Read the full transcript from ILB Jacob Rodriguez's media availability on November 5, 2026.
You were the salute to service nominee for this organization. Tell us what that means to you. It has special meaning because of your wife, right?
Jacob Rodriguez: Yeah, it's a huge honor. I really think so. I have a lot of respect for anybody in the military, any branch of service, any role that they have, active, reserve, they all serve a greater purpose So I think to be able to lay your life down if need be for your country, I think is unbelievable. And so to be nominated for that is something that I don't take lightly. It's something that's very, very near and dear to my heart. It's a huge honor. I'm very blessed to receive that, but I think it just kind of goes to show how important our military and our first responders, how important everybody is.
Jacob, you mentioned precisely that playing in the NFL can be demanding, but nothing compares to serving in the military. Like you said, your wife, also your dad, Joe, served. So what does it represent to you, the military service?
Jacob Rodriguez: It represents a lot. Kind of like I said, we get to come out here and we get to play a game. Obviously, you got a lot of eyes on you, and every day you go and compete on Sunday, everybody's critiquing what you're doing. Everybody kind of knows the ins and outs of what you're supposed to do, if you have a bad play or if you have a good one. But in the military, it can come down to life or death, and you really have to train in a serious manner and be prepared for anything that can come up. You have to plan and you have to take a lot of meaningful reps. Like I've said in the past, like my wife who flies helicopters, if she has a bad day or something goes wrong, she goes down and it's seriously life or death, you can't eject out of the helicopters. I get to come here and I get to play a game, and they go out and they do serious work. It's something that I don't take lightly and I don't think anybody should take lightly. It means a lot to me and it's something I really care about.
What's it like when an offense has so many weapons? Because you always talk about, take away that top threat. And then this is an offense with Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Willaims. What's it like to go against an offense that many threats?
Jacob Rodriguez: I think it's fun. I think it just presents another challenge. I think obviously the best advantage you can is to take away some of the top guys, but if they're all top guys, it just presents another challenge. You got to be ready for that. You can't take a play off. But kind of like I said, it doesn't change kind of what you do to prepare. It doesn't change what you do during practice. You kind of always have to play that way every week. You always kind of have that same intensity every week and just know that you're going to have to play as hard as you can every single snap for the game. But I feel like that's kind of a non-negotiable to play in this league, to play in this defense. And yeah, it's just something I'm excited to see. And obviously I have a lot of respect for all of them. I think they're extremely talented. That's why they're statistically the best in the league right now, but I'm excited to see how it goes.
A lot of teams haven gone against you guys have talked about how tough and how physical you guys play. What does that do for you? But also, like Michael [Taaffe] mentioned, we don't want that to be the only thing that they say about us. We want to continue to build and this to translate to wins. So what's the balance between taking and receiving that praise?
Jacob Rodriguez: I mean, we want to win. I think that's kind of a given is we're trying to win and we're not trying to just go out there and play hard and just hope for the best. We're trying to go out there and have a plan to actively go and win the game. That being said, I think how we can do that part of the recipe to win is you got to play hard. And I think that's kind of something that we've bought into, is we do play hard. And I think that's kind of what you have to do to play defense. And so, I think if you continue to stick to the process of playing hard and doing the right thing and doing your job, then good things happen. I think if you chase the ball, then you'll be there when the ball comes out. And I think if you are playing as hard as you can and you're disguising it well pre-snap and doing everything you can and gives a quarterback really hard look, he might throw an interception. So I think it all kind of ties together. But the end goal is winning. Like we want to be known for winning. I think that's if you want to be the best, you gotta be able to win in the league and we haven't done that as much as we want to, but I think that's kind of the biggest thing. We want to win. But also I think that it's paired with playing hard and it's paired with doing the right thing.
