by
Chris Shashaty, Phins.com Columnist
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This week, Phins.com had the
opportunity to speak with RB Lorenzo Booker, the team’s third round draft pick
from
On his experience as a pro thus far
I really don’t have any
complaints. It’s been an adjustment, the biggest adjustment I’ve ever had to
make. Just understanding that there’s a business aspect to football now is
something that really kind of affected me, You just want to focus on the good
stuff but you’ve got to look out for yourself, too. But it has been great. The
thing that has been the best is that, all you hear about in college is how much
of a business it is and how the locker room is lonely, and I haven’t
experienced that. A lot of credit goes to the older guys, especially Jason
Taylor, Zach Thomas, and Ronnie Brown. They made it a lot easier for me. You
hear a lot of stories about how individualistic it is. I tell you what, this is
just as tight as the team I played with in college. It might be a little
tighter, to be honest. I’m enjoying myself.
On the complexities of a pro offensive system versus
a college system
The system in college (FSU)
was pretty complex. There are things I was used to, like “door reading” when it
comes to (pass) protections, having to read defenses, having a spread offense,
and different complex playcalling. The biggest difference in coming to the NFL
is that you can call one play the same way with 15 different (variations).
There might be a different motion or a different formation. (At FSU), when you
hear a play call, it pretty much tells every guy exactly what to do. But in the
NFL, you judge what you have to do based on what everyone else is doing. So you
can’t listen to a playcall and just focus on what it means to you. You have to
listen to what the wideouts are doing, what the line is doing, and that means
I’m doing this. It ends up helping you in the end because you understand the
scheme as opposed to just what you’re doing and then you’ll be to make
adjustments on the run.
On how things in college are becoming more complex as
NFL coaches enter the college ranks
From a coaching perspective,
it’s definitely getting that way. It’s good for players because you’re not so
shocked once you get here. That’s the hardest part about adjusting to the next
level of football, the mental aspect of it.
On facing tougher competition in the NFL
Talent-wise, I was fortunate
enough to go to a school like
On if
That’s all he’s done. Every time
I play, I am in those kinds of positions. That’s why I was so excited when I
got drafted here because I knew the kind of game he called when he was in