[InmanRoshi]

I’d like to get Spears in the last preseason game, but I’ll need to get him a few days of practice before I put him in there.

1 particular area of the team you want to look at Saturday?

I told the coaches I want to try to keep the scheme simple enough so that the mental aspect of the game is easy for the players, and we can evaluate them on athletic ability. Young players get rigid because they are uncertain about what to do. If you don’t’ make it simple enough for them then you can misevaluate when it comes time to make cuts. You can say “Oh, so and so can’t do that” when it wasn’t his ability that was restricting him but uncertainty. When you do that, you tend to keep veterans because they don’t have that problem, and you get a stale team. I want to stay away from that. For example, yesterday, we didn’t have any mental errors on the OL during the scrimmage.

Any decisions on who will start or who the backup QB will be?
We haven’t decided anything. All of the QB’s will play.

Will you play the regulars more on defense since it’s a new scheme?
I have a lot of guys, and its hot there. I’ll play a lot of guys.

You said Henry lets you not have to play as much cover 2. But you’ve played a lot of 2 with past teams. Have the offenses in the NFL changed that?
I don’t think you can go through the season any more being a 1 coverage team. You have to have some form of man to man, the offenses are too sophisticated to play zone all the time. Zone still has a place, teams that have been winning championships lately have used a mixture. I think you have to have both aspects and variations of both to be successful. I do think the spread out offenses have changed that, yes.

In today’s NFL what is an ideal backup QB?
I don’t think its changed. Its someone who can function without a lot of reps. Gotta be able to absorb intricacies of a gameplan without a lot of reps. He has to have the mental framework to understand he can be thrown into the fray without the advantage of preparation. They are thrown in there at time of duress, and they don’t have the luxury of feeling their way through it. I think you can get a sense of that in preseason games, but you don’t really know until it comes down to win or lose in a some game.

2 or 3 reason why the pass rush will be better?
I think it will be better, I don’t kow how much. Provided the DL we have remain healthy. We just have more players who can play. We can substitute more freely, and some of the guys we got can supplement guys we have in ability.

Will Roy being able to blitz more be one of the reasons?
I wouldn’t say it will be better because of Roy.

How does the pass rush effect the secondary?
If your pass rush is good, then you can be more conservative in the secondary and take less chances. If you’re pass rush isn’t good, then you have to blitz and take more chances. There are a lot of exotic things in the NFL today when it comes to pass rush that would not be considered sound football in the past. Really, its not sound even today, and it can be exploited. But the way things are in the NFL today, a lot of teams really don’t feel they have the time to do it that way so they have to force things a little bit.

Beriault isn’t mentioned anymore, has he hit a wall?
His knee is bothering him a little bit. We did an MRI, didn’t show anything new. He did have surgery on this knee 4 or 5 years ago. I’m not a Dr., but sometimes there is a little bit of a degenerative condition for a lack of a better term. Not unlike Leo Carson last year, his knees were swelling up all the time in camp. Once we got out of the training camp rigors, the knee quieted down and we could manage it. We just want to get him through a few preseason games so we can evaluate him. After that, and it looks like he’s going ot make the team, we can decide what to do. Its not a structural injury, it’s a condition. We have to manage it, and if we can’t manage it then we’ll have to fix it. I was hoping he would be in the mix, but now I don’t know. The trainer and I were talking about it today and I told him to do what he thinks is best for him.

Terry Glenn only played 16 games twice. Do some players have problems staying healthy all year?
Whatever has happened in the past, yes, some players have problem with playing 16 games. He’s done everything he can do to play all 16. He’s been working out like a fanatic. Since he’s been with me, he’s always been that way. I get a greater sense of determination this offseason with him. I’d like to spell him a little bit, but you can’t protect those players.

Do you still stress winning your preseason games?
Not at the expense of what we want to accomplish in evaluations and getting the right guys on the team.

