Opening Remarks: "(CB) Nnamdi (Asomugha) is really the primary injury to report. Nnamdi has whiplash-type symptoms and a split lip. He didn't have a concussion. He's been tested. Everything's okay there. He wasn't knocked out. That's not what happened when he was hit. He was completely conscious the whole time. But he did get a pretty good laceration to his lip and his back of his neck is a little bit sore.
"I appreciate the way that the people up here have taken care of us over the last few weeks. They do a phenomenal job and it's a tribute to Lehigh and, really, it starts with the president on down to the people that help us out daily. The food people are unbelievable. The hospitality has been great and that's why we love coming up here.
"It's also been a good camp just from a camaraderie standpoint. Bringing a team together, I think, is very important in the National Football League and so it's good from that standpoint. We were also able to get a lot of good work in and this afternoon, we'll try to finish it up outside. It's supposed to clear up here; you guys would know better than anybody, somewhere around noon or one o'clock. Hopefully, we can get that afternoon practice outside. If not, we'll be right in here and it'll be a 10-10-10-type practice. They'll be in shells and they'll be in helmet; no pads on. Again, it was good to see the progress that this football team made and I appreciated their work ethic and their attitude as they approached it."
On how long the whiplash injury will sideline CB Nnamdi Asomugha: "I don't know. We'll see here. He's sore today so he won't practice today, but we'll see. Day-by-day, we'll just take it and see how he does."
On DT Mike Patterson's condition and whether he will be back sometime soon: "Actually, we don't (know). Right now, we're waiting just to see how it's going to work out. We're strictly banking on what his doctor says and he hasn't given us any updates on him."
On whether it was easier to build the camaraderie this year than it was with the team in flux last season: "Initially. It was a smoother process initially. So that part, the way the rules are set up now and handled, it makes it a little bit easier that way."
On whether Patterson's doctor has given any signals on when Patterson may be retested: "The doctor's been on vacation for a while, so he's just kind of getting back here and getting back in the swing. We don't have any (information); there's no progress report to give you."
On what he knows about the team now that he didn't know before camp began: "The thing I was looking for was, were they going to carry over backing up to last season. Were they going to carry over that energy they had at the end of last season that they brought into the OTAs; now could they bring it into this camp here. They seemed to do that. Does that mean that's going to carry you through? No, but it's a good foundation to start with and then are you going work hard. I thought they did that. They busted their tail. People weren't trying to get out of practice or look for the easy way out of a drill. They pushed themselves through and we got better. So, do we have a long way (to go)? Absolutely; we need the rest of this preseason to get ourselves right for the season. But at least there's a foundation there to build on. I've got an idea of their personality and I like that part of it. But we've got to go do it and finish up these next few weeks very aggressively."
On whether anyone has stood out to him during camp: "You could probably take that young group of players and say that it was good to see them progress. It seemed like they were taking steps forward, not steps backwards. If they had an off-day, they got right back on the horse and were better the next day. Without picking one person out of the bunch, I think, generally, that's what you saw."
On whether LB Jamar Chaney will be back for Monday's contest: "Jamar, what he did was he went through the 9-on-7 yesterday and then he tightened up a little bit. He'll go through today's (practice) as much as he can do and then we'll just keep going. We'll just see what he can do. We don't want him to further the injury. He's being very real with us on it and telling us how he feels. We respect that. We know he's a real tough guy and he doesn't try to get out of anything ever. So, you take what he says and then you kind of go by those symptoms."
On the challenges of the preseason schedule and facing teams you will see early in the regular season: "Well, we've got a couple of teams. We play the Browns the first week and then we play Pittsburgh the fifth week, so that's what it is. I'm not too worried about that part of it. We're going to play our guys quite a little bit here this coming game against New England, which is Monday night, and then all come back and they probably won't play quite as much against the Browns."
On how long the starters will play against New England: "It will be at least be a half. We'll see where it goes from there."
On whether he would have maintained the schedule he had in camp if he wasn't restricted by the league: "No, probably not. But that's alright. This is what you dealt with. In the NFL and as in life, you're dealt with things that you've got to kind of work so that's what you do. That's what we've been given and we go with it. But I can tell you that's not probably the way I would have gone about it. But that's alright."
