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2006 preseason quotes
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if it gets easier to make cuts, if it ever gets emotionless
"No, no, I think it gets harder, because the longer the
players are with you and the more established your
relationship is, the harder it is to sometimes tell them
that things aren't going to work out. Unfortunately, that's
the bad part of the business. But that's part of it and you
just have to accept it and move on. I think everybody
understands how competitive the National Football League
rosters are and everybody knows that everybody can't make
it, as much as you'd like for it to happen."
radio interview, september 5 |
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Hurricane Katrina and Jarvis Green
"I think it had an impact on the whole team. We
have players from that area and there was a lot of concern
for their friends, family, relatives and so forth down
there, but all of us had friends or relationships with
people, either from that area or that were on the Saints.
Absolutely. Obviously they went through a lot. Our hearts
went out to them. We, as a team, raised quite a bit of money
and contributed to the relief fund. Players from that area,
like Jarvis and Marquise [Hill], Kevin [Faulk], guys like
that, they all did a lot down there in their own way in
support of their friends and family, relatives and so forth,
too. Sure. Without a doubt. I would think that was true for
every team in the league. I can't imagine that it wasn't. I
talked to other coaches about it. It seemed like everybody
had that. We had some LSU connections – Eric Alexander, Randall Gay. We have a lot of guys from LSU
and from that area. It's such a good football area that
probably every team in the league either had players from
one of those colleges or players that grew up in that area
if they went to school somewhere else."
training camp, august 29 |
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what there could be to work on after shutting out a team 41-0
"Even though the score is one thing, still, on an individual
play basis there are a lot of things that can be improved.
We went through that with the team today. We watched the
tape for, I'd say, about an hour and a half – just
on one side of the ball. And then probably another half
hour, 40 minutes on special teams. So that's over two hours
of just going through each play. It's reinforcing the things
that we did well and correcting some of the other things. We
mentioned some of the plays on offense that we didn't make,
a couple plays on defense that we didn't make, special teams – our
return game could certainly stand some improvement. You
know, you're playing a lot of different players, and
communication between them, and then being in the right spot
working off each other, there's plenty of things to do. And
really now that game doesn't mean anything; now we're moving
on to the Giants and they present a bunch of new, different
challenges that we'll have to get ready for. So it really
doesn't matter too much what happened last week against
Washington, it'll be how we match up with this team and how
well we can do things against them."
weei, august 28 |
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the purpose of training camp
"I don't think, really, the purpose
of training camp is to experiment. I think the purpose of
training camp is to teach the players your fundamental
system and the techniques that go in that system. And you
hope when you come out of training camp you've got that
down. If you put the cart before the horse and start doing
things that aren't your base thing, then before you know it,
you might be okay even on some of those, but then when you
come back to the basic fundamental stuff that you need to
win with, a lot of times that's lacking a little bit. I
think it's dangerous to get too far ahead of yourself on the
basics of training camp. Or basic training, as the
Marines like to call it. But I think there's a lot to be
said for that. Like baseball in spring training. They
go down there, they work on the basic stuff – double plays,
cut-off throws, steals, hit-and-runs, just all that
basic stuff. It's got to carry all the way through the year.
It's the same thing in football. The fundamentals that you
work on in training camp, they have to carry for several
months here going forward. So you'd better do your best to
get them down. That's not saying they're going to be
perfect, and that's not saying you're not going to have
problems during the year. Whether it's baseball or football,
you still see fundamental mistakes. But I think now is the
time when you want to spend your most time drilling those
and getting them as good as you can get them, because this
is the most time you're ever going to have to spend on them
during the course of the year."
training camp, august 28 |
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the third preseason game
"This game was a step in our
preparations; it was part of the process. Some things were
okay and hopefully we can continue to build on those. Other
things were a little less than okay and they need to be
corrected and improved and that's what the process is, so
that's what we're going to do."
"There were some things that I thought we practiced and
met on and talked about that we executed fairly well and got
done. There were other things that weren't as crisp.
Sometimes it was the same play that looked better one time
than it did another. So we're still working for consistency.
We played quite a few people in the game, so that adds to a
little bit of the overall timing execution as well. There
were some things that were good; there were some other
things that we need to improve on. There were some new looks
from Washington that we can learn from. I think this will be
a really good film to teach off of and I look forward to
showing the players because I think that they will see
things and understand things a little bit better after we've
had a chance to show it to them on tape."
conference call, august 27 |
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after the third preseason game
"We took a step forward and we executed a little bit
better than we did last week. I think we made some
improvement in each game this preseason, so that's
encouraging. We still have a long way to go. I don't think that the
score really was indicative of where we're at. We still have
a lot of work to do on a lot of things. But there were some
positive things and I think we can continue to build on
those. Hopefully we can have another good week of practice
and keep improving our team as we have the last couple
weeks."
postgame, august 26 |
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if he has empathy for players who "can't catch a break"
"I hope everybody does well. I don't have
anything against anybody. I hope all of our players do well.
