Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

The Writers

Roy Cummings

Ira Kaufman

@TBO_Buccaneers
TBO Buccaneers
Roy Cummings
Anwar Richardson
Ira Kaufman
Ask a question

Most Recent Entries

Monthly Archives

Wednesday’s Practice Quotes

Posted Aug 1, 2007 by Alex Vila

Updated Aug 1, 2007 at 05:23 PM

Bucs

Wednesday’s practice quotes (courtesy of Buccaneers):

HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN

(On Gaines Adams’ injury)
‘‘He’s day-to-day. We’ve got a lot of guys, several guys that have bumps and bruises. But he’s day-to-day, nothing significant. He’s got a triceps strain. He’ll be back hopefully today or so.’’

(On Luke Petitgout)
‘‘Same thing. He’s going to be back probably tomorrow or the next day. He’s just got a sore body.’’

(On Phillip Buchanon)
‘‘We rested Phillip today. He’s really having a heck of a camp. Tomorrow will be Phillip Buchanon day here at training camp, but we gave him a morning off because we wanted him to get well. He’s an extremely fast football player and we gave him a lot of running yesterday. He took advantage of his turns and he was rewarded this morning with a morning off.’’

(On what he sees in Quincy Black)
‘‘Well, you see flashes of real talent and then you see flashes where [you say], ‘Man he needs to pick it up.’ So he’s like a lot of young guys that are learning this defense. A lot of people think it’s one front or two fronts and not a lot of volume, but it’s a very disciplined football style that we play here. Right now he’s got to pick up the discipline, the communication and the recognition. And those things are going to come in time. But he’s very athletic, he’ll hit you and when see the light on, he’s easy to spot on tape. But there are some plays in between there that he’s going to learn from quickly.’’

(On if the players getting Wednesday afternoon off means he’s getting soft)
‘‘No, every year after the fourth padded practice I like for the big guys to get an afternoon off. That’s the case again this year. Four consecutive padded practices…today we worked on short-yardage and had a lot of physical play in 9-on-7. Yesterday we had a live goal-line drill. We’ve had four really good 9-on-7 physical practices and we’ll use this afternoon to have a little fellowship, a little camaraderie, a little team activity.’’

(On if the team is going to the movies)
‘‘Yeah, I think we will. We’ll see if we can go see something.’’

(On when Petitgout’s absence becomes a concern)
‘‘He’ll be back tomorrow. We did a lot of research into his New York Giants days. He’s played a long time and training camp’s a long time, especially for some guys who have been on a specific program for the last three or four or five years. But we’re not concerned at all. We feel good about Petitgout, and in the time being it’s a great opportunity for us to look at Donald Penn, who’s doing some good things, and certainly Anthony Davis.’’

(On if it’s surprising that Adams has a triceps injury)
‘‘No, guys do get in piles. We could probably have Gaines practice today, but according to the doctors and trainers, they felt maybe a day or two off would help him. He needs to get back out there. Gaines, get your butt back out there; we have a lot in store for you.’’

(On Luke McCown getting a lot of reps)
‘‘He’s earned them. He’s earned them. I’m not counting reps, I’m giving reps to guys who are getting it done. The guy’s getting it done. We could stand over here and count passes, how many reps you get, but the bottom line is, at every camp I’ve been in, the guys who take the reps are the guys the coaches want to see and they’ve earned them. McCown is a guy that missed the whole year last year – I want to reiterate that. He deserves the reps he’s getting and he’s got my attention.’’

(On if McCown has a good arm)
‘‘Yeah, he’s a very mobile guy, too. He’s an athletic guy, he’s a heads-up football player and he needs to get some experience in the pocket. The tight red zone is a hard place to throw the football against a maximum zone, a two-deep, five-under zone. There are not a lot of places to throw the football, and he needs to get some work there where he hasn’t had it in a long time. To be honest with you, he’s earned the reps he’s getting.’’

