Herm Edwards Press Conference - 10/14

Oct 14, 2008, 5:02:22 PM

Highlights

HERM EDWARDS: “Obviously there have been a lot of distractions these last couple of days and hopefully these guys can understand the importance of not letting distractions cloud what we have to do this week against a good football team, the Tennessee Titans, the only undefeated football team left (in the NFL).

“When you look at them on film, they’re a big physical football team. We actually played them last year. Kerry Collins has come in to play quarterback for them and he’s done a great job.

“Theirs is a very good defense. Not giving up a lot of points, about 11 points a game. Offensively, they’re scoring about 23 points. They do a great job of taking the ball away. They run the ball fairly decent. The quarterback is making some good reads and good throws. So this is a game where turnovers are a key.

“They really dominate teams all through the games. They get a lead early in the game, second quarter keep it; in the fourth quarter they put it on.

“At one point they had rebuilt. I can remember when they were 4-12 and 5-11 and now they’ve come together. Jeff (Fisher) has done a good job down there.

“Hopefully, the distractions of this week don’t influence our mindset on how we’re going to play.”

Q: Has Tony Gonzalez been traded?

EDWARDS: “Not that I know of.”

Q: Do you expect him to be traded?

EDWARDS: “3:03 (looks at clock). Nope.

Q: Do you expect him to be on the practice field tomorrow?

EDWARDS: “Absolutely.”

Q: And will this be a distraction to your team?

EDWARDS: “I doubt that.”

Q: Or will he be a distraction?

EDWARDS: “No, he’ll be like he always is. He’s a professional football player. He’s a pro and one thing about Tony: he’ll prepare himself this week to play well. That’s what we expect out of him.”

Q: Have you talked to Tony about this situation?

EDWARDS: “Nope.”

Q: Not at all?

EDWARDS: “Nope.”

Q: Do you plan to talk to him about it?

EDWARDS: “No. No. He’s going to be at practice tomorrow. He’s going to practice. That’s what he’s going to do. He’s a professional football player. Period. That’s it.”

Q: Have you talked to Carl about it and what the sticking points were and why it did or did not happen?

EDWARDS: “No. I’ve been watching Tennessee. I’ve got enough problems trying to figure out how to make a first down against Tennessee on offense.”

Q: Did Carl ever come to you and ask what would your thoughts be on this?

EDWARDS: “Whatever we talk about as an organization it is inside the organization. Obviously, Carl is down in Florida with our owner right now, down there with the league meeting. You can talk to Carl.”

Q: You obviously feel you’re a better team with him?

EDWARDS: “You’re always a good team with good players and the more good players you have the better team you are and he’s a good football players.

Q: Would you really have had a chance to evaluate what Brodie could do if you had taken away one of his offensive weapons? Is that a factor?

EDWARDS: “No, the factor is he’s here and Brodie’s going to play this week. I’m glad you mentioned that. He’s actually well and going to play again and, hopefully, he can stay healthy for us for 11 weeks and do what we anticipate he can do.”

Q: Have you talked to Tony yet?

EDWARDS: “No, I have not. They (players) were in yesterday. They were off today?

Q: You mentioned having enough problems without having to deal with this. Is all this distraction something you would prefer not to have to deal with?

EDWARDS: “That’s part of football. There are always going to be distractions and I think the teams that can kind of put those things aside and concentrate on what you have to do…that’s what young guys are going to have to learn about professional football. There are always going to be distractions every week, some bigger than others. You can’t bring it to work. You have to stay focused on your job and try to prepare.”

Q: Some people have speculated that Tony’s attitude may be soured, that you might not get a full effort if he doesn’t get traded. What would you say to that?

EDWARDS: “I would say that’s wrong. Tony’s going to give 100% as a professional football player. He always has. That’s one thing you can count on him. He takes a lot of pride on being who he is. If not, he wouldn’t have achieved all the goals that he’s achieved thus far in his career. I don’t worry about that at all.”

Q: Speaking about Brodie, how has he looked in practice?

EDWARDS: “He’s been good. Been throwing every day, stayed extra actually yesterday throwing to the receivers. Strong. Not sore. That’s good. He’s excited about coming back and we’re excited about having him back. Excited about having our starting quarterback back after the first game and that’s a good thing.”

Q: Not talking to Tony sounds like a conscious effort to control what you can control and leave alone what you can’t.

EDWARDS: “True statement. Exactly. We’re so young as a group you can’t worry about those things. You have to concentrate on the whole that is the team. I think Tony can handle that situation because he’s a professional and he’s been in this business a long time. Whether he’s disappointed or whatever, he can handle that and it won’t spill over to the football team. He’s not that kind of guy, so I’m more concentrating on the players who are available this week to play.”

Q: Did it get close at all (to trade)? Do you know if they talked to Carl?

EDWARDS: “No, I was just waiting till 3 o’clock and that’s why we moved (the press conference) back to make sure if something happened I wasn’t coming in here at 2 o’clock and I’d have to answer all those questions right now like is he a Chief or is he not a Chief. That’s the worst thing I could do. He’s a Chief, guys, and he’ll be here on Sunday with (number) 88 on. He’ll be in here playing football for us and that’s good.”

