Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 7/25

Jul 25, 2008, 1:13:59 PM

Afternoon Highlights

Q: Did you get anything done having to come in from the rain this afternoon too?

HERM EDWARDS: “Yeah, we really did. We walked through the script of how we practice. When you have this many young guys it’s probably a blessing in disguise for the fact that we got to go through some plays in a walk-through mode again, really a whole script of how we will practice. Now tomorrow we’ll go on the field and practice with the pads on.”

Q: But it’s got to be a bit frustrating since you spend months preparing for this day and then you can’t do what you want to do.

EDWARDS: “It’s one day. It’s not every day. When those lightning bolts come out of the sky and the wind starts blowing there’s a guy that I believe in that’s bigger than me that has a whistle and he’s telling me you don’t go and we don’t go.”

Q: Even though it’s the first practice did you get behind because of this or not?

EDWARDS: “No, you’re not going to get behind. No. There are a lot of things that a lot of coaches are going to do in practice this year. There are a lot of coaches going to do what we did today. They’re going to have a walk-through in the morning and practice in the afternoon. Some days you’ll just have walk-throughs.”

“The good thing about it they lined up, they heard the call, they broke the huddle, coaches were coaching them. They can’t go full speed (inside the gym) but it’s a mental check and it’s probably good because when you start off it puts you in a mode as a player where you can relax some because you know you’re not going to be out of breath. But tomorrow they’ll forget everything they learned today. That’s ok, because they’re so young.”

Q: Are you anxious to see them in pads and seeing what they learned in mini-camps and OTA’s?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, that’s important. I think the first couple of days of emphasis will be getting our pads down because we haven’t practiced in pads since…some of them when they were in college, or quite some time. You want to get through tomorrow’s practice without any injuries. There have already been some guys hurt at some other clubs.”

Q: You had a bunch of rookies starting in some of your packages. Is this even exceeding what you thought you might see when last season was over?

EDWARDS: “No, because you anticipated your team would look like this. We talked about it, especially when the season was over and what we might look like. For me, it’s refreshing because that’s the direction we want to head. For most of the players they just kind of accept it. The young guys are accepting going in and playing and expect to play.”

Q: Is it a case of putting young guys in because you’ve got an opening or is it more a case of guys earning it?

EDWARDS: “First of all there is an opening to compete. Now they’ve got to earn it. Are they going to be a starter; are they going to be a rotation guy; are they going to make the team? You want to create competition on your football team and there’s no doubt about that.”

Q: You talk a lot about the upside of having a young team. Are you ready to live with the down side?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, and there are some ups and downs. But I think there are more ups than downs. I know that because on previous teams we did this. We did this in Tampa and you’re going to go through some pain but at the end you’re going to be better for it. You really are and I think the teams that have done it in the past – teams like us in Tampa – when you look at those teams people don’t talk about it anymore. They’re good teams. Well, how did they get good? If you look at it they built it; they built it a certain way. Now they’re pretty sound.”

Q: How’s Chan’s guy at fullback, (Mike) Cox?

EDWARDS: “He’s doing OK. But we’re putting the pads on now and we’ll see. But the thing that he has is he knows the offense and is a pretty savvy guy. He knows how to get in position to block and that’s what you’ve got to do as a fullback. You’ve got to be able to block on the run.”

Q: On the offense, how far along are you getting it all installed?

EDWARDS: “In five to six practices everything will be in on offense. We’ll have 95% of it in. The only thing we didn’t do in the spring is goal line. But our offense will be in.”

Q: You pretty happy with how it’s going?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, but now as we get going we’re going to speed up but receiver-wise and the concepts what we’re going to ask them to do it’ll all be in.”

Morning Highlights

Q: Are you going to go outside this afternoon if it doesn’t rain?

HERM EDWARDS: “Yes, we will have practice in shells and a whole practice.”

Q: When do you put pads on?

EDWARDS: “Tomorrow afternoon. It kind of worked out good for today (going inside because of the rain) because it was a walk-through and it’s good to give some of the young guys that before they actually go out. It’s more a teaching mode.”

Q: You couldn’t help yourself could you, going over the defensive line of the ball this morning?

EDWARDS: “Well, I kind of knew what the offense was doing. They run the same plays over and over. I’ve got that part figured out. I just wanted to see some things (on defense) that we had talked about in the spring on what we wanted to do defensively.”

Q: Any guys who can’t work because of injury who are here now?

EDWARDS: “Let me think: the only guy who is kind of on the mend is our young receiver who we drafted, (Kevin) Robinson. He’s the only guy. Other than that everybody else is ready to go.”

Q: What’s his injury?

EDWARDS: “He had a knee that we cleaned out about a month ago. He should be fine in the next couple of days and should be able to practice. He’ll be ready to play in that first pre-season game.”

Q: What did you want to get out of the walk-through this morning?

EDWARDS: “Really to settle down their anxiety because you’re talking about a lot of young guys. You’re talking about an 80-man roster and I talked to a lot of coaches who went (to camp) about the same time as we did and a lot of them had that same kind of mindset that first morning practice: get them through a walk-through, do some special things and then in the afternoon get them practicing.

