bowl, I went to Orlando to work with Coach Tom Shaw and I really wanted to get my 40-yard time down. I knew I was capable of running a 4.4 but I knew I had the ability to run a 4.3, and that's what I wanted to do and he really maximized my speed by doing that. I had to go to work to reach my goals and that's what I did."

On if he hopes to start as a rookie:

"It's all up to the coaches to decide who gets on and off the field. I'm just going to bring forth what I have to bring to the table and that's hard work and dedication."

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an issue.
Advertising
;