Tyron Smith On Joining Aaron Rodgers And The Jets After Years Of Playoff Battles

Joining The New York Jets [Music] Tyron how does it feel to be starting a new chapter in your career uh I feel it's great honestly it feels great um I feel like it's at the this timing is actually great you know moving on to something new and um ever since I got here everybody's been welcoming and you know gave me up the speed higher than he's done here and it's been great so far what goes into the process of moving finding a new team and then also you got a family we're just talking about it off the air before we started the Pod that those people are going to have to experience a lot of changes as well yeah um you know with the whole process and everything I you know I leave that as my agent as far as you know where where I should go uh since you know more about that than I do and you know for the it sucks the S the part that do suck about it is you know me coming here it's hard on the kids right and that's that's only that's the thing that's that's breaking my heart because it it's less time with the kids but as we all know this business is a lot of sacrifice in order to get what we need to get to and so um they my kids understand and understand that has to work so 13 years in Dallas yeah you guys played the Jets early last season if I would have told you maybe after that game hey man you going to be lining up in green and white next year what would you have thought um at the time I probably would have never believed it um um it's I thought uh at the moment that I would have finished my career in Dallas um but we all know how this game goes it's just you know you never know what could happen and it's a business and so you know you get opportunity to go somewhere else and then you know try to get the ring somewhere else so you're 33 you're going to be 34 in December but do you feel like a rookie again in some respects no still no no I wake up every morning I still those years remind you that you know you you know year 14 now but um it's a just the energy waking up is excitement coming to work and you know be around the guys and you know learn something new that I haven't learned before and so how much do you enjoy this aspect of it like you didn't have to be out here in voluntary workouts that's not part of the CBA but you were out here all the time and now the offseason's wrapping up with mandatory minut Camp yeah um uh I think I explained it earlier somebody that um you know in Dallas we you know we kind of started a little bit early as far as like Captain workouts and Captain's running the workouts like around March and you know we continue on for offseason program OTAs and mini cam and you know majority of the guys is always there and that's how whe was always kind of brought up being in Dallas is you know just be there for the you know being there for the offseason kind of you want to be there with the guys they make they make it welcome you know you want to be there working with your guys and learning something new and so do you Weight Room live in the gym I mean Salo was saying the other day we're talking about it that he was looking at you in the wait room Robert Sal's walking by and there's Tyron in the bench he's just repping up 400 plus like it's nothing like he does 135 now Sol was kind of downplaying himself a little bit because he's a strong guy himself but do you live in the weight room um I enjoy getting stronger um I love the aspect that like more you work in the weight in the weight room the stronger you'll get and I love that aspect you see the you see the results after working hard in the weight room that you feel stronger and for me I just don't want to lo I don't ever lose that I always want to feel like I'm pushing heavy weight so has it always come easy to you don't take that the wrong way because that's not to say you're not putting in the work but as far as your strength is concerned no for me you know growing up I could never really put on weight so I have to lean on strength so like in high school I was a skinny guy so like only thing I could lean on was my strength so I built as much muscle as I possibly could and in my head I always try to tell myself I want to be the strongest guy out there on the field and so I knew I couldn't gain weight so I might as well try to gain muscle and so for me over the years I just tried not to lose that aspect of it so how lean were you in high school before you actually took off went to USC from 08 to 10 I was like 250 just just really and you couldn't put on weight couldn't put on weight went to then went to USC put on like 20 lbs playing there but it was still just straight just muscle yeah and I didn't but also in college didn't have the funds to get eat like I how I should and so I'm sitting there eating McDonald's and Taco Bell and Del Taco and everything just trying to and that still didn't even put on weight so body fat wise can I ask you like what your percentage is uh because you're walking around a hallway here you look like a receiver who just at who's just you know 65 you know three what 310 310 and you look like you're about 5% I don't know no um it's actually been a while since I checked it but uh I want to say probably the last sign was probably around 15 or 16% really um how has your workout regiment changed in terms of when you broke into the league compared to what you're doing now um let's see when I got in the league it was kind of just you know we had a guy in Dallas Mike WK he kind of trained me and like kind of just there by my side every step of the away and um he kind of he just he's always just challenged me you I like when I go to the wa room it's like a challenge yeah and he was always just you know like little fake bets like here and there I bet you 100,000 you can't get this weight up right now and so it's like I was like you challenging me um and so that kind of just stuck with me and so even when I get come here um I still came keep that same aspect of like you know he's in the back of my head I need to like lift more to be stronger and like I need to try to get this extra rep in to feel that little strain yeah what exercises do you like doing the most uh I like the like a little bit of everything honestly um I'm always interested in trying to find something new that could help out or anything like that so what music you listening to in there when you're clanging around the weights so I know I know the younger guys got their you know that their kind of newer music they listen to now um but uh for me I have no problem listening to like old school R&B yeah and just kicking back and like just getting my work in yeah