You said Henry and Glenn helped Tnew. How?
He can observe Glenn very closely because they play the same position, and Glenn is crafty. Glenn plays like Newman. Henry is a different player than those two.

Have you paid attention to the TO situation?
Couldn’t help it, even if you wanted to keep up with the world news late at night you would be exposed to part of it.

Any thoughts?
Trying to keep my own house from burning down.

Ever had a situation like that before?
Yeah, I’ve kicked a couple out. Not recently, but years ago. Not a lot.

CB’s have gone from one of the worst paid positions to one of the most well paid. What has caused that?
I think basically with the spread offenses the defense recourse is hitting the QB to force him to make quick decisions. To do that you have to have a great quality CB playing against the QB’s primary weapon. There is definitely a lot more expectations on cornerbacks these days as far as one on one coverage.

McBriar?
Doing alright. Charting it everyday. I think he has a chance to be a pretty good punter. He’s got a powerfull leg, and now its just a question of consistency. If we just let him kick away, he would be among the league leaders. But we want to get our net better, and kicking away isn’t always the way to do that. This is DeHeaven a little bit, we’re a little more conservative. I was more of a kick away coach with Landetta. I would tell my players he’s going to kick it as far as he can, and its your job to get down there. But now we’re a little more conservative and not try to out kick our coverage.

Returners for Saturday?
Kick off m going to use 6 players … Thompson & Barber, Copper & Merrit, Dantzler & Rector. Punts I’ll use Barber, Merritt .. possibly Zuriel and Rector.

Is that how Rector makes the team?
I would say that would be important. Getting each guy a kick is hard to do. You don’t know how many you’ll get. If you can’t make them punt, you can’t evaluate.

Rector remind you as far as Crayton?
Smaller than Crayton. 25 lbs. lighter. Kind of wormy looking.

Anyone latched onto the 5th WR spot.
Not yet, no. You can put that with the 4th WR spot … and maybe the 3rd. I’m kind of rooting for Crayton for that 3rd position. Quincy Morgan is improving as we go. He’s been coming along. He can run so I want him to come through. I’m looking for consistency from him. I’ve expected more from Copper than I’ve seen. But one thing in his favor is that he’s an excellent special teams player, and that gives you a one up to make the team.

Have to work with Morgan on catching the ball?
They all have the same flaws. Keyshawn had it. They have a dominant hand, they cradle the ball when catching with their non dominant hand. They can’t pluck the ball on their non dominant hand, so they cradle it and it gets out of their line of vision and it leads to a drop. We all have a dominant hand and a dominant eye. We all do. Keyshawn was a big cradler to his outside left. I told him it gives the defender more time to play on the ball and he needs to work on it every day. It takes two years to correct. I started Morgan on it last year. A lot of them do that, just watch in practice you’ll see them. There was one great exception, and his name was Lance Allworth, he did everything wrong. He would jump up in the air and catch the ball with his stomach. He’s in the Hall of Fame.

So many rookies on defense, what is the period of growing pains?
Its what it is, you have to understand. You can’t assume anything, you have to go over it over and over again. If you make mental errors, you lose the game. You almost rather have physical limitations than mental errors.

Have you had a team play that many rookies? Is it scary?
Yeah, Its scary. For one particular team it was scary for the opposition, because we had that #56.

When you beat Carolina two years ago, you said You can’t call them losers anymore. 6-10 now, where are you know?
We gotta do something here. I know I’m expected to do that, its no revelation. I’ve made every effort to coach this team as hard as I can and change things since the end of last year. You can’t say an organization has gotten over the hump and is a contender until they’ve been in the playoffs two or three years in a row. Until then, you’re a middle of the road team.

Anxious to see how it relates to have a game? Yeah.

How have Practices 1 to 16 gone?
Same as any other team … some good, some bad. We’ve had 164 scrimmage plays before our first game and I don’t think you can find a lot of teams who can say that. We’re getting them ready to do something.