“My first practice was definitely a little tough for me, especially because I had to do my conditioning test this morning instead of last night, so it kind of lingered over into practice a little bit. My legs were a little tired and the speed is a lot faster (than college), so today was definitely pretty tough for me, but it will get easier from here.
“I definitely think missing the rookie mini-camps put us (rookies) at a disadvantage from the previous years because we weren’t able to get into the playbook and get a feel for the game speed and all of those things before camp.
“It’s kind of all hit us at once, which is definitely a bit of a disadvantage, but this team specifically, has a lot of veterans and a lot of people who know the system, so it’s only the rookies that need to learn the system. As rookies, we have to get on our job a little bit more and get after it.
“I’m learning the playbook. I’ve always been a quick learner, so I don’t think it will take too long for me to feel comfortable in the offense, but it’s definitely a learning process.
“As far as the running backs, everyone is cool. Everyone is helpful. There are no selfish guys in our group; it really seems like everyone is looking forward to working with each other.
“Having a former player, Sam Gash, as my position coach is good because you feel like what he’s preaching, he’s been through it. It’s not like he’s just a guy that’s never played football before. It definitely feels good that he’s an ex-player and knows what we’re going through so that he can handle us a certain way.
“Before coming to Detroit I was training, traveling, visiting family and friends. I’ve never really had a break like that before because in college we would be going through spring ball, summer workouts and stuff like that.
“Basically I’ve just been relaxing, enjoying some time off and staying in shape, so that I’m ready to roll. I’m very, very, very excited for the preseason. I can’t wait.”
