With the team's first week of training camp in Richmond, Va., complete, here is a list of the best quotes from the practice field and the podium, as compiled by Redskins.com.*
1. General manager Scot McCloughan: I've been very lucky to be around good teams and bad teams. I've been here for six months… seven months, being able to be see this offseason and see the coaches excited, see the play
ers getting better every day. I'm not going to put a number on it, but I know this, when you play the Redskins this year, you're going to know you played us. You're going to feel us from the standpoint of being physical. The next morning, you're going to be sore. We're not going to win every game, but I tell you what, we're going to compete no matter what."
2. Head coach Jay Gruden: "We're going to just try to really focus on situational football – 1st and 10, third down, red zone - key situations that we have to really master that we probably weren't so good at last year, and it starts in training camp. If you don't focus on them now, then when they show up in a game time you're not quite as prepared. We want to make sure that when we go out on game day we're prepared for every situation possible. Also, we have to make sure we're physically in good shape. Not so much running them to death out here, but making sure they're at 100 percent – a full tank of gas on Sunday."
3. Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan: "I don't know if it's quite hit me yet. I've really got to thank Mr. Snyder, Bruce Allen, Scot McCloughan and particularly, Eric Schaffer, who spent a lot of time with my agent the past couple of weeks trying to get this done. When you come into the NFL, you get drafted by a certain team, you immediately develop a certain affinity for that team and that organization, that city, and I certainly feel that way about the Redskins. And for them to give me this kind of vote of confidence to hopefully finish out my career as a Redskin means the world to me."
4. Linebacker Junior Galette:"First off, I'm thankful to be here and just grateful to have this opportunity. I'm just blessed and grateful to be a 'Skin. I just want to move forward and not worry about the past, but what's ahead of me."
5. Nose tackle Terrance Knighton: "There's a lot of versatility. When I describe our defense, I say it's organized chaos. Everyone's in the right place but it's just like maniacs – all 11 maniacs – running to the ball. That's the mentality that we're going to have and that's what we're out there practicing – everyone getting to the ball and everybody being disruptive."
6. Tight end Niles Paul: "It's important for guys like us to kind of step up and show the younger guys and the guys that have been here how we want to set the tempo in practice, how we want the atmosphere to change in our favor around here. It's a lot more competition going out there. I don't know if you can feel it, but we feel it. The atmosphere is completely different, we're having fun out there, we're playing ball and we're competing every day."
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- Defensive end Ricky Jean Francois: "This ain't heat... **It's mental. You can't look at it any other way. A lot of teams say you're going to hit a wall. You can't look at the wall though. You can break the wall. The only way you can break the wall is being consistent in what you're doing – take care of your body, eat right, going to sleep, go in the hot tub, go to the training room, lift weights, take proteins, stuff like that will keep you going. When you're tired that when everything falls apart."
8. Linebacker Keenan Robinson:"[My lunch pail] is kind of a twofold thing. One, it's kind of a thing where I can put the stuff I need during practice – my energy drinks, stuff to keep me going like Gatorades, snacks when I get hungry – but also it's to bring that lunch pail mentality to work every day. When guys see that, at first they were laughing, but they know I'll bring my A-game to practice and treat every practice like an opportunity to get better. Not going through the motions."
9. Offensive line coach Bill Callahan: "I think the big thing for our lineman during the course of a game is that there'll be moments where a guy will get beat and they're going to try to figure out why, and I want them to know why they got beat and they'll know. They'll have the solution in their mind and they'll fix themselves in the course of a drive. I think that's critically important -- when you're playing the game there's highs and lows, ups and downs, good players, average players, and you've got to make those adjustments."
10. Wide receiver Jamison Crowder: "I always try to keep my confidence high and never lose it…You still have to stay grounded. That's just always my mentality. Every day is not going to be a good day. Fortunately, I've had some really good days in camp, but you have to take the good with the bad, keep moving on and get better."
RELATED LINKS:
-- 2015 Training Camp Schedule
-- Redskins, Richmond Ready To Play Host To Texans
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