Injuries guys, Ambry Thomas ended up breaking his forearm. It'll be some time. That's all we've got right now.
Did you not call the plays today?
No, I didn't.
What was the reasoning behind that?
I just wanted to give Klay (Kubiak) a chance to do it. It's not too big of a deal and he's earned it. He's been more than ready to do it and does it a lot at practice and I wanted to give him the opportunity tonight.
Have you ever done that before, Kyle?
No.
He did that from the booth, right? Was he relaying down to Brian (Griese)?
No. He could talk to the quarterback.
How did you feel about your young defenders, especially Dee Winters?
I thought they showed up. I'm excited to watch it on the plane, see the tape. But I loved how Dee (Winters)—when you run and hit, that stuff flashes on the sidelines, so you saw that from him. You saw it from (Malik) Mustapha. I'm pretty excited about those guys.
He was out for just a little bit…
Yeah, he just got the wind knocked out of him.
What happened on the coach's interference on the kickoff return?
Honestly, that was the first play or one of the first plays, and they allowed us to watch film today on the tablets. And I was just sitting there watching film and got caught up in it and me and (Brian) Schneider, I think, got in the way, so it was a good reminder for us to put the film down the rest of the game and watch on the plane home.
So, you had the tablet and was just checking it out?
Yeah, I was just watching film from the series before.
But you were in the wrong spot?
Yeah, I was in the white. I was expecting a break and when I looked up the ref was behind me and he did a good job avoiding me. But I did that last year, too, so I needed that preseason game to get better.
How did the quarterbacks do, Kyle?
I thought they did a good job. I thought Brandon (Allen), especially, his first drive… I was happy with the whole offense there. We had some penalties and stuff and got into some bad situations, but he overcame a few with some big throws on third down. And I thought Josh (Dobbs) came in and gave us a chance to win. He made some real good throws there at the end, just came up a little bit short, but I thought both of them made some plays.
What are your thoughts on (Malik) Mustapha's hit on fourth down?
Oh, it was awesome. It was huge. Right when he cut it back and (Malik) Mustapha coming from the middle there and couldn't hesitate and we knew he was a hitter. So, we were excited today to hit someone else besides our own guys in practice.
Was it okay to see him almost run to midfield to celebrate? Was it allowed?
Oh, yeah. You want to see it. Everything's allowed unless you get a penalty.
Kyle, going back to the play calling, is there anything like if you're caught doing something else doing head coaching stuff that maybe Klay (Kubiak) could take over during the course of a regular season game?
Like what kind of head coaching stuff? I mean, I love being able to let Klay (Kubiak) do that. I've got a lot of confidence in Klay. Today was one of the more boring things for me personally. That was like my first game in 16 years not calling plays. I didn't really know what to do with my hands. I got to throw a red flag. I was excited about that. Called a time out, a couple of them. But it is a little different.
Kyle, there was a report that you and others met with Brandon (Aiyuk) recently for a meeting, the team redoubling their efforts to sign him to a contract extension. Is that accurate?
I've met with Brandon (Aiyuk) a bunch here since we started out camp and I'm not going to get into any personal things between us.
Do you feel more hopeful that it could get done?
I feel the same as I talked to you guys last week. I am hopeful, and I do think it can, but like I said last week, everything's open and hopefully he does.
Was it your idea to have some of the guys who will have playing roles like (Jordan) Mason in for a series and then take them out?
Yeah, those guys who started, our plan was just one series. We're trying to get like 10 plays, so it's going to be a long drive and got those guys out pretty quick. Just let the younger ones, (Dominick) Puni and (Nick) Zakelj, just those two were left.
What did you see from (Dominick) Puni tonight?
I didn't get mad at him for anything, so that usually means that you played pretty good. The o-line, we really keep our eyes on the o-line. We're watching the secondary and coverages and usually when someone misses something that's when you notice something. So, I have a feeling that he did pretty good, but I'll know when I get on the plane.
Did you watch the game like you were calling plays? Like always focusing on the secondary and the coverages and not looking up front?
For the most part. I look up front when it's a run play at times just to ignore the blocking schemes and see where schemes are going to go. But I kind of train myself to watch the game only one way, so it was hard to adjust it.
Will you call plays the next game?
Most likely.
Are you any more hopeful about the Trent Williams situation than you've been?
I mean, no. I mean, I am hopeful about it. I feel good about that. I feel optimistic about it, but nothing's changed there.
Do you have to resolve Brandon (Aiyuk) one way or the other before you can finalize anything with Trent (Williams)?
No.
They're not connected?
No.
The plan tonight was to not play many or any of the starters, was that plan developed over the course of training camp, how it's going. I know there are some injuries, but…
I usually don't think ahead like that with stuff because I want to see where our team's at. But for the most part, I don't play any starters in the first game, if you look at the history of how we've done it. So, that's usually how we are, sometimes I might feel differently, based on how things are going but nothing's changing so far this camp.
And do you view this week as a big work week with two joint practices?
Yeah, I do. It's awesome to get a chance to scrimmage against people. We're a little banged up. So, we've got to figure out how we can pull that off and stuff like that. It seems like losing Ambry (Thomas) will be tough. Hope a number of other things don't pop up tomorrow, but last week we had 23 guys out of practice last time but we practiced. So hopefully we can get more of those guys back so we can have a decent scrimmage.
What would you say about Curtis Robinson out there?
I thought he did a hell of a job. I mean, just running the defense, being the mike linebacker. You've got to have a lot of command, getting other guys lined up in the right spots and I saw he made a couple of plays as well.
Will (Ricky) Pearsall be able to practice this week?
He should be. We left him behind so I won't know for sure until we get back, but I hope he can.
How do you watch that new kickoff plays? Is it kind of just curiosity for you at this point?
Yes, it is. It's a big-time curiosity. And now, I kind of just watch it out there and try to figure out what we're all looking at and excited to collect a bunch of tape now that we have a number of teams, everyone's really done now. We can get a bunch of clips and start studying.
You missed the one that got returned?
Yes, I saw it right when I looked up and the ref was blowing by me. That wasn't very fun.
I'm sure you want another follow up on Brandon (Aiyuk) but just to be clear, you didn't feel like there was a recent meeting that was more notable or more.
Just to be clear with you, I'm not going to share personal stuff between us or any conversations. You can ask again a different way, I'm going to answer the same. I don't know if that came off arrogant.