okay so I wanted to ask you going back and we talked about you USC a little bit and coming out your number nine overall selection by the Cowboys in 2011 but let's go way back where do you Family Janitorial Business get your work ethic from because you started out as a kid long hours right yeah so uh when I was younger ever since I was like five or six years old um we had a family janitorial business and um you know we took pride in our you know what we did because you know the better we did our job the more work we'll get and so um you know pay wasn't great you know we fairly struggled grow uh growing up but um you know for me I knew that you know we do this job well we get another job that you know I'm cleaning windows outside of a building I didn't make sure I'm the best window cleaner out there that you ever seen right and I took priday that if it's any little Street anything like that I'm just like wait hold on this ain't done yet you got to look at different angles and things like that or clean or carpet cleaner or anything like that you have to make sure it's done right and so for me it was you know high school we were I'll play I'll play a game on Friday night next day Saturday morning we're driving to a long destination for work somewhere it could be like go to Sacramento or Arizona for uh for a job and not really any kind of arrest or anything like that and so it kind of taught you that mindset of you know nobody really cares how tired you are because you still got to do the work you carry that mindset on the field yeah because nobody's feeling sorry for you and when you're talking about your family as far as the business is concerned how many of you were going from place to place as far as the travel is concerned so is you know me my mom and um my step my mom's ex ex and my stepdad at the time and then I had my step brother step sister and then my little sister she didn't work she kind of just stayed out of the way and then it was just us grinding away yeah and then we might have a couple other family members coming in to kind of help out um here and there but other than that it was just us and and so we'll go like say we'll drive to Arizona you know four hour drive go clean a building and then get right back in the road come back home and so like plans to do things over the weekends or hang out with friends that work came first and so and hanging out with friends came last and so we got back in time from after work and the next day then you can go hang out with your friends but at that point you just you're done you're exhausted what would your friends say what would your buddies say like we having like a little get together at the house or you want to come over play video games ah sorry got gota hit the road this weekend um and all like growing up all my friends kind of understood and then but um that was just how you know things were where did your craftsmanship come along as far as the way you approach the game out there in the field because the first word that comes to my mind one watching you is you you're an effortless mover and then also master technician yeah um you know I got to give um a lot of respect to uh Bill Callahan he um early in my career he he just gave me that mindset like how to approach the game and like how to study the game and how to read things while I'm on the field and like just technique wise he harped on a lot of technique and I'm Bill Callahan was here yeah so um legendary offensive line coach one of the best ever no doubt and so um you know he instilled in me that like everything was just second you know second memory or you know memory musle memory I mean and you know even when we retired after practice we got continue working on something something after practice right and it's you know he instill to he istill in your mind that it's always something else it's always something to work on even you the worst thing is you say in your head that you got it because you're never going to just have it and it's always something new you can learn um because as this game goes it always switches up different rushers and things like that different people you go against so you got to have something that you could have to battle against that and so and then I got lucky enough to have another you know know another Guru last year with salari yeah and so and you know he was so you know about helping his guys and making sure that the technique was right and everybody was on the same page but he wanted to make sure everybody was going to be great and he wasn't G and he wasn't G to feel like he did his job and everybody wasn't great so he he did everything in his power to you know to help everybody out we talked about your strength M your striking MH I think you're one of the best strikers that we've ever seen tell me some stories about your hands and and way you've used them over the years um honestly you know kind of go back to bill um you know he just taught us you know it's it's all confidence because everybody can have a strike but it it's all the technique of the strike and having your feet planted in the ground and but still able to move while punching and placement of the hands and things like that and so honestly the more of the thing is like with with like placement of the hands or strike or anything like that you just got to have confidence because everybody no matter who you are how strong you are you play long and have confidence in your hands you could have that strike but you just got to have confidence in yeah but your strike's different it just honestly it's probably just experience over the years just know how to handle certain things when you get your hands on somebody what's going on in your mind when you when you have that initial shot and you have your hands on somebody uh shoot block him forever because you never know how long the quarterback's gonna hold the ball and and we had a saying you know last year you know only your one one out of 11 and that kind of that that just that saying kind of you know stuck with me that like you know once you have your guy your guy blocked up that like why let him go yeah yeah because you don't know what's going on behind you and you don't know what's going on down the field your focus on is to handle that guy right there in front of you do you hear a whistle when you're out there sometimes um other than sometimes I don't and I just keep going until like all right chill chill chill and um just kind of you gota have that mindset to kind of play not play at the whistle but play through the Protecting the Blind Side whistle how much pride did taking the fact that hey I got the quarterback's blinds side I ATT last