Quarterback Trent Edwards - 8/11

QUARTERBACK TRENT EDWARDS
PM Practice – August 11, 2008
On how he feels about the short week before the next preseason game:
I'm looking at it as a positive, I feel like a lot of the guys in the first group are anxious to get back out there. I know we only had two series last week, but the shorter turnaround means we're going to be playing a little bit sooner here and we're excited to get back up in there in Toronto and playing in front of the Toronto Bills fans and we'll see what we can do.
On what he thinks needs to be worked on:
A lot of different things, lining up in the right formation, throwing to the right receiver, getting out of the huddle on time, not jumping offsides. Those are all things that happened in the first game that we watched this morning in film, and we all have to get better, we all have to improve, and that's kind of the message that Turk (Schonert) displayed to us in this morning's meetings is that there is plays to be made, there are points to be put on the board, it's just a matter of executing, and doing the job.
On whether he would have liked more than 10 snaps on Saturday:
The way I look at it is that there are 19 more games this season. I need to make sure that I am progressing. I feel like I need to be going up on the rollercoaster rather than down the rollercoaster ride and I feel like we started pretty slow, I think that was a low point. Hopefully we won't be back down. Those two series, we didn't accomplish too much, but it's good to get back in the flow and hopefully we can improve on those two series we had against the Redskins.
On making progress while missing players in practice:
I think that with Josh (Reed) and Roscoe (Parrish), we've worked with them. It's nice having James (Hardy) and Steve (Johnson) and the young guys back that I haven't worked with all that much, but I've worked with Roscoe and Josh last year and I know what they can do and I feel a little bit more comfortable with those guys being out, and like I said, we have 19 more games to go, that's a long season, we need those guys to be fresh in November and December, we don't need them burning themselves out this time in camp and hopefully they can help us then.
On the progression of James Hardy:
He's coming around. The thing about James is that, I've said this all along, when he knows the play and knows what he's doing and knows the coverage, he knows the route and he's not tired, he's one of the most talented receivers we have on this team. That's obviously the reason we picked him and he's a big receiver we can go to, but it's just a matter of him understanding the offense and understanding what we're trying to do with this offense and him being in the right position to make that play, and we just need to be able to get him the ball.
On if that's true for all rookies:
Definitely, that's what I went through last year. The Saints preseason game last year, I had just as many mental errors as James had in his first preseason game and that's part of the territory, it's kind of the norm for a rookie to go out there and make those mistakes and that's kind of what the coaches would almost like you to do is to make your mistakes, learn from them and the best rookies are the guys that make those mistakes and don't want to make them again.
On the early long pass to Hardy in practice:
It's a play that's called, where it's only going to work against a certain coverage. It's look deep, hopefully you have the protection, take a couple hitches, and if it's not there, you have to check down. Fortunately, James ran a good route and you just have to get more opportunities like that and get him the ball down the field.
On how many snaps he expects to get Thursday:
I honestly have no idea. I haven't talked to Turk about it, or Coach Jauron or Alex (Van Pelt) about it. I would assume a little bit more playing time this week. Like I said, the biggest issue for me is improving off of last week and that's kind of my biggest thing for this game, is making sure I'm not making the mistakes I made last week, improving and getting better.