Wade Phillips press conference 9/1/08 - Cory Procter to start

A paraphrase of the important news out of today’s Wade Phillips press conference.

First practice with the whole group for the Browns game. Hurd, Austin, and Kosier didn’t practice. Cory Procter will start at left guard, seems like best fit right now, the other guys did well but he’s played there before and I have confidence in him. McQuistan is not as good at guard as at tackle, Berger did a good job but played mainly the right side.

Isaiah Stanback practiced and caught the ball well, caught it over his head, caught it and ran with it, it looks good that he’ll play and be the #3 WR. He looked good in practice. We haven’t finalized the 45 for the game, normally you take 4 WR’s but Witten can play in the slot and Felix can too, but still a decision to be made.

Joe Berger can work at center, but right now Procter would replace Gurode if there was an injury.

Felix Jones and Pacman will probably do kickoff returns, maybe not together but one or the other back there. Hope there aren’t too many kickoffs to return. We want to make sure Isaiah can get through the game, so we’ll be careful with using him back there, but we’ll see the rest of the week, he was able to block today at practice.

We’re looking at Keith Davis, I think we can get things worked out and then add him. Adds some to our team, he did last year, captain of special teams. No secret we struggled some in preseason on kick coverage, he can help on ST and he’s a leader.

Montrae Holland would be a rush job right now to play, not there yet. He’s working and spending extra time to see where he can get, he can help us this year and through the next few weeks. He’s a bigger guy, Procter is a good player and we think he will do well, but Holland is more of an anchor, strong guy, bigger guy.

If we took 4 WR’s it would probably be either Amendola or Jefferson.

Kevin Burnett looked good in practice, moved around well, we’ll monitor him over the next day or two.

Terence Newman is practicing fine.

My reaction to today’s news from the press conference.

I might as well stop trying to figure out what Wade Phillips is doing over there at Valley Ranch. Cory Procter will start at left guard. Here’s a guy who received minimal reps at guard in TC and during the preseason, including the Vikings game, and he gets the call to start. One would presume that they knew what Procter would give them but not Joe Berger and Pat McQuistan, and neither of them proved their worth enough to get the nod. I’ve always though Procter was OK in technique but he seems soft in the middle, he gives up ground much too easy. I don’t know, I didn’t think they were seriously considering him because of the lack of reps they gave him at the position. Anyway, that’s who is starting this week so let’s hope that he plays well enough that we king of forget he’s in there.

Good news on Isaiah Stanback, if he continues to practice well, we can go into the Cleveland game with three wide receivers that are already on the 53-man roster.

It sure sounds like Wade expects Montrae Holland to take over for Procter as soon as the second game. I’m sure Hudson Houck is saying give me the big guy, he loves big linemen.

Keep your fingers crossed on Kevin Burnett. We sure could use him on Sunday.