(On Brian Kelly)
‘‘He’s going to make a difference for us. When you look at [Ronde] Barber and Buchanon and Kelly, those are three good corners. We didn’t have Buchanon last year until late, we didn’t have Kelly basically all last season, so two out of our three corners we’re talking about here are back and healthy and playing good football. That allows you to do some things defensively and we’re encouraged by having BK back with us.’’

(On Chris Simms)
‘‘He’s got whatever you want to call it. He’s got to improve his play. When he does get reps in an individual drill, whatever it may be, he’s got to get it done. And when he gets it done, he’ll get some reps. But right now he’s got a lingering sore elbow. We think it’s getting better and we’ll make the decision to give him his reps when we feel it’s right.’’

(On if McCown is now second on the depth chart)
‘‘I’m not going to say anything right now other than Luke is a healthy guy that has got my attention and certainly our football team’s attention. He’s doing some good things.’’

(On if McCown’s experience is showing)
‘‘How many years has he had? He was hurt last year. He hasn’t got a bevy of experience. Yeah, he’s been around a long time, sitting in an ice tub. He’s got experience in an ice tub. He doesn’t have a bit of experience as a quarterback, really, other than a couple preseason games. He did start a couple games for Cleveland before we made the trade, but this is a young guy who hasn’t done very much at all between the lines. I think it will be interesting to see what he does with his opportunities.’’

(On stressing tempo in practice)
‘‘It’s good. You can’t run 26 plays in 20 minutes if you don’t have great tempo. You can run 15 plays if you have average tempo. While it’s hot, I like to get guys in and out of the huddle. It puts a lot of mental pressure on you. If you don’t have 20 seconds to think about what the coverage is or what your route is, it puts a lot of mental pressure on you. When the games start, this is a fast-paced game. You’ve got to substitute quickly, you’ve got to communicate, you’ve got to shift motion, you’ve got to react fast. That goes for both sides of the ball. The faster we are from a tempo standpoint on offense, the better, the quicker our recognition will be on defense.’’

(On never having enough quarterbacks)
‘‘A lot of people have been counting my quarterbacks. I’m looking for one quarterback. I’m going to make myself perfectly clear: I’m looking for one guy that we can live with for five or 10 or 20 years. Until we find that guy, we’ll keep looking. We love [Jeff] Garcia and what he’s doing for our team. He’s clearly the starting quarterback on our football team. We’re hoping one of the young guys can step up and be a guy that challenges. But I agree with you: You never have enough good players.’’

(On the battle between McCown and Gradkowski)
‘‘It’s a battle, it’s an ongoing process. Every day you practice different aspects of your football. Today we worked a tight red zone, and like I said, Luke hasn’t been in the tight red zone, as quarterback with all of his lack of experience. So we wanted to give him some opportunities so he could gain some experience there. But I think it’s a battle. It’s going to continue to be a battle and that’s the way it should be when you’re young and you haven’t done much in pro football.’’

(On if he loves this part of the game)
‘‘Yeah, it’s going to be a tough, eye-opening experience for a lot of these guys. You try to get them as ready as you can in training camp and the preseason games. Of course, not a lot of teams are playing their front-line starters for very long, and when they do it’s not really a specific game-planning type of agenda. So you’ve got to really try to put your players in different situations and put pressure on them. Make it like a game without overdoing it, because it’s a long period of time we have here. But you’ve got to love it, developing young guys and trying to get the most out of veterans that you acquire on your team.’’

(On if there is pressure on Adams)
‘‘Of course there’s pressure. There are going to be some that sit there and count sacks. As a rookie player, our goal is for him to continue to improve. We think he has natural pass-rush ability, but there’s a lot more than just rushing the passer. You’ve got to be able to play the run, you’ve got to be able to play situational football. We’ll check his stamina. Can he play hurt? Can he do those things that the great players do? There’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re the first-round draft choice.’’

(On the release of Simeon Rice)
‘‘We made a move and it has nothing to do really with anything that Gaines Adams can control. Gaines was brought in here to play for the Buccaneers and be a pass-rusher. We think he fits the style of defense that we play and we’re excited about his upside. Hopefully we see it real quick.’’

