Wulfman
09-24-2004, 12:07 PM
[BEGIN of PC]
Fire away, guys.
Randal Williams may be able to go this week if I want to do it. He’s been knocked around and knocked down on his shoulder a couple of times. I’m not sure it would be the smartest thing to do. He looks pretty good, but it may not be the smart thing. If he does play, he won’t cover kickoffs.
Ward is very useful, as is Williams, because they are both smart and know three positions. Crayton is not there yet, as you might expect. Ward can return punts, although he’s not dynamic, and could fill in as a kick returner. Williams plays one of the biggest positions on special teams, in the coverage team.
Crayton is learning, and his biggest contribution would be as a punt returner. But he’s got good hands, he really does. I have some high hopes for him. I really do. I’ve got 3 or 4 of those guys around here.
Ward was able to be used some to spell Glenn, and I think that’s why he had some gas left in his tank on that last drive. I don’t know that, but it looked that way.
It’s hard to tell right now about the importance of winning division games vs. winning conference games. Of course, you want to win your division, but you can’t lessen the importance of those conference games at this point.
I don’t remember not having contact with the Maras on any given day when I was with the Giants. So that’s very similar to being here. When Bob Kraft took over in New England, he was much the same. So it hasn’t been a big deal working with Jerry.
There won’t be much that we’ll change with Arrington out. They won’t change much—they’ll just put his back-up in and go. So we’ll prepare that way.
Richie and Tyson are both looking pretty good in practice.
(Punter) Tupa is a versatile guy for them. I like him personally, he’s really a high-grade kid. He played some QB, and he’s smart.
I had heard a year or two ago that made me think that Gibbs was considering coming back, but it wasn’t from him. It was from hearsay from someone I knew, and that knew him. But I was still surprised when I heard he was coming back. It’s hard to explain what it’s like for us (Vermeil, myself, Marty {Schottenheimer}, etc.). We know that it’s not going to last forever. I don’t think he would have come back anywhere else, like for the Eagles. {Talked about Gibbs decision, in his own opinion.} We are transient now. If you don’t go, you sometimes shut yourself off from moving up or moving on. I saw it happen in basketball and baseball, and I knew it was coming. When free agency hit, I knew it was coming. The important thing is if the ownership and coaches are on the same page. Division of any kind is the first thing that will tear a team down.
Jerry does not make suggestions to the game plan. But he does want to know what we do. He loves football. Mara was like that as well.
I think there could be a length of time that you could get the game out of your system. But I don’t look back. This game is that you test yourself. There’s no gray area in this business. You can’t do poorly and expect no one to notice. If you do poorly here, people know it.
I start looking at team statistics right away to get an idea of trends. I mentioned the passes being thrown more from outside the pocket. This team (Washington) is getting a lot of pressure from the blitz. But whether they will continue to do that is unknown. They’ll bring more pressure than either of the teams we’ve played. {Comments about chewing ice in front of the microphone.}
Morton back there to return kicks is enough to scare me. I tried to trade for him the same summer he was drafted.
Gurode has done more, but he’s not full out yet, so I doubt he’ll play this week. Next time should be different. Al (Johnson) will start.
There is an official Coach’s Club out there. I’m not a member of it. {Talked about some of his admiration for Gibbs. Said that if the Cowboys were out of the playoffs, he’d have a hard time pulling against him. Doesn’t necessarily pull for other coaches, but tends to want well for the guys he has coached with.}
You can ask any player in there could tell you what we need to do to be successful. Now the players are concentrating on their job on Tuesday, and who they’re playing against. They get occupied on the specifics. But by the end of the week, you hope they pull it together so you don’t have concentration lapses. But I can’t tell you how they respond…the test is yet to come.
I trust Vinny more than the others, because he’s got 20 years more experience. You have to trust your QB. Whether you want to go with Romo as a back-up or not doesn’t matter, because it’s what you have to do. And I’ve talked with him about that nearly every day.
I can’t really comment on S Sean Taylor because I haven’t seen enough of him. I knew we weren’t going to get him, so I didn’t look as closely. We looked at Miami, of course, but I just haven’t seen enough of him yet.
There are things that either get you off track or on track that you don’t expect. In this league with the cap, you can allow yourself to try to practice soft all the time to protect the players. And before you know it, there’s just an intensity missing. And you’ve got to watch that. And then you get hit in the face with that skunk, and you smell it. That happens pretty much every year. Last week, my defense was getting beat up by the media. And rightfully so. But the last guy that needs to beat them up is me. So I didn’t beat them up. We didn’t change anything, we just played better. I made sure the players had gas, and they played better.
I don’t know why the Redskins have fallen off later in games, after scoring on their first drive in each of their first two games. But that tells me they were well-prepared for the game. But you can’t turn the ball over and expect to win. I like Ramsey, I really do, as a player. He’s a big strong-armed guy and he’s smart.
