(What happened to Spitz and Wells?)
Spitz's back flared up on him. I have not seen him yet. He's up in the training room. And Scott Wells has a hamstring. I don't think they're serious but we felt that we needed to send them up top, let the trainers work on them.
(When did it happen?)
Individual ... it happened after the jog-through, I think the first group period.
(Who's your third center?)
Dietrich-Smith. He took all the reps today.
(How did Clifton and Bigby respond?)
They both have had two positive days. Had the opportunity to talk to them both. Like I talked about yesterday, we have a body of work we want to see them go through. Really today was an important day for both of them, just the way their bodies responded from yesterday's practice. With the padded work today, hopefully they feel the same way tomorrow. But everything has been positive to this point.
(When you think back to the end of the '07 season, how different is your defense when Atari is healthy and playing the way he can?)
I'll just say this. When Atari is in the game, on the field, there's definitely a different life to our defense. You could just see that yesterday at practice. He's been here since day one, so the communication aspect of the safety position is very important, so it's good to have him back there. But his personality, his physicalness in the run game, he's a starter. He's a starter that really at the end of that season, we felt that he really came on strong, particularly in the playoff games. It would be good to have him back and hopefully he'll be ready to go.
(When he's playing, does that open things up more for Collins too?)
The safety position, both fit together, as far as who's down and who's back. The starting point is really the communication, so to have both of those guys in there, the two veterans that have played together and once again have been here since day one with Dom Capers, it's definitely our best set of safeties and they definitely play off of each other.
(How'd Poppinga look to you?)
Good. Brady's Brady. He flew around today like he always does. He was out sick, but he's fine.
(Do you expect him to start and Matthews to be the nickel guy?)
We'll work through that this week.
(Did you stay outside the whole time?)
Yes.
