The Post’s Steve Serby chats with the Jets’ No. 1 draft pick out of Temple about trash talking, growing up in Linden and making an impact on the defensive line as a rookie.
Q: How would you describe your mentality on the field?
A: Just a total 360 [effort[. Relentless, energy. . . . A mean son of a gun. I love banging in the trenches. [I’m] just totally opposite from being quiet. I’m out there nasty, talking, do whatever I got to do, and it’s out there just having fun with the other 10 guys I’m out there with, just making plays.
Q: Do you like to talk trash on the field?
A: Yeah.
Q: Do you?
A: Yeah.
Q: Are you good?
A: Yeah (smile).
Q: Give me an example. I’m trying to block you, what kind of things would you say to me?
A: I’ll say anything, I can’t simply say one thing.
Q: Even as a rookie you’ll do that?
A: Yeah. . . . I’m a rookie so people are going to talk trash to me, but it’s not going to affect me or near scare me. I’m out there and I’m going to talk trash back.
Q: So when you say you’re a mean son of a gun, give me an example of your meanness and your nastiness.
A: Meaning not letting up on somebody. I see a running back, he don’t see me, I’m coming. I’m trying to knock his head off.
Q: Do you not like offensive linemen?
A: (Chuckle) No, I don’t like ’em. Because they don’t like us.
Q: How do you feel about quarterbacks?
A: Quarterbacks? (Smile) Got to knock them out too — especially the good ones.
Q: Clean, of course.
A: Yeah, yeah. I don’t want no fines (chuckle).
Q: Which quarterbacks are you looking forward to sacking?
A: Any 31.
Q: What do you think of the Jets-Patriots rivalry?
A: I’m glad I’m a part of it.
Q: What drives you?
A: Just growing up in the Elizabeth-Linden area, it’s a lot of bad things, and you got a lot of good things. But I chose the right path, didn’t go down the bad. [I was] surrounded by great people. Also you got people who doubt you. I don’t really think about that, but I keep a little piece of that with me, because you got people who doubted me saying that I wouldn’t make it at this level, and the competition will be too much for me, so I keep that in mind.
Q: Did you ever see a murder growing up?
Q: Never seen a murder, but I’ve seen people been shot at. I’ve seen drug transactions.
Q: You admired Michael Strahan and later Justin Tuck growing up?
A; I grew up a Giants fan, and as I got older just became a fan of the game.
Q: Why Strahan?
A: He was just always destructive on the defensive line and always causing havoc.
Q: Could you be that kind of player?
A: I feel I can, with the great coaches, like with Rex (Ryan), and our defensive line coach Mark Carrier, and then I got great defensive linemen with me that help me out a lot every day with (Mike) DeVito, Sione (Pouha) and Ropati (Pitoitua). And then you have a great defense overall, with Bart (Scott) at the linebacking crew and you got (Darrelle) Revis. All those guys ask me every day, “How you doing, rook? You all right? You learning this stuff?” I feel right at home, and it’s great just to be in this organization.
Q: Do you think you can make an impact as a rookie?
A: I do. I love to stop the run. That’s one of the things that we talked about in the first team meeting about stopping the run. This defense is ranked in the Top 5, so I plan on helping out this defense to be No. 1.
Q: Why do you like stopping the run so much?
A: Because I just like the physicalness and the grind down there in the trenches, but I also like to get after the quarterback too. All these great guys here, I’m glad that I’m a part of this. I feel that this is going to be something special.
Q: How long are your arms?
A: I got a seven-foot wingspan.
Q: What have you learned about practicing against D’Brickashaw Ferguson in practice?
A: That he’s a great athlete. He can move his feet just like I can. He gets his hands on me first, and I can’t do nothing. But I’m happy that I’m going up against him because he’s definitely going to make me a great player.
Q: Shirt size, neck size?
A: About a 19, 19 1/2.
Q: Your thoughts on Rex?
A: Great guy. Anybody can say that. The first day of practice when we’re out here, I didn’t even know that he’s the quarterback making the throws and stuff when we’re doing a little walk through. I’m happy to be here, and I’m happy that he’s my coach.
Q: Did you go to the old Giants Stadium?
A: Never been there. Only been there for a banquet that I had when I was in college, that was it.
Q: You couldn’t play football because you were over the weight limit?
A: I first started playing organized football when I was about eight or nine. I played one year, and the next year I tried to play I couldn’t play because I was too heavy. So that’s when I started playing basketball, and I didn’t play football until I got to middle school.
Q: Did that bother you?
A: My dreams got crushed because of my weight, but eventually I got over it and just became a good basketball player. . . . I played against guys that were taller than me, bigger than me, and I was banging down in the post with them.
Q: Why did you choose Temple?
A: Those coaches stayed loyal to me. I have a learning disability. . . . When I was in high school I didn’t qualify my senior year, so schools stopped talking to me. Temple offered me [a scholarship], even though there was a chance that I might not qualify. I picked up some offers from Marshall, Liberty, Western Kentucky. . . . But I just felt that Temple stayed loyal to me, so I would have felt bad just leaving them out to dry like that.
Q: What kind of learning disability?
A: I just learn differently from other people, I don’t grasp onto something that somebody else may. It may not get to me that quick. It takes time.
Q: Do you have put extra work in to learn the playbook, for instance?
A: Yeah, but not because I have a learning disability, I got to do that regardless because I’m a rookie.
Q: What was Hargrave Military Academy like?
A: It matured me as a man being down there by myself with a kind of like military environment, getting up six o’clock every day. And it also taught me that I really need to put forth more effort into football as well as my academics, so I’m happy that I went there and it helped me out a lot.
Q: Your mom’s battle with breast cancer?
A: I was about 10, 11 years old. I didn’t know what it was. When you hear cancer, you think bad. When she told us there was a chance going through the surgery and everything, she might not make it, then it kind of hit me like, “Wait, it’s possible I might lose my mom,” so that hit me hard, I was really worried about my mom. But once I knew she made it through, that’s what just made me more close to her and just knew that she was a strong woman because some women can maybe break down from that, and that would only lead to bad things, but my mom fought through it, going through all the therapy, whatever, everything she went through, that’s what makes my mom so special and so strong.
Q: You got a tattoo on your right shoulder of your mother’s first name before the draft?
A: Yeah. Kadiah.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: My brother Laquan Brown. He’s actually the one who started making me play football. I remember just going to his high school games. Me and one of my other brothers, we used to always run around the house and say, “Oh, No. 2 with the ball and the catch!” That was my brother Laquan’s number.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: My grandfather I never met;« Malcolm X; Barack Obama.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Four Brothers.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel [Washington].
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Meagan Good.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Alicia Keys.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My nana’s (Joanne) macaroni and cheese (smile).
Q: Favorite video games?
A: NBA 2K, college football and Madden.
Q: How hungry are you?
A: I’m real hungry.
Q: Why?
A: Because at this level, you got to be hungry. You got to love the game. You got to go out there every day and grind and bust your behind.
Q: What would you tell Jets fans about the kind of player they’re going to see?
A: A guy who’s relentless, and is definitely going to produce and be productive — and not going to take any [garbage] from nobody out there.