Q: Any thoughts on Burress signing with the Jets?
A: Well, he's a terrific player and obviously he's coming out of a tough situation so I wish him the best. At the same time, we have to move forward and do what's in the best interest of our football team and go about putting our team together and get ready to compete.
Q: Are you worried that there are a multitude of guys who are still out there who haven't come into camp yet?
A: It's just a situation that we have to deal with. We have to trust management knows what it's doing and it's conducting its business in the best interest of the guys on the team and we'll move forward accordingly.* *
Q: Osi Umenyiora is here, so do you think things are going to work out?
A: I hope things will work out. He's a terrific player and quite frankly, we need that guy. He's a tremendous pass-rusher and a tremendous asset to our football team. He's very disruptive—not only does he sack the quarterback, but he creates a lot of turnovers for us. He's a great teammate, a great guy in the locker room, we're excited to have him around and hopefully we'll get him back into the business of football.* *
Q: With Cofield gone do you think you're going to have to play an even bigger role?
A: Obviously I'm going to have to step up. Cofield did a lot of things to make my job easier, so I'm excited for him to move forward with his career with his new team. At the same time I understand that I've got to step up here and contribute a little more to this football team from a leadership perspective and a performance perspective and I'm ready to take on a challenge. I'm excited about it, it's great to be here and I'm excited about getting back to work.* *
Q: …You have a rookie and a second-year guy who didn't play much as a rookie..?
A: Yeah, if you think about it from that perspective, we've got our work cut out for us. Right now, we just have to do the best we can with our football team as it is right now and continue to come out here each day and be sharp and get the most out of our performance each day and take advantage of opportunities.* *
Q: What do you say to those guys?
A: The best thing for me is to just show them. It starts with leadership. You can talk until you're blue in the face but they come out here every day, day in and day out and they see me and see how I present myself as a veteran and I just try to pull those guys along and tell them I'm trying to show them the way and hope that they follow along.* *
Q: What are your impressions of Linval Joseph?
A: Linval looks big. He's done a great job of keeping his body ready to come in and step right in and play football. He's a big, strong guy, very physical guy. There's nobody in the NFL that could stop him. He's just that kind of guy. Marvin, he's a great, athletic guy and he's very explosive. I'm excited about the talent and I'm going to try to help him and coach him up as much as I can. They're going to help me with some things, too, so I'm excited to work with them.
Q: Are there expectations of the rookies?
A: There are a lot of expectations for those young guys. They're going to be put on the field and they're going to have to produce. We have a high level of expectations for them, a high performance expectation. We're in the performance business—this is our business. Those guys are going to be put into situations where they're going to have to play significant minutes; they're going to have to play football so we have to do our best job to get them prepared to do that.* *
Q: How about Osi—he's been here for a day. Has he been grumpy?
A: No, Osi hasn't been grumpy at all. He's excited to see everybody and we're excited to see him. I know that there's a little bit of a medical issue there as well, so we're going to let that play out as much we can. I don't know much about it, but we're excited to have him in the building and we're excited to have him as a part of our football team.
