Q. First of all, how is the knee, what is the timetable for your recovery, and what's your best Devonta Smith story?
LANDON DICKERSON: Timetable for me, you know I'm just taking it day by day right now. Looking to get back as soon as I can and work on competing doing whatever I can to make this team better.
Favorite Devonta Smith story, I may save those for another day. We got plenty of them. Definitely a great dude. I love him to death, and really excited to get to work and play with him.
Q. I don't mean to belabor this, but I want to make sure I have the right information. So you had two ACLs and you've had that tightrope thing on the ankles; is that the case?
LANDON DICKERSON: Yes.
Q. Is there a back thing, too, or is that not correct?
LANDON DICKERSON: That's incorrect.
Q. Okay. Just the ankles and the knees. Obviously it's a question, how durable you're going to be. What's your answer to that?
LANDON DICKERSON: My answer is I'm going to give everything I got to the city of Philly and my team and I'm going to work every day. That is my goal.
Q. What have doctors told you, you're fine now, this is all over? What have they said? I'm sure you wondering about it having had that happen to you.
LANDON DICKERSON: I don't wonder about it because I don't let other people dictate what I can do. Like I said before, my goal is to work every day and try to become the best player I can and make this team the best possible no matter what role I serve.
Q. Congratulations. I just wondered how your conversations went with the Eagles in the pre-draft process? How often did you talk to them? Do you have the ability to play guard as well? Have you played that at Florida State or Alabama?
LANDON DICKERSON: Yeah, so I talked to the Eagles a couple times before the draft. I have on tape I've started all five positions on the offensive line. Like I said before, my role is whatever coach thinks, whatever position I need to be in to make the team better, that is the position I'm going to serve no matter where it is on the offensive line, where it is on the depth chart or anything.
Q. Did you have a chance to meet with offensive line Coach Jeff Stoutland, and what was that interaction like? Do you have any idea if you're going to play that guard or center?
LANDON DICKERSON: Talked about Coach Stoutland in the pre-draft process. We had good meetings throughout that. I love Coach Stoutland. He's got an Alabama background. Great dude. I look forward to getting coached by him.
Kind of the same thing I said earlier: My role is to do whatever I can to make this team better no matter what is -- no matter what position. Wherever coach thinks I can serve the best and make this team better, that's my goal.
Q. Obviously you're versatile and you have played a bunch of positions. What do you like about each of those positions the you've played, and what about your skillset length itself to those positions?
LANDON DICKERSON: What I like about those positions is I was in those positions because that's where I could help the team the most at that point in time. I'm in this to make the Eagles the best team possible. Again, no matter what I can do, that's my ultimate goal.
Q. Question is, I mean, obviously you're coming to an Eagles situation where they have Jason Kelce at center, Brandon Brooks at right guard. As a guy coming in, what is it like to be able to learn from those guys who obviously have made several pro bowls, been around the league and know what they're doing, be able to learn from them?
LANDON DICKERSON: It's a tremendous opportunity. Both of them are extremely talented players, extremely experienced, and I'm really looking forward to being able to talk with them and, one, learn what the NFL is going to be like for me and learn more about offensive line play.
Two amazing players, and I can't tell you how appreciative I am to be able to learn from these guys.
Q. Wanted to ask you about the outdoor makeshift gym that you put together during the pandemic. How did it come about? Can we see it from where you're sitting right now? And what did the players think of the concept of what you did?
LANDON DICKERSON: The gym was actually temporary. I'm standing in the carport right now where it was, but it was temporary for the pandemic. You know, the reason it came up was obviously everybody got sent home, went into quarantine, businesses shutdown, the facility was shut down.
Springtime is time for guys to develop, get better, and I wanted to create an opportunity for anybody on the team that was staying here in Tuscaloosa or if they were coming back for some reason to have a place to work out to be able to get better and make the team better.
That was the biggest thing, is providing guys that opportunity. So that was really where it came from. It was out of necessity. We didn't have the ability to go work out at our facility, so I wanted to give the guys a place to come work out.
Q. All the run-ups on you talk about your leadership ability, and we saw how much it meant to your teammates when you went into the National Championship for the last snap. How would you describe your leadership style?
LANDON DICKERSON: You know, it's really -- you can call it leadership or however you want. I care for every guy I play with. I love being a part of a team, especially a football team. Everybody at this level has a mindset that not only do they want to be the best athlete, player they can be, but we also want to be to create the best team, a winning team.
So that's the biggest thing. I just care for my teammates. I love each and every one of them because we're a select group of guys coming to work every day knowing we want to get better. That's the biggest thing for me. No matter who it was, I loved every single guy on that team and I'm gone love every single guy in Philly.
Q. I saw a video of you and Mac Jones doing an interview, and you're in the background doing some incredible acrobatic side flips. That looked hard for anyone, let alone someone your size. How did you realize you could do something like that, and what does that say about your athleticism?
LANDON DICKERSON: Well, those acrobatics are called cartwheels, and for me, I have a gymnastics background, so I did that for quite a few years. When I was younger I tumbled a lot. It was just something I was told that I wasn't allowed to do drills at pro day, so I was just trying to find a way to mess with Mac. Mac is one of my good friends and we always mess with each other in interviews, just it was kind of going back and forth with him.
Q. As a follow up to those cartwheels, what do they say about where you are in your recovery that you're able to do that?
LANDON DICKERSON: So my recovery is right where I want it to be. We don't have an exact time frame. My ultimate goal is to be able to do whatever I can to make the team better no matter what stage I'm at this summer or when we get into the season.
I want to be able to compete, be at practice, by the start of the season but obviously things may change. Right now I'm right on schedule with where I want to be.
Q. Congratulations. You mentioned your versatility in the past; played all five different positions going back to Florida State; finished up at center. When you made that move, do you take a look at players like Jason Kelce or any other NFL centers to get a better feel for the position?
LANDON DICKERSON: Absolutely. So, I mean, a lot of times, especially during the week leading up to games, pre-season, we watch a lot of film on NFL guys because they're elite athletes.
So for me, watching really any offensive lineman, that's the biggest thing for me. I want to see what these guys are doing when they play, what makes them great players.
Q. With the injuries you've suffered in college, do you anticipate any cumulative effects going forward into your NFL career?
LANDON DICKERSON: I do not because I come to work and I want to compete every day. I don't let the past bother me. What's in the past is in the past. You can't change it. Just got to live with it and move on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports