HEAD COACH DICK JAURON
PM Practice – July 31, 2008
On James Hardy sitting out tonight
Yes, Bud [Carpenter] said it was just precautionary. He had a little hamstring tightening. They stretch before they come out, too, and he was a little bit tight then and they didn't want to take any chances. Hopefully that won't be long, but you never know. You just don't know.
On Ko Simpson's absence tonight
Ko [Simpson] went and had that foot tested, had pictures taken of it and an MRI done to put his mind at ease and our own about it, too. We think we've eliminated any real serious stuff. He'll just work through the soreness. I'm not around him all of the time and I'm not watching him in every drill. It's natural for someone coming off of an injury like that and he's going to be a little tentative for awhile until he gets into and out of a couple games.
On if Simpson's tests came back negative
As far as I know, but I don't know very far on that score because I haven't seen the tests and had the doctors talk to me about or had the doctor talk to me about it.
On why Donte Whitner left practice early
Donte [Whitner] got sick. He apparently got sick on the field once and he thought it got past him, but then he got sick again. Towards the end, we just took him off the field. He's not feeling real good right now.
On if he thinks Angelo Crowell's knee problems could be chronic
It may be. It's the very same thing so we're kind of treating it the same way. Hopefully we can get through this and then have no more reoccurrences.
On practicing in pads for four straight days
I think it's pretty much exactly what we've done in the past. We don't generally, if ever, put them on twice in a day, but we'll go pads almost every day. We may tweak it as we move along, but that's pretty much how we've done it.
On if the offense improved tonight versus the first night practice
It's hard for me to say at this point. Hopefully, everybody's ahead because we're two days removed. Hopefully we're making progress every day. That doesn't necessarily mean that it looks good every day. They're a little bit different every day. Some guys are more banged up or less banged up every day, but I think they're starting to understand how we want to play offensively. We want to pick it up a little bit, actually quite a bit, and we have to score. We just have to score. It's kind of redundant to say it, but I like the guys. I like where it looks like we're headed, but we're just not going to know for awhile until we start playing if we're going to be a team that has a chance. I do know we're better, but again, I don't know what that's going to translate to. We have high hopes.
On having NFL officials at camp for a few days
I love it when they come, and I ask them if they really like it, or if it's just kind of something that they have to do. They really like it. I think one of the best things about it for us is that our guys get to talk to them. You never want that to be adversarial because they're a huge part of our game. They are a part of us and you want there to be conversation, the right kind of conversation, and the officials are open to that, so I think it's really good for our team to get comfortable with them around, how they operate, what they look at and how they look at it.
On the development of Leodis McKelvin
It's just so early and there are just so many things going on in his head. And he's a very, very competitive guy so he looks really good at times and he doesn't look really good at times. He's a real good football player. He plays like he likes the game.
On Hardy adjusting to going over the middle
Well, he's got to catch the ball inside. It doesn't necessarily have to be right in the middle, but at some point he's going to run through the middle of the field and catch the ball near it or on it, in traffic and make plays for us if he's going to be a premier receiver in the National Football League. He definitely has the size to do it. He's got the willingness and he's never shown us that he doesn't. He's working awfully hard at it. It was just disappointing that he couldn't practice tonight. I really thought he was starting to play faster, and that's the big thing in our business. You have to play physical and fast, and he looked like he was starting to get it, so hopefully this won't set him back too far.
