On how ready TE Trey Burton is to play running back if needed: "He's gotten reps. Obviously, he doesn't have any game reps, but I think we feel comfortable watching him out there. He's not a fish out of water. He's done it before. So he's got some experience at it. He obviously doesn't have the experience that the other guys do, but it's just one of those deals, when you get to the bottom of a 46 man [roster], you've just got to be prepared. It would be no different than if we had to go to an emergency quarterback. You're not confident that he can handle the whole offense, but there are certain plays that you've practiced with him when he's been in a practice setting. So he probably actually gets more reps at running back than an emergency quarterback does. But when you get down to the last guy, you have to go with what you got."
On how long the Eagles can go with Burton as their third running back: "Well, I think, [RB] Chris [Polk], we'll see where he is this week. So I don't think we'll be going forward much longer."
On how Polk has looked in practice: "Polk's looked good."
On whether he sees a difference in Polk from last week to this week: "Honestly, no."
On who the team's emergency quarterback is: "[WR] Brad Smith."
On whether T Lane Johnson would be affected by the league's new drug policy: "No, from what I understand, it's the substance abuse guys that fell in the offseason that really weren't taking - they fell into the PED category, but from what I understand, no."
On whether he thinks he's come close to seeing the ceilnig for DE Fletcher Cox and LB Mychal Kendricks: "I've never come close to seeing anybody's ceiling. I don't look at it that way. I don't think anybody has a ceiling. I think everybody can constantly improve. I always point to the guy in Denver. How many years has [Broncos QB] Peyton [Manning] been in this league, and his best year was last year. So to talk about a guy two or three years into it, to talk about a ceiling, I think that's short changing the guy."
On what Cox and Kendricks are doing this year that he didn't see last year: "I think like everybody, and I know I've said this a thousand times, but I'll always say it. It's their second year in the system. Everybody was new. Coaches were new, players were new, everybody was new. And I said before the season started I would hope we'd be more improved than we were last year because we're a lot more comfortable. They can finish the play call. When the play call goes in, they're not like what am I supposed to do [and then] ball snap. They know where they're supposed to be. They're looking at formations, splits, little tips of what they're doing, so they're a lot more comfortable in what the scheme is."
On whether the Eagles will dress seven or eight offensive linemen this week: "That's what everybody does in the league. If you dress seven, you get two hurt, you're there. We only dress three running backs. What if two guys get hurt there? There is only one way you can slice up 46, so it depends on how you want to do it. You can say alright, we're going to dress an eighth offensive linemen, but we're only going to dress four receivers and two receivers get hurt, then what you do you do? There are only so many ways you can do it. We dress two quarterbacks on game day. What if both those guys get hurt? Then Brad Smith has to play. So then are you going to dress three quarterbacks? Well if you do, then you have to take it from somewhere. There is not an exact science. I would say on average almost everybody in the NFL dresses seven on game day and you hold your breath and get your fingers crossed. But all our decisions on who is going to be active and deactive are not made today - this week, they won't be made until Monday, but it depends on the health of those guys. If we were going to play somebody that was kind of you're not a hundred percent sure, then you have to dress another guy. We did the same thing. We dressed four tight ends last week, but we only dressed two running backs. There was a reason for that."
On what the Colts defense is doing to compensate for the loss of OLB Robert Mathis: "Yeah, it's a tough loss, first and foremost. I think Robert had 19 and a half sacks last year, but they also have some other players. [OLB Bjoern] Werner is in his second year. He was a first round draft pick for them at outside linebacker, and you're starting to see his growth. You saw it in the preseason and obviously saw it in the first game. [OLB Erik] Walden, the other outside linebacker who played a lot with Mathis last year is a very productive player. So I think they were fortunate they had a first round draft pick for them that could slide in there and take that load off of their defense, because you did lose a guy who was extremely productive. I think he may have led the league, I'm not sure if 19 and a half led the league, but if not it was close."
On whether the Colts keep CB Vontae Davis on one side of the field: "They move a little bit. It just depends on what you give him in formation. A lot of time, if you're giving them slot sets, both corners are on the same side because there are no receivers over there. They move those guys around a little bit. The two of them are equal in terms of their ability to cover. They're both very good. It's not like one is drasticly different than the other. They're both really good at covering. I don't think there is a lot of, hey, they're going to match up one way or another. They're going to take their guys and run with them."
On the technique that goes into Fletcher Cox getting better at transitioning from his run responsibility to his pass rush: "I just think he's recognizing things better because he's not worried about where he's lining up, just like everybody else on the defensive side of the ball. Like [Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer] Zach [Berman] said, Mychal's in the same boat. They're able to make decisions a lot quicker because the game is slowed down for them. They're not worried about what alignment does this call put me in and all of a sudden, [the] ball snapped. They know it and they've studied it, and they worked hard at it. I just think he's processing things a lot faster. He can go from it's a run into a pass because he understands that, he's studied the tape, he's looked at it all, and he's really comfortable in terms of what we're doing scheme wise."
