On LB Zach Brown and DL Anthony Lanier II:
"Anthony has a hip flexor groin. Zach Brown still has his…what's that thing called? Oblique."
On if he still expects Brown to play in the opener:
"Yeah, yeah that's the plan."
On the plan for RB Byron Marshall:
"We don't know yet. We're still looking into that. And we're not, we're still talking we don't have to do the bringing Marshall thing to IR [injured reserve] yet. We're still talking to the trainers and finding out if it's a four week, six week, three week. We have to make sure we're as accurate as we can on that injury. We don't want to put him on IR unless we feel like it's necessary."
On rotating DL Jonathan Allen and DL Daron Payne:
"Yeah, you want to keep them fresh, but yes, they're both very versatile. They play both sub and base without a doubt, so it's just a matter of keeping them fresh. I think they're both in pretty good shape, so I'd imagine they'll both play a lot."
On if he has to wait a couple days before putting Marshall on IR:
"Yes, yes but he's not on IR right now. He's on our roster right now. Yes."
On RB Kapri Bibbs:
"Yeah, it's tough. It's tough for a lot of guys. A lot of guys did a lot of things right and weren't able to make this football team, so just the numbers and what we decided to go with. That's all. At the bottom line, I have a lot of respect for Kapri and hopefully somehow we can land him back here some way somehow."
On what factors play into making the 53-man roster:
"We try to factor everything in there. Long-term, we try to factor in the fact that, you know, our running backs, we've got Adrian [Peterson] and obviously Rob [Kelley] and Samaje [Perine] -- first down, second down backs and we have Chris [Thompson] as a third down back and possibly getting Byron Marshall back here sooner than later maybe or maybe getting Kapri [Bibbs] back in some way, shape or form. There's a lot of things that go into it, a lot of discussion, you know, we don't just flip a coin. There's been a lot of talk about it. Hopefully we made the right choice."
On what went into WR Cam Sims and CB Danny Johnson making the roster:
"Consistency really and then when you turn the lights on they play in games and make big plays. You saw what Cam did in the preseason game making the big plays despite having the thigh, big-time thigh injury, finish the game and made the big play at the end of the game to get us the field goal and win the game. And then Danny, he's been playing inside and outside and he's just been a great, tough, competitive player throughout camp, not only as a defensive back, but also on special teams. [He has] the ability to return the ball if need be. I just love his flexibility."
On T Trent Williams rehab after knee surgery and if he is the same player he was before the surgery:
"Yeah I do think that. I do. He has shown no signs of that injury other than, you know, taking a practice off every third or fourth day just for rest. He's a veteran guy; we'd probably do that anyway. He looks amazing. We just have to make sure we take care of him, get him right. Physically, I think for the game, he's in great football shape. He's always been in great football shape but I expect him to be Trent Williams, the best left tackle in football."
On C Casey Dunn and T Ty Nsekhe playing backup guard:
"Ty can do that but we like Ty where he's at, at tackle. He knows the swing tackle both left and right side without a doubt. Casey, that position, [playing both] center [and] guard, is hard to find nowadays and he's got the flexibility to play both for a young player. He's got some strength and we feel like that's a need. Always have that center fear, running out of centers, you know, right now we have [Tony] Bergstrom and Chase [Roullier]. You know, you lose one and you're starting to panic a little bit so it's good to have three in the building that can play center."
On if he feels like the team is under the radar this year:
"Yeah, probably, but that's where we should be really. You know, we were 7-9 last year and 1-5 in our division. There's no reason why we should be on the radar. It's our job to put ourselves on the radar and that's by starting fast. We have to start fast."
On if he likes being under the radar:
"I'm fine either way. You know, I think it's my job to make sure we have the right mentality going in and if it's under the radar, fine. Sometimes teams get overhyped and think they're better than they are and that's not a good thing either. Right now, I like where we are at as a football team. I think we all know who we are and what we need to do."
