HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER
(on what he hopes to accomplish Thursday night)
We're going to play hard, we're going to play a lot of people, we're going to play the starters and we'll continue to play guys who are working to earn a spot on this roster. We've got a lot of things we need to accomplish special teams wise. I think the short week is behind everybody mentally, we had a good day today and now we can get focused to get ready to play a solid ballgame.
(on how long the starters will play on Thursday)
We're going to play a little more than we did last week. Really depends, it depends on the individual player and the depth we have behind him.
(on the Saints potentially pulling their starters earlier)
They're going to have 11 on the field, and that's what is important to us and we're getting ready to play hard.
(on if they will game plan more for the Saints because of their offensive reputation)
No, no we're not. We're going to keep things real basic. Keep things real basic and try to win the ballgame knowing that we've got Oakland right around the corner.
(on Tony Brown's ability to play this week)
Yeah, we moved him off PUP and I would expect him to be able to play a little bit.
(on Cortland Finnegan's ability to play this week)
That would be the case with Cortland also.
(on a number of plays he's expecting to play Brown and Finnegan against the Saints)
Yeah, probably somewhat similar to what Derrick (Morgan) did last week.
(on if Marc Mariani still has a chance to win the punt returner job)
Yeah, we're going to look at both (Mariani and Damian Williams). We'll probably flip and go Marc in the first half and go Damian in the second half.
(on what he's hoping to accomplish in special teams against the Saints)
We have to do two things, we've got to continue to get the young guys reps, and we have to also work players at the positions in which they are going to be playing in the regular season. There is a fine line there, on one hand you hope you get a lot of opportunities to return kickoffs, but then on the other hand you don't because you're not playing well defensively. Same thing you want to cover kicks, now we got plenty of opportunities to cover punts last week.
(on today's player cuts)
It's always a difficult time. They are due in later this afternoon. We have 80 on our roster and we have to be at 75 later this afternoon.
(on if the cuts will come later this afternoon)
Yes.
(on the purpose of only having to cut five players today, as opposed to having to cut more)
It is still important, it gives you the opportunity to let some players go that number one, may have a chance to go someplace else with a little bit of time left. Secondly, it gives you an opportunity to injury settle with some of the players that waived injured, and then a chance for a four or five day window to injury settle.
(on if he plans to play Chris Simms in the fourth quarter against the Saints)
I hope that all four quarterbacks will get a chance to play, but this week Chris will play before Rusty (Smith) does.
