COACH DICK JAURON
Practice – September 2, 2007
On the decision to make Brad Butler a starter and how it affected others…
We'll put him there and again, nothing against those guys. They did a nice job, but you've got to make decisions and that's the one we thought was the best.
On Butler not having time to play with Langston Walker and if it's a taller order for Butler to take on…
I don't know that it's a taller order, but you know it's not going to be easy. It's never easy to play in this League, but I have confidence he'll get it done.
On Keith Ellison…
Keith [Ellison] has a dreaded high ankle, so it's not good. It's not good for us. It's going to be a while. How long? I don't know and I don't know how anybody predicts those (injury times).
On releasing Mike Schneck and keeping Ryan Neill…
The long snapper is so critical to you. Ryan Neill can get us out of the game in an emergency but we don't anticipate that in our (DE) rotation. His primary job is to snap the ball and we'd like it to kind of stay that way. But he goes to defensive line meetings, he practices with them and he obviously played a lot in preseason. But now that the decision has been made, he'll help us in an emergency and this may be an emergency. I'm not saying it isn't. That's the way we think about him and our long snapper in general.
On the depth at offensive tackle…
Again, nothing against Terrance [Pennington} but we are just trying to keep the 53- what we thought were the best guys. Kirk's [Chambers] really done a nice job in preseason and all through camp. He becomes our third and of course Brad's (Butler) got a little bit of experience out there at tackle in case we need to swing out. Actually [Derrick] Dockery's played a little tackle in his career if we need him to go out there. We feel okay.
On how impressed he was with George Wilson…
You'd say he was really a long shot. George is a good football player. He's a tough guy. He's a tough receiver. Everything he does, he does all out. Cover kicks, block for kicks, block on returns, play defense and is a quality guy. It was a long shot. He did a great job and he certainly earned it. He certainly earned the right to be here. I'm really happy for him and I'm happy for us too.
On Trent Edwards being named the backup…
I've definitely been impressed. From the very beginning, we kind of started talking about this in OTA's, about him because he looked good on the field. He looked good to you, he looked good to us. He was accurate. He's getting smarter all the time. Right now, he can make some errors in reads but he fits the ball in somehow and that's not a good thing. We're not saying it's a positive that he makes those errors, but it is positive that he completes the passes. We just have to keep working with him. He's got to keep improving all the time. There's pressure on him. There's pressure on that position, lots of pressure on both of those guys.
On his confidence in Edwards…
Once again, I think like everybody that's here right now, he's earned it. He's earned our respect. He's earned our belief that he will execute at a high level and help us win football games if he has to.
