(Colledge I don't think has missed a game due to injury in his career. Are you concerned about him?)
I am concerned with Daryn Colledge's situation. I have not made it to the training room yet, but like you stated, Daryn doesn't miss practice very often and he doesn't miss games. We'll have to see where he is and see if he can go at practice tomorrow. I don't have all the information. There was some testing done while we were at practice, so I'll know more this afternoon.
(Is Spitz the next guy in, and how much of a luxury is that to have a guy with so many starts as a fill-in?)
Jason's played a lot of football for us, has been a starter here in the past. So we're very confident in Jason, and also T.J. Lang has also taken reps inside. We feel we're in a good situation from a backup standpoint throughout our whole offensive line.
(Are you just being careful with Matthews with this shin injury?)
Just really trusting the medical staff. They feel that the practice, as far as the pounding of the practice, would only aggravate it further. He will not practice again tomorrow. He will go through the jog-through tomorrow, and then we'll get him ready for Sunday night.
(Are you going to test Pickett out on Sunday and see where he is?)
I hope to have more information about Ryan today. I would think he would definitely be on course to test before Sunday's game. I would like to know no later than tomorrow to see where Ryan is. Just like last week with Cullen Jenkins, when you test them on Friday, you really probably have to wait until Saturday to see how they respond.
(With only two healthy tight ends, does that limit your packages?)
We'll operate just like we always do when it comes to personnel on offense. We'll try to stay as balanced as we can within our personnel groups that we feel give us the best advantage against Dallas. We're obviously not going to be in a whole lot of three tight ends unless Andrew goes. So that's kind of part of the chess match of game-planning throughout the week because we are a multiple-personnel, multiple-formation offense, and that won't change this week. The health of Andrew will factor into that.
(Did you feel Quarless got your message yesterday?)
What message was that?
(You said he had to get out there to have a shot at playing.)
What I said yesterday was Andrew is a young player. He needs the preparation to be ready to play in the game. We're going to play the healthiest and most prepared 45, especially when it comes to younger players. If you have a player that's played 100 games here, I think you have a lot more flexibility and confidence in that individual missing maybe Wednesday, Thursday practice. Andrew is still relatively young, and it's important for him or any of those young guys to practice the particular things that we're going to ask for them to do. Because when you play a role on offense, defense or special teams, there's usually things that are in the plan specific for you. I think you have to be cognizant of that, and we are. I was not trying to send him a message about his health situation. If they're healthy, they play. If they're not healthy, they go down. That's the way we operate.
(When you had Spencer Havner in here the other day, is he a ways away with that hamstring or is he potentially somebody you could bring back?)
I had an opportunity to speak with Spencer. He's never had a hamstring injury, so I'm not sure that everybody totally has their hands around how far away he is.
