The longer we keep looking back in the rearview mirror, it takes away from everything that's moving forward.
One of these topics we talk about with the team on our 'Competition Wednesday' is iron sharpening iron. That's the process we go through to get each other ready, and that's why we have some periods where we get to compete against one another.
We talk about toughness as a quarterback: it's not sometimes the physical part that you see; it's the mental toughness and the 'I'm going to stand in here, take this shot,' and 'I'm going to deliver it to my guy.'
The term we use on our team is 'reset': when you go through, whether it's a negative play or a negative drive, and you get your next opportunity - not focusing on the past, but going back into your attack mode.
The most important thing to me is how hard we go after the ball and take care of it.
I think it's important that we go through everything together as a team.
For me, it was watching the New York Giants growing up, with Bill Parcells and Lawrence Taylor and that whole crew coming up through the '80s. And then, as I moved on to college, I thought I'd want to coach for sure.
We want to play a really physical style ball, and so, for us tackling, we know we are shoulder-based tackling team, and we want to hit that strike zone just like you're throwing fastballs into that catchers' mitt just as hard as you can.
I think different teams have different challenges as you go through.
I think that's the ultimate sign of a teammate and respect is that they compete against one another so hard at practice that here's a chance to share some knowledge inside. It takes some humility to do that.
We're not Seattle East. We're our own Atlanta, and there are definitely things I learned from Coach Carroll. He had probably the single biggest influence on my coaching career.
Adrian Clayborn is somebody that relentlessly brings that attitude, energy, and toughness.