Read the full transcript from ILB Jacob Rodriguez's media availability on October 12, 2026.

So you're known for the peanut punch, and we just spoke to Chris Johnson. He executed one. What did you see from him to be able to pull it off there?

Jacob Rodriguez: Yeah, it was great. He had great leverage, and he threw a really good punch. He had a good angle on it. It's kind of that situation where ball carrier is going down and he tries to cover it up with his other hand, but it creates a pocket there for you to get the ball out. So executed to perfection, look great. Popped right out.

How much of that is that just an emphasis for everyone on defense? If you get a shot, you take it.

Jacob Rodriguez: Oh, always. I think especially like in the red zone, they already have points with a field goal. So anything you can to take the ball away is huge because you save points, and then if we go to take that and score, we flipped it on our side. So it's a huge momentum shift in the game. And yeah, it was really cool to see it came out free. It was fun, but we got to take care of it. Can't have the boomerang plays, where take the ball away, you go down and give right back. We obviously coach ball security all the time, we got to be more conscious of that. But he had a heck of a punch, and it was really cool to see.

Jacob, I know you've been asked about your relationship with Jordyn Brooks. I wanted to ask you about your relationship with Jeff Hafley. I know that you and Jordyn visit with him and Sean, right, a lot of mornings. But Jeff is in your ear. You're the green dot guy. Tell me about your relationship. Because I asked him, is it kind of like an offensive head coach and a quarterback? And he said, yeah, that's kind of a good way to put it. But how well do you guys know each other? Is this like a typical relationship for you with a defensive coach or is it different for any reason?

Jacob Rodriguez: Yeah, I mean, this is the first time I've ever had a head coach who calls the plays, so it's new on that aspect, but I think just the relationship just continues to grow. We got to know – it plays in our favor if I kind of know what he's thinking and he knows what I'm thinking. I come off the field and tell him what I'm seeing, but just as a relationship goes, I think we have a really good relationship. Everything's been going really well with communication and just trying to get the point across of what we want to get done in certain calls. A lot of it too is like some calls can get wordy, so  you have to be able to hear the first couple words he's saying and then be able to spit the call out to everybody, because you have a play clock and you got to get the call out and got to get guys set up ready to play. And that helps with, you go over through the entire week. So you kind of know personnel, down and distance, what calls he's thinking of. And so then you can kind of relay that as fast as you can to get guys ready to play fast and have their eyes in the right place.

Do you guys spend any time alone talking about strategy or plays or play calling, anything like that?

Jacob Rodriguez: I mean, when it comes up. If we go through a walkthrough or if something happens where I see something, I'll let them know. If he kind of sees something he wants to relay to me, we have that. But a lot of it is a whole group effort. We're trying to be the best defense we can and it's good for everybody to kind of hear exactly what we need to get done.

You're currently leading the NFL in tackles. What do you think when you hear that?

Jacob Rodriguez: It's good. I mean, I'd rather that than not. But also like, I don't know – it's nice, but I think it's not the biggest stat that matters, for sure. Especially with us, we're 0-5 right now, we've got to play better football.

The two touchdowns they scored, can you take me through those two plays? I think you had inside leverage on Mike Gesicki and he takes a step that way and whips it back out and then the angle route from the running back. Can you take me through those two plays?

Jacob Rodriguez: Yeah, I just got to get stickier. I think playing the coverage that we're in just afforded them the middle open, and so I got to take it all the way up through the back of the end zone. Always on the tape we're expecting him to do one thing from what we've seen and he just kind of snaps it off and breaks it out at the end, so I just got to try to tighten up there on the first touchdown of the game. And then he cans to the second one, so we kind of know what he's in. Just kind of the nature of the coverage where I thought I had to be where I was, and it was just a really good play by them. I kind of made a play on the ball. I actually got my hand on it, but it was a really good catch by him to be able to get in the end zone. I thought I had good coverage there, but he made a good play.

This has been a good rookie draft class. You go through 5 rounds and everybody is off to a good start. Trey and Kyle, of course, are injured. But what is your assessment of your rookie year personally? What is your assessment of what this draft class has shown so far through five games?

Jacob Rodriguez: I think maybe a lot of promise, but we've still got a lot to show. Like we're 0-5 and we have to play better. The moral victories are great, but the nature of the beast – you have to win games and we're not doing that. I think there's a lot that we need to improve on and there's a lot that we're doing well. We need to continue it, but there's a lot that we need to work on. I think guys are stepping up and playing plays that they need to. Even guys like Rodney, like he's playing really great football on special teams and on defense, he was UDFA. Guys are contributing and stepping up where they need to, we just have to turn it to winning games.

What do you think is the next step to finally get into that win column?

Jacob Rodriguez: Simply playing better football, like being more confident in each other and the guys around you. I feel like we have a good plan every week. There's never been a time where I'm going in doubting that we're going to win the game. We're going in to win the game and we're going to try to the best of our ability to do that, but then we go in and as players, we're not playing the call as well as we can. We're not winning our one-on-one; we're not winning our one-eleventh that we have to do every single play. But I think that just comes with confidence in practice, stressing yourself out as much as you can to see where your range is, to see kind of where you can mess up, where you can take shots and where you can't. I think that's an important part about practice, but I think we're growing. I think we're learning. We just got to kind of turn the corner here. I think it's been frustrating talking about like, we're so close, we're right there. We can play with anybody, but I mean, we just got to turn it into wins. We can't keep talking about it, we got to start making stuff happen.

I know it was a limited sample size, but what did you see from Kenneth Grant?

Jacob Rodriguez: Huge fan of him. I mean, the way he works, he's not just playing in a 3 or in a 2i, he's talking to everybody. He's always got energy, working all the time in practice. The whole time he was on IR, he was around the guys. He was a part of the team. He was in the meetings. He was getting his body right. He's a pro and he's doing everything he needs to do to be here and help this team. I'm a huge fan of him. I have a lot of respect for him. Great person, great football player.

What does your bye week look like and did you have a pre-planned regiment that you wanted to do?

Jacob Rodriguez: I don't know, I'll see how this first one goes. I tried to talk to a lot of guys, but I'll probably just see family and just try to reset to get going for the rest of the year. But I'll just try to tighten up everything I can, get the body back.