TITANS INTERIM HEAD COACH MIKE MULARKEY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - November 27, 2015
(on who the kick returner will be Sunday)
Tre McBride.
(on if last week was a chance to test Tre McBride on kickoff return)
Yeah, last week was a short week, we let him have a little bit of NFL experience before we put him back there. He's had a good week of work, so we're going to let him go.
(on what Tre McBride's speed brings as a kick returner)*
To me, those are the tough guys to have to handle. It's the guys that run fast forward and take the proper angles that are difficult. You have to be engineered to get a clean shot at these guys. Anytime they chop down, and he's been told that's not what we want, then you've got angles on them, but if you're hitting that thing, that's a tough guy to try to stop. If we give him a crease, he can go.
(on Kendall Wright's recovery process after practicing again today)
There have been some things he's done catch-wise and having some throws and I think he's done well. I think he's back full-go.
(on if he will use Derrick Morgan sparingly because of his shoulder injury)
Yes, that's kind of the plan of attack right now based on how much he has practiced. Again, that will be another game-time decision.
(on the status of Derrick Morgan's shoulder injury)
I think it's something we've got to monitor the whole year, there's no question about that.
(on the Raiders only allowing 11 sacks this year)
I think scheme situations (Derek Carr) is in where he's not having to hold the ball. They're very good on third down. A lot of that is because they're not in third-and-longs. If you're not in third-and-long, you don't have to hold the ball as long. You tee off and the ball comes out quicker. Their offensive line is playing very well, so kind of a number of things that are really helping him, and he's getting rid of the ball. He's not taking them, so there are a lot of pieces to that.
(on his confidence in David Bass)
(David) Bass has played well. He's made some plays for us. Again, I think I said earlier, he's played well special teams-wise. He's been a pleasant surprise for us, and (Yannik) Cudjoe-Virgil may even have a chance to come up. That's being discussed.
(on if he will bring a player up from the practice squad today)
Probably over the weekend.
(on what he has liked about Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil)
We liked him, obviously in camp. He really showed some things. He was really one of our top outside guys besides (Derrick) Morgan and (Brian) Orakpo, and then he's done some things out here in the short time he's had an opportunity. Even in the competitive periods, he's been very surprisingly doing good things. So we'll talk about him as well.
(on if he has made a decision on the offensive line)
I think Quinton (Spain) is going to start at left guard and Andy (Gallik) is going to stay at center and try that combination. They've got a couple of defensive tackles in there that we've got to handle so we're going to try it with this rotation.
(on what Quinton Spain needs to do Sunday)
He's smart, that helps with the things we're doing. But he's shown enough that I'm going to give him a shot here to earn that spot. It's going to be a good test. They have a couple of big defensive tackles that create a wall up there and we need to move them.
(on Andy Gallik learning from Jacksonville's defensive fronts moving on him)
(Oakland) doesn't do that as much as Jacksonville did. Andy (Gallik) is very athletic, that's one thing I like about him is his ability to get to the second level and pull and do those things. That helps us in our run game. But yeah, he learned a little bit. He's learning each week he's playing. It was not intended for him to be the starter the whole year and each week he's learning something. He got a lesson last week with the way they stemmed the front.
(on if Tre McBride will be the fourth active receiver Sunday)
He ended up being the fourth receiver.
(on if any players hit the scales too hard after Thanksgiving)
Well, one of them did. I had a scale hidden in a closet so I called Chance (Warmack) and asked him if he thought he was around his weight and he said he was. I had a little bonus in cash and I said, 'You know what, I'm proud of you. Come on down here and I'm going to give you this money.' He came down like Rocky. I said, 'Let's double check it,' and pulled the scale out of the closet. The clothes started coming off, just stripped down to nothing to make sure, and he made it. So he got his bonus. It was good, it was good humor. They needed that.
