TITANS HEAD COACH MIKE MULARKEY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - Aug. 17, 2016*

* (on Kevin Dodd's return to practice)*

Good to have him out there, yeah. We started with the walk through this morning and were smart today—a little individual, seven-on-seven, did a little extra work with him afterwards, a little more physical play, one-on-one stuff just to see how he's going to hold up. He looked good to this point.

(on if he was interested to see how Kevin Dodd would hold up in practice)

Yes, yeah. He came in this morning, got evaluated and we thought it would be a good decision—again, not rush him right into things—and gradually introduce him into some of these drills, the team drills.

(on if he thinks Kevin Dodd can have an immediate impact to start the season)

I'm hoping. My biggest concern with him right now is his conditioning. You can get on a stair master and a bike and all those things when you're (injured), but there's nothing like game condition. I'm a little concerned about that. Hopefully he's going to have enough time. We've got a couple weeks here to work with him. He's got to do a lot on his own, too, when nobody's watching and nobody's demanding that of him.

(on if Kevin Dodd looked like he was mentally caught up on what to do)

It was pretty good but so limited I'd have a hard time saying he's got it all down. And then in walk-through mode, he looked good this morning. We're trying to get him as many reps as we can. It's tough when you can't get reps.

(on if Dennis Kelly is in the same boat in terms of getting caught up)

He's very sharp. He picked up very well the offense. I was really pleased with him today. He hasn't been here 18 hours and he was doing a lot of the reps, and I felt very good about it. Our O-line coaches were extremely happy with him retaining the information like he did and being able to go out there and execute the plays.

(on if it is abnormal to have a good inside lineman of Dennis Kelly's size)

It is, but you know, he shows it on tape that he can move and he can be versatile. He can play both spots if we need him to. He's smart. You've got to be a smart guy to be able to play all those spots.

(on if he has concerns that things will not click for Justin Hunter in time)

Again, it's more of the consistency of it. No, again, Justin (Hunter) just has to put up a series of things, days together, games together, and that's what we're looking for from all of them.

(on how he feels about offensive line depth after adding Dennis Kelly)

I feel better. I do feel better. That was a concern, a very big concern. Initially, it was not. (We) did not think Josue's (Matias) injury—because really he never went down, never saw the injury. (He) just came in one night complaining of knee pain. So I'm assuming we have depth there and then when you don't have that and Byron Bell going down, it was a concern. So I feel better. I still do.

(on Jack Conklin competing when the offensive line and defensive line face off)

I think that's a pretty good strategy. I mean he seems to have held up so far. He's 3-and-0 over there with a lot of pressure on him. They can put up whoever they want against anybody. That's Russ' (Grimm) idea, and I like it.

(on how much better of an indicator will it be for them when they play Carolina)

Well, it'll be a good challenge.  There's no question about it.  You guys all saw the success they had last year—to the Super Bowl.  Obviously it's a different scheme, it's a four-down scheme.  We haven't faced it, we've been going against a three-down basically the whole year, then last week with San Diego.  So, it's a different scheme, they have more bodies that will be up near the line of scrimmage.  We're going to have to have guys hats-on-hats.  We're going to have to—in the run game it's going to be a challenge.  So, we're looking forward to it.

(on if they will prepare a little more specifically for Carolina)

We've done that periodically.  We'll throw a period in against a four-down just to get the rules and the communication going.  So, we've been working it.  We'll work it more extensively tomorrow, and Friday is really a carded day of Carolina's defense.  There'd no game-plan, but we will card some plays up.