Injury report: "The guys that did not practice today are (T) Winston Justice, (TE) Brent Celek who had his hip injected and he's resting. So he has some inflammation in there, it's not anything serious, he'll be back in another day or so. So it's not that big of a deal. (DE) Brandon Graham didn't practice today. (T) Ryan Harris is scheduled for back surgery tomorrow and we'll just see how that goes. He's had back surgery before. He's seen a ton of specialists, here, in the last couple of days and he just felt that this was the best way to go to see exactly what was going on in there. And then, we'll have further news for you after he's done. (S) Marlin Jackson didn't practice today but is getting better. And (DE Juqua Parker) didn't practice with a calf strain. Really, everybody else practiced, (DT Antonio) Dixon, (DT Trevor) Laws, (LB Greg) Lloyd, (WR Jeremy) Maclin, (WR) Steve Smith practiced today, (DE Daniel T'eo-Nesheim), (G/T) Fenuki (Tupou), (S Jamar) Wall, and (TE Martell) Webb all practiced today."
Opening remarks: "What we did was a 10-10-10. Tomorrow's schedule we'll kind of do the same thing. We're going to kick everything back because of the advisory that's out. We'll just start the day a little later, 12:30ish, and then go from there with meetings and so on. So basically the same way I did after the game, just I thought the guys improved. They did some good things. We have plenty of room to work on both sides of the ball and special teams, but there was improvement. You got to see the young guys pick up where they left off. Against Pittsburgh, you could tell that they're continuing to learn and I expect them to continue to do that. As far as playing time goes for this week, I haven't made a decision on it. There will be certain guys that I do hold back and I haven't made a decision on who that will be. So we'll just see as we get closer. But we'll have a good week of practice this week and get ourselves ready for the Jets."
On whether WR Steve Smith will be ready to play against the Rams: "Really with Jeremy and Steve right now, we're really just taking it day by day, literally, just to see how they do. We'll see how they feel. Listen, this is day by day. We'll see how they do tonight and then they'll get some work in tomorrow. They had limited reps today, very few reps today. And then, if they make it through the evening fine without any problems or setbacks then we'll add some more onto it tomorrow, and then we'll just keep on going from there and see what happens. But really, I can't tell you the date right now on either one when they'll be ready to play."
On whether he thinks Maclin is in shape and a timetable for Maclin to get caught up on time missed: "Again, we'll just take it day by day and we'll just see how he does."
On whether there is something specific holding T Winston Justice back: "Listen, a couple things. He's not all the way back yet, he's close, and so I don't want to do anything where we have setbacks. When he comes back I want to make sure that he can come back and practice and not have any setbacks; an extra day or two or three will help him out I think."
On whether the goal is to have Justice ready to play in the Rams game: "Listen, I would just tell you kind of the same thing as these other guys, I mean we'll have to take it day by day. I don't know how he's going to do when he comes back in. I'm hoping for the best, but we'll see how things work out."
On his thoughts on the play of G Reggie Wells: "You know what, considering he only had a few days of practice I thought physically he held his ground (and) I thought mentally he did pretty good. So I think he did a decent job."
On whether he has decided on a starting RT: "We'll see on that how this all sorts out. We'll see how it goes."
On whether C Jason Kelce or C Jamaal Jackson practiced with the first team today: "Kelce was in there today. We went over some of the things that we didn't execute right, I'm saying as an offense and defense, we corrected some mistakes today and from the game, and had those guys in place there."
On who will start Thursday: "That's kind of how it is right now; I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to work that. I'll just see how it goes this week and then go from there, make a decision."
On whether he is confident with Kelce after seeing the tape: "You know, I thought he did a good job. Now listen, everybody, we all have stuff that we have to work on, but he did a nice job considering he's a young guy. He's one of the guys we're talking about that got a little bit better than he was in Pittsburgh and can continue to build on what he had learned there with the extended reps, so I was fairly pleased with him."
On what he is trying to accomplish with the final preseason game, when starters usually do not play: "We'll see, we'll see who plays and who doesn't play. I can tell you the twos and threes will have an opportunity to play, which I haven't told them that, in particularly the threes, the last couple of games so there were only a few of those guys that had the opportunity to play. I'll tell you exactly what I told them, and that's it's an opportunity when you have a chance to get in there to show and to get your play on tape and that's very important. The ones are expecting to play, the twos are expecting to play, and the threes are expecting to play."
On Maclin returning to practice after what he's gone through the last three months: "Literally, with he and Steve, we wrote down the plays we wanted them to do, kept it limited. Most of the plays, they were part of that play, so we could see at the same time as they get a rep there, they're part of that play."
On whether there was any extra meaning to Maclin finally returning to practice: "It was good to see him back out there, and I think all the guys welcomed him back out there. He's a popular guy on the team and a good football player, very well respected, so it was good to get him back out there."
On how LB Casey Matthews performed: "He's one of the young guys that got better. Listen, with the young guys, I was pleased. I know there's a growing process that takes place, so the important thing is that you take a step forward in all those positions that you have there. To answer your question, I thought Casey did that."
On QB Michael Vick checking down: "He did a nice job with that. That's a part of our game we felt like we needed to get better. As you remember a few years back, all the way back to when Duce was here, and Brian, that they made a living off of that, and it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. I thought that was a positive thing, and he was seeing things the right way, and so on."
On what he learned about his team after watching the game tape: "We've got to get better in some spots, but we got better than we were the week before and so we need to continue to do that before we play the Rams, so that's what we'll focus on. I'm talking about fundamentals, execution, scheme, and so on. That's all the way from coaches to players. Listen, we've got the right mindset as far as working hard and I think that's important from a coach's standpoint and also from a player's standpoint."
On his evaluation of S Nate Allen: "I thought Nate did a nice job. He actually did better than he did last week. I think every week here you're going to see him get a little bit better, get his feet under him, and continue to improve."
On whether the starting safety job is Allen's if he is totally healthy: "Well they're competing for that spot."
On how he evaluates K Alex Henery: "Well you saw, I'm doing the same things with the returners, I'm trying to get returners to run them out. Chances that we can get a kick in, we're doing it. So if it's third and short, I'm going to try to give him an opportunity to kick the ball, within reason, of field position. With the returners, I wouldn't have let (WR Sinorice) Moss return that last punt. I would have just let the ball bounce out of the end zone there before the half. Towards the end there, I would never risk the return, but, you're trying to evaluate these guys the best you can and you're doing some things that you normally don't do."
On whether the fourth preseason game is different from previous years because of the lockout: "I think, it might be different for each team as they look at it. Really, I'm just going to evaluate where we're at when we get through this week. To answer your question, is it different than years past? I think it's situated according to each team. I'm going to just take this week, I'm going to evaluate the players, we're going to practice hard this week, and we'll just see where guys are at. I know I want to make sure I get out of this game an evaluation with some of the guys that haven't had a chance to play in the last couple weeks, along with getting better at certain positions. So we'll see how it all works out."
