Q. What do you think about all the coaches praising --
ROY LOPEZ: Goes to show we're a big family, that's something that Coach preaches is team, team, team, family, and building relationships with everybody. You come out here as a player and just try to put -- like Wallow says a thousand times, put your best foot forward. That's what I plan to do every day and my teammates they are out here balling, too. It's fun.
Q. How do you feel about playing against the Packers on the field?
ROY LOPEZ: It's going to be amazing. I'm excited. We're all excited. We can't wait to play somebody else finally and it's Lambeau Field, so you're a little kid, you hear about it, that's cool. But finally able to set foot on it, it's going to be something to kind of take a deep breath.
Q. What have you established so far as far as providing a scout?
ROY LOPEZ: The thing is, I try to come every day and do my job. Whether it's 3-technique, nose guard, hole in the bag, it doesn't matter. Try to give back to my teammates as much as they put into me. The way the old guys have invested in me, I don't know if you guys stay after practice, they are coaching just as much as everybody else. They truly care. They truly worry about us and how we feel.
So you know, just being able to grow with them is probably the biggest thing that I've loved throughout this whole camp.
Q. You've got some creative -- where do you work them out and what have you gotten to build that?
ROY LOPEZ: Yeah, so I'm playing football for a while, so you kind of just pick up some things. But I've had a lot of great D-Line coaches throughout my years. But being able to work with BK, the way he's been able to teach stuff, from him coaching linebackers last year and being aim to watch film and add it to our game. They are a little faster at linebacker, but when you're watching film, you're like, I can do that, we can do that.
So we come out and drill it for hours ask days at a time to a point where we put it on film and we're like, we just did what we saw, so that's cool to see.
But you know, definitely I'll get with BT Jordan out here in Houston. There's definitely been a lot of guys and lot of coaches, a lot of people that have touched me to where I like to add to my game.
Q. Is there a point where you thought, it clicked in the preseason?
ROY LOPEZ: Yeah, we haven't done much. It's been nothing but camp. You've just got to come every day. Every day is a new day. Vets say it. Nobody cares about what you did tomorrow, today is a new day. So that's something I live by throughout camp. Just come every single day with an open, free, new mind and if I did good yesterday, I did bad yesterday, doesn't matter. Today is a new day. That's really it.
Q. How do you feel like your strength has translated to what you've been able to do so far? And your wrestling background, how much as that helped you?
ROY LOPEZ: I definitely encourage everybody to wrestle, defensive lineman, offensive lineman. Wrestling will teach you everything about yourself. My wrestling background I give a lot of credit to it because it's the truth. You push yourself to the limit to where nobody thinks you're going to be able to go to.
So like the state championship, they were in sudden death so you've got to dig deep for those, and you're breathing heavy but you find out who you are. The strength aspect that goes along hand-in-hand with conditioning and when you're tired, you have to be able to perform.
Q. Are there any experience or bad habits you feel like you have to work to get rid of as you transition to a higher level of football?
ROY LOPEZ: No, but like you said, everybody is a good athlete. Everybody is fast and flying all over the place. Everybody is competing. So just being able to do my part, understand what I got to do on this play and get it done.
So I keep saying, the vets, but it's the truth; the way they taught me and brought me up throughout this whole camp is an every day thing, and I can't give them enough credit for mentally and physically just preparation, watching film on the field. You know, just constantly being in my ear, so that's something that has helped me along.
Q. A lot of the D-Line have talked about the rotation, how Lovie Smith takes you guys in, how does that affect your approach and how you approach going in?
ROY LOPEZ: It doesn't change my approach at all. We have a lot of great guys in our room, a lot of great ballplayers that really can play football, so everybody does their job at a high level.
You know, we like to cheer each other on and get excited and we all make plays and that's something we pride ourselves on is work and seeing our individual drills and excitement come out together during team, during one-on-ones and front sevens and just being able to learn off of each other. We see one guy do something, okay, I want to add that to my game. That's something we do in our room.
Q. Justin Britt is also a wrestler. Can you tell a difference guys that have a wrestling background?
ROY LOPEZ: I did not know Justin was a wrestler. I'll talk to him about it. I didn't know that. I'm going to ask him. I haven't talked to him about it.
You dig deep, you find out who you are. When your body's tired and just all you can focus on is how you're breathing and how much you can't do any more, you've do the to dig keep and really talk to yourself and say, okay, I've worked this hard, I've worked this hard and when you stand across the man in front of you, you know you worked harder than he did and so it comes out to show.
Q. What kind of advice are you getting from your dad?
ROY LOPEZ: My dad and my mom, they are my biggest fans. But my dad, when I'm home training, I go out to his practice. I work with his D-Line and we get a lot of drills in. I try to teach them things. My dad impacts me a lot, man. He texts me every day. My dad is a YouTube freak. So he'll stay on YouTube for hours. He don't even listen to headphones, he just play it is in his ear. He'll send me an old-school long or acoustic or he sends me a lot of gospel songs. He's proud of me and I'm proud of him. We have a friendly dad/son/love relationship.
Q. Where on the line do you feel most comfortable?
ROY LOPEZ: I don't feel any sort of way more comfortable in either spot. I just go out there and play ball, read your keys, read the offensive linemen and come out here every day and earn the trust of my teammates and earn the trust of the D-Line and keep growing. I feel like we made great strides and as long as we keep that going, it's going to be a fun season.
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