Wade: Good work today, almost all participated, but not T.O. Glenn practiced, Gurode practiced, a little limited with Andre. Both participated in the whole practice, all the other guys practiced. We worked in pads some today, went back to fundamentals, we did that some during the bye week and this is another bye week. It was brisk practice, guys were into it, we’ll have the same kind of practice tomorrow, and the players will be off Fri, Sat, and Sun.
Terry Glenn?
He came through it fine, I’m glad Jerry and I discussed it beforehand because of the weather, it was good he played, he feels more confident, I feel more confident. He caught some long passes today. (He said he’s only run some specific routes, when will he do everything?) The target is next Mon., hopefully he’ll do everything then, still limited some today by us, but he ran quite a few routes today.
Are you confident T.O. will play and be effective?
I don’t know for sure, he said he felt better, he’s working at it, and he’s ahead of schedule according to our people. Next Weds. or Thurs. would be the hope for him to practice. He jogged yesterday. Pushing off is the key thing. I think they took the boot off, I saw him in the training room and believe he’s out of the boot. I feel like he’ll play, he’s shown in the past, he walked off the field and walked on the sideline after the injury. He’s got toughness, he endures pain, I think he’ll do that. He’ll push through it but we want to be careful.
How different is the offense without T.O?
Any time you’re without one of the most dominant players in the league it will be different. You can see they have to double him when he’s in, even when he doesn’t have a big game other guys do. He’s very valuable.
Why was practice better today?
Renewed enthusiasm, new purpose, we’ve got some goals again. I think that’s what affected them.
Jeff Ireland?
He was an important part of the organization, I’m happy for him and the new opportunity, he’ll do a great job. I was impressed with him in the draft, in communication with him about personnel. Miami did a smart thing. The promotion was the key thing, I don’t think he was going to be moved up to GM here. (big laughter)
After that, there were a bunch of questions about nebulous playoff issues like have you changed as a coach, what to tell the team, are players different that have played in the playoffs before. In other words, boring!
(Disclaimer: These press conference recaps are just paraphrases of what Wade Phillips says and aren’t vetted for total accuracy on quotes. I shorten and condense things he says but try to get across the intended meaning. Occasionally, what I post loses the context of something Wade said and may appear counter-intuitive. If you have questions about something from the press conference, feel free to ask in the comments.)