Got a couple of injury situations that we have one coming out of the football game, and obviously moving forward, m Jordan Matthews will actually practice today, warm up, individual group, install and give him a repertoo in in our seven on seven today. So he's he's on track, doing doing doing great job with his recovery and should be ready to go. Obviously next week. Isaac Simala, we're still gonna
day to day. Is still gonna hold him and rest him and make sure that he's one hundred percent before we put him back out there. Wendell, as you know from the game, he's in the h he's in the concussion protocol. He's got to go through all the steps there and and make sure that he's one hundred percent before we bring him back out to the practice field. Vinnie and Taylor Hart. Vinny Curry and Taylor Hart both with the knee. Taylor also had the ankle as part
of THEIRS. Fully expect them next week for for Cleveland. And then in Carson situation, Um just got word he had a CT scan a done Um and came back. He had you know, he had the two ribs there. So the tenth one is completely healed. The eleventh one still shows about sixty percent. So uh, there's there's still some injury there with him going forward. So with that will open up for questions. If he's sixty percent with that rib, probably not. So there's two two ribs that
were injured. Yes, yes, that's correct, that's correct. How much will do he'll continue to work? Uh? You know, he got two good workouts in last week one at the stadium, did did a great job. He's still obviously sore from that, but he'll he'll continue to get his rehab and continue to work. And um, well, uh, we'll just keep day by day just giving him a little more here and there. In the big picture, how much is that concern you
at all? Just for him not to get those rests. Well, obviously where we are in the in the in this late and in the process as far as training camp goes, it definitely you know, hurts from a young young quarterback standpoint, his you know, his position to fully grasp and understand the offense. But again, I just go back to what
I see in the classroom. What I see off the field is work havoc here, work work ethic here, you know, Um, and just what he knows and what he understands, Um, And and uh, you know the situation where it is right now, you know, with Sam and Chase and and then and then him obviously going into the season as the third UM. You know, it doesn't it doesn't concern me as much right now during the sea to replace
those reps. It's hard in the regular season to replace those types of reps, UM, because our our focus is with the ones and getting Sam and the starters ready to go offensively and defensively. So it's hard to replace those reps the veteran wide receivers. I could do yesterday. Is that kind of a necessary message to the younger guys, the younger receivers that yeah, they have a fair shot. You're not playing favorites. Well, I think the the you know,
first of all, Um, you appreciate everybody's hard work. And I listen, I've been in those situations. I've been released before as a player and as a veteran player, and so I understand the business. And it's obviously the tough side of what we do as coaches and personnel, UM. But at the same same time, we all we are, you know, looking for the for the for the best fifty three that we're going to take into the regular season.
So you know, we've got some young guys that have performed well and and UH want to give them another opportunity here this week coming up to UH to solidify those positions and and uh, you know, it's one thing that we set out to do way back when Ota has opened up, was create competition at every every position.
And I feel like we've done that. What a guy's doing like right now and you know, every day here and in the games versus what they've done adversus Like it was saying like there are guys that you're having a team now and maybe they've done stuff in the past that you know, but maybe they're not having as good a can with a younger guy who's ever done
an eight and before. That's the tous of fine line, you know, I mean, And and you know they're obviously there there's a lot of history, and there's a lot of film on those players, and and you know, a lot of a lot of circumstances. I mean, just it can just come down to you know, who's performing right now. Just like you mentioned, I mean, the guys that that
that are playing at a high level. And and you know, you want guys that are all on board and and and doing the doing the things right and and um, you know, at the end of the day, you got to make tough decisions and and um, you know again it's it's not not something that we enjoy doing. You'd love to keep them all, but but the nature of
the business as you can't. And and uh, you know, we got to find the best feature well again, you know, with you with the competition that we had, and and obviously right now, with with a week left to go, I mean, these are two veteran guys that that potentially could could get picked up on on another another roster. So doing it now then later is is obviously a
an advantage for them. And to get picked up And you know, we've got guys that hum again, that are equal to you know, and and um you know a lot of times you when you look at your roster as a whole, um and if you can build with youth and you can begin to um, sort of shape your team in a certain direction. Um you know, you feel comfortable obviously with your with your top three or four guys, and then it all comes down to that
fifth spot. Particularly in that receiver room, and they did they did by end, um, you know, and and and it's just unfortunate, you know. I mean again, we've got we've got some young guys that created some competition, and that's what we wanted, and that's that's what we got out of this decision. Is there anything is your background as a player in the nature of how you guys in the NFL in your career play, any role in how you might evaluate a guy. You know, I keep
it in the back of my mind. Um, you know, I was an undrafted free agent that that ended up playing several years in the league. And I just you know, I just think every situation is different, every player is different. You know, circumstances are different, Guys approach things differently, and and you know, you want to find the guys that are that are all are all in and you want to see them every day out here work hard and
practice hard and do the things right. And you know, at the end of the day, you know you're gonna make You're gonna make tough decisions. But it doesn't factor into the decision making. Although I know I've been in that situation before, so I understand what both the veteran players going through and a and an undrafted rookie might be going through anything. Do you think it also from the flip side of that defines you. I mean, you're
a first year coach. You can say anything you want to the room, but when you do something like this, it tells them A you know just what you're talent to play hard, you know, show up and you do well. And that's I think that's what you've seen throughout preseason. You've seen how um I think each week we've gotten better fundamentally, UM tackling has gotten better, offensive line play has gotten better the past, protection of the D line, rush, I mean, the turnovers. You know, we eliminated a ton
of penalties this past week. I just think you're seeing the guys buying into the whole process and and they're buying into the message and and listen, I don't I'm not here to sell anything to anybody. I don't. I don't have to do it. This is their livelihood, this is their profession, their professional athletes. They get paid well and at the end of the day, Um, they know
what it takes, you know. But at the same time, you know, I just know that that you have to push them right up to the end, you know, right up to the to the nth and the degree. You got to keep pushing them every single day and and and allowing them to get better and try to be great every single day. And that's a tough thing to do. Um.
