Opening Comments:
* *"With playing the game Friday evening and players being in-off, in-off and now back to work, it's important we use this week to get better. We will begin our regular season schedule tomorrow for our players, with the long week we have, to get them acclimated to a normal week, although it be a Monday night game. It's a good week for that; guys are competing for jobs, and a big week of practice and preparation to order to go out and play well Monday night is really important for our guys. A couple of the guys who didn't get an opportunity to play last week will hopefully be able to play this week."
Is that the toughest thing at this stage, balancing snaps?"
* *"It is tough. I go through the game and tell the coaches when it's okay to take a guy out or not take a guy out, just so we can try to get as many looks as we can at a guy on tape."
With Michael Bennett in, and his recovery, do you see him as a possible contributor? And is that a testament to the science behind these recoveries?
* *"He's obviously worked very hard to get himself back in a position to do this. It's great for him. He's been training and did a nice job at the workout. In training camp, receiver is one of the areas to make sure we have enough people all the time -- to both service the defense and service the offense without wearing our guys out."
Where do you feel receiver depth is after the top three?
"We feel good. There's opportunity out here to win jobs and continue to compete for playing time. That's important these next three weeks, as far as playing in the preseason games and putting good quality snaps on tape and plays in practice to earn that opportunity. The depth will be what the depth will be when it plays out."
Is that as open a position as there are on the roster?
"I think it's an open position. I don't know in comparison, but we have some guys battling for spots, no doubt."
Have you started looking at Jameis Winston's first game?
"I didn't look at their offense yet. I talked to Coach Zimmer (Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer, whose team played Tampa Bay last week), but I didn't look at it yet."
What do you expect in this game, with a staff you are very familiar with?
"You have the rookie quarterback, the first pick in the draft. It's really important for them to get him playing so they can have an opportunity to win football games. We know they're an athletic defense that relies on stopping the run and turnovers. It's a great week for us in preparation to play against a group like this. We played them last year in the regular season, and what a close game that was; the way they played that style. We need to be prepared to play, because our guys will get a great test."
Thirteen years ago you picked Carson Palmer with the first pick in the draft. Has anything changed between now and then, with the development of No. 1 overall picks? It's so hard to ease a guy in like you guys did with Carson…
"I think they would ease Jameis in if they felt they like had another quarterback that they felt that way about. That's up to the team, the head coach, and so forth. I think when you have that pick, you want to gain the value that comes with the pick. It's up them to make a decision on who becomes the starting quarterback. I don't think you can compare situations. There is no doubt Carson was just as talented as any of the guys who have come out and done this. It's nothing on Carson's abilities at all that we didn't play him as a rookie."
So do you think nowadays there is less patience?
"Well this is their second year now (for the Tampa Bay coaching staff), and they're changing offenses, changing coordinators, so it's different. I think you can't compare situations."
Do you see Adam Jones as a smarter player now, as opposed to one who earlier in his career would rely on his athleticism?
"I think he's doing a very good job of executing the techniques and so forth in each coverage. He's been diligent in that through the entire offseason and through this camp. As he's done this, he sees its reaping great rewards. Those are all positives for him."
*The whole point of bringing a guy in is for him to ascend, right? *
"He had a lot of ability and a lot of room to grow, and to his credit he's taken advantage of it."
Do you like the mix of talent and youth of your team?
"Again, we do. Speaking with Andre Smith this morning, I said, 'Were you here in '09?' Thinking back to then, we have a lot of guys who aren't that old but who have played a lot of football, and I think we're fortunate that way. They're battle-tested; they've been through training camps, postseason. They know the grind at this time of camp after you've played a game and now have a long stretch where you have to focus in.
"You can't go out and wallow around the next five days. We have to have great football days, great prep days, while still getting better as a football team being pointing toward the Oakland Raiders and the rest of the season. It's important that we're able to channel our focus that way because we have enough experienced guys to do that. They know what the task at hand is. We're preparing for a 16-ame season and to make sure all the stuff we do; whether it be weight room, the eating, the meetings, it all has to be pointed in the right direction."
What has (DBs coach) Vance Joseph done well?
"He's really technically a sound coach. He is a very good teacher, and he's able to grab these guys attention, sometimes the hard-to-grab guys' attention, because he's diligent with that. He's done a very good job at that."
How does he grab someone's attention?
"I think he's able to point out the positives to them, to reinforce what he's trying to get them to do consistently. And with that comes the consistency were all looking for. He wants those guys to play at a very high level, and it's to their best interest to play at a high level."
Adam Jones says Joseph is a 'no-BS' type of coach …
"When you put coaches in place, you want guys to be experts at what they do, and what they teach. There's a lot of different ways to teach things, and how we teach things and how we teach in our schematics is different than how they teach down the road in Tampa Bay. Our players have to embrace it that way. We don't want anyone that's going to come in and BS them about what we're doing or why we're doing it that way. Because when it's broke, you have to have the ability to go in and fix it."
How good are players in gauging that sort of BS?
"I think players are excellent at it. What happens is, if you told me to do it this way and I do it that way and it's not right, they want an explanation. You can't do that very often. It's like the fallacy of coaches teaching illegal tackling. No coach wants a 15-yard penalty. Their guy gets penalized, their guy and team gets fined. We're coaching them to do it right and do it within the scope of the rules all the time. The player relies on that, we're trying to keep their money in their pockets."
Where is Marvin Jones now, and what do you want to see out of him vs. Tampa Bay?
"I think Marvin has had a couple of good days. He's has to keep on ascending. We have to keep him moving forward. I think he's gained his confidence back, which is important."
Was the message received that he needed to take it up a notch?
"You guys (media) make the judgments. I just said he needed to get out there (in practice). But excellent vehicle, I tell you that. (laughs). His time on task has been good. He's had three to four good days. It's been great to see the smile back on his face, and not that frustrated look. That's what we need from Marvin."
Isn't it rewarding to see young players like Dan France step up and make the most of their opportunity?
"It is. You have some of these kids like Dan, they're guys who came here different ways. He's been here for a season, on the practice squad all last year, and the time has paid off. We kept him around here for a reason, and thought there was some upside in him. Now he has an opportunity to go out there, and he handled himself pretty well last game. Now it is another challenge."
As a member of the Competition Committee, are you in favor of the eight-man officiating crew experiment?
"Really doesn't matter, I don't get a vote. (Laughs.)"
Do you like the idea of it?
"Well, because we've moved the umpire, I think we're going to gain some advantage with the eighth official being in the back end. We can gain some advantage on defensive holding and some things that occur now that are being missed since the ump has been moved. It's a fast game with a lot of big fast people. Balls down the field will gain a bit of an advantage with another set of eyes. We know those plays that happen downfield are critical all the time, and the judgment that comes into that would be good. Yes, there's some advantage to having an eighth official back there."
