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HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
(on guys sticking up for each other early in practice)
You want to be smart. The good thing is no one gets hurt, but that's going to happen by the pile. We got guys with a lot of energy. I think it's good but we got to be smart so we don't get hurt down there. But, they cleaned it up, nothing got out of hand, and we're back in it the next play. So, that's what you got to do. We don't have any problems further on after practice.
(on how the offense responded after yesterday's practice)
I thought yesterday the offense definitely struggled at times, couldn't really get anything going. We had a lot of guys play a lot of spots yesterday because the rotations were sloppy. So, I thought today was much, much better all around on the offensive side.
(on starting practice with a competitive drill)
You want to do those things earlier at practice for that exact reason. We get to the point where we started out the other day with the pads doing it with just the linebackers and offensive line. So, again, I thought it would be good today to get with the coaches, get some matchups. Every day in pads we want something competitive like that. They enjoy it. They enjoy the competition, and I think it's a safe thing. So, there's not a whole lot that can go wrong there. There's only a couple bodies in the way and it's low impact. So, again, I think it's great. It's a great start then we do the two minute before the half. So, again, the first drive was nice. Jake got a field goal out of his first drive. Unfortunately, he threw the pick on his second drive. So, it's really competitive to start practice like that and you kind of just have to keep going.
(on whose idea it was to have Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Justin Hunter go at it during the Oklahoma drill)
We wanted to get some rookie-on-rookie there. They've been teasing Justin I think, and I think they all wanted to see him out there. You saw the response when he got out there. So, we thought it would be nice taking him out and seeing the rooks battle out there. It was fun to watch.
(On Justin Hunter redeeming himself after a rookie face off with Blidi Wreh-Wilson)
A lot of those guys have never been in that type of drill before, so I don't think he knew quite what the heck was going on. I think he was still in shock we called him up there. Those are drills we'll continue to do. They'll all get an opportunity. They do those drills even on their own against the defensive backs quite often so he'll get another shot.
(On Jake Locker's back-to-back passes)
You get your momentum going, get a feel for the game, it becomes more game-like in some of these drives. As we go through training camp, like we did even in OTA's, when you give them more game-like situations rather than just periods when you're changing every 15 plays. We got a little tempo going there. I thought he was making some plays. I thought he moved around the pocket well. That protection was much better against a lot of blitzing. We had a nice blitz period where I thought he moved around the pocket very well. He ran when he needed to instead of staying in the pocket too long, so a lot of those things are getting better. The defense is giving them a lot of great looks and he and the rest of them will only get better because of it.
(On the importance of tomorrow's day off)
At first when they stated the rules and it meant more days off I thought it was a little too much, but once you put the schedule together, you start thinking about it, I think it really works at a good time. This is the fifth day of work, four days of practice, one day of a lot of meetings, so it's almost good to give them a day. Rest your legs. Rest your bodies. It's probably good for the coaches too. Then when we come back, we can go five more days and then our Saturday deal at the stadium. So it breaks up real nice. Then we've got games every Sunday for 12 through 20 weeks. It breaks up nice.
(On Ryan Fitzpatrick's thrown block and safety concerns)
I think he knew that he's wearing the red jersey and that no one was going to hurt him. You can see the energy it brings. Quarterbacks realize that and a lot of quarterbacks will get involved in a play like that when someone reverses fields and they can maybe get a cheap block and not get hurt on it. So he brought a lot of energy to practice for sure.
(on Chance Warmack's absences)
Definitely hurts him, especially as a young player. We've gotten a lot done in the last five days. That's the hard part. It's hard on coaches. You have to spend a lot of time with him because he's missed so much even though he's been through it one time. There's nothing like this kind of competition. There's stuff that went on today that the offensive line faced versus the defense. That's something thats hard to make up. I mean, we know he'll be here at some point and we'll just have to wait until that comes. He's good enough to play and help us right away, it just sets everything back.
(on reaching out to Warmack)
Yeah, but I think most guys now are told not to really, but to stay quiet, stay dark, don't talk to anybody, don't be influenced, don't get emotional, it's a business thing. So, I think most players try to distance themselves from it and hope it gets worked out.
(on where things stand with Warmack's contract)
We just haven't come to an agreement. It doesn't seem very complicated to me, but business is business and they can't agree.
(on Warmack's job security at right guard)
I hope we don't have to go there. I don't want to speculate on what can happen if he's not here in a couple weeks. If he's not here, you know two or three weeks from now, it would be a problem. But, we don't see that happening and we have to hope that doesn't happen. We have some players here that are playing well. We feel good about the guys we have here, so we'll just kind of see how it plays out. **
(on the decision to rest Kenny Britt and Marc Mariani during practice)
I think it's more of a situational thing. We knew there were guys that were listed that were going to watch. When there's a time, we give them a break, cut back on them. And it seemed like both of those guys needed a rest. They know, especially going into a day off tomorrow, this gives them two days of rest and then get back with their team. Kenny has been doing well. It wasn't planned that way, but as it played out it was the best thing to do.
