Redwine confident going into 2nd year
MIAMI — As a rookie with the Cleveland Browns, former Miami Hurricanes safety Sheldrick Redwine got to start five games and contribute on special teams after he was taken in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL draft.
Amid an offseason in which the novel coronavirus affected players’ ability to adequately work out, Redwine has remained in shape through a gym he had built in his house. Coming up with 35 tackles and two pass deflections as a rookie, the UM and Miami Killian High product is looking to build off of what he learned from his first professional season and first experience away from home.
“Last season, I felt like I was just scratching the surface,” Redwine said from Jackson South Medical Center on Tuesday, where he delivered pizza from Papa John’s to frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In college, I didn’t really understand the importance of taking care of your body. In the NFL, every day you see the top players. I’m looking at Jarvis [Landry], Odell [Beckham Jr.] constantly in the training room, getting their bodies worked on. Going to their house, they’re going home and they’re getting more work done.”
Redwine got his five starts last year toward the end of the season. He now has a new group of safeties he’ll compete with in training camp for playing time after the Browns drafted LSU’s Grant Delpit in the second round and signed free agents Karl Joseph and Andrew Sendejo.
An eye-opening experience for Redwine as a rookie was finding out how much hostility his professional teammates have toward his alma mater.
“I love it,” he the NFL, you said. “Getting to see how many people hate Miami. People are always asking me what Miami did. It’ll be tough for me to tell them when we lost, but when we win I’m always the first one to let everybody know.”
In Cleveland, Redwine has backup when trash talk comes his way. The Browns also have defensive ends Olivier Vernon and Chad Thomas, tight end David Njoku and linebacker Jermaine Grace out of Miami.
“We’ll be in arguments all the time,” Redwine said. “We always argue about Miami versus everybody else. That’s really how it is: Miami versus everybody else.”
After the Hurricanes went 6-7 last season, Redwine thinks he’ll be able to talk about his alma mater winning a bit more in Manny Diaz’s second season as head coach. Redwine played under Diaz during his tenure as defensive coordinator.
“I know Coach Diaz — he’s always been a winner,” Redwine said. “I know how serious he is about his craft. I know he’s going to do everything possible to make sure he wins.”
Redwine went out to a spring practice and was impressed with grad transfer quarterback D’Eriq King.
“I seen elite instantly,” he said. “That was the first time I seen, in a while, a Miami quarterback go through an entire read and come back to an initial read and still hit a backside [route] in stride. Just seeing that, and I feel like he’s really bringing that leading presence that they need.”
Redwine delivered pizza to Jackson South on Tuesday as one of his first initiatives since starting the Gloria Redwine Foundation, named after his great grandmother.
“The frontline workers, they’re so important,” Sheldrick said. “They’re in there grinding. They’re telling us how Florida hospitals are, how there’s a lot of patients coming in every day, so [we’re] just showing them a little appreciation, letting them know that we’re still thinking about them.”
Redwine started the foundation about a month ago. Among his plans, he wants to teach kids in Miami about financial literacy and get them out of the bubble mindset of their neighborhood. He was inspired by reading several books about psychology, finance and AfricanAmerican history during coronavirus quarantine.
“I feel like there are a lot of kids that have something that interests them, but they don’t know what it is yet,” he said. “They just have to be exposed to it.”
Redwine named the foundation after Gloria, who was there at Jackson South on Tuesday, because of the impact she had on him growing up.
“I’m going to give as much as possible to people,” he said. “I don’t want my name on it. I want her to know you’re the source of this. I’m doing this because this is how you showed me to be.”