(Any update on Josh Sitton?)
Josh Sitton has a knee sprain. I would put him in the classification of week-to-week. He will not go this week, and he is working to get ready for Minnesota.
(Is it his MCL?)
It's a knee sprain.
(Will he need surgery?)
No, no surgery.
(Are you optimistic about his chances to be back for Minnesota?)
It's our first time going through with Josh. Any time you get into these ligament sprains a lot of it is based on the severity of it, but also the individual. Once again, you talk to the medical part of it, it could be a couple of weeks. You talk to the player, it could be two days. I know he feels strongly about it, but that's why I put him in the week-to-week category.
(How about Atari Bigby?)
He will not go this week. If it was regular season, I think he could go. He has an ankle sprain.
(James Jones?)
He also has a knee sprain. I would put him the week-to-week category also. He will not go this week. He is focusing on trying to get back for Minnesota.
(Did that turn out to be more severe than it seemed in Denver?)
Yeah, any time you bang your knee like that you think you are dealing with a bruise, but it ended up being a knee sprain.
(Brandon Chillar?)
Brandon Chillar has a low back. I'm hopeful he'll go tomorrow.
(Is Sitton worse than Jones?)
I don't know. It depends on the individual. They are knee sprains, and it's really the first time frankly we have gone through it with James being hurt here. I know talking to both young guys, they are optimistic and say they are going to be back.
(How about Cullen Jenkins?)
He has just got a couple of things going on. He is just kind of beat up right now, so we'll see if he can go tomorrow.
(Johnny Jolly?)
Jolly is a hip flexor still.
(Charles Woodson?)
Knee bruise.
(Do you think you will hold him out Thursday?)
Yeah, I don't know if he'll make it. I don't think he'll make it.
(What are you looking for from the backup quarterbacks on Thursday?)
I think it's important for both of them, I need to get them as many reps as possible and give them some opportunities, not only in the run game, but also in the passing game. I want them both to take a step forward. They'll be in an excellent competing opportunity with the Tennessee Titans coming in here as far as their format for the game, so it will be a great opportunity for a number of our young guys.
(Does Brohm still have the upper hand?)
We're looking to possibly split their time this week. I just want to get as much opportunities for both guys. The plan has been the same all through the preseason. It's just you only have four games of opportunities to get those guys as much work and progress. We know it's a process of getting two young quarterbacks ready, so I just want to give them as much work as I can and try to put them in as many different situations as possible.
(How much work do you want to see Ryan Grant get?)
I want to get through the week of work first. It's his first day back, so we'll see how he progresses through the week.
(Will Brohm still go first after Rodgers?)
Brian would go first, correct.
(How did practice go today?)
I thought the practice was pretty good for 48 hours removed from a game. We were plus-11 minutes as far as our tempo the way we keep track of that, so the pace was good. We had some corrections, which this would fall in the category of a Wednesday practice. We had some mental mistakes and we tried to spread the reps out as much as we could, particularly with the younger players to get them ready for Thursday night.
(Will Rodgers play Thursday night?)
Yes, Aaron will play Thursday.
(A series or two?)
Yeah.
(Before the shuffling, where do you think you were with your guard play?)
It's becoming more of an injury situation. The guard play, I was very pleased with the way Daryn Colledge played. I thought he played with excellent energy. He's played about as good as he is played this year. Allen Barbre had his best contest as far as grading out in his two years being here. I thought Jason Spitz was definitely a lot better this week, a game better. Tony Moll did a nice job. For a young group, Tony and Daryn, they have good experience. Allen Barbre has done a good job. It's unfortunate Josh got hurt, but the flexibility is what we were looking with this group and I think we have accomplished that. We've just got to get those guys healthy.
(Were you more inclined to just plug Moll in rather than shuffle a couple of guys around again?)
We've talked about all those scenarios last night and again today. You try to plan for that, but I think the Denver game is a perfect illustration of it. You have to go play the next game, so we're going to play Tennessee, and God willing, hopefully we'll come out on the right side of the health report, and we'll make our adjustments there.
(How about Scott Wells and A.J. Hawk for Thursday?)
I talked to Scott this morning. Scott feels very good that he's had a great response to the treatment that he's gone through throughout the weekend, so he feels good. He will not go this week. I'm going to hold him out this week, regardless of how well he feels, and we'll see if he's ready for Minnesota. Hawk same deal. He's progressing very nicely. He's getting his strength and everything back. We will not play him this week, and we're hopeful he'll be ready for Minnesota also.
{sportsad300}(Could you talk about the battle for the third running back job?)
I think the running back position is extremely competitive right now. With Noah, I thought Noah played very well in both special teams and his offensive opportunities in Denver. Vernand Morency has had the best training camp, well, he was hurt last year, but he's off to a great start, and the young guy Lumpkin is doing a very nice job too. It was good to have DeShawn Wynn back today. He's healthy. So it's very competitive.
(If Scott Wells is back for Minnesota, are you inclined to move Jason Spitz back to right guard?)
If I get Wells back? We'll see how it goes this week. We'll see how it goes this week. Scott's situation is different as far as is it trunk, is it low back, whatever it is. I just want to make sure we're not dealing with a long-term situation. Because he was healthy one week and then had an immediate setback, so we're going to make sure he's 100 percent ready to go when we get him back in there.
(Do the doctors feel like they know what the issue is with Wells?)
Yeah, Pat feels, and Scott, they had a second opinion, and Pat agrees with the opinion. They feel like they're on top of it. He's responded very positively to the treatment. Talking to him this morning, he said he feels a lot better.
(So it is a muscle injury?)
It's some type of strain, I guess you would categorize it. Low back, trunk strain. They told me what it is. I can't remember. It's a long word.
(What did the film show as far as the run defense Friday night?)
The run defense was not consistent. We got out of our gaps too many times, particularly on the long drive. Anytime a team drives the ball on you that length of time, as far as number of plays, I always go by the old-school adage, when you get a defense that has you backed up like that and you're kind of playing uphill and you get to that point in the series where it's the sixth, seventh, eighth play in the series, the ability to run the ball on first down and things like that, you have to be able to handle that. Our gap discipline, our gap control was not what it needed to be, and we missed a few tackles, so we need to clean that up.
(Will we see more of Jarrett Bush at safety this week?)
We're going to try to get him more snaps here. We've been trying to work that throughout training camp. That's definitely one of the things we'd like to get accomplished.
(Has Tracy White improved at linebacker?)
I think Tracy has definitely improved as far as playing linebacker here, what we ask from him. He's still doing a heck of a job on special teams. We're going to try to play all three of those linebackers as much as we can - Abdul, Desmond Bishop and Tracy. Because I think that's another very competitive situation on our football team.
(How about Ryan Pickett's progress?)
He had a very good week last week. He was not able to pass the second day of testing to get out here this week. I'm hopeful he's going to be a late addition for this week and hopefully for sure next week.
(Is it realistic to think Justin Harrell will be ready for the opener or do you see him heading to PUP?)
That's something that we're going through right now. He's got a second opinion in Charlotte, so we'll hopefully have some more information here in the next day or so.
