Opening Remarks: "There's nothing to announce as far as injuries go. (DT) Fletcher Cox wasn't here today for personal reasons. He had a cousin who was in a car accident and passed away. He was very close to him. He'll be back tonight, if he can with the weather, and he will resume tomorrow. All-in-all, it was a good practice today. Things we were trying to get accomplished today was the introduction to the meeting and practice schedule for the upcoming camp at Lehigh, along with what we're going to be doing during the season. We did a walk-through in the morning, and it was a little bit shorter than what we'll do at Lehigh because it was an hour long. Then, we came in for our regular two and a half hours. These are all under the regulations that the NFL gives you from this camp. Really, the format was still the same – it was a little bit shorter, but it was still the same. We're happy with the way the guys flew around. We're coming into this camp with an advantage because we've had the OTAs, phase one and phase two. The guys know what they're doing, can fly around a little bit, and compete against each other."
On why he is seeing high energy from his team: "You saw that last year. I think that's something that they've carried over into this year. The d-line starts it off, and the o-line, even though they can't really compete right now, keeps it loud and exciting. It's a good atmosphere. There's no pads on here so they can't really compete. With the back end guys, it's just contagious and it carries on into the linebackers and the secondary. Those guys can compete. They can't do bump-and-run, but they can compete. Likewise on the offensive side, the guys are challenging each other and trying to get better."
On whether he senses urgency on this team: "That's the way it should be. I appreciate that from them. They're trying to stay in tune and do the best that they can possibly do."
On what led him to change the morning practice to a walk-through and the afternoon practice to contact at training camp: "With the change with the afternoon practice, I met with (head athletic trainer) Rick (Burkholder) and we talked about recovery time. We've been presented with these new rules, so we're doing our walk-through in the morning in this camp. In the afternoon, it'll allow the players to be hydrated coming into practice along with getting two meals under their belt. Hopefully, that and the ability to allow them to walk around, get their lift in, and stretching, and so on, then they will come out and have a productive practice and limit the injuries and perform at a high speed."
On having offensive line coach Howard Mudd back for the first time since OTAs began: "This is the first time since we've been on the field since we started OTAs and this mini-camp here. He was here for part of phase two and part of phase one. I told him to go practice retirement. He wasn't very good at it the last time, right? If I was able to talk him out of it, he wasn't very good at it. He's 71 years old and he's coming off major hip surgery during the season, and he battled through that. He's got all kinds of energy, but I gave him a little time to get himself all together and get back out here. He's pretty gun-ho. After about the third day, he was ready to come back out here."
On whether Mudd will return for the entire training camp: "He'll be there for training camp, yeah."
On what difference Mudd makes being back out there: "I would tell you that Eugene Chung, who stepped in for him, did a nice job. It's good to have Howard back in there, not that Eugene did a bad job, though. You're talking about the finest offensive line coach to have coached the game. That's how he's respected in this league and for him to be back is a good thing."
On how he looks at the comments that QB Michael Vick needs to change his game: "Listen, it's a fine line. Michael knows what he needs to do and he's worked like crazy. One of the reasons that we've had the attendance here that we've had and one of the reasons that we've had energy is Michael Vick. He was here and he hasn't missed a workout. He's the one who's out here motivating that energy and making the players around him be here. He's done a great job of that this offseason."
On whether he thinks that Vick needs to play more conservatively this season: "He knows that there is a time and a place where he needs to go down or go out of bounds. Other than that, he needs to just go play. You need to go play your game."
On how much more improved the defense will be with everyone in their natural positions: "I think that's what you do in the offseason. That's one of the things you go through and you evaluate. You try to utilize things that bring out the strengths of your players and put them in the best position and then go create mismatches against, in this case, the offense. The offense does the same thing. You go through some things in the offense that you ran last year and there are other things you're going to get rid of and put in the trash can. Again, you're trying to create mismatches and get better at the things that you're good at."
On whether not having an offseason last year has increased the players' appreciation for it this year: "Again, the attitude here would tell you yes. This is what they do. You guys write, and these guys play football. You enjoy what you're doing and they enjoy what they're doing. They're excited to be back out here, and they've been doing this for nine weeks. We're finishing up a nine-week stretch here. It's been high octane all the way through."
Eagles QB Michael Vick
On how peaceful it is to focus on work without having to worry about outside distractions such as contract disputes: "We're just out here having fun. The most important thing is to not stress. We're all striving to be the best, that's it."
On what he looks to get out of mini-camp: "It's very important to take the next three days as serious as possible and continue to get better each and every day. Nothing really has changed since OTAs, but the intensity has picked up and the defense has played well over the past few days. The offense has done a great job. We're just learning."
On his ranking in the NFL Network's Top 100 Players: "It's all good. I'm going to prove myself and get myself back in the top 20 next year."
On whether he puts a lot of credence into that list: "Obviously I pay attention to it but I'm a competitor. I feel like I'm one of the best at what I do. It's somebody else's opinion, and I have to prove them wrong and make them say otherwise."
On whether there is a noticeable difference of energy and enthusiasm out there: "It's a lot of energy. As a football team, we understand that in order to go out and play good football, you have to be relaxed and have fun with it. Although we know that it's our job, you have to be at peace while you're playing. Even though it's a tough game, that's why we play it and that's why we're professional football players is because we're able to create that balance."
On whether he thinks it is possible for some teams to have more energy this time of year than others: "I think so. It's all based on what's taking place throughout the organization. For us, we just feel like we should have accomplished a lot last year. Like I said, we just want to have fun and be the best that we can be. We want to work hard to get there. We know it's not going to be easy, but we're going to work at it."
On whether there is a renewed sense of need to accomplish something because of last year: "We just feel like we just need to go out and compete this year. Mentally, we have to gear ourselves up to go out and be the best that we can be. We didn't have this opportunity to be together last year, and now we have this chance to build this camaraderie every day and to have fun while we're doing it. We're all learning and we have all our coaches here. (Offensive line) coach Howard (Mudd) is here after being gone the past four-five months, get him back and have him around. We're all pumped up again."
