On has he seen Fred Smoot's (CB, #27) excitement about being in the playoffs:
"Yeah, we have. He has just been even more 'yakkier' than normal. That is pretty hard. Sometimes we have had to wear earplugs this week in the meeting room in defense because he has been very energetic and I am happy for him. I have a real smile on my face that he has had the opportunity to make the playoffs for the first time in his career."
On the decision to go more man-to-man defense with Shawn Springs (CB, #24) and Fred Smoot (CB, #27):
"They are playing at a very high level. Fred was nursing a hamstring for an awful long time of the season. You have to make sure he is able to line up, especially once Carlos (Rogers, CB, #22) went down. We didn't want to have the chance to lose him until he was at full health. Once he was at full health, Fred has always been a really good man-to-man corner. That is one of the reasons we brought him back here because we wanted to do more of that. Then, I teased him earlier in the year, he didn't cooperate. He didn't stay healthy. Now that he got back healthy towards the end of the year, we have been able to do quite a bit more of that. Shawn has been healthy all year long. He started at the end of training camp, right at the start of the season. He had a couple of just slight strains. We were just trying to make sure nothing developed. I think the way we managed that early in the year was very smart, on how we tried to take some of the snaps off of him early in the year. That was a story the first game of the year of how come I didn't play him that much the first game and the reason being was because I didn't want to wear him out so we would have him at this time of the year. He has done very, very well."
On if he feels like Matt Hasselbeck (Seattle QB, #8) has done for his team what Todd Collins (QB, #15) has done for this team:
"I really do. I think Matt has been outstanding for that team. Any time you can win the division as many times in a row as they have, from a personality standpoint of how he fits in with Mike Holmgren (Seattle Head Coach), he understands that offense and he energizes that offense. He has played at a very high level, at a Pro Bowl level for several years. He is obviously the feature piece of that offense."
On if London Fletcher (LB, #59) has given him more than he expected:
"He has done what we expected him to do. I am always happy when I see that those guys continue to stay at a high level. Good coaches are able to make average people good, good people great and the guys that are really great ones, they have to continue to play their best year in and year out. I think Kirk Olivadotti (Linebackers Coach) has done a very good job with that. I think London's chip on his shoulder, 'prove the world wrong' attitude, has always been there. He plays at a high level and he can continue to play at a high level. I think Kirk has done some very good things this year on how we tried to make sure we rested him. He fights us tooth and nail every single week when we rest him in practice because he wants to take every single rep in practice. He wants to take every single rep in a ball game. It was interesting the little dynamics he and I had on the sideline this past week when I didn't let him play the last series of the ball game. He wants to play and you love to have those guys around. You want guys to play. I have said this before, the two most important words that begin with A for a pro football player is accountability and availability and he is both, with a capital A."
On Shawn Springs (CB, #24):
"He is playing very well. He is playing some of the best football since I have been here. He played with some big plays that first year, then he had some unfortunate nicks and some injuries in the last couple of years. The fact that he has been able to stay healthy, I think he has been playing very productive. He and Fred (Smoot, CB, #27) both, but really Shawn has enabled us to play the style of play that we wanted to play here really going down the stretch because he is able to hold up by himself out there with nobody helping him. He has been very, very consistent. A corner has to play consistent in the most stressful times of the ball game without any help. He is out there by himself. He has done that very well. You will see a lot of the offenses don't even try him anymore. When he is able to produce the way he has been producing he has been able to force throws away from him. I think that is respect that he is getting playing at a very high level."
On if Shawn Springs (CB, #24) has offered up some insight to Seattle:
"Yeah, he does. He still has some insight there and there are other guys that have been against them. All of us exhaust all resources in the coaching grapevine, in the coaching trees, that we have people that have played against them in the division. I have some divisional friends that I talked to and all of our staff has and some of our players. Our players have talked to guys within the division. Shawn being around those guys for so long there is a few of the little subtleties that he can bring into the room and share and he has done that this week."
On if he has thought about how they faced the Vikings and their strong left side and now facing Walter Jones (Seattle T, #71):
"[There are] some similarities and I have tremendous respect for Walter Jones. I think he is one of the very best tackles in the National Football League. There is a little bit different style of play with him there now without Steve Hutchinson. When Hutchinson was there beside Jones, that was a formidable pair right there. They are a real solid offensive line. I think they are well coached up front. I think that they understand their system. Any time you have had a staff there for so long, the comfort level of the players knowing what is expected of them, how they want their techniques done, the tempo they want it done, the execution levels they want them done. I think that is comforting to the players and I think they are very well coached."
On how pleased is he with his coaching staff:
"All of us, there are times where we have to be able to say, 'Hey it is time for a change', or 'What is best for this group of guys.' I am real pleased with how the staff was able to, all of us, check our egos at the door last year and be able to look from a very introspective look on what we had available from a personnel standpoint wise, who we were going to identify and try to go after in the free agent market, in the draft. With all that being done at the same time, settle in on what we think was some significant changes in what we were going to do X's and O's wise this year as compared to what we had done the previous two years. It was really very similar to what we did the first year. When we came in here that first year we did the very same thing. It was just good timing. Obviously when you don't do as well and we suffered as many injuries as we did last year and knew there was going to be personnel changes, that we needed to make sure we did that. I am very pleased with what the staff on what they have been able to do. More importantly, that has to work hand in hand with the players. They players have to buy into that whole thing and they have. We reduced an awful lot of what they had to think about and tried to highlight the skill makers, the big play makers, tried to highlight what they could do. Obviously the addition of a few quality, very quality human beings and quality football players helped us make a pretty good turn around."
