Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 7/30

Jul 30, 2007, 1:37:28 PM

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HERM EDWARDS: “We made it though the morning; now we’ll see how we do in the afternoon. As you know and if you’ve been involved in coming to training camps, this is probably the toughest week in training camp for all 32 teams. This is a little bit of a hump week. If you’re not going to participate against another opponent until your first pre-season game this is the toughest week because players are getting a little agitated by mid-week because there are a lot of pads involved in most training camps this week. We’re no different than a lot of other teams, so I anticipate the tempo to stay the same and us to get better.

“The thing we didn’t do a good enough job of – and that’s what you’ve got to find out – is we put the ball on the ground too much. You can’t do that. Last year as a football team we put the ball on the ground 25 times and the opponent got it 14 times – that’s almost one a game and you can’t do that if you’re going to be a good football team on offense. You can’t turn the ball over. That’s what pads are all about: guys stripping the ball from the runners or receivers. We have to do a better job of holding the ball and that’s why we practice the way we practice. It’s all alive with the exception of hitting the quarterback and tackling the runner.

“We have a lot of young players that we don’t know a lot about in pads yet. So this week will be a good test for them and the morning was a good day as far as being physical. Now, we’ve made some mental errors obviously and that happens. We’ve got to clean that up; you don’t want to make mental errors and commit fouls and turn the ball over. If you do that consistently and if you practice that way all of a sudden that becomes a habit. Habits are either good or bad and you form them.”

Q: Did Derrick Ross have a problem in NFL Europa this spring?

EDWARDS: “In Europe and in the spring, too. He’s the type of runner that’s a tough guy and keeps his legs driving and then relaxes his arms at times and guys will pull it away from. This league is like piranhas. Once they know you put the ball on the ground you’ve got a problem and everybody tries to get the ball away from you. But he’s a good player and was co-MVP of the World League but now he’s got some competition and there’s competition from the third, fourth and fifth back on this football team. This is good and that’s what you want: competition.”

Q: Which guys came out of Europe and did best for themselves?

EDWARDS: “Ross and (Nick) Reid did a good job for us.”

Q: What did you see in Reid that you liked?

EDWARDS: “Made a lot of plays. That’s what he did in college. He’s always around the football. He came in yesterday and had an interception at the end of practice. He’s around the ball but he’s got some tough sledding with some players that are here. But he’s got a chance. It’ll all depend on if you keep linebackers they have to be good on specials teams.”

Q: Other guys in Europe?

EDWARDS: ”[Tre] Stallings was over there. He did a good job over there. All the players that we sent over there did a pretty good job really.”

Q: Can you talk about Kolby Smith and what he brings to the team?

EDWARDS: “He’s got some power, but he also has some niftiness and he has really good feet. He has great vision. He’s what I call a no-nonsense runner. He’s gonna put one foot on the ground and once he sees [an opening] he’s going to hit it. And he’s got some power. He’s got good size and he can hit a hole. He’s not afraid to stick his head in there blocking-wise. He’s got some tools.

“His problem was he was behind a good guy [at Louisville]. He was starting for a while and then got a little nicked and the other guy went in there and he never won his job back. We liked him coming out of college; we knew all about this guy. And you can see as you watch practice why we did. This guy is going to be a good football player.”

Q: Did he surprise you at all?

EDWARDS: “No, because we liked him. That’s why we drafted the guy. Now, you say why in the fifth round, well, because that’s where we figured he’d be targeted at – somewhere at that spot because he was the backup guy. But if you go back a couple of years before that and watched him play you kind of had a good feeling what kind of player he was. That’s a pretty good program over there; they have a lot of good athletes come out of there. We knew we had to draft a running back this year because of last year when we kind of ran out of runners.”

Q: He fumbled a couple of times the other day but have you noticed he hasn’t since then?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he hadn’t put it on the ground since the first day. That’s two days in a row and now he’s gone OK. This afternoon is another day and I’ve talked to him about it – about not putting it on the ground. He’s a smart kid too.”

Q: Some of your guys were trying to pry it loose. Guys like Jared Allen.

EDWARDS: “They’re trying to get the ball; that’s part of the defense. We want to take the ball away. We have to be a takeaway defense to set our offense up with some short field. They know who the guys are that they think they can get the ball away from, so they go a little extra hard on those guys.”

Q: Does Samie Parker need to show you something?

EDWARDS: “He’s competing to find out if he’s still going to continue to be the starter or what role he’s going to have. That’s a good thing. That’s what is great about the receiver corps right now. We’ve got some young guys in there that are getting a chance and having an opportunity and that’s raising the competition level at that position.”

Q: It’s early but have you noticed any separation between the quarterbacks?

EDWARDS: “Naaaah, not really. As we get into this thing even more and more we’ll find out. I think you’ll see separation as we go through pre-season and the start of playing games.”

Q: Are those Vikings practices more important than what happens out here as far as the QB’s are concerned?

EDWARDS: “They’re a little bit more because you’re competing against another opponent, but the pre-season games are the ones you have to weigh in on. Most of the time in pre-season most of the teams are vanilla [in game planning] and some aren’t depending on who you play. We play [Vikings] in the regular season so you can kind of anticipate what both sides are probably going to do, right?”

Q: As far as evaluation of the two QB’s though, might they not be………..

EDWARDS: “They help you get a look, then after that it’s again Cleveland and Miami and New Orleans and the Rams.”

Q: What have you seen out of Kyle Turley so far?

EDWARDS: “Obviously his weight’s changed. He’s gotten back to his normal playing weight. I knew him when he was in New Orleans and he’s back. Kyle Turley is a good football player. We were a little bit concerned with our depth at the right tackle position as far a veteran-wise. Now, we’ve got a guy who can play left and right [tackle]. He’ll probably do more at right. He wanted to come back and he called. He wanted to try it again and I respect the guy, not just because he went to San Diego State. He’s a good football player.”

Q: What about Ramiro Pruneda?

EDWARDS: “The thing that’s hurting him is he doesn’t have a lot of football awareness because he didn’t grow up playing football. He grew up playing soccer and if you look at his feet you can tell. If you ever see him with a soccer ball he looks like he’s 180 pounds when he’s kicking it around. So, he doesn’t have the background of a player that’s played high school or sandlot football. That’s called instinct and that grows on you. That’s what he’s fighting. Every time he goes to practice he learns something new about football, about playing that position. But he’s very athletic, he’s strong, he’s got pretty good balance and he’s got some toughness. When you draft a guy like that you’re talking about a two-year project before you can really give him a true evaluation. He’s got a lot better.”

Q: From a casual observer it would appear that Jared Allen seems to be crawling out of the mess that he got himself into. Do you sense that the commissioner might have taken that into account in knocking the sentence down from four games to two?

EDWARDS: “He’s done a good job. I guess the commissioner’s seen that.”

Q: What changes have you seen?

EDWARDS: “I’ve seen a lot of changes. Personally, we’ve got a pretty good relationship. We’ve done a lot of talking behind closed doors and he kind of knows what I expect out of him. We talked over the summer and we’re always talking. He has my wife’s cell [phone] number. If he’s not talking to me he’s talking to her.

“He’s growing up. Does that mean he’s going to be perfect? No. His charisma won’t let him be perfect and that’s OK. But you’ve got to understand there are certain things you can’t do and he knows that. He’s getting looked at with a fine eye. The commissioner felt in his wisdom to give him…because of what he’s done. Now he’s improved as a citizen.”

Q: Did you intervene on his behalf?

EDWARDS: “Jared’s done a good job. What I told Jared was this: he needs to go down to the young players in this league and speak and tell them how he came into the league and where he is now. That’s got to be part of his deal now. It’s all part of growing up.”

Q: But it’s more than the maturation of a normal young man isn’t it?

EDWARDS: “But the problem is you’re in the eye of the camera and in today’s society is not like 20 years ago. Everything now is for public knowledge and print, TV. It makes it a little tougher this training camp because we’ve got HBO’s “Hard Knocks” following us around everywhere. I just hope that lightning never hits because I’ve got so many wires on me that if lightning ever hits I’m probably going to get hit.

“The good thing out of it is you’re representing the National Football League – you’re representing the shield. It’s big, bigger than you’d ever imagine. The impact you can make on a lot of people’s lives – especially young people — make it important how we conduct ourselves. And really, what comes out of our mouths. I always tell players it’s taken me 53 years to build my reputation and it can take me 30 seconds of saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing to ruin it.”

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