Injury Report: "(WR) Kevin Curtis is listed as out, as is (RB) Brian Westbrook. Both are making progress. Brian will continue to exercise this week and we'll just see how he does with the exercise. (LB Akeem) Jordan will not practice today with a knee hyperextension, that's a day-to-day situation. (CB) Asante (Samuel) went through the walk through but most likely will not practice this afternoon with a neck strain. We'll just see how he does in the next couple of days. Everybody else will be out there practicing."
Opening Remarks: "We made a couple of roster moves, which I know you are aware of. We added Geoffrey Pope, a cornerback from Cincinnati's practice squad and then (G) Greg Isdander we added to our practice squad. (T) Winston Justice, I know most of you were here for his press conference yesterday, again it's a compliment to Winston and the hard work that he put in to his development as a football player. I can't say enough about it. It's one of those good stories and he's well-deserving of what he got. It's also a tribute to (offensive line coach) Juan Castillo and his coaching ability and the time that he and Winston have spent together learning the profession, and the organization for targeting a young player that's a good football player and rewarding him for his effort, skill and work ethic, and his agent. Agents don't get too many compliments, so it's a tribute to his agent being able to get the deal done.
We look forward to the challenge of playing the Washington Redskins. They really should have won that game the other day against Dallas. They had them right there and things didn't work out for them, but they gave Dallas everything Dallas could handle and Dallas pulled it out at the end. They are a talented football team and they've been banged up in some areas, but the guys that have stepped in are playing aggressive and hard football. It's important that we prepare ourselves properly. Particularly with it being the Thanksgiving week and whatever distractions that presents. You have to be able to focus those out and concentrate on the game at hand and make sure that we get better at the things that we need to get better at, and there are plenty of those. That's how we are going to go about business this week. Tomorrow will be a bit of a shortened down schedule because of Thanksgiving and then we'll be back here on Friday with a normal schedule and today will be a normal schedule. Time's yours."
On when the team decided they wanted to make a commitment to Justice: "Really (it was) the first half of the season. He presented himself as a legitimate right tackle in the National Football League and a starting tackle. That's a tribute to him. He's built a resume here over the last ten weeks and through training camp and so on."
On what re-signing Justice says about the team's commitment to (G/T) Shawn Andrews: "This really had nothing to do with Shawn and Shawn's situation. He's taking care of that and I've always said before that you can't have enough good offensive linemen. This wasn't done because of Shawn or anything else. It's because this kid has come in and developed himself as a legitimate right tackle in the National Football League."
On whether Andrews is still in California and if he is keeping an eye on him: "He's still in California and we are keeping tabs on him. He's going to rehab and he's being evaluated by the doctor periodically there and we'll see how he progresses."
On whether he is surprised at how quickly Justice has developed with the opportunity: "My hat's off to Winston and the job that he has done. It's a similar story to (G) Jermaine Mayberry and what Jermaine went through when I first got here. Winston told me before he left for the break after the season, he said, 'Don't count me out. I'm going to start for you.' Winston doesn't say much. That might be as many words as I've seen him put together since he's been here. He's a very matter-of-fact guy and he did it. He proved that."
On why he finally said he was going to start and what got him to that point: "I mentioned this before, just a maturity of age and strength and Juan working with him. Both of them are willing to work and that's normally a pretty good combination. Winston always had the athletic ability, it was just a matter of him being a little bit stronger and maturing as a football player and he did that."
On whether there is a chance that Jordan will play on Sunday and how much the team has missed him on the field: "He's a good football player, so we would have liked to have had him in there, but I think the other guys have done a good job. They have stepped up and played good football. We'll see with Akeem. I'd like to tell you today if he were going to play or not play. We're going into it right now, obviously this practice, as if he's not going to be there. That's how we are doing it."
On how difficult it has been for LB Will Witherspoon to bounce between positions: "That's not an easy thing to do. It was harder, I think, for him learning the MIKE linebacker position, because he had not done that in this system as much as what he did with the WILL linebacker position. Then we are asking him to do it in base (4-3 defense), last week he played WILL linebacker and then in nickel he was playing the MIKE linebacker. (He was) kind of double dipping there having to learn both of them. That's not an easy thing to do. It's not easy, but I told you this before, he's a very intelligent guy, he's willing to work and all of those things."
