Tuesday, August 27, 2019
(Opening Statement) “That’s a good break for us, [Quincy Williams returning to practice] and we’re on schedule with him being out there. And then obviously DJ [Chark] was out there, [Leonard] Wester was out there. Geoff Swaim’s out there, so those guys are good. And then we’re making decisions now. Obviously, they’ll be players that aren’t going to play, but we’re trying to make a good decision because we’re probably going to have a real hard type of workout for the guys that aren’t playing. We’re just trying to figure out what we’re going to need to play, and the guys that we need to work out, and then the guys who are a little bit injured and banged up. So, that’s still a process of what we’re going through.”
(On if Quincy Williams will get playing time on Thursday) “We just got him out here today, so we’re going to go back in [and] we’re going to look at it and see what’s going on. It’s a catch-22. There’s a big part of me that says, ‘Hey, I want him to do that. I want him to go through the pregame. I want him to get out there just to get a feel, because he hasn’t been out there.’ Then there’s another part of me that says, ‘Hey listen, if he looks really good, and he’s ready to roll, and he looks like he was before, do I want to put him out there and play?’ Those are the tough calls. I think eventually it’s going to come down to my plate, but I just want to get all the information from everybody else first. So, I don’t really know yet.”
(On the progress Dontavius Russell has shown in the preseason) “It’s such a different game for those guys, meaning that, like I’ve said before, the one thing I’m learning over the last couple of years, offensive line and defensive line, because the way the game’s played in college and it’s so much spread, and they’re reading, and there’s zone reads and everything, that all of a sudden now you have 21 personnel in the NFL and you have a quarterback and two [running] backs. Now their hands are in the dirt and they’re going, and you don’t have that consistency that you need from a down basis. But I do see this out of Dontavius—he’s strong as hell. He has a hell of an anchor. He has the ability to come off of ball and knock people back. That’s what we’re looking to get more from him, as well as everyone else up there. He has the ability to play in this league.”
(On how Marqise Lee has looked since returning to practice) “Good. I talked to Marqise and I said, ‘Hey, how do you feel?’ Because a lot of times you really can’t tell as the coach. I thought in the beginning it was normal, getting back into it, and then he started to really come along really well, so now it’s kind of out of my realm whether he’s doing well or not. So, I kind of asked him, I’m like, ‘How are you doing?’ and he’s like, ‘Well, I’m just a little bit rusty. I’m shaking it off.’ So, he’s the one that told me where he was at and it’s kind of the same thing. You miss once, I know. You miss twice, your coach knows. You miss three times, the whole world knows. And I think it’s now him and his coach know where he’s rusty, where for me it looks pretty good.”
(On how he feels about the right guard position and if A.J. Cann or Will Richardson Jr. will play against Atlanta) “It’s the same thing. I don’t think I need to put them in the game to figure it out. I think I have enough practices left to do that. I think we are going to see where we are. I think a lot goes into play in terms of what the full team is and there are other factors that go in. The backups, who are the seven [offensive linemen that are active]? We are going to take a look at that, but I’m happy with where both guys are. I think both guys have played better than they have previously, which is a good thing. I think it is a tough decision. I don’t know if one guy is going to be the starter and that is it. I have platooned players before a couple series. We have seen that around the league. I think those are the decisions that we will make going up to the first game.”
(On how Gardner Minshew has continued to develop) “I think we would really like him to show us more in the game. There have been times where you sit back and you feel good with the progression and you’re like, ‘Hey, we feel comfortable. He’s coming along.’ Then all of a sudden you have a game and it’s kind of a setback. You are like, ‘What happened? That is not what we have seen during the week.’ We want to see him do well. We are going to play him, I can tell you that.”
(On if there is a position battle that stands out as tighter than the rest) “I think we’ve got a lot to figure out just from an injury standpoint with the tight end position. I think that guard has been well documented. I think some of the pass rushing waves that we are talking about, we have taken a good look at. I still think there are a couple things special team wise as far as the 22, the 23, 24, 25, because there aren’t just 22 starters. There are more than that. I think we are still working our way through that. It is still a work in progress as we go on through the game plan to figure out what the best personnel is for us to play with.”
(On how Lerentee McCray has looked) “He has been hurt, his ankle. He’s back and we will get him back going and see where he is. He’s always been a solid special teams player and someone if we need to throw in the waves …. I think we will just see where he is at.”
(On his approach to the preseason) “It’s been really different. But it’s a difference where when you look at things of what’s gone on in the past, and what happens to the team, and you take all of this information that—January, February, March, April, before the players come, you’re going to get all of this information and you’re going to say to yourself, ‘OK, what’s the best way to prepare this football team.’ Another football team, you may prepare them a different way. So, I went back and again, science, research, all that crap, and you look at it and say, ‘OK, where are we at?’ If we go through the season, and stay healthy and play well, you’re going to look back and say, ‘Shit, that was a great thing, that was smart to do.’ If you have the same amount of injuries, then you know it wasn’t the right way, but at least it’s not the same of what you did before and you have those injuries where you come out and you say, ‘Well I was just hoping that we’d do better just by circumstance, just because it is.’ And I think that was my thought process going into it. But make no mistake about it, and it’s the same thing that I thought people were confused about early on. It’s a different approach as far as what we’re doing maybe as a padded practice, or this practice, or that, but we’ve gotten more plays in. People don’t know that. So, we’ve had more plays in with our starters. We might not have more plays in with the total team, but with the guys that we’re relying on playing with, they’ve had more plays, they’ve worked more route combinations. So, we’ve put in a lot of work. It’s not that we’ve backed off the work. I would like to think that we were much smarter on how we did the work, and now we’ll see if we can go ahead out there and perform, because that’s really what the test is.”
