JOHN SCHNEIDER: On behalf of Jody Allen and Chuck, everyone in the building, we want to welcome Jadarian and let him know how excited everybody is to have him here and welcome him to our family.
It's a great organization, and yeah, just really excited for everybody in the building, everybody that's going to help you out through your career here.
Q. Jadarian, did you just pick No. 8 because that was one of the numbers available, or is there some significance to that number for you?
JADARIAN PRICE: It was multiple factors, one of the numbers available, but also I wanted a little change, new chapter in my life. Haven't done single digits since I was like in little league, so I thought a little change would be nice.
Q. At what point did everything start sinking in for you?
JADARIAN PRICE: The person I am, as soon as something good happens, I'm like, okay, on to the next, how can I get better from this point on. It didn't sink in until a couple days after I had the draft parties and that stuff. When I'm sitting down and meeting with Coach and going over the playbook, it's like, okay, it's the real deal now.
Q. Mike, why did you smile when you heard him say that?
MIKE MACDONALD: This is such a great time of year with new faces, draft picks, rookie camp this week. Just a lot of excitement with the new team, and this is what really what kicks it all off.
Q. Jadarian, to join the Super Bowl champs, a team that loves to run the football, how special is this opportunity in Seattle?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, I'm just blessed to be here in Seattle, part of a winning program, winning culture. Just coming into a locker room and being able to compete, and coming from a culture like Notre Dame and you're being taught so many things, and the habits I created will translate to the NFL level, so that'll help.
But I'm just blessed to be in the position that I am.
Q. John joked about Jadarian Price Day, but there actually is a Jadarian Price Day, January 20th in Denison; is that right?
JADARIAN PRICE: That's true.
Q. How did that come about? Did you ever expect to have a day named after yourself?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, so the mayor of my town, he called me like a week before, and he's like, hey, we're trying to figure out when we're going to get a day for you. I'm like, I don't think I need a day. It's not that serious. But everyone was like, no, you need a day.
It was a random Tuesday during combine prep, I drove down from Dallas down to my hometown, and they did the little ceremony. It was cool. They took some pictures and I got a little plaque, so it's nice.
Q. What's it like seeing rookie classes kind of these early days forming whatever bond they're going to form?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it's a great point. We had such a great rookie class last year. That was really one of the catalysts for the team coming together. To start that process over again, I'm just fired up to meet the guys, see how they get along.
But it's going to take on like a new life form in itself. I think one of the things we do here that's kind of cool is we don't force it. We let them -- give them some air to breathe to figure out their own journey and how that meshes with the vets. That's why we go through the whole process.
But that's what makes this so exciting, because you don't know what's going to happen, how it's going to come together. Somehow it'll come together one way or another.
Q. Jadarian, what is Denison, Texas, like? What was it like growing up there, and how do you feel like it shaped you?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, Denison is a big football town. Not many people know this, but it's the longest running rivalry between our rival Sherman, Texas, in all of the state of Texas. Yeah, just being a part of that program and -- I don't know how much you know about Texas high school football, but they put a lot of money and effort into getting guys to the next level. I had a great support system. I have a huge family, extended family and friends and coaches who supported me and got me to where I am today.
Q. What was the year like when you had the achilles injury and had to miss a lot of time, and how did you grow from that?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, I early enrolled to Notre Dame in that spring, had a great spring ball, was battling for the starting job actually, and then unfortunately I tore my achilles that summer in OTAs. Just had to find a new passion outside of football, even though I wasn't on the field as much, and I started lifting weights more.
I got bigger, toned up my frame, and once I got on the field and got healthy, I haven't gone back since.
Q. You mentioned through the Zoom call that you had with Thomas Hammock, what specifically stood out from that interview, how you guys were able to connect, how you were able to hit it off, and how much the fact that he coached against you, how much did that help from that standpoint?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: He didn't stop letting him know. We're like, we get it, you guys beat Notre Dame. We get it.
JADARIAN PRICE: On that point, all three times that I've met with Coach, he has mentioned that game, and he hits me with the, hey, if I was coaching you and you ran the ball a little bit more, maybe y'all would have beat us. But that's in the past. You live and you learn.
