QUARTERBACK TRENT EDWARDS
PM Practice – August 7, 2008
On how much playing time he may see in Saturday's first preseason game
We spoke about it briefly in meetings today, we're going to try and get some of our double digit plays between 10 and 20 plays Saturday. Hopefully we'll move the ball a lot, score some points, and get the ball in the end zone.
On how much work it would take to make him feel comfortable for Saturday
Honestly, the decision is up to the coaches. I'm going to go with what they want me to do. And I ultimately listen to them, and that's what I'm going to do on Saturday, however much they want me to play. Obviously I enjoy being out on the field, I enjoy having the ball in my hands and we'll kind of see what happens on Saturday.
On how different this Saturday will feel compared to a year ago
I remember going into New Orleans last year and going to the SuperDome. It was a surreal feeling putting on my game jersey for the first time, and putting on your game socks and going through the whole game warm up, and facing Drew Brees and facing Deuce McAllister and Marques Colston and those guys. I was pretty nervous, I remember, for warm ups. I don't even think I hit a pass in warm ups, and then I started and played the entire second half, we wound up winning, and Fred Jackson scored a touchdown in that second half. But to answer your question I remember it vividly, I could go on for awhile here about it, but I do remember my first exhibition game.
On celebrating last year's preseason win
I did. I was next to JP [Losman] in the locker room and he said, "you know we have 19 more to go and this one doesn't even count. So I don't know why you're so excited." Because I mean at Stanford we won one game my senior year and I wasn't even healthy for that game, so that was the first time I had won in over too years. So I was just excited. I think Rian [Lindell] had hit a couple field goals for us so I was celebrating with Rian after the game, too. But that's just the nature of it and the type of person that I am.
On what he wants to accomplish in this first preseason game
I just feel like I need to get comfortable with running this system against another defense, another team with different jerseys, getting comfortable in my environment of calling plays, hearing them in my helmet, working with the play clock, with the refs, and those sorts of things. Just getting back to the game sort of environment is what I want to get used to that on Saturday.
On Coach Schonert wanting to increase the tempo
I think he wants to try it a couple times on Saturday. I think we'll work with it over the four games of the preseason and try to execute it as well as we can in those different tempos. But come the Seattle game we're going to make sure we're all on the same page in that regard, and hopefully we'll be able to practice that here in the preseason.
On Brett Favre being signed with the Jets and being in the division
I'm excited. I've been answering that question a lot also with the fact that I'm excited he's still playing. I didn't want to see him retire, I was sad to see him retire in March, but I was more excited to see him on SportsCenter saying he was going to come back. And I'm just happy to see him under center and playing football again in the National Football League. I'm just happy that I'm alive to witness this, I know I sound like a little kid here talking about it, but, I just respect the way he plays and the person he is. I know I get to see him in person two times this year, too.
On how tonight's final practice went before the first preseason game
It was short and I thought we executed some plays, for the most part, pretty solid. I think we had a couple bad throws here and there, which are normal, which is going to happen. A couple new plays here that we're working on, but I was happy, I was pleased, but still some things that are going to stick out in my mind that we're going to need to fix by Saturday.
