Mario Williams insisted Friday he was not angered by Vance Joseph's extraordinarily blunt criticism of Williams' uninspiring first five weeks in a Dolphins uniform.
"He's got to play better, has got to play harder," Joseph said Thursday.
On Friday, Williams basically agreed.
"We're an open book here," Williams said. " ... I want to be more, I guess, free to do different things and cut it loose a little bit. ... And I've got to play faster and play harder ... It starts with me."
Williams has just one sack and seven tackles in 2016 _ well below what the Dolphins had expected when they gave him a two-year contract in March.
Williams added that he "came here to be a piece of the puzzle, to help the defense. ... At the end of the day, me being a veteran and everything, I've got to have more of an impact, create a little more chaos out there practicing and in the games."
When asked directly about Joseph's public criticism, the former first-round pick said: "It motivates me. Because, like I said, all this stuff is being translated in the meeting rooms, on the field, things like that. The way I take it is I just need to be me, be loose, don't be uptight, don't over-analyze every little thing because that only slows me down."
