Q: What was the issue with Michael Boley's back yesterday?A: Spasms, it tightened up on him. Of course, he's had every test known to man and I guess it feels better today.
Q: So he's good to go?A: We'll see. We'll have to see how he feels before he comes out.
Q: And the injuries to JPP and Darius Reynaud?
A: Darius has a hamstring and JPP just has some ongoing back issues.
Q: Can you talk about Will Beatty's progress?
A: Is this your first day here because we've been talking about Will Beatty since August whatever. His progress has been good; it's been steady. He has great work in camp because he goes against outstanding defensive ends. We expect a lot out of him and he's come back here ready to play and has made good progress.
Q: Is this new kicker Rhys Lloyd just a temporary fill-in or is there a chance you might keep him.
A: Well, let's see what happens. Right now, it's a necessity to go into this game. He was very impressive in his workout. We'll see how it goes.
Q: Does a kickoff specialist become more or less important when they moved the kick up 5 yards?
A: Well it depends. Do you like it in the stands behind the goal post. Right now in preseason they're running them out from 8-9 yards deep. I don't expect that to keep happening. Accuracy and field goals are probably going to be most important.
Q: Is there a chance that you will carry two kickers?
A: Right now I would say we have two kickers but we have 90. It gets a little tougher when you start talking 53.
Q: We expected you to bring in a guy for a couple weeks whileLawrenceheals but to bring in a guy who has never tried a field goal but is a kickoff specialist…?
A: He was 4-for-4 yesterday in field goals.
Q: Could he be competition for a healthyLawrenceTynes?
A: Right now he's the kicker of record for the game on Monday night, thank you very much.
Q: You still have 11 days before cuts do you do sort of a daily ranking or will you wait until you get closer?
A: Yeah I do, I keep track of them on a daily basis. Who has impressed who and so on and so forth. We'll do that a lot. We rank after every game. We do a top 25 for the game, special teams, ranks by position. We do a lot of that.
Q: Are you starting to see separation?
A: I'm starting to see some guys that look to me like they can really help the team. That's basically where it starts for me.
Q: When you look at the kickoff coverage and punt return coverage compared to last year, you've got a lot of new kids coming in, how would you say it has progressed?
A: Well it better progress from week to week. A lot of that stems from tackling. If we tackle better, the coverage will be better. We missed a couple opportunities for spectacular plays the other day.
Q: Where is the progression right now?
A: Where is it? It's going from game one to game two. That's where it is.
Q: Your quarterback yesterday said he was in the top 5, top 10 in the league. Would you agree?
A: I do, but what would you expect him to say? He is for me.
Q: Paysinger got some first team reps while Boley was hurt. He looked pretty impressive.
A: He's been very impressive, yeah. Keep going. Get these young guys to keep playing well. Don't hit the wall.
Q: Do you see him as a linebacker that is best in open space?
A: He's been all around. He's been very good with special teams. He's been good with coverage opportunities. He's been athletic in all the drills.
Q: Eli said he's not a 25-interception quarterback. Is that a misleading stat with all the tipped balls or is that something he can improve on this season?
A: Oh you definitely can improve and I'm sure he will. He had a tipped ball interception at the end of the day yesterday which ticked everybody off. He definitely will make a change. He's so much aware of it and so anti-turnover that he will.
Q: Are all the tipped ball interceptions something he can change?
A: Sometimes you can. Sometimes it's better to, instead of take a risk like that, throw it away. Sometimes it's the high balls. A little more accuracy perhaps.
Q: He's been pretty good with turnovers. In previous years. it was more of a veteran receiving group and now he's relying on a lot of younger receivers. Can he get back to where he was?
A: Good question. When there's a little bit of doubt as to what that receivers are going to do under certain circumstances doesn't help.
Q: You've been looking for a slot guy with Steve Smith gone. Are you looking for a particular slot guy or is it just your best three receivers on the field?
A: Well the best three will have to adapt. I don't think you're going to get a fourth guy on the field ahead of a third guy. Hopefully the three that are the best will find someone that can go in there. A lot of times you start talking about the slot and there's a preconceived idea of what it is. Not to use the word possession but when Manningham is in there and you see it from the standpoint of after practice evaluation and see the opportunities in the middle of the field, for me I start thinking about speed in the middle of the field and the fact that people are going to have to be very much aware of opening up the middle of the field with somebody like him and the ability to go in there. Even though there wasn't a lot accomplished yesterday I was kind of excited about some of the things I saw.
Q: Can you talk about the value of this week's practices leading up to the game on Monday?
A: Well it's been two good days. We've had good enthusiasm. We've worked hard. Again, we're in situations – offense, defense and special teams – and this will be the third day. Got to be the same thing every day at a championship level with players demanding of players that the performance be very, very high. That's the only way it's going to get to a championship level. You'd like the execution to be perfect but you have to remember, you're going against each other. Somebody did something right. Even if you didn't like what you saw on one side, perhaps you like what you saw on the other.