I hope they all are successful, and we give them every
opportunity to try to put them in that position. There
probably isn't a player that hasn't had to overcome some
type of adversity or some type of situation in the course of
his football career, some more than others. Unfortunately,
that's kind of the breaks of the game. I think we've all
been through that. We all understand it. I'm not saying it's
easy, but it's something that we've all had to deal with at
one or another in a playing or coaching career. That's the
NFL. I sympathize and appreciate it, but at the same time we
deal with it. Every other team in the league deals with it.
We just have to overcome whatever those are."
training camp, august 23 |
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how last season ended and this one is starting
"The playoffs against Jacksonville and Denver – we'd been
playing football for over five months at that point, and we
were at a point as a team where we could do things that
we're just not able to do now. There's no way to take five
months of practice and preparation and meetings and games,
and then take six months off and come back and start at that
point. As much as you'd like to, it isn't realistic. So,
we're just rebuilding it brick-by-brick, day-by-day, down
after down, and I hope that in five months we'll be further
ahead than we were last year at five months. I hope this
year we're further along after four weeks than we were last
year at four weeks. I think that's what we really have to
try to do, is take it day-by-day. There's no way we can be
where we were in December of last year, there's just too big
a gap there. But we've got to just try to get better every
day and put one foot in front of the other and keep moving
forward."
radio
interview, august 22 |
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how sharp the players are right now
"We're in training
camp. We're half-way through the preseason schedule, so I
think everybody's got a lot of room for improvement, and I'm
sure that he'll be better with another week or two of
practice than he is now, just like he's better now than he
was a couple weeks ago when he hadn't spent as much time on
it. It's just refining your skill and your technique.
Everybody on the field's doing that."
conference call, august 20 |
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roster decisions
"We don't have to make any roster cuts here for a couple
of weeks. We're just going to concentrate on taking the
players that we have, try to coach them better, see if we
can play better and execute better as a team and execute
better, individually our fundamentals, which certainly there
is plenty of room for improvement there, then we'll make the
decision when the time comes. But I'm not really too worried
about a lot of those decisions right now. I'm more worried
about trying to improve the football team and do a better
job of coaching."
conference call, august 12 |
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after the second preseason game
"I think that was a good opportunity for us to look at a
lot of different people out there and look at some different
schemes against Arizona. I thought that our players tried to
compete pretty well. We got a lot of snaps on both sides of
the ball, and I thought there were some positive things. We
were able to move the ball a little bit and play decent
defense. Still had a some trouble with the quarterback
scrambles and there are a lot of things we have to work on,
so I don't want to get overly positive – you
don't have to worry about that. But I think there were some
good things. I think we improved from last week. That was
our big goal this week, to improve our execution, to play
better football, and I thought for the most part we did
that. Although, like I said, there are still a lot of things
we have to work on."
postgame, august 19 |
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after the first preseason game
"I think it was a real good
experience for us – we learned a lot. Certainly, we have a lot
of things we need to work on, and we're inconsistent in a
lot of areas of the game, but I thought there were some
positive things. We'll have to go back and look at the film
and put it all together, but I think it was a good learning
experience for us down here. ... Hopefully we can take this and
improve on it and be a little bit better next week, which we
need to be."
postgame, august 11 |
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the importance of this preseason game
"I think the preseason game is important
for every player. Each year is a new year. Everybody has to
go out and establish their own level of play and try to get
ready for the regular season. That's an opportunity that
whatever players play – for
however many plays they play for – an
opportunity for them to take another step in that process.
That goes for everybody. I don't care who it is, including
the coaches. Doing what we do on the sidelines – making
decisions, making calls, seeing things, trying to process
them quickly, getting the information to the players – I
think it's something that no matter how many years you've
done it, we haven't done it in six months or so, so we're
starting all over again. We need to hone in and refine those
skills, as every player does. We do it out on the practice
field, but doing it in game conditions is different than in
practice. When a player gets an opportunity to do that, that
is an opportunity for him to take advantage of sharpening up
his skills and getting ready to get his game up to the
highest levels so when the regular season starts he is as on
top of it as he can be. That goes for everybody."
establishing a player's contributions
"I don't think we've established what anybody's contributions are going to be this year. We're
just trying to let everybody get out there and play and
establish their role for themselves. That's up to each
individual. We're not sitting here saying, 'Well this player
is going to do this, and he's going to do that.' We give
them all the basic stuff, and then make decisions on roles
and positions. Maybe there are plays we might want to
specialize for certain players as we go forward and see how
things are shaping up, but I think it's way too early to try
to get those types of roles established. Especially for a
player who wasn't even on the team with us last year."
