Head coach Mike SmithOn today's overall practice:
"I thought it was good. Yesterday we got a lot of good work in pads. We came out and worked in shells. We had a good emphasis on some of the situations that you're going to see in a ballgame. We did some two minute, and some red-zone stuff as well. I thought it went well."
On getting the first preseason game out of the way:
"Well, it'll be a great time for us to go through a true evaluation process where we are playing the game of football. There's no limitation on the quarterback not being live, so it'll be an opportunity for our guys to go out and play. The other things is, they're going to be out there and they're going to be huddling up, there's not going to be coaches standing around the huddle. So it's going to be fun to watch these guys and see how they respond to tough situations."
On Mike Johnson's injury:
"Mike Johnson left the field, and I cannot give you an update right now. I don't know the extent of the injury, but like we did this morning, when we have concrete information we will get concrete information out to you guys. Right now we can't speculate. We certainly hope Mike's going to be fine."
On health being number one goal while playing football:
"You got to realize that football is a contact sport, and there are going to be injuries. The thing that we want to make sure is that we do the best that we can to put guys through practices where they're not going to get exposed to injury."
On how Ryan Schraeder has been through camp:
"Good. There's a number of young free agent lineman that have good size, and good footwork, and good athleticism. We're excited about it. We've been excited about those guys since day one, especially how big they are."
On changes on the offensive line this offseason:
"I think we're very solid on the left side in terms of what our roster will look like. We're moving Peter Konz back to his normal position which is center. He is more of a center, last year he had to play guard for us. Garrett Reynolds is sliding back into the right guard position. He started about 17 games in the three years he has been with us. Then there's been competition at the right tackle. I think there will continue to be Joe Hawley in the mix of the guard/center spot. We're trying to put together a 53-man roster that has nine offensive lineman that give us a lot of flexibility."
On how Thursday's game will be a big test for Lamar Holmes:
"Oh, big test for all of our guys. First time starters. First time guys that are going to get a lot of significant playing time. It's going to be fun to watch them go out and compete. I thought these were two very productive days that we had here with the Bengals. I think it'll be fun to go out and compete against them on Thursday night. And I know the next question coming is going to be, 'What about playing time?' So I'll preempt that and say as a coaching staff we have met. We've got a plan in terms of how long our starters are going to play. We're going to spend the majority of the time evaluating our younger players."
On how he is keeping Tony Gonzalez engaged:
"Well, Tony Gonzalez with the new technology, every one of our practices are downloaded on the iPads that our players have – our iPad playbooks. I know that he's watching every practice every night, and I'm sure Tony's going to be ready to go. Tony's a pro; he's been doing this a long time. He has a very good understanding of what we want to do offensively. I don't think there's going to be any issue when Tony gets back here real soon."
On how he thinks the offense did:
"Well, I was over on the offensive side. I can't speak for what happened on the defense until I watch the tape. I thought that we were efficient. The first team went down and scored a touchdown. We were a little bit light when we got to the third group, in terms of offensive lineman. We cut that a little bit short. I thought they operated very well."
On Harry Douglas' play during training camp:
"Harry (Douglas) is our slot receiver, and he's going to get a lot of opportunities to show what he can do. Harry is a very good receiver. He's one of many good receivers that we have. That's probably why his stats aren't as high as they would be if he was on another team."