year last few years in Dallas now I got Aaron behind me I just know that um like the like the team the quarterback and you know everybody's dependent on o line and dline to set the tone of the game and for us as a o line whoever's back there they need to know that we have their back no matter what and we're gonna give everything it takes up up front so as as far as being in there and the trenches take me inside yeah are you a guy who is is going to tell somebody you're in for a long day vocally or or you're just I don't talk you don't say anything I don't say anything um I'm not one of those big Ro Rock guys and like talking and everything like that I like staying neutral and just focus on the job I need to need to get done because if I'm up here then I'm I'm be all out of whack right and the best thing is to always try to stay neutral as possible and because you never know what could happen in the game and see I had that mindset do you think even if you didn't play football that you were going to be successful no matter what you did because that mindset coming back from being part of that janitorial business way back when with your family whatever profession you chose Tyrant Smith was going to excel at it yeah um uh my fiance kind of gives me a hard time she was like you just love working don't you I was like yeah I I feel I feel a little uncomfortable if I'm just sitting around not doing anything you get anxious a little bit I just feel like I need to be I need to be doing something instead of just sitting around right I need to accomplish something at least a couple things throughout the day like feel like I did something and yeah if I was doing something else I'll yeah I'll be the best best at it at that job you know more more than anybody and so um yeah just it's just for me just got a lot of Pride more than anything no doubt about that the Striking the playing through the whistle but also the feet how important are the feet for any offens linan and with you watching you out there on the practice field throughout OTAs here at the start of mandatory mini camp there is no wasted movement it looks like a teach tape well you know as you get older you you can't waste a movement at all and um and for me and like I'm so I'm like detailed as far as like looking at film you know why was I why why was I to tick late on or why I wasn't in a good position for this part and then I started looking at this start from the ground up start looking at the feet like I had a waste moving my feet I kind of rocked a little bit and like got to take that out even it's like less than a second you got to get everything every Advantage you can and so um you know with the feet and everything like that and far as like pass Pro your feet can't stop and especially with these type of rushers nowadays you know it's a lot of fast you know speed rushers and things like that the guys like to move around Jump Around nowaday days and your feet can't stop cuz they're waiting on it right and they trying to set up a move for you so you can stop your feet so they can work and move off of it that's a dine May wants you to stop your feet because they have a because they have a free go but how have you avoided penalties because when I say that I mean it compl complimentary because your grip is legendary and you never let the guy go you know what I'm saying yeah well is it is it hard there it's certain like things like yeah you of course you have your hands outside it's holding yep but um but it's different when you got a guy kind of viced up on the inside and kind of just it's I don't know is this more of you got to have good G strength but like you got to have your hands in the right place and be smart about it and stay in front of your guy yeah and the guy is kind of like it happened to me a couple times that like kind of God kind of gets away from me I'm still hooked on to him then like get a holding call but like when you gripped up when you grip them into those pads you got to stay in front of them and stay keep your feet moving and do your do something you know in your tool belt to kind of take his power out right and but it's just you know got go a whole like long thing how to like do this technique but like um yeah you just got to have your feet settled but the grip strength where does that come from you're naturally gifted you're living in the weight room but also does that go back to Childhood as well the grip um maybe a bit yeah uh so growing so growing up we of course we worked a lot but also like we did a lot of yard work and so for me as a kid even then I I looked at everything as a challenge like yeah we we're like doing our own work in the backyard building something in the backyard and got to carry dirt back and forth to the front and the back and I'm like you know loow this wheel bear as much as you can I'll see how much I could carry and you know that just for me that was just me just being weird because I always feel like I I love to like feel like strong and um I guess I guess that little bit that part of that comes from that and for me it's just you know after a while like you got to do everything everything you takes to make sure that guy doesn't get to the QB and no matter if your fingers get messed up like Min are a little bit already um just little small sacrifice to make sure you get the win eight Time pro bowler five time All Pro 2010 NFL all decade team what keeps you going at this level at this point in your career because a lot of guys frankly would say hey man I've had a hell of a career I've had maybe a Hall of Fame career right now if I put a period at the end of the sentence Tyron Smith you can make the argument this guy's a Hall of Famer what keeps you going right now honestly the Love of the Game um there's no job like this anywhere and you know for you know some of us on the team that haven't got one yet yet you know we still chasing that ring and you know if they see opportunity that you could possibly get one then why not take it what do you think about the talent assembled out here you played on a lot of talented clubs yourself you were just in the playoffs last year I think you've played nine postseason games throughout your career what do you think about the Jets your new team um I see a very high potential of them the you know it' be something great and you know I feel like we're forming it out there during this off season and I think a lot of guys start I think a lot of guys realized what we can do and we just got to stay together in this offseason leading into the training camp and continue working on the field and pushing each other and just showing that we could be something great on