Reggie Wayne Talks His Bond With T.Y. Hilton

INDIANAPOLIS – With a short week last week, Reggie Wayne did not appear on his weekly radio show.

The 14-year veteran was back on it this Tuesday though for a more in-depth conversation.

On WNDE, Wayne talked his relationship with T.Y. Hilton, the play of Pat McAfee, the retirement of Pat Angerer and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Here are some of the highlights from Wayne joining Query and Schultz:

On T.Y. Hilton and the relationship he has with Wayne:

“He has that playmaking ability and he was able to show that Thursday night.

“T.Y. comes and he’s always asking questions. He asks, ‘What do you think I should of done there? Should have I gone inside or should have I gone outside?’ That’s the way you learn. That’s the way I was with Marvin Harrison. I would ask him things what I could do to run this particular route better. Whenever you have a guy that’s played a little longer I think you should use that. T.Y., he’s taken advantage of that opportunity. He’s asked me a lot of questions in his three years. He’s a true professional already. He’s a student of the game. He takes a lot of notes. He asks questions in meetings and you don’t see a lot of young guys that do that. He’s a guy that really wants to be good and whenever you see a guy that wants to be good, you want to do everything you can to help. At one point in time, I used to say in his rookie year, ‘You might want to think about doing this or doing that.’ Now I don’t have to do that much. He has that experience under his belt. He knows defenses. He understands his role. If we are talking anything football, it’s probably a question he comes and asks me and it’s probably pretty minor.”

On the first quarter against the Texans and if he remembers a time when the Colts had an opening quarter like that:

“That’s a good question. I’ve got a lot of games under my belt in 14 years (laughs). I don’t think there’s any to be honest with you. We were hitting on all cylinders. We went out and scored fast, had a surprise onside that worked and were able to take that turnover and score real quick. We saw early that things were going to be all right for us and that’s kind of the way it goes. I really believe that football is a game of momentum and it seemed like everything we dialed up was the right choice. We need to figure out a way to just continue to ride that wave, even though we know it’s going to be tough.”

On the play of Pat McAfee and special teams in 2014:

“I believe he’s changing the whole mindset of the way team’s think of that. If you look at what he’s already done this season, and the way he’s punting the ball, he’s punting the ball outstanding. He’s doing things that we aren’t really used to seeing on the special teams side as far as the Indianapolis Colts. He’s definitely become a weapon for us. He can make any kick that you can ask him.

“You’ve got a Hall of Famer in Adam Vinatieri always in his ear and I think Pat has taken his game to a whole ‘nother level. I think he’s realized how good he can be. He’s playing phenomenal.”

On Pat Angerer retiring from the NFL:

“Pat was a feisty guy. He was kind of an undersized guy. It was funny because he always played with a little chip on his shoulder and he brought a lot of energy to that locker room, to that team. I saw he shut it down and retired due to injuries and things like that. That just makes you realize that Pat was a young player and it seemed like he was doing so well, but the injuries kind of took over and forced him to retire.

“I enjoyed Pat. He was a great teammate, a great person. We spent a lot of time together laughing. Unfortunately a lot of that time was in the training room, getting healthy but that’s the way it is. We call the training room, the “barbershop.” Everybody is going to be in the barbershop trying to get back to 100 percent as close as they can and we had a lot of laughs in that training room.”

On the Bengals:

“They are always right in the mix, especially the last few years since they got the quarterback in Andy Dalton. He’s really had them in the fold of the AFC race. At one point in time in my career, you kind of looked at Cincinnati and figured, alright they are going to be one of the bottom echelon teams in the AFC but now you can’t do that anymore. They are a team that’s going to make you come out and play a good game or they will embarrass you.”


(colts.com)