training camp, august 9 |
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players' prior reputations
"We just evaluate going on what we see. I can't really worry
about what happens somewhere else or what somebody somewhere
else says. If you weren't in that situation, you're not aware of
all the circumstances – whether they
were good, bad or indifferent."
training camp, august 7 |
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the depth on their roster
"We'll know a lot more about what kind of team we have in
four or five weeks than we know now.... Guys could come a long
way in the course of training camp. A lot of players that we're
not even talking about could end up being significant factors on
the team. So I don't know how you could possibly evaluate that
now. I wouldn't even try to evaluate it. We're just trying to
get everybody better, give everybody an understanding of what
they're doing, start to evaluate them and start to work them
into our system and figure out where their different roles could
fall as they perform and establish something for themselves. And
then we'll make those roster decisions about a month from now."
training camp, august 4 |
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nfl rule changes for 2006
"You can't really play to the whistle any more. You have to
play to the ball, because the whistle really might not be the
end of the play. I think in this particular rule, we're kind of
going into an area that we haven't gone into. The old adage of
'play to the whistle' might not be good enough any more. I think
that leads into some other questions, particularly with player
safety, or some guys are playing beyond the whistle and other
guys may not be. Some guys may see the ball if it's loose, other
guys may hear the whistle and not see the ball. I'm not sure
that everybody is reacting to the same thing. This isn't a rule
we made, but we have to try to understand it and play it as it
is going to be interpreted and officiated. I'm not sure exactly
what that is, because in all honesty, we've never had this
before. We're going into an area we've never gone into before. I
think that there may be some adjustments or growing pains, or
having to come to an understanding of how it's going to go."
training camp, august 3 |
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practicing in the heat
"The games that are scheduled, we have to play. I don't know
what those conditions will be – some will be hot, some will be
cold, some will be windy. We have to play through it. I don't
think we want to take any undue risks, but our players are
well-conditioned athletes and they're trained. We're going to
practice. ... We have a good medical staff and they need to stay
on top of everybody everyday, regardless of what the conditions
are. That's their job."
training camp, august 2 |
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the grind of training camp
"We're just rolling through camp here. Two-a-days. Get up,
practice, eat, meet, practice, meet, eat, sleep, and start all
over again. I think it's a good process for our team to go
through. We have to build our mental and physical toughness and
we have to build our conditioning. It's a long season and this
part of the grind is something that I think we all need to
prepare for what's ahead."
training camp, august 1 |
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how the players look so far
"I think it's a little early to get into big evaluations on
players. I think all players are trying to get back into their
timing and their routine, and that goes for everybody. Some
players are better than others, we're working with a lot of
different people, we've all got a long way to go, but we're
taking it one step at a time."
post-practice interview, july 31 |
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fundamentals
"One of the things that I think is important for us this
year is just to become a better fundamental football team. To do
the little things better and more consistently than maybe what
we did certainly at times last year or in the past. We can sit
around and say, 'Fundamentals, fundamentals,' and write it up on
the blackboard and all that, but you really can't get any better
at it unless you go out there and do it on a repetitive basis.
So if we're saying we want to be a better fundamental team, then we're
going to put a little bit more time into it on the field and
stress it more. Hopefully that'll result in being a better
fundamental team. That's one of the things we want to try to
do in this camp, is improve our fundamentals and
techniques."
if he's opposed to carrying only two quarterbacks on the roster
"I'm not opposed to anything. I'm FOR doing what's best for
the football team. If it's carry four quarterbacks, like we did
in 2000, then we'll carry four quarterbacks. If it's carry seven
offensive linemen, which we did at one point last year, then
we'll carry seven offensive linemen. In one game we had eleven
linebackers active for a game. That might be an NFL record. I'm
for doing whatever's best for our football team. I'm not going
to put any limits on that and say, 'We're never going to carry
more than this or less that that.' We'll do whatever we think's best. And that's the way
it'll always be. I'll reserve that right to do it. It may be
unorthodox, it may be heavily criticized in the media, but
I've got to do what I think's best for the football team,
and that may or may not be what everybody else does. I don't
know. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's what
we think's best."
training camp, july 30 |
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consistent good play
"At this level, pretty much any player could go out there
and make a few plays and look good. I think most of the good
players, the great players certainly, fall into that category
because they are consistent, because they do it on a regular
basis and they can go out there and do it everyday and then you
sort of start to expect it or become accustomed to it. I think
that's the big difference between a guy who goes out and flashes
a couple of plays here and there compared to a player that goes
out and does them consistently."
training camp, july 29 |
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getting better is a process
"Everyday that a player is on the field he has a chance to
work on his techniques and his skills and get better. And
everyday that he is not out there, competitively, he is losing a
little bit of ground to somebody else, whether it is a guy on
our team or whether it is a competitor down the line. The more
they can be out there, the more they can get the reps and
improve their game on a day-to-day basis ... It's a cumulative
thing. It's not one practice, one or two plays, and they're
ready to go. It just doesn't work that way. It's a process, and
that process takes time."
