Injury report: "(WR) Jason Avant has a hamstring spasm; he is questionable for the game tomorrow. (DE) Chris Clemons is out with a calf strain. (WR) Jamal Jones has a sore rib; he is doubtful. We will just see how things go there. (DE) Victor Abiamiri is obviously out. (DT) Montae Reagor is out with a knee inflammation. Right now, (LT) Tra (Thomas) is out with back spasms. He is getting better, though. That's a positive thing."
Opening remarks: "I would like to take a minute to thank everybody involved at Lehigh. The administration here did a phenomenal job. It is a big chore, bigger than you think. (I would also like to thank) the Eagles staff for putting the camp together and the fans are always awesome. The players are aware of them out here. It takes your mind off a little bit of the training camp part of it. It tells you how important this thing is to the people of Philadelphia. Tomorrow we will play the first group for a half and then the second and third group; we will just see how the game goes. I will try to get the second quarterback extensive playing time, whether it is a whole half or not, we will see how things go."
On whether he got what he wanted out of training camp this year: "We did. It was a physical camp, which I thought was important. At the same time, we were able to get everything in that we needed to get in. You always have a plan for camp and you figure that there will be about three days that you are inside or have to cancel because of weather. That kind of went as planned. At the same time, we were able to stay ahead and get everything that we needed to."
On whether the ante is raised for players in the second preseason game: "Every day is important for them. The preseason games are put into the evaluation process just like the practices are. It's important that you play well in them. You have to have yourself right, both mentally and physically. We give them a gameplan and they have to memorize the gameplan in one day. You don't have a lot of time to digest it, but at the same time, it gives them at least an opportunity for a heads up on what plays we have cut out so they can concentrate on certain things and hopefully perform."
On what improvements he would like to see in this game: "I would like the penalties to be cut back. In the first offensive series we had two penalties and in the first defensive series we had two penalties. We're looking at four penalties in the first two series of the game and a total of 10 penalties in the game. Even though they were try-hard penalties, we have to maintain discipline there. I'm looking to better that. Also, special teams, I'm looking to be better there."
On what the offensive line will look like without Tra Thomas playing: "We will put (LG) Todd Herremans over at left tackle and (G) Scott Young in at guard."
On whether G Shawn Andrews will practice on Saturday: "We'll see. Right now we are just in the process of getting a support staff set up for him in Philadelphia. We have taken and made some direction there, or at least have it going in the right direction there."
On whether he needs to play in a preseason game to be ready for the regular season: "We'll see. I'm still just trying to get him right. We haven't gotten that far yet."
On what he plans to do with the three-cornerback rotation: "We are very fortunate to have all three of them. It's good to get (CB) Asante (Samuel) back out there. He will start, (CB) Sheldon (Brown) will start, and then (CB) Lito (Sheppard) will come in in nickel situations."
On how Andrews looks physically: "It looks like he's in good shape. He told me he had been working out. We put him through some things here in the last couple of days, so it looks like he's in pretty good shape."
On whether he has seen anything from Andrews that leads him to believe he will be able to be a factor as the year progresses: "I think he has handled the last few days very well, but I'm not naïve to the problem either. I want to make sure everything is set up for him so that he has a foundation there that he can bank on."
On the DT Brodrick Bunkley situation: "He's fine. It shook him up a little bit, obviously, but he's doing okay."
On production versus execution in the evaluation process: "They go hand in hand at times. If you're executing well, then you're going to have positive production. That doesn't necessarily mean points. You're going to either move the football, or defensively you're going to stop the other team. You have to look and see where and who that positive production is coming from. There might be four guys who aren't doing quite as well as another couple guys there. You just have to evaluate each player on his own."
On whether he is pleased with the speed of the players during camp: "One of the positives that came out of this camp was that the guys fought to be out here practicing. If they were nicked up a little bit, they fought like crazy to get back out on the field, particularly the leaders of the football team. That sent a message to the younger guys that it is important that you do this thing and that you do it fast and stay aggressive. I thought that carried throughout this camp. There wasn't a day where I felt like the guys were out of gas or down. They might have been out of gas, but they didn't show it that way."
On WR DeSean Jackson being able to grasp the offense quickly: "He's a smart kid. They ran a pro-style offense at Cal, so coming in here he wasn't overwhelmed by that part of it. The volume got to him a little bit as we got towards the end of our installs. That's understandable. I wasn't shocked by it. He's an intelligent kid and he wants to be good. He has that drive. We'll see how he continues here."
On how much different QB Donovan McNabb looks compared to the end of last year: "I wouldn't say much from the last three games. I think he just carried that over. He's probably more confident in his leg, just by time and having done it. He was playing so well at the end of the season that I think he just picked up from there. Obviously you try to keep getting better, but he was just playing at such a high level there, I don't see where it's a huge jump from that."
On whether he shares McNabb's optimism about finishing at the top of the NFC East: "I sure think we have an opportunity to. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. We did finish last in the NFC East (last year(. We have to make sure we buckle ourselves down like we have the last couple weeks here and finish the rest of camp and preseason the right way when we get back. It hasn't been easy and it won't be easy once we get into the grind. It's tough to climb back up that ladder."
On whether he thinks Samuel will be able to play a whole half against the Panthers: "We'll see. I have him plugged in there to do that. If I think that leg is getting fatigued, or if he is giving an indicator that it is, then we'll get him out of there. I don't want to take any steps back there."
On whether it is imperative for the five offensive linemen to start a game together in the preseason before starting the regular season: "You'd like that to happen. If it doesn't, I think we'll still be okay since they have played together in years past. If I had my choice, I'd much rather have them do that."
