On Thursday, August 1, 2013, Redskins HC Mike Shanahan addressed the media following afternoon training camp practice at the Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Center in Richmond, Va.
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On cornerback Richard Crawford's hamstring:
"I haven't heard anything yet. I don't know how serious it is. I'm sure we don't know until [Head Athletic Trainer] Larry [Hess] looks at it and the doctors look at it. But as soon as I know, I'll let you guys know."
On having NFL officials at practice:
"We have them tonight in our meetings. I had a chance to talk to them quite extensively this morning. I talked to them on the sideline, just going over the new rules and how they look at, some of the things we're going to face this year all the way from the equipment, the option – how they're going to play the quarterbacks, how they're going to call it, from the defensive perspective as well as the offense, sliding head first, normal slides. Just different things that they talk about in the owners meetings and you try to get some clarification this time of year."
On wide receiver Joshua Morgan:
"He strained his hamstring. I don't know how serious it is, but it was serious enough that he didn't practice anymore. But hopefully it's not too bad. He said it was just a strain so that was a positive."
On if he can go into detail about his conversation with the officials:
"Not at this time. I'll get some clarification tonight, but we talk in generalities. I'll get a little bit more specific at a later date, but I want to hear exactly what they have to say again tonight as they explain it to the team and the coaches again."
On linebacker Nick Barnett as a potential backup:
"He hasn't been a backup. He's been a starter. He's coming off an injury. He's not ready to practice full speed; when that will be, I cannot tell you. I want to get him ready to be able to play in the season. Losing a guy like Keenan [Robinson], we don't have the depth we had before and the experience that we had, so I expect Nick to come in and get in football shape. When he is in football shape, we'll get a chance to play him. If that's in a preseason game, that would be great. We're going to look at him day-by-day, see how he looks in individual drills, get a lot of mental reps in walkthroughs and in our team situations, and when he is ready to go and ready to practice, then we'll practice him."
On the right tackle position:
"You take a look at our tackle situation and I think it is very obvious to everybody who is first, second and third team right now, but there's a lot of different scenarios that can occur. Your left tackle can move over to right. We've got Maurice Hurt, who has played both the tackle and the guard position. We do have some depth now with [Josh] LeRibeus and [Adam] Gettis both playing the guard position. Gettis has played center already. [Kory] Lichtensteiger has the ability to go inside at the guard position at the left side or center. So we feel like we have more flexibility now than we've had in the past. Hopefully Hurt can get well in the next couple of weeks and we can watch him compete. But it'll be interesting to evaluate a lot of these offensive linemen situations and I'm looking forward to that."
On if tackle Trent Williams was wearing a hard cast:
"Well, we're going to make it hard. We don't want him to make the wrist any worse than it is right now. When you have, basically a ball like he does, it keeps him from grabbing onto anything. So he gets to get in shape from a football standpoint, but it's very awkward because he can't use his hand, so he's got to use one hand. It's a little bit tougher for him, but we don't want to make that wrist any worse, and that's the only way that I can see that he can practice and at least protect the wrist from this standpoint."
On replacing losses on special teams:
"I think we have room for improvement in our special teams if you look statistically at last year, or even the year before. What you're trying to do is get better in every area. That's what we're trying to do. It takes a team effort to get that done and hopefully we can improve on that area, just like a number of areas that we thought was one of our strengths a year ago. "
On the intensity at the end of practice:
"It's great at the end of practice, one of the reasons why we moved the ball and kind of went with a turbo offense where our defense couldn't huddle up. You want to see guys push themselves when they are really tired. That's how they get back in football shape. This is how they get in game shape, where you get ready for the first of the season. But it's an ongoing process. We were only out there for a couple of hours today, but those couple of hours were full-speed. I think one 15-minute period, we had 25 plays, and that means the guys were working very hard and were getting a lot of repetition. We want to get those reps but get quality reps, but I thought we pushed our guys pretty hard today especially with the humidity the way it was."
On quarterback Robert Griffin III's having only one incompletion in 7-on-7:
"He has to get that other completion, we are little disappointed at this point. We will push him a little bit harder tomorrow [laughter]… You're always pushing. 7-on-7 is a little bit different than his team situation. I think it is great for Robert to get those type of reps. Those reps are always needed. I think he is excited about it. Anytime you can get as much team situations as he possibly can, the better off he knows he will be once the season starts. Hopefully we can continue to do that, there is no setback, and right now there hasn't been."
On if certain defensive players will be motivated by being in the final year of their contracts:
"I think anytime you go into a contract year, if you have common sense, not only do want to play well for us, you want to play well for other teams that are out there so you can have the best leverage for contracts. I think every player knows that going into his last year. There is no difference with our players. We have got a lot of guys on our football team that we would like back. Hopefully they have the type of year that warrants that type of big contract because we would like to take care of our players... [and] a little bit more salary to take care of our players."
On if there is an update on safety Brandon Meriweather:
"Not really. But when a guy practices, you have a gut feeling of what he can do as you watch him in individual drills and team drills. He is not ready to go in team situations yet. As he gets into better football shape with his knee relative to his knee, we are going to put him into those situations. Right now, he is still getting individual work. We are still running him but we are not going to put him in team situations until we feel like he is ready to compete."
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