first day of training camp
"I think the team is in pretty good condition overall, and I
thought we had a decent start this morning. Obviously, we have a
long way to go. We all have to either establish or re-establish
ourselves this year like we do ever year. Nothing in the past
really means all that much. But I do think that the team seems
to have a good attitude, seems to be ready to work, and seems to
be relatively focused and in pretty good condition at this
point. We'll just take it step by step, day by day. We've got a
long way to go."
training camp, july 28 |
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the most important thing a player can do
"I think the most important thing for every player is
to take care of themselves and make themselves the best player
they can be. So I think Tom Brady needs to worry about Tom
Brady. Bill Belichick needs to worry about Bill Belichick. I
think everybody needs to get themselves ready to go. That's the
best advice I can give everybody on this team."
minicamp, june 15 |
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if a player can show up year after year the same as he was
before
"Every player has to reestablish himself, his performance,
[and] his role each year. So there's nothing that's really any
different for him or for anybody else this year or last year. It
does matter, but in another way it doesn't really matter what
happened last year. It really doesn't."
minicamp, june 14 |
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having older players act as role models
"I think that ultimately everybody has to have
accountability for themselves and their own performance. But I
think it's always good to be able to look at other people and
learn and take positive things from them. There's no question
about that and I think we have a lot of great people on our team
that do that and provide positive examples for other players.
But ultimately everybody has to make their own individual
decisions. That's what it comes back to."
minicamp, june 13 |
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player progress
"Anytime a player can keep improving, you want to keep working
with him. It's the guys that kind of level off or start to go
the other way as you pile things on and the performance starts
to go on the other direction, that's when you have to worry
about what the future is going to be."
rookie minicamp, may 14 |
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first day of rookie minicamp
"If we were reading a long novel, we're on page one. I think
that's kind of the approach that I want to take with the team,
the rookies. We have such a long way to go, so many things to
do. We're just taking this one step with a lot more in front of
us."
rookie minicamp, may 13 |
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if a player's "mental makeup" entered into their decision
"I think you look at everything that a player has and you
evaluate it. If you think it's good enough, you add him onto the
team. We think he'll be competitive in that situation. The total
player, everything that he does, mental, physical, technique,
performance. You put it all in there. I don't think you can look
at a guy and say, 'Well, he has this one thing.' Well what about
the other 99 things? There has to be some evaluation of those
too. It's a bigger, broader stroke than that."
at the conclusion of the draft, april 30 |
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if it was their intention to select offensive players on the first day
"The intention was to come out of it with three good
football players. I don't think you can be too picky about, when
you're drafting best value players, it's hard to be picky about
position. If you're drafting need positions, then sometimes you
give up some value and try to balance those out. But we tried to
get players who we think could help our football team and that's
why we picked them."
at the conclusion of day one of the draft, april 29 |
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their first pick in this year's draft
"I think he has good intangibles. Yes. He's a smart kid. He
works hard. He's durable. He's been a good, solid guy. He does a
lot of things well and still has a lot of work to do. Believe
me, I don't think anybody comes into this league as a finished
product. He's certainly in that category. There's a lot of
things that he'll need to improve on and work on, but we think
he can do them and contribute."
after making their first draft selection, april 29 |
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offseason moves & what they have to do to become a better team
"I think there are a lot of things we can do better. Let's
start with the coaching. Maybe I can coach a little better; I
think that'll help us out more than anything. But we can use
depth at every position on the football team, so whenever we get
an opportunity to add players that we feel like can contribute
to our system that's what we'll do. But that pretty much goes
across the board."
nfl network, april 29 |
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roster depth and competition
"Depth is important at every position on the football team – you
never know where you're going to need it. I've said many times
before, depth in May is a lot different from depth in November,
and that's the only time it really matters. You try to get as
many good football players as you can on your team. Part of that
is to give yourself depth during the season and part of it is to
create competition in training camp and heading into the season.
I think that competition is good for everybody and it also hopes
to develop some flexibility on the roster in terms of teaching
guys multiple positions and being able to build your own depth,
where one guy can do multiple jobs rather than having two or
three different guys to do that because that's a very realistic
situation that will occur during the regular season.... I don't
think any team ever has the kind of depth they want. You're
always looking for an upgrade, and that's one of the things that
the draft gives you. Usually there are some quality players at
the top of the draft that you can see maybe helping your team
sooner, but then there are also selections later on that can
give you that kind of depth that you're talking about where guys
can grow into the position in time, in a year or however long it
takes, for them to kind of get the system down that they can
create depth at those other spots. It's a good opportunity to
strengthen your team if you can hit on the right guys."
pre-draft, april 19 |
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2006 regular season & postseason quotes |
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