COACH DICK JAURON
Practice-8/19/07
On practice today…
It was good to get back to work today. We have a lot of work to do. We spent a lot of time working on the mistakes we made on Friday night, and we made a lot of mistakes and the penalties. And talking about the penalties, we have to iron those things out. And if we do that, then we've got a chance. It's hard to win games making that many mistakes and having that many penalties assessed against us. We're excited about this week. We'll work hard, and we'll get back to it. We'll break camp, and I know the players are looking forward to that. I know it's been a long camp, but we're a very young team. And we had a lot of things we needed to work on. The game this week will be an interesting one, but we've got plenty of work to do before that too. Anyway, it was nice to get back at it.
On Ryan Denney's injury…
Ryan Denney unfortunately will be operated on tomorrow. We don't know how long that will be, but he's not going to be back real soon. And that's a blow. He's a very good football player for us, not only on defense but on special teams. Those things are painful- for him, for us. Hopefully we'll fix it, and he'll be back as soon as he can.
On the defensive line rotation and Denney's injury…
I think that will pretty much take care of it self through camp, through the competition. Obviously C.J. [Ah You] and Eric [Powell] have been playing a good deal. Ryan Neill has been playing a good deal. They'll rotate, and they'll get more snaps now. But it's a problem, and we'll keep looking everywhere we can- inside our organization- the guys we just talked about and outside too and see where it goes…I don't want to shed a bad light on those guys. I really like those guys. They work hard. I don't think the answer will change. They will get more reps, and we'll keep our eyes open. We always do anyway with any position. But clearly we've got some issues here. It was a position that we thought was one of the strengths of our team, and suddenly we're in a little bit of trouble. We're counting on some guys that we're really going to have to push to make our team, and we may be counting on them, which is fine, if they play up to the level we need them at.
On the running back competition to make the team…
It'll be a tough decision. I like that whole group, and Josh [Scobey] hasn't even gotten the chance to get involved there or on special teams yet. It'll be an interesting battle to see where it goes. It's always interesting to see the numbers, how they work out because they're never fixed in stone. The guys play themselves into the numbers or play the numbers up at a position by performing well.
On Chris Kelsay and Aaron Schobel…
At this point, I would say that the odds are that they would get more snaps- how many more is uncertain. We do believe in having fresh guys in there, so we've got to rotate. But it's clear that from a position of strength, now there's some questions there. Maybe these guys that we talked about earlier, particularly the three guys that we have, they'll play themselves right in there. So we're comfortable with the numbers we like to get.
On Coy Wire playing LB…
I didn't think last year that when we made [the change] he performed badly. I thought he performed pretty well right away. I really like Coy Wire- tremendous teammate, really an outstanding special teams player, and a really good defensive linebacker. And he seems to be getting better. And we can clearly play him at safety if we run into a problem. We're just really happy with what Coy's done and how he goes about doing it.
On Eric Powell…
Hard-workng guy. He's worked his way on the practice squad, earned a spot on the team, do anything you ask him to do, play special teams, which is a big bonus for a big man to be able to play on particularly the coverage team. Good attitude guy… If you're on the practice squad, you better be learning it fast, and you're working so hard. And you're in all the meetings. And Bill's [Kollar} a terrific teacher, so you'd better learn or you're showing us that you don't want to be here, that you don't deserve to be here.
On looking outside the organization...
It wouldn't bother us if it was multiple spots. And it's not unusual. This is what we do. We certainly watch the waiver wires everyday at every position. We watch everybody's team. That's what our personnel people do. So anybody that was of interest to us that we thought would help our football team in any position, we start brainstorming if we can get him, how we can get him, what's his position, what are they going to do with him there, where we think it's going. So it goes on all the time. We don't really care. Obviously if a guy can play both.
