The Wade Phillips press conference. I missed the beginning because the guys at DC.com forgot to turn on the sound. But here’s what I did get once I could hear it.
Q: Overall thoughts on team?
WP: They’re working hard, lots of effort and enthusiasm and we are getting some fundamental things covered. We got OTA’s and another minicamp coming up, we are 25% into our football offseason programs and about 50% through our offseason training program. When you have a new coaching regime it’s easier to get the attention and focus of players.
Now, Terence Newman, he wants to work all the time, you never have to worry about him. (Non-sequitur about Newman that probably had something to do with the opening of the press conference.)
Q: How have you liked the offense so far?
WP: It’s hard to gauge without pads on. You can’t really see the running game and even the passing game is hard to see. The timing on the passes has been good in the 7-on-7 drills; we’ve thrown some good deep balls. Overall I’m pleased. When we have our WR’s on the field, that’s a lot of talent, they’re hard to stop.
Q: What about Roy at LB in passing situations?
WP: That’s something we’re looking at. You can call it a linebacker or a dime back, but he’s not covering the deep half, the deep zone. He’s on short zones and blitz responsibilities in our 3rd down package. One of them, we have a few to install.
Q: In San Diego, you had LT as the RB. How will you handle the two RB’s here?
WP: Whatever works in a situation is what we’ll do. We have two good backs, combined they made a lot of yards together, they were kept fresh, I think we’ll continue to do that here.
Q: Kevin Burnett’s comments from yesterday?
WP: I hope a player wants to play and to start and are frustrated when they don’t. Kevin has a chance to do something about it. We are going to get the best players on the field. We’ll find something for a player if he excels at a certain aspect of the game. Sometimes on 3rd down in San Diego we would play 5 LB’s, so we’ll create things for the best players. But this is a competitive business.
Q: Too many LB’s?
WP: You want people to say you have the best LB group in the league, you want that at every position. I’d rather have too many instead of too few.
Q: How’s the o-line look?
WP: It’s hard to see without pads on. I think this group will maul people though, they are so big and strong. But they are also athletic. Without the pads we get a chance to work on technique.
Q: Have you asked the LB’s to lose weight or at they just doing that?
WP: I believe the faster a player is the better. You can tech leverage. Of course they can’t be too undersized and this group isn’t undersized. I want them to get at the weight that they can move around at the best.
Q: How’s the team's conditioning?
WP: They’re in pretty good shape for May, even Julius who hasn’t worked out here is in good shape.
Q: How good can Ware be and was he under-utilized here last year?
WP: Well, he went to the Pro Bowl. These players have good work ethic and that comes from the regime that was here before. You have to compliment what the previous coaches did with these guys. We think Ware will get better because of his ability and his desire to improve.
Q: What do you think of the talent base you inherited?
WP: Just looking at them without pads is hard, but I think we have athletically a lot of talent. There’s not a position where I think we don’t have some talent, unlike some previous teams I’ve been with.