Q: Did you make some roster moves?A: Deon Grant joined us this afternoon.
Q: Can you talk about Grant and how he fits in back there with the other safeties?A: Well, he's a veteran safety who's always been a guy that you can rely on for knowing everybody's assignments and being able to really understand the game. He's very smart. He's played a long time. He's just a good, good, solid football player that we know will help us back there.
Q: Is there a reason why you signed him now?A: After one game and into the second game. It's part of the evaluation process.
Q: Are you ready to go back to the three-safety looks?A: That's a possibility.
Q: Was Coach Fewell lobbying to bring Deon back for that?A: No, not really. No.
Q: Did it have anything to do with what you saw on the field with the young guys?A: It always has to do with a little something like that.
Q: You got to see a guy like Tyler Sash fit in …A: Tyler is probably one of the guys who did pretty well. It's just a matter of the quality, the numbers projected. Another week from now where will we be? We need to get out in front of what the next moves are elsewhere in order to be able to have a player that we think we're probably going to need down the road.
Q: How much does Grant's presence in the locker room factor in?A: You have to have solid people in the locker room, something to rely on … A guy who's been there and done it and can help a lot of the younger guys.
Q: When you see a guy like Will Beatty jawing at Osi, what do you think?A; It usually comes from the other one. Osi usually gets them going. It's very competitive. It's been healthy. It's been real good. They've been doing that since Will got here as a rookie. Probably someday Osi's going to take credit for Beatty.
Q: Do you see more confidence in Beatty though?A: Oh yeah. He's got a ways to go, but I do see it.
Q: Even though it's only practice, can that help bring out the pressure that you want to see in a guy like that?A: Just to work against 90 (Pierre-Paul) and 72 (Osi), just to be over on that left side looking at those guys every day, you better bring your 'A' game to practice.
Q: You could be embarrassed out there. If you have a bad day…A: That hasn't happened, but it could.
Q: Does that surprise you a little bit that it hasn't happened? That JPP hasn't embarrassed him?A: They've gone really well against each other. They both have played, competed, and done well, very well, in practice. That helps us advance.
Q: You talked yesterday about how Jernigan has played the last few days and then the game …A: I thought he was better too. I thought he practiced better. I thought he had a little more confidence and a little bit more about what he was trying to accomplish. I think we just have to continue to bring that out of him.
Q: The new kickoff rules and the fact that teams are returning the ball out of the end zoneA: You need that. Most teams are encouraging the returner to bring it out. Therefore, it's best to cover unit plus the kickoff return team. You need to see it. That's why you see so much of it going on in the preseason. People are bringing it out from buried deep. They're told to do that and told this is the only way we're going to have a chance to evaluate our kickoff return.
Q: Do you think it'll be more conservative when the regular season begins?A: We'll see.
Q: What was the thinking with the new kickoff rulesA: In the beginning, it was all the safety. The players' safety was the preface to the rule. That's the way it was presented. That's the way it was accepted.
Q: Aren't those collisions…A: Sure, but there's a counting on less defense.
Q: Tynes, do you think he's going to make progress?A: Yeah, I think he is. I don't think it's going to be any 'wow' all of the sudden the next day I feel a whole lot better kind of thing. It's going to take some time.
Q: Last week you kept talking about guys that weren't coming back. Is Deon enough of a guy that there's a little bit of a boost that we got someone back?A: I think so. I think the players will be excited to have Deon back in the locker room.
Q: How are your punters doing so far?A: I like what they did the other night. I like the competition. I hope it continues. When you take 50 yards in returns and you still have a net of 39.4 or whatever that was, that's pretty impressive.
Q: Can you determine roles in the running game yet? How they're going to share the work?A: It usually sorts itself out pretty well. We'll get to that the more opportunities we give to them in a game.
Q: What did you guys like about Derek Martin?A: He worked out very well for us. He was actually playing pretty well before he got hurt last year. He has special teams credentials which is something we're constantly looking at.
