Rookie Mini-Camp

TODD HALEY: “Happy Mother’s Day everybody. We finished up today and I thought it was a productive three days from the standpoint of getting these guys on our page. They’re all currently headed to the airport now. Most of them should be back the 16th which will really end up being the 18th for us. They will then start mixing with the veterans in our OTA’s.”

Q: Did they ever start to get it?

HALEY: “Yeah, I would say today was the best day. Again, the conditioning aspect of it was pretty obvious to me and when you have as few guys as we had out there and they reach that point then it becomes counter-productive. So, we slowed the pace down and did things different than how we’re normally going to do it which is frustrating as a coach because you want to show them the way you want to practice. But we were very clear with them that we made some adjustments so we could get through practice.”

Q: How did the quarterbacks look you had out there?

HALEY: “Again, I thought they came in and competed well and picked up the system. They enabled us to get through practice.”

Q: Are you going to sign any of those guys?

HALEY: “We’re discussing all those try-out guys today and hope to make a decision by tomorrow.”

Q: As it stands now do you have enough guys to get you through camp at quarterback?

HALEY: “As it stands, yeah. (Brodie) Croyle is the wildcard right now just on when we’re going to get him back (from injury).”

Q: When do you think?

HALEY: “We’re hoping that he’ll be ready before camp.”

Q: So if he’s ready you’re okay at quarterback?

HALEY: “Again, we’re keeping all options open and we’ll talk about these guys who were in here this weekend and anybody else who’s available or who comes available.”

Q: What do you think about Donald Washington?

HALEY: “Again, he was in the same boat with all the guys. I think he looks the part and seemed to pick up what we were teaching him and tried to do it the way we were coaching it. I was encouraged by Donald. He’s one of the late arrivals (can’t report until after he officially graduates from Ohio State in June) guys so what we stressed to him was that he’s got a big task ahead of him to not get too far behind. That’s a big issue.”

Q: He had some issues at Ohio State and was suspended for a bit. Did you believe that what you found in his background wasn’t a concern now?

HALEY: “Yeah, we already talked about Donald at draft time. We felt that we did our due diligence on all these guys and if they’re with us right now we felt comfortable with each and every one of them.”

Q: He can’t come back for the mini-camp in June then until he’s graduated?

HALEY: “Right. He’ll catch some of the OTA’s at the back end but we’ll have to do some extra work with him for sure to get him close.”

Q: These rookies have been basically coached by different coaches for a serious amount of time. How hard is it for them to switch to what you want them to do?

HALEY: “I think you just spell it out to them pretty clearly and what I’m preaching is there is not going to be a lot of gray area around here. We’re going to tell them what we want done and how we want it done. Then we hold them accountable to that. That’s part of coaching. You get players, whether they’re free agents, draft picks, or from other teams, through trades, and you have to assimilate those guys into how you want things done on a full-time basis.”

Q: You mentioned having to slow things down in practice.

HALEY: “Like I said, it’s frustrating for me personally because you have a vision for how you want to practice and the pace at which you practice. We’re going to be a fast-paced group that gets out there and practices hard and fast and efficiently. Again, we only had 34 guys and we only had three receivers in this camp, so if we were in any multiple receiver groups those guys were going every route and they weren’t in the condition that they had to be to be able to function. It’s frustrating because you want to show these new guys how you’re going to do it and what’s expected of them. So we just had to be clear them that they had to adjust this time.”