Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 6/8

Jun 08, 2008, 2:00:47 PM

Highlights

Q: Branden Albert got hurt out there today.

HERM EDWARDS: “Yeah, he turned his ankle a little bit. He should be fine. It’s sore but he’ll be ok.”

Q: You had a few guys not working today.

EDWARDS: “Yeah, [Damion] McIntosh was sore, Larry [Johnson] we took out. Brian [Waters] is still sore with a groin. Donnie [Edwards] is still sore with the hamstring. Patrick [Surtain] we gave a rest. He got his senior card today. They’ve been going for four days and this was the fifth day. The same thing will happen in training camp. There will be some guys who will go three or four practices in a row and you’ll give a couple of them off – especially if they’re veteran guys.”

Q: After the fifth day how did they look today?

EDWARDS: “That was the key: yesterday was really easy to practice ‘cause you’re in the stadium and you’ve got our fans hollerin’ and hootin’. It was planned this way. You really would have liked to have ended it yesterday. This is what you’ve got to get through. This was like a training camp day to me. You’ve had a couple of hard practices and then all of a sudden you get to that next practice and you say, ‘man, this is really tough.’ I told them the intent has to be we have to get better today and, I think for the most part, it was good. The two-minute [drill] was really good. They were tired; they were fatigued and they had to think. We cut some things down but we did a lot of team things.”

Q: Tony Gonzalez has been away with the birth of his child but he comes back in and he seems like he’s catching everything in sight. Can you talk about him picking up this new offense?

EDWARDS: “He was here in the off-season a lot more than he’s been. He’s not been here for the OTA’s but he was here early and met with [offensive coordinator] Chan [Gailey] and the offensive coaches. I think he kind of likes what we’re going to do with our offense. We’ll have the ability to get him the football. Tony’s a workaholic kind of guy even when he’s not here. That’s what you like about him and why he goes to Hawaii [Pro Bowl] every year.”

Q: The rookie tight ends you brought in seem to be jumping right into this thing.

EDWARDS: “This is a pretty good tight end group I think. The big guy [Cottam] has a chance to be a good player and he’s got a good guy to look up to in Tony.”

Q: When you have the good tight ends does that reduce the pressure on you to find a fullback a little bit?

EDWARDS: “It does some and that was what our mindset was. The good thing about Chan is he’ll use the players that he has available and will play that way.”

Q: Would you put Michael Merritt at fullback?

EDWARDS: “He could do that; he could motion. But he’s really good at the line of scrimmage and it’ll be kind of interesting when he can participate.”

Q: Next week is your last week and they’re done until training camp. Do decisions have to be made?

EDWARDS: “We have to let 12 [players] go before we even get to training camp. We’ll talk about that this week – about some guys who are on the bubble. Then we’ll decide. It’ll be tough because this is a good group of guys. It’s always hard sometimes to cut guys. Some seasons you go through and you can figure out who those guys are. But this is one of those times the guys you cut are pretty good ballplayers. They’ve come in and competed.”

Q: Your thoughts on the wide receivers as a group – especially your two and three guys.

EDWARDS: “I’ll tell you what: there is a bunch of guys right there that we feel good about. That’s good. Bowe is obviously at the head of the class right now and it’s good that he is. He needs to be. Generally your second year – and it’s something we’ve talked about – is always a tough year in pro football. We don’t want him to have one of those years where he’s trying to find himself. He needs to continue to improve and get better.”

Q: Brian Johnston has that good first step. Is he playing well?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he is. That’s what we liked about him. He’s got a great motor and is a pretty big guy. He’s 260-and-something pounds. He’s big, can run and has a great motor.

Related:
Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 6/7