Highlights

TODD HALEY: “Again I’ll start with the same opening as yesterday. With all due respect there are a lot of questions that I will not be able to answer and will not answer on the suspension.”

Q: How does it affect you changing running backs?

HALEY: “I’m not going to comment. If you want to talk about the guys that are here I’ll talk about them”

Q: What about Jamaal? What does he give you or what do you lose with him?

HALEY: “I think Jamaal, as I’ve made pretty clear, is a guy that is starting to get it or has made a lot of progress. He’s gone through some adversity this year. He hasn’t cracked. He’s continued to fight through and get better. He’s got play-making ability and I’m excited about Jamaal and his ability.”

Q: Considering the circumstances or ignoring the circumstances, what do you tell these guys as they do or do not disperse for the weekend?

HALEY: “You’re asking about what?

Q: Do you say, stay out of trouble…

HALEY: “What I think is clear to them is the fact we’ve worked really hard. We’ve been in pads more than anybody else probably in the league. We’ve had a lot of physical practices, a very physical camp and I felt like if we practiced well this week – which we did over three very good days of practice, especially Tuesday coming off a Sunday game – that they deserved a little time to recuperate and get re-charged. I think they’ve earned this time and we’ll be back on Monday and be ready to get back to work.”

Q: What’s the message for these guys considering or not considering these past few days, keeping risk in mind.

HALEY: “I delivered a message to them and I’ll keep that between us. I think that’s just common sense.”

Q: I assume it’s the first time you’ve had to do that. Was it one of those things you had to prepare for, and deliver the right message?

HALEY: “I’m still confused on the question.”

Q: Before everybody goes off for three days…

HALEY: “Probably very similar to when OTA’s ended and they’re going to go on their own. That was a much longer period of time and this is a shorter period of time. But we obviously can’t backtrack in any way, shape or form across the board. We worked hard this week to try and get better and I feel like we made progress. I think we’ve got a better idea about our football team right now going into the second half of the season and we’ve got our work cut out for us. But I think they deserve a little time but we’ll be back to work. We’re not going to take our foot off the gas. It’s all part of building this team.”

Q: Does that include reminding these guys to practice good judgment?

HALEY: “I said earlier in the week how these guys conduct themselves is very important to all of us.”

Q: What do you hope this franchise has learned from this moving forward?

HALEY: “Learned from what, the bye week?”

Q: The reason we’ve all been out here all week?

HALEY: “I’m not going to comment on anything to do with that.”

Q: How important is it with as much as you demand from these players that you give them some time off to come back re-charged?

HALEY: “I think it’s very important and as a coach it’s hard coming off the way our game went Sunday. We talked about this as a staff and had a plan for what we wanted to do this week. Again, going into that game we felt we had a great chance to win the game. It didn’t go that way and the knee-jerk reaction is let’s go back to work. But I do think it’s important that these guys have the ability to re-charge their batteries because they’ve been going very, very hard and effort has not been a problem.”

Q: So you gave them Saturday off? So they’ll be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday?

HALEY: “Yeah, Saturday.”

Q: What are you going to do and with the coaches?

HALEY: “We’re going to get some stuff done and are going to reconvene later in the weekend. The coaches need a little time; I’ve been hard on them too.”

Q: In the conversations you’ve had with the league, are they still looking into this incident to where there could be further penalties coming?

HALEY: “No disrespect, but I’m not going to comment in any way, shape or form.”

Q: Are you ever planning to? At first you said after the investigation was over….

HALEY: “The statement’s been made. I’m not going to comment on it any further.”

Q: Do Jamaal and Kolby offer you as a coach a combination that you couldn’t have before?

HALEY: “I don’t know because I’m still getting to know Kolby. He’s got two weeks under his belt after a tough comeback and he seemed to make it through okay. I know there will be some rust. We’ll get back to pads next week so we’ll really see him for the first time running. But I’m kind of excited to see how he looks and I know he’s excited to get out there and practice and play.”

Q: Do you think he’ll play against the Jaguars?

HALEY: “His clock is ticking and we’ve got another eight or nine days or something to officially make that decision – eight days I think. We’ll see how he exactly made it through this week and then evaluate him and then make the decision at the last possible [time].”

Q: You said Jamaal hasn’t cracked. Is that learning your system or adjusting to your practice schedule?

HALEY: “Little bit of everything but Jamaal, specifically if you remember, he had a fumble in the pre-season game against the Rams. He fumbled a kickoff and there are some things that happened to him where he could have gone in the tank. To me, when you go in the tank you’re cracking a little bit. He’s fought through some adversity and he’s already ready and always ready to go in when his number is called. He practices hard and has been meeting every morning at 6:30 with Coach Carthon – every morning. He’s showing signs of a guy who has gotten better.”

Q: What have you learned about minus plays – identified in this bye week?

HALEY: “Yeah, I think we’ve had great work as a staff and I think we have a much clearer picture of where we’re at as a team and what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are and what areas that have to be protected a little more. I think that’s why the bye week is good. It gave us a little more time as a staff and specifically offensively. We made major changes in late August that we really haven’t had a chance to get our feet under and get to know the offense as it’s supposed to be learned.”

Q: As far as play-calling have the last three or four days been helpful to you?

HALEY: “Without a doubt because protecting your liabilities is important and as a play-caller there may be ways you want to call the game or ways you’re used to calling a game and you can’t. I felt like I made adjustments but after sitting for a week and studying us it’s clear there are more adjustments that need to be made. So, this has been a good week for anybody.”

Q: Had you not changed the offense would it have been better in the short-term to stay with the one you had and changed it at end of the season?

HALEY: “That’s completely hypothetical. It’s impossible for me to answer. I made the decision and knew why I made it and I made it pretty clear for now and in the future.”

Q: You still happy with your decision?

HALEY: “I wouldn’t change anything.”

Q: What’s the status of the offensive line and the injuries?

HALEY: “I think injuries are part of the game and something you have to deal with. In two games we did a really good job of dealing with it: the Dallas games and some of the moves we had to make once Branden [Albert] went down, and in the Washington game. What injuries force you to do is they force you to put some people in that maybe you wouldn’t put in and they get some great experience and you get to learn a little bit more about them in game situations. As tough as it is, it’s a fact of life. The games are going to go on. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of adjusting on the fly and finding solutions and that’s what it is all about.”

Q: You said you were not going to talk about the Larry situation yet, but there are a lot of questions to ask. Do you guys have a time line when….

HALEY: “I’m not going to comment in any way.”