Read the full transcript from S Dante Trader Jr.'s media availability on July 31, 2026.

Year two for you, it feels like you're already an established vet out here with how much youth is on this roster. How do you take on that challenge?

Dante Trader Jr.: Just using what I learned last year, especially from the ebb and flows of my season and allowing my teammates to gain knowledge from that experience. If it's anybody in my room or the young rookies that are in there, I've been through similar things. The good, the bad, the ugly, everything. I have a story to help them mitigate their downfalls and their stresses just to alleviate anything I could. So just using that and then on top of the vets I was with last year and this year, using everything I can to help coach up the guys next to me and everywhere in my position group.

Different position but still in the secondary, have you reached out to Chris Johnson at all in that way, or has he sought you out to discuss things?

Dante Trader Jr.: All the time, from football, just schedule, body things, maintenance and sleep schedules and how do you study, everything like that. So I've helped 'CJ' (Chris Johnson) and I've helped (Michael) Taaffe, I've helped all the guys in my room with everything they need and they ask for it because they're really open. They don't have no ego, no pride. They openly ask anything and we love it so we can help him.

What's the biggest piece of advice that you're giving the rookies?

Dante Trader Jr.: Use the talent that you got and that you got here with. I was going with Taaffe, I'm like, bro, you got a lot of instincts. You got a lot of smarts, let it go. Let it go. Don't overprocess, don't overanalyze as smart safeties can do. Just go make plays and y'all see him now. I'm like, that's you. That's the 'Mook' from Texas. Go play and go be that. We're all going to need that type of play all year round.

I think it was like seven takeaways for your defense in the first two days of camp. What is it that you guys have been doing off the field that makes you such ballhawks now when you get out to practice?

Dante Trader Jr.: Just being competitive. When you're competitive and near and all on the right windows, you're going to get takeaways. Whatever you emphasize, you're going to get out there. We have a standard out in the meeting room, we're going to run if we don't get takeaways. We're going to emphasize it every day. We [do] takeaway drills. Like I said, what you emphasize shows up and it's been showing up. And from the start of OTAs where we're X's on the field, hey, we need you to be 10 by 12, top of the numbers. We need you to be 12 by 14 plus one at a hash. When you're there, the ball has to lift, tips and overthrows. That's what you're seeing. You're seeing competitive over routes, dig routes. So the instincts and the guys' playmaking abilities are showing through the roof.

How is Jeff Hafley's defense better suited to put you guys in the right place for those?

Dante Trader Jr.: I would say eyes on quarterback. There's a lot of eyes on quarterback. Who gets paid the most? Who's the most key guy on the field? It's the quarterback. Who's the guy you don't want when you're on your own team to touch? The quarterback. So we're having our eyes on the guy that's going to give us the ball. Just this system alone allows me to play top down everybody on the string. As you see all 11 to the to the ball. We're going to close up the run game with our big guys up front and then our edge pressure on the edge. So just being able to close those lanes and then keep and limit explosive with Cover 3 shells and posts and things like that.

We know Jeff Hafley's background is coaching the secondary. He has his way of coaching that unit. Is there anything technique wise for you that's different in his defense that you're learning out here?

Dante Trader Jr.: I would say DB is DB. Everybody has their own spin, but I'd say just the more attention to detail for every coverage. One thing about him, he's going to have one way on the paper, he's going to look at it, change the call. 'Let's see it on this way. Ah, let's tweak it.' He's changing it all the time to help it suit everybody on the field and whatever's going to make us stop the offense on that on that given day. It's changing every day, so that's really the good part and tough part at the same time.

Speaker 2: Do you feel like you grew in terms of how you watch tape your rookie year to now? Like when you go back after practice and watch, is it easier for you to assess and kind of absorb what you did and didn't do well?

Dante Trader Jr.: Yeah, I'd say now you're not learning playbook and how to play in the NFL. Now it's learning, 'okay, now I can look at formations and quarterbacks and how I'm getting attacked,' versus 'did I line up right? Did I execute this job right?' Now it's just again, like you can see, okay, this being a step wide or step late or when I get two by two reduced, I know I'm going to get this type of action with this backfield alignment when it's a second-and-8. You know what I'm saying? So now you can see all those pictures in the game. You go out there on the field and the next time you look at the sticks, look at the formation, you can process and be easier than versus let me just line up and be correct. You know what I'm saying? That was last year, now I can just process everything that I'm seeing.

I know you did a good job last year with just kind of picking the brains of all the vets. Are you still doing that? I know your leadership role has kind of changed, but are you still finding ways to still improve yourself in the midst of everything?

Dante Trader Jr.: Yeah. This offseason, I was with Jordyn Brooks. Wherever Jordyn Brooks was, I was. I was over at his house every day. We're doing two-a-days, we're training. We had a plan for everything in our game, our techniques, our run fits, our strike and our shed and pulls. When we make plays, we laugh now. It's like 'we've been working on that. We've been doing that.' We've been with each other so he's been giving me the keys to the league. He's All-Pro. He's had advice over the years. He's given me things to help me speed up my process. H's like, 'Hey look, Trade, I wish I knew this year two. I wish I knew this and did this so,' and then you see it on the field. When me and him are not in the right spot, we're demanding it from each other and it's the same vice versa, and you've seen that today on one of those plays.

I think this is the first time we got to see Malik Willis run in practice. What kind of threat can that be when he's capable of doing so?

Dante Trader Jr.: When you have a threat of a quarterback, you extend plays. Covering for three seconds is hard as it is, so imagine covering for six seconds with Malik being able to run and gun it. So now you've seen him, we've got a plaster. We got to work on plaster drills. And even now when you got the Q pulls and the pull reads and read schemes, you're going to need the post safety, you're down one, so that creates a lot of problems for the back end. What are you going to call? So if you call certain calls, run the ball. You got to stack the box and account for certain guys, and then that leaves opportunity for explosives. You got to know where he is and you got to know the scheme of the call if you've got the quarterback technique or anything like that.

It seems like the last three days, you guys do a lot of specific work down and distance, second-and-8, third-and-3, as opposed to just going out there. What does that do for you as a player, situational awareness and that kind of thing?

Dante Trader Jr.: Like I said back in OTAs, Coach Hafley does a great job going part to whole. So in a situation he goes second-and-8 – second-and-8 in the league, that's get back on track. So they didn't get a positive you know run or pass, so they got heavy tendencies of 'we got to get to third-and-manageable or third-and-this.' You get certain type of calls, so when I give the down and distance and the personnel, 'hey it's second-and-8,' we got to be a little ready for it, hunker down on a run. So he's teaching that. So we're going to the field, if guys get a pass call from the sideline, you still got to have a run mindset. You see what I'm saying? So he's teaching us the game through the game, especially like I said part to whole.

Your confidence was pretty good last season. Can your confidence get higher now that you have a year under your belt?

Dante Trader Jr.: Yeah, for sure. I think confidence comes from reps and knowing who you are and what you're capable of and also knowing your weaknesses and doing everything to mitigate that. But ultimately, you got an opportunity and you just got to go get it. Nobody's going to hand you nothing. I've never been handed anything, so I got to go take it. There's competition all around this program, and we're just getting ready to take off from that, so my confidence is here.