But but the guys have really responded well. And uh um, you know, we still have another round it cuts obviously coming up, but right now where we are, we're in a good position as far as Michael, Why was he on the field in the fourth quarter. Why because he hasn't played. He hasn't played, and we just want to see him, see him get game in my reps. That's
bottom line. He's still your starter. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and you might you might, uh you know, he's another one that that we'd love to see again this Thursday night, you know, in a short role. But at the same time, he hasn't played all preseason, so you know, Stephen Tolik's another one that that we need to see play and and uh um, so there's there's an opportunity for these two to get some more reps on Thursday. Either excuse me, Michael wasn't defense before the right he had been out there.
That's why we wanted to get him some more reps just in the base defense and and uh, um, you know, we haven't really put our plan yet together for for this week, but you'll we'll probably see him more in nickel situations. I would think on Thursday, Michael Kendricks. There's
a chance, Yeah, there's a chance he plays. I mean just because again he hasn't played all preseason, and still want to get him, still want to get him those live reps and uh and get him ready for Please Tree Furdon has had a good game the other night catching the ball. Has he developed enough as a blocker for you to have confidence in him starting Week one with him in two and three wide receiver at tight insets? Yeah, but but but I'm not going to ask him to
necessarily block a ton. You know, that's just not his chemistry, that's not his makeup. He's he's better route runner, and he's very good in space, you know, away from the ball, which which you saw the other night. And and uh, you know, so you know, his strength is definitely not not blocking. But but we're still going to ask him and put him in those situations. But I mean, the three tights to be able to sell the fact that
he can blocks. Yeah, and where we put him in those alignments too, I mean, yeah, we did rubber stars that chased to play Thursday night, Nelson night. Yeah, Nelson probably not, um, you know, probably not. Um you know right now, I think you're looking at um, you know, Josh Huff might get a might get a play or two here there early in this game. Plus we gotta we got a factor in special teams too. With some
of this, I mean you just can't sit everybody. Special teams becomes a big factor, uh in what we do Thursday night. But um, of course d GB we get we get some more reps um and then we want to see all the young guys. That's just my decision. Why why well, one, you don't one, you know, I don't want to risk an injury necessarily too. He's he's he's right on track where he needs to be. Um, you know, And so I'm not I'm not concerned with Nelson.
Why struggling right now, seems like he's struggling. Drop passes consistency. Why you know, every day he comes out here and he puts in a quality day's work, and he works extremely hard, and I've seen what he can do in practice, and um, is there the occasional you know, drop here there. Yeah, But but you know what, it doesn't led him what he did after the drop. You probably didn't notice the blocking he did down the field, the things he did away from the ball, you know, more than being a
receiver is obviously catching the balls number one. But you know, we pride ourselves and being physical in the run game and blocks down the field, and the things he did in this football game put him in a really good position going into the regular season. So he's everybody's working through some things right now. We were we perfect, No, I don't. I don' want to. You're never going to be perfect. We strive for it, but you're never going to be perfect. And and you know, I challenged him
the other night just to be great. You know who wants to be great, you know, And if you strive for it and you come up a little bit short, that's all I can ask for, you know. But collectively, we did a nice job and ended up winning the game and cut the turnover down, we cut the penalties down, our red zone efficiencies great, third down's great. So it's a team sport and um, we'll continue to work every
single day for the common goal. Are you expecting Isaac Beck will be And how did Whiz a little ad left carnage play will just look great. Whizz filled in and wonderfully got all the reps during the week. UM, I thought the offensive line played extremely well. He's a veteran guy, played a lot of games in this league, so he fitted in really well. UM. In Isaac's situation, you know right now, he day to day, but we would expect him, along with those other guys I mentioned,
to be back next week. UM, and then obviously we'll make a we'll make a determination going forward who will be the who will be the starting five? You know against Cleveland with Josh, you had given him the ball choice one handoffs and I got him want to quick splat with that by design, trying to get find easy ways to get him the ball so that he uses Yeah,
you know, I went into that game. I wanted to put some guys in different positions, and that's why you saw guys like Josh and Trey and you know in those types of uh situations for us to want to see him in that spot. We've seen him out here in practice do it, and wanted to expose him during the game that way. And and uh, um, you know, Josh is that type of guy. He's a he's a short intermediate receiver, good quickness, uh, great with the ball in his hands. Obviously a hum it as a runner.
You know, he's got that in from college. And and just wanted to, um, you know, put the ball in his hands as fast as we could, you know, in those situations, and and and see what he could do. And he had, he had his best game in the preseason. All right, Thanks guys. Thanks