| blueballs |
07-30-2008 04:31 PM |
Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 7/30
Jul 30, 2008, 1:23:28 PM
Highlights
HERM EDWARDS: “I thought we fought through what I thought was going to be a tough day today. We had a good day yesterday and another good day this morning. I think they’re starting to learn how to fight through training camp and that’s important especially for a bunch of young guys. You can start feeling sorry for yourself but for the most part it was very competitive. I liked the speed of practice.”
Q: Are your QB (Croyle) and running back (Johnson) going to work this afternoon?
EDWARDS: “Ah, I don’t know. I’ll see how they feel. We just rested them. We’ll probably rest Brian (Waters) this afternoon too. We rested Damon yesterday. We’ve only got three quarterbacks and so we have to be kind of careful.”
Q: Lot of movement at middle linebacker. What’s going on over there?
EDWARDS: “How about that. Competing, competing. I said that in the spring and there is going to be movement there. We want guys to do it right and it’s going to be very competitive there. We’re going to get some good players.”
Q: Can you define right?
EDWARDS: “Proper gap fits, proper entry on those gaps. Gun (Cunningham) is a big stickler and I’m a big stickler too. When you play a one-gap defense it’s very, very important that your gap responsibility is taken care of. If not, there is going to be a big, a big play. When you get into those eight-man fronts you shouldn’t have gaping runs. Sometimes guys don’t get focused or get cut off and there is a lot of responsibility on linebackers. They get confused and we’re trying to fight through that. It’s not unusual.”
Q: Look forward to getting together with the Vikings?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, that’s always fun and the fact at this point in time players like seeing another uniform. We generally have had two good meetings with those guys. It got a little testy the last time but I think guys were tired. I think we’ll do a good job of competing and that’s what we want to do. We want to get something out of it for both teams.”
Q: Jared Allen, your former player, will be here and is he someone to look forward to.
EDWARDS: “Yeah, we’ll probably hard-count him every time he lines up on the line of scrimmage. Jared did a great job here as a football player.”
Q: How anxious are you to see Branden Albert work against Jared?
EDWARDS: “It’ll be fun and interesting. It’ll be good for him. He’s going to go against a Pro Bowl player. It’ll be a big test for him and I think the more he’s in that situation the more confidence he’s going to gain. I think that’s going to be the big thing tomorrow. You’re probably already writing your stories on that, working on the headlines. He’ll do some good things and sometimes he won’t. That’s OK; that’s part of the process.”
Q: What stories would you write?
. EDWARDS: “I really don’t have to write stories. I wouldn’t be a writer. I look at things a little bit differently.”
Q: You did TV work.
EDWARDS: “I’d be good on TV.”
Q: You’d be pressing that angle too wouldn’t you?
EDWARDS: “No, not really.”
Q: Is Branden Albert coming along a little bit faster than you thought he would?
EDWARDS: “We thought when we drafted him that he would have the ability to play tackle. That’s why we drafted him. There was no concern there that he had to be a guard. He was going to be a tackle. We put him out there and he’s going to play left tackle for us. He’s going to go through some growing pains and that’s part of it. But the guy has very good feet, is a very good athlete, a smart guy. Very smart and picks up things. He learns something every day.
“He’s going to get better every time he plays and with better competition it’s going to make him better.”
Q: Can you talk about the spirit of this morning’s practice had including the little confrontation between McIntosh and Pat Thomas?
EDWARDS: “Things flare up and we had some yesterday. That’s going to happen. The good thing about it is it’s over. It’s competitive. Training camp brings that on sometimes. They just got to know when they get in games you can’t do that because then you get kicked out of the game.”
Q: Is it good the Vikings are coming in tomorrow and you have someone new to hit in practice?
EDWARDS: “That’s good but I hope that’s all it is. It’s practice and we don’t want to get into a fist fight every ten minutes. That doesn’t do anybody any good. I don’t think any team wants to do that. We might have a couple of pushing matches.”
Q: It seems like Gunther is trying to figure out who his starting middle linebacker is? He’s had Napoleon Harris, Demorrio Williams and Pat Thomas. What’s going on?
EDWARDS: “He’s going to keep coaching them and the great thing about it we’ve got four games to find out. We said all along that the players who do it correctly are the guys who are going to play.”
Q: Can you talk about the odyssey of Tyler Thigpen who was in Minnesota last year at this time and now he’s with you?
EDWARDS: “We looked at him last year when we went over there (to Minnesota). We knew about him coming out (of college) and liked him. They happened to draft him.
“He’s come a long way. He’s got a lot of talent, a lot of ability. But he’s going to have to learn and the only way he can learn is play.
“That’s the one thing we’ve decided to do here. It’s easy to talk about doing it in the spring and then you draft guys and then all of a sudden you get to training camp and bring in 10 veterans and you don’t let these young guys play. We’re not going to do that.”
Q: You’re talking about developing a young QB?
EDWARDS: “It’s developing players at all positions that we draft. Develop the guys that you draft. In my opinion there is always going to be some veterans at the end of training camp who are out there looking for jobs. So you can always go that route if you like. We can’t worry about that. We’ve got young players who we want to get on the field and we’re going to coach them. They are going to get better.”
Q: Did Damon show a little rust for not getting much work in the spring as you got Tyler more time?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, but Damon is a veteran quarterback who’s been in training camps a lot in his career. He’s not got a lot of reps. That’s what’s good when you have a seasoned veteran quarterback. They don’t need a lot of reps. They understand what they need to do when they get in the game.”
Q: What do you like about Pat Thomas?
EDWARDS: “He’s very athletic. He can run. His whole thing now is he has to trust what he sees; he has to trust his eyes. That’s how you play linebacker. You’ve got to trust your eyes and your keys. It’s one of the hardest positions to play. I always say on defense that it’s the strong safety and linebacker positions. They’re mentally the hardest to play because of the adjustments and alignments you constantly have to make.
“It’s hard and when you play one-gap defense like we play and you miss a gap and don’t spill it, it’s a big play.”
Q: When you say trust his eyes what do you mean?
EDWARDS: “He’s got to trust what he sees. You can’t guess, you can’t assume the play is going there. There is a certain way you look. You have to look at the backs and you have to have peripheral vision and feel the linemen. In the pass situations we want our linebackers to cover a lot of ground and be in position to read the quarterback and make plays. There is a lot put on their table and it’s why we practice. We’re asking these guys to do a lot because they’re athletic. That’s the kind of linebackers we want. We want guys who can play in space, guys who can tackle in space and guys who can run in space.”
Q: Can you talk about Rudy Niswanger and the progress he’s made at center? Is he a young guy or more a veteran because he has three years in the league?
EDWARDS: “He’s a young guy who hasn’t had a lot of playing experience. He played last year and he got hurt. Now he’s starting with us. I think he’s got a great upside. He’s a very smart guy and can get guys lined up. Now, he’s tall and that’s kind of unusual as a center. He’s played the position in college and played a bit college. He needs an opportunity and is doing a good job.”
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