“I thought it was a refresher because they haven’t been around coaches, haven’t been around since the spring and this morning was a teaching mode. They were very focused which was good. We talked about being focused and making sure if you’re not involved in (the play) paying attention to what the coach was saying.”

Q: Is instilling mental toughness a goal for this camp?

EDWARDS: “It’s focus. You lose focus when you’re not one of the 11 guys out there. You’re sitting back and watching and sometimes you don’t think it’s important. We have so many young guys that basically when the coaches are talking you need to take a mental rep. That’s the thing you need to learn about pro football. That’s the thing they’ll learn about pro football. You don’t get as many reps as in college because there are that many more players. So, you can’t wear guys out. Mentally, they’ve got to be able to do what we’re asking them to do without taking anything more than a mental rep.”

Q: How important is it for everybody to forget about last season?

EDWARDS: “I think that’s forgotten. I think the sting of what we went through you never forget that. But we talked about it last night, about our inability to finish games. That’s basically what it was for us. We went through every game all the way to the end and showed them exactly what took place in those games. We’ve got to clean that up and that’s the good thing: it’s all correctable, fixable.

“Another good thing is more than half of these guys weren’t involved in it. They weren’t here so they don’t know that. All they know is they’re coming to a team that started out halfway decent and then couldn’t find their way towards the end. That’s something we’ve got to correct and something we talked about.

“I told the guys to not just come here and show up. It’s not about showing up and trying to survive. It’s about getting better and doing the little things right. So, we’ve stressed that in the spring and now we’ve got to stress it in camp when the pads come on and guys get sore. All of a sudden in the fourth day you’re sore and you’re hurt. We’ve got to make sure the right guys are practicing and that’s a key for us that the right guys are practicing together as a football team.”

Q: Is that your message, just not to show up?

EDWARDS: “That’s one of them. I think when you play this game the one thing you do know that everybody goes through this process of going to training camp. If you’ve gone through a lot of them you try to survive. But it’s not about that. It’s about learning and about getting better as a player and a team.

Q: For a young player coming to a team like this, how is that different?

EDWARDS: “The opportunity to play. They are going to get an opportunity and that’s the mold we’re in. That’s why we drafted them. It’s where we’re headed. What they’ve got to realize is that just because you’re a young player you don’t get a get-out-of-jail- card where you can make a bunch of mistakes and it’s forgiven. You’re a professional and you have to know what to do and that’s why we’re going to be very diligent in how we teach these guys.

“The little things win football games and we didn’t do a good enough job last year to win football games in the second half. If you look at all our games in the second half starting with the Green Bay game they were very competitive games. In the second half for some reason we didn’t function very well.

“Same coaches, same players played the first half. We just couldn’t figure it out the second half. I think the players understand that especially when we talked about it last night. I methodically went through it – every game – and situations and what happened, what the score was, what transpired. It’s the little things that win games for you and we have to do the little things a lot better.”

Q: Was that painful to watch?

EDWARDS: “I went through it on paper. I looked through the games and have a pretty good memory. It’s not painful; it’s part of it. You don’t want it to happen but you want to correct it when it happens. The way you correct it is you talk about it and tell them why. When things happen bad you want to know why. You want to be able to fix it. Go fix it. I think we’re on our way to do that.”

Q: Why did it happen? Why did it happen in the second half?

EDWARDS: “We just got into a rut where we lost a little bit of confidence as a football team. When you think about how we played we were very competitive but there were times in games where you’ve got to close the game out and we didn’t close it out. Just go back and look at the scores at halftime. We were ahead or tied with a bunch of good football teams going into the third quarter and some going into the fourth quarter. We couldn’t find a way and we’ve got to be able to do that.

“As bad as people thought we were, we weren’t a bad team, I told them. We weren’t going out there and getting blown out. We got blown out one game: Denver. Other than that they were competitive. We have to find ways to make plays. Coaches have to put them in position to make plays and players have to make plays.

“Now, the good thing is it’s over with. But you’ve got to know what got you there and I think these players understand that.”

Q: What are your thoughts on the Dorsey situation?

EDWARDS: “I don’t have any. He’ll be here when he gets here. It’s about the 78 guys who are here. It’s business and I don’t worry about that.”

Q: Were you a little relieved when Flowers and Albert got in given the position that they play?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, but basically they get in here. If you sit here and worry every day about this guy getting in and not getting in…I don’t worry about that stuff. They all get in here. Dwayne Bowe didn’t get in here early last year and you were all concerned and he played pretty good.”

Q: Isn’t a bit different though because you’ve got a lot of young guys and it’s important for them to be here and learn?

EDWARDS: “It’s one guy; it’s not a team full of players. It’s one player. He’ll be fine. He’ll get here.”

Q: How many positions are open on this team?

EDWARDS: “I’d say at least 10 or 11 guys, guys in rotation. The back-up positions are critical. Certain guys you know are going to start but then it’s the backup guys and you need to make sure they play. What will happen to us in the pre-season is a lot of these guys are going to play, a lot of football who can be starters and guys who can be rotation players. They’re young and they’ve got to get experience.”

Q: This would probably make this camp one of the most competitive camps in the league?

EDWARDS: “Very and that’s how we planned it. That’s what we want.”