Q: Speaking of distractions, is the team taking an approach that the alleged off the field problem with Larry Johnson is a distraction?

EDWARDS: “That is a distraction. That’s another one. That’s an in-house situation. We’re looking at it and it’s something that will be dealt with.”

Q: But Larry will play this week right?

EDWARDS: “It’s a distraction. You deal with distractions the way you deal with them. It’s where it’s at.”

Q: Will the league and commissioner Roger Goodell have an opinion on the Larry situation?

EDWARDS: “I’m sure the league will get involved in it. Yeah. I would assume but I don’t know that. I haven’t heard anything.”

Q: Can you foresee it being in-house or just (NFL headquarters) Park Avenue as far as his status this week?

EDWARDS: “It will be something that we’ll discuss. We’re discussing everything but the main thing is how do we beat the Titans.”

Q: Have you talked to Larry about this particular incident?

EDWARDS: “No I have not.”

Q: Just to make clear, you are or you are not 100% confident that Larry will play this week?

EDWARDS: “I haven’t made a decision on anybody right now. All our players who are available to play are going to play.”

Q: Do you plan on talking to Tony tomorrow about this or that he requested a trade?

EDWARDS: “He’s a Chief. What is there to talk about?”

Q: That he maybe didn’t want to be a Chief?

EDWARDS: “No, he’s a Chief. This is what we’re going to ask you do in the game. Get open, score some touchdowns. That’s the most important thing.”

Q: What does that say about you, about Carl, about this organization that he asked to be traded?

EDWARDS: “It doesn’t say anything about me. It doesn’t say one thing about me. It has nothing to do about me. You need to ask the player about that. That’s not for me to answer. I answer for decisions I make, what comes out of my mouth. So, you’re asking the wrong guy. You need to ask him.”

Q: Is it fair to say that in a rebuilding program you need some veteran presence here or there?

EDWARDS: “Absolutely, yeah, and we have some. I think Brian Waters has taken this thing in a way that you would expect him to do. He’s fully behind what we’re trying to do; he understands what we’re trying to do. If you listen to him, he’s probably saying we should have done it a couple of years ago. That’s good to know. He’s a good football player. He’s a standup guy and that’s what you like about Brian Waters. He’s a pro. He’s a pro’s pro. It’s good to have guys like that in your locker room.”

Q: You mentioned the Titans have rebuilt. What do you take from their experience?

EDWARDS: “They were in cap jail a while back. I can remember that when (head coach) Jeff (Fisher) was down there. We talked about it when I was in New York. They had a plan. They did what we did: had 39 free agents or something like that going to camp. It was a while back.

“They were going through the process of building a football team through the draft and that’s what they did and they struggled for a while. Like I said, 4-12, 5-11, and then they got going. They were patient; he was patient. Now they’re one of the better teams, a very consistent football team, a very solid football team.”

Q: And they’ve done it with an unsettled quarterback situation?

EDWARDS: “Yeah. They drafted the one kid and Kerry Collins is the backup guy who came in this year and has done a great job for them. He’s a veteran guy, good football player and settled them down some, their offense. I know (their offensive coordinator) came back to them and was actually with us in New York when we had all those injuries. One thing about Jeff is he’s kept most of his staff and so the philosophy has stayed the same. Jeff is the longest tenured coach in the NFL.”

Q: How much harder has this week been for you?

EDWARDS: “It’s been interesting, to say the least but you juggle balls as a head coach and you have to deal with that. That’s part of the process of being a head coach. The good thing for us is we’re so young our players are more in tune with what we’re trying to do. They were very good the bye week. They were very good yesterday. They’ll be excited about playing this week, I know that.”

Q: Did you take a day or two off?

EDWARDS: “No, I was here. I stayed here and watched all our games again on offense, defense and special teams. I really evaluated the players above everything else to see how we could help them get better.”

Q: What did you learn?

EDWARDS: “A very inconsistent football team. Not confident at times, our emotional level goes up and down. That’s kind of how we play. And with that many guys playing there has been a lot of errors made. I think we can help them.”

Q: Did you watch any of the screwy finishes around the league this past week. What kind of message can you give to a young team based on the crazy finishes?

EDWARDS: “I think what you know about this league is it’s not who you play but how you play the day you play. The teams you think are real good all of a sudden…Carolina was a pretty good football team and they go to Tampa and get beat 27-3. It’s how you play that week. That’s how this league is. Teams can sneak up on you. All it takes is you to turn the ball over a couple of times and get some bad field position and, all of a sudden, the other team gets going. It makes for a long day.

“I believe in playing until the last second. I was involved in a game (”Miracle of the Meadowlands”) 30 years ago like that come November that you would think was over too. I understand playing until the last minute.”

Q: You said something interesting about Brian Waters saying that this (rebuilding) is something that should have happened three years ago. Is that an opinion you share that you should have been rebuilding a couple of years ago?

EDWARDS: “I just think you know your team and there are some decisions you make along the way that are not one person decisions. It’s collective. There are some things you could have done a little bit different but you didn’t because there are some weighing factors where you couldn’t do it at that point in time. But I’m glad we’re doing it now. I know we’re going in the right direction. We are what we are. We have some young players who are getting better. You can’t look back. We’ll continue to try and improve. This will be a good test for us against an undefeated football team.”