August 17, 2021 Opening Statement: “I’m going to start with this, we are going to let Don Muhlbach go. It will be official tomorrow. Look, I have the utmost respect for Don, I played with Don, 17 seasons, 260 games, 37th overall all-time in games played in this League. Dude’s a pro, he’s an even better person. He meant a lot to this organization, always will. He’s always represented it well. He was an outstanding teammate. He was always locked in, a man of his word. I hate it, man. This is the hardest time, especially with a player like him. That’s coming down the wire. I’d be remiss if I didn’t open up with that for him.” On what went into the decision to release LS Don Muhlbach: “I really think that just the best way to put it was, ‘It is time. It’s time.’ I told those guys out there, as weird as this may sound, this doesn’t mean that he was beaten out. (Scott) Daly’s here and he’s still got to compete for a job and he knows that, as does everybody else on this roster, but it was time. Like I say – shoot, man, I wish him the best, he and his family. He’s a stud and I hate that we had to be the ones who do this.” On reemphasizing good decision making to the team after the release of CB Alex Brown: “We talked about this yesterday morning as a team. It was an awful incident, awful accident. It’s something certainly that we don’t condone and we brought it up because it is one of those eye openers. It’s not OK to jump in a car after you drink because bad things happen. That’s what Uber’s out there for. Don’t even take your car when you know when you’re going out, just Uber. Uber to go out there, Uber to come home. It’s an awful accident and look man, we’re praying for Charlie (Taumoepeau). It looks like he’s getting out of the woods here, but this is tough. But, yeah, we addressed it. We certainly did and it hits home pretty good.” On if players have a curfew: “We’re not allowed to have curfew anymore, NFL.” On if there is a team hotel and if curfew was removed because of COVID-19: “We have it, but yes that’s right because of COVID we don’t have curfew.” On how he keeps key players on schedule without a curfew: “This is one of the reasons that (Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I have made some of the moves that we have with our player development and (Mental Skills Specialist/Clinician) Dr. (Michelle) Garvin and (Co-Director of Player Engagement) Jessica (Gray), to have the resources available to talk about all of these things and the issues that do pop-up, particularly for young players. This is a young player, a couple of young players. The only way to address it is to talk about it head on. Unfortunately, when something like this happens, hopefully maybe somebody else in that room learned from it. You’ve got to highlight it, you can’t turn away from it and hide from it. You’ve just got to state it for what it is and just let them know that it’s not OK. We’re lucky nobody died is what we are.” On if it is an NFL rule to not have a curfew: “That was the change a couple of years ago or I guess it was last year. You can’t mandate them in the hotel anymore and this was their night off, too. So even if it was, they wouldn’t have a curfew on a night off.” On how he handles adversity as a head coach: “I pray. That’s what I do because that’s the only way you get through stuff like this. That’s what I do. So, I pray and I’ll be ready for practice today. But, yeah, there’s no laughter and giggles right now after those two stories.” On how LS Don Muhlbach handled the news of his release: “Look, Don was outstanding. Of course it was hard, but he was – as he’s done his whole career and anybody that knows him, just like you said, he handled it like a pro. He appreciated that we talked to him, we brought him up there. We sat with him for a while because we wanted this to be the best way that we could – or at least make it as good as you could under the circumstances. We certainly didn’t want it to come out at least something that he didn’t want. There’s no easy way around this, unfortunately, but he handled it well. Of course, he was disappointed. It’s hard. This is all he’s known and he’s been a Detroit Lion for a long time and it’s really a part of him and so it’s not easy. It’s not easy to watch. I know it hurt, but I know he wanted to talk to his wife and his family and kind of go from there.” On if LS Don Muhlbach intends to keep playing: “I think that’s something that I think you would have to talk to him. I think he’s – at least at that moment, he’s kind of looking at everything a little bit. I think that was one of the reasons he wants to talk to his family and just kind of see what’s next for him.” On signing QB Jordan Ta’amu: “That is accurate. (Tim) Boyle has the ankle that he came off of from the game the other day. So, he’s a little banged up. I do think he will be able to play this weekend, but we don’t know that for certain. (David) Blough’s got a little bit of a shoulder that’s been bothering him. Nothing major, but enough to where we – pretty soon, you start putting all of those throws on (Jared) Goff because that’s who is going to end up taking most of it. That’s not what we want either. So, we just felt like we needed to make that move for now.” On if DE Michael Brockers is dealing with an injury: “He’s had a little bit of some things throughout his career and it’s just – it really is getting better, but we are being very conservative with him because he does. He can still play at a high level we believe, but he’s also got a lot of miles on him. We don’t feel like we’re in panic mode with him yet. He’s at the walkthroughs, he’s mentally engaged. We’re trying to be smart about it. I don’t feel like we’re quite there yet where it’s like, ‘Oh, man, is he going to be ready in time?’ I think we’re OK and we’re just trying to be smart.” On if RB D’Andre Swift will practice today: “There again, he got out there and ran around a little bit. Today, we’re going to do a little bit more with him off to the side, do a little walkthrough off to the side and then hopefully we can get him out to practice on Thursday is the plan as long as everything goes well. But he’s trending the right way.” |