But no, he's a great coach, and I'm excited to play for him.
Q. Jadarian, you talked about your support system. What inspiration do you get from your mom and your two sisters?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, I get a lot of support from my mom. Single mother most of her life, and raised three kids at a young age. Obviously she overcame breast cancer when I was pretty young, so I had to mature and take care of my younger sisters.
But watching her go through that, the chemotherapy, all that, and still overcome that, I felt like I can overcome anything, like you mentioned earlier, the achilles injury. There's nothing that can set me back that I can't overcome.
Q. What's the last week been like for you, settling into what's next for you? Did anyone in particular reach out of note that you got taken aback by, any teammates or anything like that?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, it was really nice hearing from some of the teammates. I know some of these guys got so much going on, and they've got their own off-season program to worry about, but to reach out to me with open arms, like God any questions, things like that, guys like Cooper Kupp I think of off the bat. I really appreciate that, and that just goes to show I'm coming into a winning culture, so I'm excited.
Q. You've got guys that want to prove themselves and make an impression, but what do you want them to take out of rookie mini-camp? What's reasonable?
MIKE MACDONALD: Well, it's multifaceted. With the guys that we know are going to be here, we definitely want them -- this is an introduction to how we do things here in Seattle. Such a great opportunity to see some of the tryout guys, as well. We have a pretty good history of finding some of these players, and when you talk about being 70, 90, 105 people deep, it's going to be needed, whether we want them to stick with us right now or be in the bullpen, so to speak, where they're one of the first guys we call.
I think of guys like Jamie Sheriff that are still with us now. This is a great weekend. You're finally back on the grass. Yeah, a lot of things to be fired up for.
Q. Jadarian, your running backs coach told me outside zone is your love language. What about outside zone do you like? What fits you most?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, I like the options it gives me as a runner, just being able to stretch the defense and puncture, as they say, and just allow the linemen to do what they do and get up to the second level and the double teams.
I really like to see it develop, and I'm pretty good at keeping my shoulders square once I get to the line of scrimmage. I love all the run plays, but it just happens to be -- at Notre Dame we did a lot of mixture of mid zone and outside zone, and that just was what I was pretty good at.
Q. Mike, did you have to project him into your outside zone? Did you see enough at Notre Dame --
MIKE MACDONALD: I don't know. We seen him run a lot of different runs. But you're not really -- I'm not looking at it through the lens of he's run this scheme X amount of times or anything like that. You see the movement, the person, the competitor. That's what our coaches talked about.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: When he talks about puncturing it, you could tell the patience. You can tell him staying on track and then his cut-back abilities. In my opinion it was clearly the best in the draft.
Q. Your whole running back core, it seems like you've got so many different styles with Jadarian and Emmanuel being a bigger guy. How do you assess that whole group?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, we're excited about it. It's a cool group to work with. Thomas is excited to be working with these guys, and we're glad that Thomas is with us, as well.
Q. You've got some time to decide, but rookie talent show, any talents you want to let us know might be coming down the pike?
JADARIAN PRICE: In my free time I'll be thinking about things and practicing.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: I liked how you said in one of your Zooms, I like music, I just can't play music.
JADARIAN PRICE: I wish I could. I just took a couple music classes at Notre Dame.
Q. Jadarian, what are some of the habits you alluded to earlier that you said you built up at Notre Dame that you think will help you have success in the NFL?
JADARIAN PRICE: Just carrying yourself as a professional. I'm not in college anymore, but at Notre Dame you had a rigorous athletic schedule but also academic schedule, so you always had to be on time, take care of your stuff, but also taking care of your body. I really learned my body and how to take care of my body outside of the facility, as well. Yeah, just carrying those habits over.
Q. At what point did you develop a routine that you feel comfortable with in terms of the taking care of your body stuff?
JADARIAN PRICE: I really feel like after the National Championship run. It was a long season, so you really had to get back in the weight room, training room and fine tune different parts of your body. I made a big jump this past season, as you can tell, on my game tape. I really feel like my habits stood out this past season.
