HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024
(On an injury update for WR Christian Kirk) “Had surgery this morning, so he’s done. Yeah,
unfortunate. Trying to make play late. Landed on it. Linebacker fell on him. Yeah. Tough.
Tough for him. Tough for us, but he’ll pull through and he’ll be better.”
(On an injury update for WR Brian Thomas Jr.) “He’s just got a little contusion on the left
side of his chest. It’s going to be sore. It’s kind of a day-to-day thing.”
(On if Thomas Jr. is expected to be available for Week 9 vs. Philadelphia) “Yeah, I think it’s
more about how much he can tolerate.”
(On other injury updates) “Gabe [WR Gabe Davis] should be fine. Again, it was just the
shoulder. He just lost some feeling in there and we were just kind of waiting for that to
come back a little bit during the game. Sometimes those are funny things but should be
fine. Ezra [OL Ezra Cleveland], ankle. He will be probably, as of today, probably day-to-day
going into the weekend. Scherff [OL Brandon Scherff] came back. Scherff’s going to be
sore. Tough guy. Battled. Came back, finished the game. Should be okay for this weekend.
Darby [CB Ronald Darby] will be more day-to-day.”
(On WR Parker Washington stepping into his role) “Yeah, I mean, he did some great things
yesterday. He’s a player that has proven that he can do it. So, we have a lot of confidence
moving forward that he can fill that role, fill that spot.”
(On OL Cooper Hodges’ performance Sunday vs. Green Bay) “Yeah, I mean, tough. He plays
right guard, then he has to go into at tight end for PAT, field goal, then he has to go left
guard. He was all over the place. It wasn’t perfect, but if he has to go this week with a week
of preparation, a week of practice, getting all the reps, all that kind of stuff, he’ll be much
better. It was good for him to play just to kind of feel game speed a little bit, and did some
good things, but I think a week of work if that’s the case will do him good.”
(On QB Trevor Lawrence settling into the game and the offense’s slower start) “Yeah, it’s
hard. I mean, gosh, I mean you look at it yesterday. Had a good start, first down, what, a six
to seven-yard completion on first down to Tank [RB Tank Bigsby]? And then two
incompletions. I mean those are just things we’ve got to continue to look at. It’s just that
execution part, right? As coaches making the decisions and the type of calls that we’re
making, and just look at it and make sure we’re doing the right thing there. But again, it took
us into the second quarter against New England to get going, and it took us about to the
14th play of this game to get us going. So that’s something we’ve got to look at and really
make an emphasis of starting like the way we finish. That would be ideal as we move
forward.”
(On if he was pleased with the way the team rallied from a 10-point deficit) “Yeah, I am. I’m
very pleased at how we respond. You don’t want to be down 10, but there’s two weeks in a
row we’ve been down 10, but we’ve responded. The fact that we did what we did at the end
to tie the football game is pretty remarkable considering the amount of injuries we had late
in the game. Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence], I thought did a great job leading the team. The
guys around him, Parker, Tim [WR Tim Jones], Evan [TE Evan Engram], Brenton [TE Brenton
Strange], I mean, they made plays for him too. The offensive line did some good things. So
that part of it was good and now we’ve just, somehow, got to get that to translate to the first
play of the game and then carry on from there.”
(On the defense’s struggles) “It’s just something that as we look at the tape, look at the
personnel, you try to put you try to put a finger on it. Is it the scheme? Is it the execution by
the players? I would say it’s a little of both right now. Look, bottom line is sometimes, and
I’m not saying this is the this is the case, but you don’t want to do too much on the field,
right? You don’t want to take things into your own hands and think you’ve got to do
somebody else—we just ask you to do your job. Coaches coach, players play, all that. But
just do your job and we’ll be fine. When you see the good out there, that’s what’s
happening. All 11 are playing as one. But sometimes every now and then you get the one
guy that maybe he’s out of his gap or does something a little bit different or forgot an
assignment or something like that, and it hurts us. Those are the things we’re trying to clean
up right now and just making sure we continue to coach. Coach the details, coach the finer
points and try to eliminate some of that.”
(On his level of concern about the pass rush) “Yeah, I mean, obviously you want to affect
the passer, and you go in each week thinking you can. Listen, we’ve got to take a look at it. I
do believe still we’ve got the right guys there. Whether we move them more or bring five-
man pressure, six-man pressures, whatever we’ve got to do to affect the passer, we’ve got
to be able to do that. I know Ryan [Defensive Coordinator Ryan Nielsen] is looking hard at
that, takes a lot of pride in that. It’s an area that we’ve got to improve.”
(On if he will take more of an active role in defensive game planning) “No. Listen, I leave it
up to the experts over there. I’m an offensive guy. I’m going to stay on the offense. I’m going
to help where I can. I can help with personnel and different decisions that way, but as far as
when it comes to scheme and all that, I mean, that’s what they get paid to do and let them
do their jobs.”
(On changing up the personnel on offense) “Well, I mean, I think it changes just for the
nature of the people that are on the field. But yeah, I mean, missing Christian [WR Christian
Kirk] is going to sting a little bit. Obviously, his leadership and the way he’s been playing,
but we’ll see this week where BT is and we know—it’s really you’re just asking Parker to kind
of step into Christian’s spot, and we feel very comfortable there. So, I don’t think there’s
going to be a whole bunch of changes schematically. We just have to put our players in the
best situations, meaning take their strengths and utilize that in the game plan.”
(On if OL Walker Little will be the starting left tackle going forward) “Undecided right now,
but after the first couple series he settled in and did some good things. We’ll see how it
goes this week.”
(On if there was an argument or “words exchanged” between him and OL Cam Robinson
about Robinson not starting) “Did you see one? Well, anytime you have a conversation,
there’s words exchanged. No, that’d be news to me.”
(On S Andrew Wingard’s likelihood of returning this week) “Yeah, I think he’s really close. I
think last week was good for him. He’ll probably be in a better spot this week having gone
through a week of practice. So yeah, I think there’s a good chance.”
(On if he will ease Wingard back to his pre-injury workload) “I think you transition him. He
hasn’t played in games, right? So, I think much like we did Tyson [CB Tyson Campbell] when
he came back, I think you have to transition him slowly to get him back up to speed.”
(On if he’ll have to hold Wingard back) “No, I mean, maybe a little bit. It’s whatever he can
handle. I would say that. Whatever, if he feels like he’s good, we put more on him. If he’s in a
good spot, we keep him right there in a good spot. So, I think it’s also dependent on how he
responds.”
(On if he anticipates elevating a practice squad wide receiver for Sunday’s game at
Philadelphia) “Probably so with Christian’s situation. Yeah.”
(On if calling a timeout with four minutes remaining in the game vs. Green Bay was an
analytics decision to save time) “Yeah, it probably was. I have to refresh my memory. I know
we called one and then I had two left at the end. Yeah, I think at that point we were just
trying to conserve the time as much as we could. So, I just used one right there, if I
remember correctly.”
(On if he reviewed the pre-snap penalty on Green Bay’s field goal) “No comment. Yeah, I
mean, look, it’s been a point of emphasis around league. It’s something that a lot of teams
do. I mean, we just move our line. I didn’t feel like it was abrupt at all. But hey, it gets called
and then you’ve got to coach it a little bit better next time.”