On the difference in defensive coordinator Juan Castillo's approach entering his second training camp: "Juan's more comfortable I think, just going through it. I think his guys are more comfortable knowing the defense, which helps. Last year, we had it kind of jumpstarted here at Lehigh. They didn't have the OTAs, they didn't understand how we practiced, the speed we practiced; all the little small things that take place. So Juan was able to feed them a little bit more this offseason. They have a better understanding. They practice fast and furious and that's important."
On how the communication between the defensive coaching staff works: "The way that works is you have everybody and everybody has their job. Whether it is the substitution guys or whatever it might be. There's ones who are spotters to see who the personnel groups are in for the offensive units."
On whether Castillo is able to run ideas by secondary coach Todd Bowles: "He can do it right with Todd. He can do it with anybody but he's got Todd right on the phone there."
On what value the intern coaches provide to the team during training camp: "With our interns, we put them to work. I'm not sure how it is in other places but our guys are going to work. When they come here we give them something to be responsible for in whatever phase of the game it is and we expect them to jump in and do it. They're familiar with the program so they know what to expect and what I'm expecting from the players and the coaches. I think it's a nice little starting point for these guys who want to get into coaching."
On how much weight is put into performances in practice compared to game situations: "I think it is part of it. I think you have to try to make a whole out of all of the different things. Practice is broken down into different areas so you try to evaluate the players daily whether this kid is good in the red zone but needs work in the nickel. Whatever it is you do it every night. You get together as a staff and you get a pretty good feel by the end of camp. You see how that carries over into games."
On whether certain positions are tougher to evaluate with the practice limitations of the CBA: "Well you saw kind of what we did. We let those two young guys get in (on kick returns) and we have to come out of this thing with a good evaluation of them. The nickel position and the positions that don't play quite as much, your third wide receiver position, that inside slot player that might not get as many reps as another player. Those are the odd positions like field goal kicker. We have a pretty good idea of our field goal kicker but that would be one if you're starting off with a new guy."
On whether he is more comfortable with his knowledge of how this team will perform leaving camp compared to last year: "There were a lot of moving parts (last year). This isn't an excuse so I don't want it to be taken that way because everybody had to deal with this. But you knew you were going to be teaching old dogs new tricks and doing it like right now. There was no lead up, there was no walk and then you run type deal so it was ok, here we go. Then you remember there was a little bit of a delay there before free agents could jump in and go. Some of the young guys we were counting on (and) some of the rookies were in a position like here we go, we have to get moving fast. That part was a little bit different but everybody had to deal with it so you had to work it out."
On whether he knew the team was not ready to perform last season: "Well I think I mentioned it. I just mentioned that I thought it was important that we came together as a team. I thought we had good players but you've got to come together as coaches and players. You've got to come together as a team and that takes a little time. When I reflected at the end of the season it was too late but I felt like we had joined hands and brought that thing together as a team which you wanted to do sooner than what we did."
On whether bringing in new coaches, players, and a new scheme affected last season: "Yeah, and listen, we weren't the only ones that had that situation. It was just different. It was different than from what we've had in the past with the exception of your first year where that is kind of how it was. It was just a little different set of rules."
On how he views the defensive line situation: "That's going to be a tough decision. That's going to be one of the positions that is tough. I tell the players all the time (to) make it tough. Make it tough for (general manager) Howie (Roseman) and me to make a decision. It's a great problem to have but that's not sorted out yet. That's not going to be an easy thing."
On whether he regularly moves names up and down on the depth chart: "Absolutely. Every day we get in there after the evening meeting when coaches have seen the tape and they've had a chance to talk to the players. So everything is done. Now you get in there and if you need to move a spot (then) you move a spot but you make sure you communicate to the player why. You don't hide anything from them and then continue to teach them. You see how they respond to it and see how the guy that was moved up responds to it."
On what he said to T Demetress Bell when T King Dunlap started taking first team reps: "He kind of knew beforehand that we were going to work King in there (and) that it was coming down to he and King. There was a little bit of that done before the move happened."