Q. John told us about a conversation that your agent had with you maybe a couple years ago about improving as a pass catcher. Can you talk about the growth in that part of your game and what all went into that?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, it really started off in the spring just jumping in line with the receivers and seeing how they really break down, how they keep their arms pumping, the little things that I didn't really notice. I didn't have as many reps in game this past season, but just doing a lot of that in practice and watching so many films of receivers and stuff and continuing to learn this past off-season because it's been a while since I played a football game.
Just having so much time to just watch film and learn has been good.
Q. You talked about how your decision making, your vision is one of the things that stands out about your abilities. Shaun Alexander was an MVP running back here and actually had his vision tested laterally, could see things outside the view. I'm curious with all the testing you've done, have you ever had any vision testing to see if you've got anything going on there?
JADARIAN PRICE: I don't know if I've had any testing, but I'm interested to see if I have some type of something. I don't know.
Q. When did you realize that that was something you had, that you were just special in terms of being able to see what was coming in the hole?
JADARIAN PRICE: It's not something I realized. It's something that coaches I've really trusted told me, hey, you're different in this aspect, and as long as you keep understanding and getting smart in the game of football, you're going to separate yourself from others, so I took that and ran with it.
Q. When it comes to evaluating players, you guys talk a lot about the person, the competitor. In the evaluation of Jadarian, what stood out to you in that aspect?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, just class. When he talks about being a pro, just a classy person, obviously was raised well. I actually felt bad for him during the process, kind of in the background watching all these Zoom calls and everything, how many times he had to answer the question about why he stayed at Notre Dame. The guy is like, there's 32 teams in the National Football League and we asked him several times. I'm sure he had to answer it with all the other clubs, as well, and he just handled it just with ease.
God rest his soul, Ted Thompson would say, this is a class act. This is a classy pro right here. That just really stood out throughout the spring.
Q. Jadarian, you mentioned the football culture in Denison. Did you grow up playing football from the moment you can remember?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, probably from the age of six, tackle football. My cousins put a football in my hands before I could talk.
Q. Jadarian, if people wanted to know what your game is like, what games would you tell them to watch from the 2025 season or 2024?
JADARIAN PRICE: USC both seasons, 2025 and 2024.
Q. Why those games?
JADARIAN PRICE: Because I showed my versatility, what I can do in the run game, pass game and returning ability.
Q. Jadarian, on the way to the end zone, would you rather run through a defender or around a defender and why?
JADARIAN PRICE: Through a defender. Going into the end zone?
Q. Yeah.
JADARIAN PRICE: There's just something about it as a running back. You train all off-season putting all the heavy squats and power and stuff, so why not use that.
Q. When it comes to pass protection for the running back spot, what's important to be good at it, and where do you think you need to improve to be successful at this level?
JADARIAN PRICE: It's all about mentality and will; can you show up to the -- meet them at the line of scrimmage, don't fold back or catch. That's the biggest thing. Use your hands, striking them at the line of scrimmage.
But that comes with preparation. That's how you get more confident, knowing where guys are going to be at, studying the defense, knowing what the O-line is doing. So it really comes with preparation.
Q. How important is that communication with the offensive line, particularly when you're going to these NFL defenses and the complex blitzes you're going to be facing? How important is that aspect for you?
JADARIAN PRICE: Yeah, it's really important. Football takes all 11 guys on the field, so even the receivers got to let you know something is up, corner count or something like that. As long as everyone is clicking on the same page, we'll be good as an offense.
Q. Was there part of your game in college that you feel like you didn't get to show enough of that you do want to show at this next level?
JADARIAN PRICE: I'd probably say catching the ball out of the backfield.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: A special shout-out to all the coaches this weekend, EK and his staff. We have 68 players here this weekend. They're playing in these practices and bringing everybody through. EK is bringing everybody through, his staff getting all the equipment and everything on the field ready, and these guys are working their tails off. As the cool kids say, give him some flowers, give Erik his flowers.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports