Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 8/31

Aug 31, 2007, 7:55:45 PM

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HERM EDWARDS: “We’re going through a procedure now talking to some players that we’re going to have to let go and then talk to some players who we’re going to look to put on the practice squad. With that being said, I can’t give you that information. That would not be fair to the organization or the players.

“We’re sitting in a position now where our players were in today, they’re going to have a day or two off and then they’re going to come in Monday and are going to start their preparation on Houston. The staff has been working on that since last week.”

Q: Does Dameon McIntosh have a chance to play against Houston?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he’s getting better. He has an outside chance.”

Q: Is he going to be practicing on Monday?

EDWARDS: “We think so.”

Q: That’s better than you thought, huh?

EDWARDS: “That’s a good thing. You want all your good players to be healthy going into your opening day. When you look at us in the pre-season, you can look at it a lot of different ways. I keep going back to how we really went into this deal.

“We had a lot of young guys and we wanted to give them the opportunity to play. A lot of times you go into the pre-season and wish you could have done this or that. But the things that happened to us on either side of the all are very fixable. A lot of those things are very fixable after you think about how we went into it offensively.

“There were probably not too many games where we actually had all the starters in there at one time. It was very similar to what happened to us last year. So you know that when you go in, you know there will be some struggles. We had a new left tackle in there playing who needed all the reps because of the injury to [McIntosh]. It was very valuable for [Will] Svitek.

“Brodie Croyle played a lot of snaps for us at quarterback which we needed to happen. He was in a competition with Damon [Huard]. That will help him down the road. At the tight end position the young guy [Michael] Allan played a lot for us. At the right tackle position there are two guys battling for that spot.

“At the running back position we had young guys. We didn’t have Larry [Johnson] playing running back for us.

“There are a lot of things you can look at and you can understand why you struggle at times. The things that we have to correct right away are ability to put points on the board. That’ll come to fruition. Will we be a high-scoring team? We have the ability to do that but you do that in a bunch of ways. One way you do that is by staying on the football field and we didn’t do that. You look at the time of possession compared to our opponent. They had it for an average of 34 minutes and we had it for about 25 [minutes] in four pre-season games. We didn’t score any points in the first quarter, so we were actually behind in most games. In the third quarter we didn’t score any points.

“When you look at the giveaway-takeaway which I always look at we were minus four in the pre-season. That’s not very good. We threw five interceptions and gave two balls away on fumbles. On the flip side, we weren’t very good in taking the ball away. We only took it away three times, one being an interception. We’ve got to pick that up.

“Third down wasn’t very good. Why? When you struggle on first down at times it makes your third-and-longs very difficult. When you look at our third downs, believe it or not, we were in four situations where it was third-and-two or less. Then there were 17 situations where we were third-and-three-to-seven. The rest we were in third-and-long or more. If you were in those you know you’re not going to be very good. But they’re fixable. We have enough players to get it fixed.”

Q: You talked a lot about your defensive line depth. Now you’re going to be down Jared Allen with a suspension. Do you still feel good where you are for those two games?

EDWARDS: “We’ll do some things a little bit different. We’ve been practicing on that. We’ll do what we have to do. We know what we’re going to do but we’re not to talk about it.”

Q: Did Jimmy Wilkerson have a good camp?

EDWARDS: “He had a good pre-season. Yes. He’s come on very good.”

Q: Why?

EDWARDS: “I think he’s matured more. He came in as a [college] junior. I think the system has helped him some too – putting him out there on the edge and letting him rush. Last year we had him inside and outside. Now we’ve had him more as a defensive end. He can go inside and eventually that could be the plan when we get Jared back. We have four pretty good rushers.”

Q: Correct me if I’m wrong, you were happy with his down after down play. You wanted him to make more big plays. Did he address that?

EDWARDS: “What I’ve liked about him is he’s knocked the quarterback down a lot. Now they haven’t all been sacks but he’s hit the quarterback and that’s important. Don’t let him get comfortable in the pocket. He’s played a lot of snaps in the pre-season. And knock on wood, he’s been healthy. Jimmy’s a guy that’s always been hurt. He’s grown up and his body’s matured. He was a junior coming out of college. He’ll play a good role for us.”

Q: By the same account are you a little disappointed with Turk McBride’s progress?

EDWARDS: “Not really. Those two guys [including Tank Tyler] have played a lot. They’re going to be good players. When you watch them play you don’t see a lot of highlights because they don’t sack the quarterback or whatever. But from the first pre-season game to right now you like both those guys.”

Q: So, now they’re going to play?

EDWARDS: “Oh yeah. Both of them. They’re 20-25 snaps a game guys. Both of them. Absolutely.”

Q: Do you keep the number 53 in your head when you’re composing your roster? Or do you keep it at 49 or 50 knowing you want to look at what is out there?

EDWARDS: “I look at 49. You keep 53 but really in my mind it’s 49.”

Q: Do you always look at those last three or four spots as developmental guys for the future?

EDWARDS: “Sometimes you can get a veteran guy but I’m more inclined to bring in a young guy – a second or third year player at the most. – if we do bring in somebody. I keep talking about developing youth in this program. That’s how you build the back of your roster.”

Q: You have an extra spot because of Jared’s suspension?

EDWARDS: “For two weeks.”

Q: How is your kicker’s psyche?

EDWARDS: “I made it tough for him. We got it close a couple of times and went backwards again. Then I had to go try and kick a….

Q: Field goal.

EDWARDS: “It was bit long – 53 yards out of the box. But I had to find out to see where he’s at. We might need some of those. He can make them, but he missed it. The hold was OK, the snap was OK. He just didn’t hit it real good. He came back later and made one.

“He had what you feel rookies are going to have: he’s going to be up and down some. That’s what we’re seeing right now. When you think about the things that happened in the pre-season, you’re talking about a lot of young guys. You’re talking about a quarterback; you’re talking about the kicker; you’re talking about the defensive linemen; you’re talking about a couple of defensive backs.

“You’re talking about young guys. There is a lot of pressure put on them because we’ve exposed them. But they need to be exposed because they are going to play in games for us. You talk about [Bowe] and all these guys. But guess what? When we go to Houston a lot of these guys are going to play. They have to play. They made some errors but that comes with the territory. You have to live with those errors. Hopefully, they improve.

“But if you don’t put them in the arena to perform and let them play with your [starters] you don’t know what you’ve got. They can’t grow confidence. So, these things will help them become better players and that’s what’s ironic. [Kolby Smith] has kind of shown something of what we think he can be. He broke a big run. Webb made some catches all of a sudden. These things will come. I’d rather them have an opportunity to play in the pre-season so they feel like when they line up in Houston and only play six plays they can say, ‘I can handle that I’m going to be OK.’”

Q: In regard to the kicker, he’s your guy then? You’re not going to be out there shopping?

EDWARDS: “Are we going to look around? Are we going to bring some guys in to kick? Probably we will, but right now he’s ready to be our kicker. If something should happen and it doesn’t work out and he struggles some we have to have some guys ready. But right now we feel like he can make the kick to win games for us. That’s why we drafted him. He didn’t light it up in the pre-season but then again there have been kickers who lit it up in the pre-season and didn’t in the regular season.

“I wish I had all the answers and could say he’s going to make 25 out of 27 kicks. I’m like you guys: I’ll find out. I’ll sit there and send him out there.”