(What were your impressions of the two-minute and no-huddle periods?)
I thought the two-minute drill was good work. You just cannot get enough work as far as the different types of situations, the mechanics and the substitutions and so forth. I was very pleased with the two-minute work, very pleased with the no-huddle, the two segments of no-huddle there at the end. Just playing up tempo and you've just got to keep changing it up as much as you can because that's really what gets our players ready to play in trying to cover all of the different situations that occur. Today was a review day for us. We've had an opportunity to go back and review the first five installations and I thought today was a good, solid day. The younger players got a lot more reps today because we had a veteran select group that we held out probably eight or nine of our veterans, like we traditionally have on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I thought it was a good, solid day.
(Did you hold the veterans out to give them rest or to get a better look at some of the young guys?)
I think it is a combination of a couple of elements. Number one, you look at how many games they have played, you look at how many years they have been in the league, you see what their bodies have been through, so from a medical standpoint it's just being smart. The second part of it is you never have enough reps for your younger players. That's really the design of it and I've been very pleased with the way it is worked in the past. Especially with us being as young as we were in the past, I think it really fits into our program here.
(Can you talk about the other wide receivers besides the top five?)
You can see Brett and Jake being here a year definitely helps. I can't say enough about the progress they have made. The younger players, they are in that time of training camp where you are about half of the way through the installs and they are fighting to hold on, fighting to get it right as far as what they are doing and so forth. It's a really competitive group top to bottom. I think Donald Driver and Greg and all the way down, they set such a standard there and just the way we operate in the classroom and the amount of time that the quarterbacks and receivers are spending together in training camp because you normally wait until in season, so it's a great learning experience for those young receivers and they are doing a good job keeping up.
(How is James Jones looking?)
I would like to say he's back. James last year was one of the stars of training camp. I thought he had an incredible training camp last year. He hurt the knee up in the Denver preseason game and it was something that was with him all year. He looks like he is back to full strength.
(Any update on B.J. Raji and how far behind is he falling?)
I do not have an update on B.J.'s contract situation. It's the same as it's been every time I've asked, and he's behind. I think it's obvious. It's important for players to be here in training camp. If it wasn't we wouldn't have training camp. It's important that he gets in here as soon as he can.
(Is this kind of like a game week where it would be too late now for him to play on Saturday even if he signed?)
Those are really questions that I think we need to ask when we get to see him. I have no idea until I watch him go through the conditioning run test that we put all of our players here, and we'll use that to evaluate B.J. when he gets here.
(How important is Family Night as far as evaluating players, especially on the back end of the roster?)
Family Night, it's an important step in the process of training camp. It's our first opportunity to have a game atmosphere, which I don't know how many teams can say that based on their scrimmage. It's just an incredible environment that our fans create for us. Most teams probably have 10,000-15,000 people that they are playing in front of. For our younger players it's a great opportunity to go out there and see what it is supposed to look like. It's a great opportunity for our coaches, particularly a new defensive staff to go through their operations and communications and so forth. It's pretty much a dress rehearsal. But it's one step in the process of our evaluation of picking this football team.
(Will you be extra careful with the medical guys on Saturday?)
We'll be smart. We're not going to try to go out and win the Family Night. Winning the Family Night is staying healthy.
(Is DeShawn Wynn one of the younger guys that has taken that next step?)
I think what you see from DeShawn Wynn, he's always had the ability to play at a high level, but it's that next step that you look for in a lot of your younger players. Can he do it every day? I think he's had a very good training camp. It's his best training camp so far in his career. But he has to do it every day. That's what he needs to get done, because he's played at a high level for us in the past when he's had an opportunity in the regular-season games, but that's the question he needs to answer.
(Any closer to determining your No. 1 offensive line?)
We won't make those determinations today. That's something that once we get Family Night and probably a couple of preseason games under our belt, we'll look to make a decision.
{sportsad300}(What are your impressions of Evan Moore, especially catching the ball with that splint on his finger?)
Evan, he's fighting through it. He made the transition in positions last year. He's changed his body for the amount of lean muscle mass he's put on through the offseason program, and really just being on IR last year. He's battling. It's different for him, playing in line as much as he has. I know last year was the first step. I'd like to see him get healthy. I think it would help him. But he's definitely making progress. That's a tough transition.
(Are you seeing explosiveness from Ryan Grant?)
I think Ryan has had a very solid camp. It's really our first time going through a full camp with Ryan. We acquired him the first year after training camp, and then last year obviously he had the hamstring injury. We get better every day. I talk about the philosophy to the offense, you need to be strong up the middle, and the only way to get strong up the middle is to make sure those guys practice every day. I'm talking about the center, two guards, the quarterback and the halfback. When those guys are together every single day, you've got months and years of tying that together, that's when the real offenses get clicking. Obviously you want everybody there every day, but we've had some moving parts at those positions, and I think the more we're able to lock them down and get the constant reps with those players, I think the efficiency of our offense will stay at a high level.
(Do you need him to be a workhorse this year?)
Really the games dictate that. I'm not going to sit here and tell you how many carries he has. He's the starting halfback, so he'll be the primary focal point when we establish our game plans week in and week out. Really the flow of the game. The ideal game he'd run it 50 times. Is that going to happen? Probably not. So if he's touching the ball 20 times a game, I think we'll give him plenty of opportunities to be a productive player.
(A lot of your coaches have intensity, but it's very noticeable with Kevin Greene. Do you like that?)
Every coach has a coaching style. It's within their personality. We captured something here Tuesday night that needs to stay as far as our practice environment. Now, we had some of the garbage that went on after the plays. We need to eliminate that. But the pace that these guys are practicing and the tempo and the coaches competing, that's how you get better. That's what it's supposed to look like.
(Despite the distractions, how has Nick Collins looked?)
I've never seen a distracted Nick Collins. Even in his time here in the spring, Nick is about business. He just needs those reps. He knows what it looks like and understands what he's supposed to do from the book, and he'll pass all those tests. He's like any other player. You need live reps. You need the communication when the bullets are flying and the tight end is moving and they're shifting and motioning and all that. And that's what he's getting. He's an exceptional player back there. He's shown you what he's all about from the number of plays he's already made in camp. Nick and Atari both, they just need to keep getting those reps.
