Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 6/20

Jun 20, 2007, 2:41:06 PM

VIDEO: Windows | Real | Audio

Final OTA - Highlights
HERM EDWARDS: “Well, that’s it for us until we go back to River Falls. I think we got a lot accomplished this off-season for the most part. No serious injuries and that’s kind of always important. We should have a healthy football team reporting to River Falls.”

Q: Everything that’s gone on the last five months, are you satisfied with where you are?

EDWARDS: “I think we’ve upgraded our roster with some youth. Now, it’s a matter of competition at camp. That’s been established and now we’ve got to carry it to training camp and figure how physical a football team we need to be. That’s the next step for us: find out the physical players and find out the guys who want to play physical.”

Q: If I told you five months ago that this is where you were going to be at this point would you have been satisfied?

EDWARDS: “There’s always something else you wish would have happened. But as in life, you’re not going to get everything you want. That’s OK. We’ve got enough good players here and enough good veteran leadership here. Now we’ve got to jell now and have to come together pretty quick. We’re 37 days out and then we start and before you know it we’ll be going down to Houston for the opening game.”

Q: You’ve lost a lot of guys who have been around here for a long time: Trent Green, Will Shields…I know you wanted to get younger but is there such a thing of too much too soon?

EDWARDS: “No, we’re headed in the right direction. Whenever you start building something you’ve got to start somewhere and you know when you start there are going to be growing pains. We’ll have some growing pains and the young guys will play a lot of football for us. That’s the good thing about it: guys are going to get better and we’re going to get better as a team.”

Q: Other than deciding on a starting quarterback what’s next on your list?

EDWARDS: “Just keep making progress and find out how fast these young guys are going to be able to help us, especially in the rotation part of it. Some of these guys will end up being starters for us. So, I just think how we go about training camp, and how these guys play in the pre-season will be a big deal for us.”

Q: What about at cornerback? Are you guys OK there?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, we’re still looking obviously. If there is a guy that shakes loose, or something like that, we could probably bring a guy in. You’re always trying to upgrade your roster even during the pre-season, like we did last year. That could still happen.”

Q: Are you satisfied with your offensive line?

EDWARDS: “Yes, it’s a veteran crew but you’re always looking for guys. If there is a guy who comes available who you think can help you, you take a shot at the guy.”

Q: You OK with the depth there?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, young guys. You wish you had a veteran guy or two but, you know what? Young guys are going to have to learn how to play. Will Svitek is a guy who has a future but we need to see how he’s going to react during games.”

Q: What about your return game? You’ve got some candidates but do you have some concerns?

EDWARDS: “The kid we’ve got from South Florida, Ean Randolph, is a guy that we like. I think he can be a good punt returner. Now, he hasn’t done it on this level yet. We’ve got kickoff return guys. I don’t worry about that too much. I think you put Jeff Webb back there with some other candidates we’ll be fine.

“But the punt return we’re looking at. We signed a free agent [Randolph] who we liked what he could do in college and we’re hopeful he can do it on this level.”

Q: Randolph is first in line?

EDWARDS: “Absolutely, absolutely.”

Q: You talked yesterday about warning guys what can happen off the field during this period of time off? What can a month off do to a player on the field? Can they look night and day different?

EDWARDS: “I think these guys are going to get tested when they come in. They know when they come in Thursday [to start camp] for Friday to go to work they’re going to get tested. I don’t have a problem with these guys not being in shape. They’ll be in shape.”

Q: One of those young offensive linemen, from Mexico, Ramiro Pruneda, looks like he has a good upside and it’s more than a case of giving a guy a chance.

EDWARDS: “He has an upside but he’s got a ways to go. You’re not going to put too much pressure on this guy. You’re talking about a guy who really hasn’t played football at this level. What you don’t want to do is put guys in position where they’re going to fail and lose their confidence. So, we’re going to bring him along slow. We knew that when we signed him. Next year you’ve got to evaluate not this year.”

Q: Kind of unprecedented doing this with a non-kicker?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, and there are some athletes over there. There are a couple of linebackers that have played in the World League from there. The problem with those guys is they don’t have a lot of instincts because they didn’t play football at a young age. When you’re in America you play certain sports and grow instincts for them. He doesn’t have those instincts. They have to grow as he grows. He’s behind that way. Now, athletically he’s very talented.”

Q: So you could stick him in at the end of a pre-season game and not get somebody killed?

EDWARDS: “We’d like to, yeah. That’s kind of our goal. We’re hoping he can do that.”

Q: You’re not sure that he’s there yet?

EDWARDS: “Not yet, not yet. You don’t want to just put him in there.”

Q: In building a physical football team in camp, where do you stand on coaches who like to have guys pound on each other and guys who don’t like contact at all?

EDWARDS: “I’m one of those guys who believes in fast tempo, but I think I’m smart enough and been around good enough coaching that you know what to do to get guys into a physical mindset. We’ve been pretty good doing that and we did it in New York that way. So, I’ve got some experience now in training camp and now how to handle them.

“The problem with these guys is there are 42 of them who are first year players or rookies and they’re going to go full-speed all the time. Sometime I don’t want them to go full speed. You have to control your violence. I always tell them it’s about being competitive but not combative. You never want to get combative against each other.”

Q: How has Boomer Grigsby responded to his move from linebacker to fullback?

EDWARDS: “For a guy that was asked to move to fullback in the spring I think he’s doing a great job of picking up offensively what we’re asking him to do and then, he’s caught the ball a lot better than we anticipated. What he’ll have to do now is develop the ability to block. That’s hard. He is physical enough to do that. He’s 250. The guy has transformed his body.

“I’m pulling for the guy because you like guys who are willing to do something for the team. He did that and you talk about playing a tough position…well, the fullback position is a lot of movement, shifts and motions and you have to learn that. He’s done a great job of that.”

Q: When you talked to him about moving was it a tough sell?

EDWARDS: “Nah, he understood. I said this is the best thing for you. If you’re going to have a chance to really help this football team and make this football team you need to go on that side of the ball. He agreed.”

Q: He’s not afraid of contact?

EDWARDS: “It’s techniques and fundamentals. It’s no different than at any position. He hadn’t done that in a long time. He may have been a fullback in high school. He’s going to have to get his mind refocused. The toughest part won’t be an issue for him at all.”

Q: It’s a dirty job and a lot of guys don’t want to do it.

EDWARDS: “There is a willingness and he has that mentality. He’s the hammer guy and the fullback generally starts off at 5-11 and end his career at 5-9.”

Q: After you lost your fullback last year you had to use Kris Wilson.

EDWARDS: ”[Wilson] really stepped up. He really did. You talk about a guy that had to play a new position and now we’ve found a niche for the guy where we can get some match-up problems for [opponents] coming out of the backfield. It’s tough covering that guy with a linebacker.”

More news… | Roster