On the June 2 practice:
"The first day was great to see how many of our players got back out here. The way we practiced was tremendous, especially the effort that the quarterbacks needed today to get back into the throwing, especially with the timing and things like that. Overall it was a great practice."
On absent players:
"The two noticeable absences were Shawn Springs (CB, #24) and LaRon (Landry, S, #30). They had the opportunity to be here and chose not to."
On Santana Moss (WR, #89):
"Santana Moss has the flu, so he is probably in bed right now. He came in, but he came in throwing up and we quarantined him and sent him back home."
On Rocky McIntosh (LB, #52):
"He is just taking his reps. What is nice is, he is starting to become more and more involved."
On Erasmus James (DE, #78R):
"The thing that I am told is that he is about 90 percent. That is what I am hoping. What we are going to do is bring him along as he can feel better and work through the final stages of his rehab. I expect him to be a part of training camp. I don't expect to see a lot out here right now. I just see him fitting right in with the mix of our defensive line."
On if he will call LaRon Landry (S, #30) and Shawn Springs (CB, #24):
"I am going to call them and try to get a feel for why they decided not to come. I also know that we have great participation here. They have participated in the first eight practices. It is not something that I am going to make a huge spectacle of. We will just see what happens. I can't really comment because if I said I was really disappointed, and they had a legitimate reason for not coming, then I would misspeak. So I'm going to try not to do that."
On where he sees Erasmus James (DE, #78R) and Stuart Schweigert (S, #36R) fitting in:
"We just have to get to know these guys. We got them and they were available. We have Justin Hamilton (S, #23R) too, who has good size, and he just got here as well so these are all new guys. What we are trying to do with these guys eventually is see how they fit in, where they fit in and how they adjust to the scheme and the new environment for them. It is going to take a little time."
On if he can tell who is studying the playbook and who is not:
"It is hard to study because we threw everything at them this morning and we expected them to immediately go out and practice it this morning. Some of that stuff takes time to think through and to really study it. We didn't give them any time to study. They have to come out here and perform it. That is what is great about the coaches. We can put a great practice together in a short period of time and we had a lot of successes both offensively and defensively. I really commend the players for what they did to come and bring it out to the field."
On if he will call the plays:
"It will be solely my play calling. As we game plan during the week it is really a group of coaches putting together a game plan. What then ends up on that plan, on that sheet, those are the things we practiced, those are the things we believe in and those are the things that should get called. The mix will be mine. The mix will also have an opportunity for the coaches to express between series, I can imagine Stan Hixon (Wide Receivers Coach) saying, 'Listen, those guys are squatting at the corners. We need to go deep.' I can imagine Sherman Smith (Offensive Coordinator) who will be up in the coaches' box saying, ?Listen, we have the power, we have to run the power,' and those things will be interjected in the series. Once the series starts, that is on me."
On if Clinton Portis (RB, #26) is the perfect back for his offense:
"I think Clinton bodes well with this style of offense because we will be both two back and one back. Even in the one back he has the opportunity to run patterns and he ran a couple great routes today. He has a great feel for the zone running game. I did not change the run game from what has been run here in the past. It is the exact same, with the same terminology, so we have a lot of carryover from what Clinton has done here in the past. He ought to feel very comfortable with what we are doing."
On Vernon Fox (S, #39):
"Vernon is coming off his knee scope, coming right along. He is kind of even with Antwaan (Randle El, WR, #82), if you will. I was talking to both these guys before practice, Kareem Moore (S, #41) in there too. They are just looking like three lonely guys standing on the sidelines wanting to be involved and can't. It just takes some encouragement from a coach to come up and say this is what is ahead of you and they have to deal with it. Just try to get them on at the same time."
On Tyler Ecker (TE, #88):
"He has had a nagging groin injury and he is rehabbing. We are taking it slow so he doesn't continue to re-injure it. It is a matter of his body feeling right and it is a matter of him being able to push hard and not have to even be concerned about it. Right now he is in the rehab stage."
On if he is happy with what he saw today:
"I don't like all the little nagging things. We jumped offsides once, the quarterbacks missed a couple of easy throws, once you have to hit, you have to finish, but overall if I'm just complaining about that, there was a lot of great things that happened at practice today. I just feel like we are going to continue to push and get better and better."
