New Orleans Saints Cornerback Marshon Lattimore
Video Conference With New Orleans Media
Wednesday, September 9, 2020

When you're going into a game like this or any game against elite talent, what is your preparation process I guess mentally and physically?
"I have to win by any means necessary. Big time receivers, I'm a big time corner, so for me and everybody in the room, we just know we got to go out there and battle no matter what so you just got to win. That's all that's on my mind."

With so much time passing between the last time you played a game or even play it against another opponent, just having a matchup like this where you're going against an offense with so many weapons and guys that had such good seasons last year kind of help you get a little more amped up for the season opening?
"Yeah, of course we got dogs over here too. We're not really worried about that. We just got to get our assignment, get our assignment down and just know what we got out there. We got to be smart players but at the same time it's dog vs. dog and we know that. We go in straight in with the killer mentality. We have to win no matter what."

Could you just kind of describe how it's different this year, usually you prepare for a team twice a year and they've been relatively stable and who you're preparing for for a couple years and now all of a sudden they've got a different quarterback and a new tight end and then of course, Mike Evans may or may not play because of his hamstring? How is it different from preparing for this team the last couple of years
"It's Tom Brady, so he's going to have what he likes. He's going to have stuff in there that we haven't seen from Tampa Bay and we know that, everybody knows that. It is Tom Brady. He's going to go to what he likes, he's going to have an offensive coordinator that is going to mesh well (with him), so we just got to be prepared and be ready for anything. We really don't know with him coming from another team, he's going to put some stuff (he liked from New England). We just don't know (completely what to expect). So he's going to go out there and play. What we see, we just got to play it well." 

You've had some pretty good battles with Mike Evans over the years, where would you rank him over the years among the receivers you think?
"I don't rank them, I just try to play hard to win. I'm not sitting there doing rankings. Of course he's near the top of the league through. No ranking. When I go out there I'm going to win, that's all."

"I guess a better question is when you face a receiver you know really well are there thoughts that go through your mind specifically about that matchup or is it just kind of is there something you think about when you think I'm going up against Evans or going up against Julio Jones?
"Of course, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about just the matchups throughout the years. I don't think too much on it. You never know it's probably not the same as it was last year or the year before. I learned that the hard way. Just coming from my rookie year to my second year. I feel like he's a better player than my rookie year. Every year you look get better so you really don't know what the receiver been working on in the offseason or anything. But he could have gotten better in a specific area that he wasn't good in, so you really (have to be) on your toes at corner, you just really don't know and you got to react to everything."

You've played against Tom Brady before, your second game of your NFL career. Does that help you just to know what to expect obviously, despite that he's in a different offensive scheme now, but just playing against him before?
"Kind of, but that was 2017. He's on a new team, new system. So you know his tendencies of course, just from seeing it's Tom Brady. Just from the game, you don't really take too much. Of course, you're going to go back and look at look at film but you just never know what you're going to get just for him being on a new team, you look at tendencies really."

I'm sorry if you've answered this before somewhere else but I was just curious for your take on the piped in crowd noise in the Superdome what you think of it?
"It is what it is. It can't be recreated. The Dome gets loud, you can barely hear it. It's not going to be anything like how it usually is. But no, it's not something that we can control. We just have go out there and play."

What was the reaction seeing Jalen Ramsey's big contract today?
"I knew that was coming. I'm proud of him. I'm not going to talk about me or how I look at the situation. I'm just proud of him. I'm happy for him. They got their money. I still have a whole season to play so of course my play is going to speak for itself, so I'm not going to get too much into the numbers. I'm happy for those guys."

Physically What have you changed over the years, your style of play or have you put on muscle. What have you changed physically in your play?
"I slimmed down. Really try to get more lean, being at corner running. Every play I'm running and chasing the receiver so I just try to get slim and be fast, be as fast and quick as I can. Guarding those receivers, they're getting better every year, quickness.
speed and everything so I just got to match up. So I just slimmed down and of course I added stuff to my game and I'm not going to say you got to look at that on film but yeah I've added some stuff just getting better trying to get better each year, try to figure out what my weaknesses are and trying to correct them basically."

"I'm sure you've prepared for someone and then that guy doesn't play for whatever reason, what's that adjustment like just when happens when you're expecting to play somebody and you might not end up matching up with him?
"Last year we did . I had to go in though, I was coming off injury and he (Julio Jones) got injured, so it was like a gametime decision so it changes from where you aren't guarding him, now you're guarding him. So you have to go in there with the same mentality. That's what I'm trying to really work on. I go against a hard receiver like Julio, I go against him and then I have to go against receiver not so good, I lose focus. I'm trying to stay focused in. Whatever happens happens. I can't control it. So I just got to go out there and do what I do."

You mentioned losing focus. Why do you think that kind of happens a little bit?

It's just a little harder to lock in when it's not an elite receiver?
"Yeah, you know they're not going to throw it out here (as much) and (you) just lose focus. "That's not a good mentality to have. That's what I've had in the past. But no more, I have to go in and lock in every play, no matter what who I'm playing. That was really just my downfall, it wasn't the lack of talent or anything like that. It was just the focus is on the receiver like, because I go against number ones all day, and then when I get, easier receivers like others, I feel like it's going to be a cakewalk and I got to go out there and play like I'm playing against Julio."

In the past, the defense gets a turnover and you go out there with your teammates with the picture pose. Now with no fans, isn't that sort of anticlimactic?
"Everybody took the celebration that we have to run into the end zone and take pictures. Everybody took that (as their own). We have to come back out and do something different. We have to excited everybody back home. There are really no fans, so we have to go out there and really turn it up a little bit and have fun out there. Really the picture, everybody stole it and said it was theirs. They can have it. It is what it is. We're going to come up with something else." 

Is it hard to get excited with something like that with no fans?
"No, if you make a play you get excited. Your teammates are going to excited whether the fans are there or not. That's really being competitive. The competitiveness is going to bring out the run and everything you want to do as far as celebrating."