On whether Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton is doing things similarly to his time at Stanford: "A little bit. But he's changed as he came into the league. I think there are some things that are staple. Everybody runs power, and Stanford was a great power running football team. They still do that. But I think a lot of it is different. They have to do a lot of things. They used to run eight linemen in a game. They don't do that. They only dress seven. They used to do a lot of things on the offensive line. You don't see that stuff as much anymore because personnel rules have dictated that he can't do that. So there are some similarities, but it's not, you can't turn on Stanford tape and say this is exactly what they're doing."
On the addition of replay consultant Frank Kosman: "Just want to get better at every aspect. I analyze everything after the season and how do we improve on what we did the year before, and just thought that was the right way to go."
On whether the addition of Kosman frees up offensive coordinator Pat Shumur: "Yeah, Pat wasn't the guy. I think that's a misconception. Pat talked to me because he's on the headset with me. But Pat wasn't the guy making the decision. If we were on offense, Pat's telling me the down and distance our defensive coaches were looking at trying to help us out on the defensive side. If it was a defensive call, then Pat would help us out or whoever was in the box, and those guys would talk about it. Pat's still the guy talking to me on the headset. So when he consults, should we challenge, shouldn't we challenge? I think it's a misconception was because Pat's the one talking to me. But Pat doesn't make all those decisions. He's relaying the information that's been accumulated in the box. The other misconception that goes on there, we don't get the same feed all the time that the people on TV get. So when you get, hey, you should have challenged that because on TV they got that. We're governed by the feed that we get in the box. There have been some games I've asked should we challenge, and the guys in the box say we haven't seen a replay yet. And it always seems like it happens when we're on the road. I don't know how that happens. But it's interesting that we never get an opportunity sometimes. But it's happened in two cities [last] year when I wanted to challenge it, but we didn't get a replay. So it's tough for those guys to tell me. And we're not going to challenge it because it is taking a timeout, if they haven't seen it. We're not going to guess on what we saw. And the replay is huge, but you have to be able to see the replay. I know in two specific incidences we didn't get any replays in the booth."
On whether the Eagles bring a portable TV: "I wish we could. Maybe someone should have their phone on and they can text them from home. But there are a lot of times after the game, why didn't you challenge it? Well, you talk to the guys in booth, that's not what they saw. That's not the feed they were given all the time, and it's not always the same as it is on television."
On whether there are rules in place that say the team is supposed to have a television: "From what I understand, yeah."
On how fans watching at home can have a better view of the game: "That's why we play eight games at home and eight games on the road because everything evens out, right? That's how you look at it. I'm a positive looking guy. Eight times a year we get the best view in the world."
On what he knows about Jeremy Maclin after getting to see him play in his offense for an extended period of time: "I felt like Mac always fit in terms of what we were doing. I think you get a chance to watch him play because he wasn't a rookie before he got hurt. So I saw him in games and film and before I got here. So I was excited to get a chance to work with him. I was just disappointed when he got injured a year ago because we didn't get a chance to work with him. But I thought Mac would be successful in what we did and what I've seen in our preseason games and what I saw against the Jaguars. It's kind of what I thought we were going to get out of him. He's got long speed. He's a tough guy to cover. He's a bigger guy. He can get in and out of breaks. He catches the ball extremely well. We're trying to hopefully maybe get him on some shorter routes where he can catch and run, because I know that's a quality, I remember the highlights of him in college, I think he led the nation in punt returns in college. You're still seeing that aspect of his game that we haven't brought out yet. But what I've seen out of Mac and our training sessions out here and in obviously the preseason game and Jaguars game is kind of what I expected out of Mac."
On the key to the team's improved special teams: "I think it's a combination of everything, I think. Number one, we kicked the ball better, especially from a kickoff standpoint, so you had five touchbacks and two that came out were kind of deep and off. They weren't directly at the returner, so all of a sudden, we get a little chance to cover better, and then on the punt stuff, I think we do a really good job on punt 50 punt. We had five balls inside the 20, but I think the addition of some of those newer players, [S Chris] Maragos, obviously showed up. Some other guys that we brought in that are newer. So we have a couple special teams guy to go along with a new kicker. So I think it's a combination of all those things."
On the adjustments the offensive line will see: "You're going to have two new guys in there, but I think we feel comfortable with those guys, because they've been in our system. If we're going to play [G] Wade [Smith], I think dealing with Wade the last two or three days, I think he's got a really good grasp of what we're trying to do. He's a highly intelligent football player and pleasantly surprised when you sit down and visit with him and talk football with him. He's got a really good knowledge of what we're doing. So I don't think it's going to affect how we're calling plays or what we're calling on game night in terms of what we're going to do against the Colts. Now if we sustain another injury or two, that could become an issue, but right now we don't anticipate that."
On how the Monday night game affects the team's schedule: "We had an extra day off this week, and next week we have no days off is really the difference. So we have to come back and do something on Tuesday when we come back from Indianapolis because we play again the following Sunday."
On whether he will watch the Washington game Sunday: "Yeah, we do everything. Nothing changes, it's just you compact your week. This week we were fortunate we had an extra day. So we started our week on Wednesday because we wanted to be out there a certain amount of days before the game. So next week we won't have a day off. We'll play on Monday, and we're back at it on Tuesday."