the field what's your best Playoff Battles Vs. Aaron Rodgers Rogers story so far I know his locker next to you can you share uh no just honestly for me is just um being in Dallas just knowing what Rogers did to us you know a couple years him being there and Green Bay and so um you know he you know broke our hearts a couple times you know you know 14 and 16 those are the kind of years that kind of you still think about still sting those those couple years sting um but I know that he is you know something great and he has the like the knowledge and the wisdom of the game that nobody else has and I know that you know if you're on the same page as him then a lot of great things can happen left to right what do you think about the projected starters here yourself at left tackle John Simpson at left guard Joe tinman at Center avt fellow USC Alam at Right Guard and then of course Morgan Moses over there right tackle yeah yeah um I feel like we got a you know a good group of guys on the line and um good strong group of guys honestly um very intelligent group of guys and and you know me and me and Morgan what we bring to it you know we got you know guys just being in the game for a long time right and you know everybody has a little piece they can add to this and you know honestly I'm I'm excited because everybody's willing to work and even on the field if something's if anybody has a question about anything nobody's like you know shineing away from asking questions and we're all together on this as far as make sure to get it solved go back on the field right so how beneficial do you think spring was for Olu fashu um Carter Warren um just coming out here Max Mitchell those guys we've talked about like avt working his way back Morgan working his way back those guys getting some reps out here um honestly these guys impressed me um and looking at their you know how they played last year as far as we know we look at taping you know in our room you know last year's tape and then you know how to correct it for this year and those guys have just from watching the film that like I could tell they just made made a huge Improvement for this off season and they're out there grinding every day to make sure they have it right yeah you can see Carter Warren taking strides I know you weren't here last year but he's a young buck and then Max benefiting and you got some dep pieces there West Scher I wanted to ask you about AV though yeah what's your relation ship with him obviously went the USC well before him but yeah um you know we never really got to really like sit down and talk you know before I came here but um I could tell that he's he's just itching to come back onto the field right now but he's you know he's grinding he's grinding away in the rehab things that he's doing right now and then he's in the you know in the online room with us you know you know learn still continue learning but um I could tell that he's you know just watching the film from you know when you know when he was healthy in playing that he's a beast and he's he's healthy he's he's Unstoppable type of guy speaking of Beast what do you think about that running back behind you in bree Hall what he was able to do last year and then the potential now with the healthy Rogers some reinforcements up front like yourself it makes you excited excited for the Run game and excided to block for these guys and you know as all all linan you got guys back there like that if that don't excite excite you I don't know what will so we got to come full New York Sports Fans circle here you're a jet you're coming east you were in Dallas for 13 years you grew up in California went to SC what do you think the match not just here in the organization but you coming to New York because everything that you're about is putting a hard hat on and going to work yeah and this is what this city was built on yeah yeah um no you guys you know still something great here um trying to forgot how to answer the question but like um yeah it's with any kind of football team it's like you said it's putting on hard hat on uh for me it's just different for me um you know being in Dallas for so long and you know come to the come to the east coast and being a part of a team is you know for me it was just like you know you know forget them you know you got you know you got the Giants over there you know um but it it kind of shows you a different um you know different mindset you know when you come here as far as like you could tell the city is back in this team and you can tell this you know everybody around here is excited for what you know what we can do how you feel physically feel great okay so let's end here repping out we asked you about the bench uh before so if you were just heading in there right now what are you doing on the bench uh shoot today today was kind of like just kind of keeping the strength up kind of just you know a little light reps but it was today it was just three reps of 315 and like 60 365 and then finish on 405 so I can just feel that little the heaviness how about squat squat you're G to learn as you get older you don't squat the same way yeah and so you lean on um a lot more you still do a double Ed squat but you lean on heavier squats for like single legs okay and so you have that functional movement but you also you know strengthen your leg and individually uh but you still go kind of heavy on that so like you go two plates over two plates just on a single leg and single leg so you feel like you're getting some kind of work in yeah yeah what's your favorite exercises man I love squatting you know what they allow me to do for squatting I love love benching um but I love like the little small things that go along with it you got like the auxiliaries as far as like sh little shorter workouts or you know a little movement here and there um because I feel like the little small you know stuff that not that major workout but like the small stuff that goes along with it is going to keep you healthy for the for the long run and you're always looking for small ways to get better yeah what's the summer looking like for you once this Camp concludes um so we got you know finished up mini camp this week um spend some times with the spend some time with the kids you know during the summer break get uh get get married next month and yeah get ready for Camp that's awesome a lot of exciting things happen in your life you talked about new chapter here joining the Jets new chapter getting married yeah and then the kids obviously going to have a new home as well yeah yeah Tyron this was a blast really appreciate it no problem thanks for having me [Applause] [Music] [Applause]