On if he changed anything from previous years heading into the season opener:
"Yeah, I mean you look at all our openers and we had chances in every game. We just didn't make plays at critical times and that's the way football is nowadays. When you're evenly matched with so many teams, it's going to come down to who can make plays at critical times -- third down, red zone, short yardage, 4-minute, 2-minute. Those are situations you have to win in and we just didn't do that in any one of our openers and special teams obviously played a factor in the first two, so we have to make sure we take care of the football and win the turnover battle and make plays in critical times."
On if he felt the need to change the team's preparation going into the season opener:
"Not really, I mean, yeah, we lost to four pretty good teams. Pittsburgh [2016] is a darn good football team. Philadelphia [2017] won a Super Bowl. Houston [2014] was coming off back-to-back playoff runs with a heck of a defense and obviously Miami [2015] had some talented players at the time also. We just didn't get it done unfortunately."
On his confidence in the reserves at the safety position and S Troy Apke:
"I think you don't want that to happen right away, but he's been here, he's been learning and studying. We have [DeShazor Everett] right now also. 'Shaz' is probably number three and [Troy] Apke would be the fourth guy, but I like Apke's progression. Obviously we need to sure up some of the tackling things he had an issue with but we have faith he'll get that done."
On youth in the secondary and whether it is a concern:
"I think that is probably a concern, yes, but we have faith in (defensive backs coach) Torrian Gray, [assistant defensive backs - James] Rowe and [defensive coordinator - Greg] Manusky that they'll get them caught up and taught up. We like their athletic ability, their toughness, and that's who we chose to go with. I think [Quinton] Dunbar, even though he's one of our veteran guys, he's only been playing defensive back for about three years of his life, same with Fabian [Moreau], so we just got to get them up to speed, we got to get them on the same page and communicate. That's the most important thing for a young group."
On the decision to cut LB Pete Robertson and adding someone to the position group:
"Yeah, that's a potential where we can add somebody, but at the end of the day, we like the four that we kept. Obviously, Pernell McPhee and Ryan Anderson are good, sound players. Pernell McPhee gives us the versatility on nickel to play him inside or outside, so he kind of took over that need for an extra rusher. We like where he's at. Later on, we could add another player at that position for special teams or maybe another added rusher."
On undrafted players:
"Yeah, you always have your kind of favorites every now and then, but still, you want to let it play out and make sure you're giving everybody an ample opportunity to make the football team. I feel like we did a pretty good job of that. If there's one thing I can say we did a good job of, that's giving everybody an opportunity to make this football team, undrafted guys, drafted guys, free agents, high draft picks, they all got an opportunity to make the team and we try to always pick the best guy. Those guys who made it took advantage of their opportunity, showed us signs of great football natural instincts and big-play ability. Hats off to them, it's not easy to do."
On if he felt more involved this year as a head coach in the cut-down process:
"I think this probably took more discussion because we had a lot more players that were worthy of the 53, you know. We could've gone a lot of different ways and we had to come up with the guys that we came up with. That still could change in the next couple of days or next couple of weeks, but I feel like this year, we had more discussions on who should stay and who shouldn't stay, so it was tougher probably than any year, this year."
On if he is going to push the players that did not play in a preseason game during this week's practices:
"I do expect that and they have been participating off and on. Chris [Thompson] has done quite a bit here in the last couple of weeks, as has Jordan [Reed], so they have gotten a lot of work with Alex [Smith] and we feel pretty good about where they're at. The rep count in games early in the season, that could be maybe a little bit lighter than you would expect for those two guys, but we'll see how they are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, three big days of practice for them. We'll see where they're at, but we have Vernon [Davis] and [Jeremy] Sprinkle at tight end, who have done an excellent job, and obviously our running back situation we're pretty good at also. I feel like we have a lot of different ways we can attack an opposing defense, we just got to figure out our best ways to do it and get our best players out there."