{Mumbled something about having good energy defensively as he walked away.}
[END of PC]
Fire away, guys.
Randal Williams may be able to go this week if I want to do it. He’s been knocked around and knocked down on his shoulder a couple of times. I’m not sure it would be the smartest thing to do. He looks pretty good, but it may not be the smart thing. If he does play, he won’t cover kickoffs.
Ward is very useful, as is Williams, because they are both smart and know three positions. Crayton is not there yet, as you might expect. Ward can return punts, although he’s not dynamic, and could fill in as a kick returner. Williams plays one of the biggest positions on special teams, in the coverage team.
Crayton is learning, and his biggest contribution would be as a punt returner. But he’s got good hands, he really does. I have some high hopes for him. I really do. I’ve got 3 or 4 of those guys around here.
Ward was able to be used some to spell Glenn, and I think that’s why he had some gas left in his tank on that last drive. I don’t know that, but it looked that way.
It’s hard to tell right now about the importance of winning division games vs. winning conference games. Of course, you want to win your division, but you can’t lessen the importance of those conference games at this point.
I don’t remember not having contact with the Maras on any given day when I was with the Giants. So that’s very similar to being here. When Bob Kraft took over in New England, he was much the same. So it hasn’t been a big deal working with Jerry.
There won’t be much that we’ll change with Arrington out. They won’t change much—they’ll just put his back-up in and go. So we’ll prepare that way.
Richie and Tyson are both looking pretty good in practice.
(Punter) Tupa is a versatile guy for them. I like him personally, he’s really a high-grade kid. He played some QB, and he’s smart.
I had heard a year or two ago that made me think that Gibbs was considering coming back, but it wasn’t from him. It was from hearsay from someone I knew, and that knew him. But I was still surprised when I heard he was coming back. It’s hard to explain what it’s like for us (Vermeil, myself, Marty {Schottenheimer}, etc.). We know that it’s not going to last forever. I don’t think he would have come back anywhere else, like for the Eagles. {Talked about Gibbs decision, in his own opinion.} We are transient now. If you don’t go, you sometimes shut yourself off from moving up or moving on. I saw it happen in basketball and baseball, and I knew it was coming. When free agency hit, I knew it was coming. The important thing is if the ownership and coaches are on the same page. Division of any kind is the first thing that will tear a team down.
Jerry does not make suggestions to the game plan. But he does want to know what we do. He loves football. Mara was like that as well.
I think there could be a length of time that you could get the game out of your system. But I don’t look back. This game is that you test yourself. There’s no gray area in this business. You can’t do poorly and expect no one to notice. If you do poorly here, people know it.
I start looking at team statistics right away to get an idea of trends. I mentioned the passes being thrown more from outside the pocket. This team (Washington) is getting a lot of pressure from the blitz. But whether they will continue to do that is unknown. They’ll bring more pressure than either of the teams we’ve played. {Comments about chewing ice in front of the microphone.}
Morton back there to return kicks is enough to scare me. I tried to trade for him the same summer he was drafted.
Gurode has done more, but he’s not full out yet, so I doubt he’ll play this week. Next time should be different. Al (Johnson) will start.
There is an official Coach’s Club out there. I’m not a member of it. {Talked about some of his admiration for Gibbs. Said that if the Cowboys were out of the playoffs, he’d have a hard time pulling against him. Doesn’t necessarily pull for other coaches, but tends to want well for the guys he has coached with.}
You can ask any player in there could tell you what we need to do to be successful. Now the players are concentrating on their job on Tuesday, and who they’re playing against. They get occupied on the specifics. But by the end of the week, you hope they pull it together so you don’t have concentration lapses. But I can’t tell you how they respond…the test is yet to come.
I trust Vinny more than the others, because he’s got 20 years more experience. You have to trust your QB. Whether you want to go with Romo as a back-up or not doesn’t matter, because it’s what you have to do. And I’ve talked with him about that nearly every day.
I can’t really comment on S Sean Taylor because I haven’t seen enough of him. I knew we weren’t going to get him, so I didn’t look as closely. We looked at Miami, of course, but I just haven’t seen enough of him yet.
There are things that either get you off track or on track that you don’t expect. In this league with the cap, you can allow yourself to try to practice soft all the time to protect the players. And before you know it, there’s just an intensity missing. And you’ve got to watch that. And then you get hit in the face with that skunk, and you smell it. That happens pretty much every year. Last week, my defense was getting beat up by the media. And rightfully so. But the last guy that needs to beat them up is me. So I didn’t beat them up. We didn’t change anything, we just played better. I made sure the players had gas, and they played better.
I don’t know why the Redskins have fallen off later in games, after scoring on their first drive in each of their first two games. But that tells me they were well-prepared for the game. But you can’t turn the ball over and expect to win. I like Ramsey, I really do, as a player. He’s a big strong-armed guy and he’s smart.
{Mumbled something about having good energy defensively as he walked away.}
[END of PC]