On how FB Leonard Weaver is coming along with his high ankle sprain: "He's making progress. That's how those things are. You're going to tweak those every once in a while. It hurts for a little bit and then the there is more distance between the tweaks as time goes on. He's a tough nut man. He's worked through it. He's not hurting himself anymore than what he had been before. He's like (CB) Sheldon (Brown) in that way. He's very focused on playing and performing, and doing his part."
On whether it is safe to say they wanted to get Weaver more carries but had limited him due to the injury: "No, that's what you said. I didn't agree with it. He got what we wanted him to get."
On what didn't happen for CB Jack Ikegwuonu while he was in Philadelphia: "I've never really gotten into that. It just didn't happen. It might happen somewhere else for him, but it just didn't work out here. We'll see how it works down the road for him."
On whether some of T Jason Peters' struggles can be attributed to him not being fully healthy: "He's one of the other guys that is battling through a high ankle sprain. For him to be out there pushing through it is a tribute to the guy. He's a warrior. Those three guys, Sheldon, Weaver and Jason, they want to be out there and they want to participate. Every once in a while that thing catches them and grabs you, and you have to shake it off and move on to the next play. For him to do what he's been doing against the players he's been doing it against is a tribute to the kid."
On whether he expects Brown to be in better shape this week than he was last week: "I think every week we go here he'll be a little bit better. That's normally how things work with that injury."
On whether they have to back off Brown's workload in practice: "We'll we've kind of done that with all three of them. We're trying to limit what they do, but yet get them enough work. Work is normally good for it, but again every once in a while it catches and you want to sort of stay away from that. We're kind of through that part."
On whether he is concerned about the number of times QB Donovan McNabb has been sacked this season and what the offensive line can do to improve: "Sacks are a funny thing, because it's just what you are saying they get kind of dumped in the offensive lines lap. Can the line do better? Absolutely, but sacks, when you really break them down and study them everyone has a little piece of those sacks and they are distributed across the board with the offensive players, and at times the coaches. What we call and in certain situations, whether it's a five, three, seven step drop or whatever it might be. The bottom line is there have been too many of them. That's the bottom line. We've addressed it. We'll try to fix that problem and get it straightened out here for this last half (of the season)."
On whether the offensive line has stabilized at all: "I think we'll be ok there. I know we keep saying (G) Stacy (Andrews) but (G/C) Nick (Cole) has started a lot of games for us here. That's how we look at him. Nick started for us last year and has started this year. I don't worry about that. I knew that with Stacy coming in with the injury that we'd have to be patient. That part doesn't bother me. That's no excuse is what I am saying. The thing that you've seen though is you've seen (G) Todd (Herremans) work through – he's been out there a month now and he had to get through the training camp phase and playing live games. I think now he's back in the swing and going. He's had an opportunity to play next to Jason (Peters). They had to develop that relationship, which is important between the two of them. I think that's gotten better every week and I think it will just keep getting better as we go. I think we'll see the offensive line continue to progress as the season goes on."
On what kind of exercises Westbrook will be doing now that he is back in the trainingroom: "He's going to start with jogging and that type of thing, bike riding, riding the stationary bike. (Jokingly) do you want the exact workout? (Serious) He's just going to do some exercises. They kind of gradually feed him into that."
On whether they will wait to see how his body responds to the exercise before moving forward: "Right."
On how Westbrook is feeling compared to the first concussion: "He's had a couple of headaches, but he's doing pretty good, he really is. (Jokingly) He said he had a headache watching me coach the other day, so I think that's a good sign."
On what the Eagles will try to change from the last time they played the Redskins: "That defense is one of the better defenses in the National Football League, so you've got to change up. (Redskins defensive coordinator) Greg Blache is one of the finer coaches in the National Football League. He is a real smart guy, so you have got to change some things up and they'll do the same thing, they'll change some things up. We have to do that defensively with (Redskins offensive consultant) Sherm (Lewis). Sherm is a sharp guy too, and (Redskins head coach) Jim Zorn. They have two guys that understand offensive football and I think people are forgetting about Jim. Jim's a pretty sharp guy, so we have to make sure we have a good game plan all around. Then on special teams they've got some guys that can scoot when they receive the ball and they have big, powerful guys on the coverage team."
Closing Remarks: "I want to wish you guys a happy Thanksgiving to you and your families. I'll throw the fans in there too. (We have) the best fans in the world."