(On Patrick Chukwurah being a stand-up rush end in a 3-4 defense)
‘‘You’re killing me with the 3-4, man. I don’t know. We’re a 4-3 team. We haven’t even seen one snap of a 3-4 and we’ve run 1,100 plays. He could play in about any defense, I think. Right now his hand is in the grass and he’s a defensive end playing on the right side.’’

(On fumbles)
‘‘We had two fumbles. I think one was on a late whistle, honestly, and Lionel Gates fumbled in a short-yardage situation. If you fumble the ball, you won’t be here long. You cannot turn the ball over. The ballcarriers’ hold the entire organization in their hands, and when you let us down, man, you really let us down.’’

CB BRIAN KELLY

(On how he has been doing)
‘‘I feel pretty good. It is the first week of training camp, so far so good.”

(On if he can say the toe issue is completely behind him)
‘‘Yes, surgery was successful and rehab went well. It took probably two or three months to get back to where I wanted it to be, but right now it is good.”

(On finally having the surgery)
‘‘I am glad to get the surgery. It was important for me to get the surgery. I don’t think it was an issue of toughness or fighting through, it was just I couldn’t be functional and play the way I wanted to play. I had to get the surgery to get it right and now that we have gotten the surgery everything is good.”

(On the mindset of the defense)
‘‘It is a lot like two years ago when we didn’t play the way we wanted to play and we came back and were the number one defense. We know what we have to do. We have enough veterans around here that know what it takes to get back to the level of defense that we are used to playing. Now it is just to demonstrate that to the young guys, because we have more young guys now, to let them know what it is going to take to get back to the level we need to be at. We are not happy with 17, we are not happy with 10, we like to be in the top five every year and that is the standard here. We just have to get ready to get back to that.”

(On the level of play by the young guys coming into the defense)
‘‘They came in prepared, and that is a credit to the coaches. This playbook is not extensive, but it is a lot of detail and it is a lot of technique involved. They spent a lot of time on the field this summer getting ready and when you watch them out on the field, they are rookies and they are a little tentative to make plays, but some of the guys are going out there and just busting their butt and trying to do what they can do to make a presence because they know what it takes to make this defense. You have to make plays.”

(On Phillip Buchanon on the other side)
‘‘He is going to make a lot of plays for us. He is a corner who has been out there, played before, he is experienced, he know what it takes and he has made a lot of plays in the NFL. To have that as your other corner on the other side when you have to play pretty much 60 percent nickel is going to be good for us defensively.”

(On the two new safeties)
‘‘I really like how they have been playing. Those guys are really going to be able to make some plays for us and it is going to push Jermaine [Phillips] and Will [Allen], which is something that they probably need, too. There is just a point in your career where you look there and say ‘man, I might lose this position, I have to step it up,’ and now they are stepping it up. Then you have young guys that are eager to get out on the field and are going to keep pushing them. So, they will push each other and the best players will end up being out there on the field and at the end of the day it will help us with depth.”

(On Raheem Morris coming back this year)
‘‘Not to take a shot at the guy last year, but we are used to Raheem [Morris]. We know his terminology and he knows us. It is just one of those situations where you gel well with the coach and the coach gels well with the players. He really helps us out and it is going to help us with our growth because he is a teacher. A lot like Mike Tomlin, he is able to take you in the classroom, tell you what to do, go out on the field and help you with what you need to do and that is going to help us a lot probably more than anything on the defensive side of the ball. To have Raheem [Morris] back is going to be a big plus for us.”

(On Shelton Quarles staying with the team as a pro scout)
‘‘It is a good thing. I am happy for Shelton. It looks like something he is going to want to do. It will be good for us to see him around still in some kind of way. He is a good guy, a great guy, a great teammate and it is just good to see him still in the building with us.”

FORMER BUCCANEERS LINEBACKER AND CURRENT PRO SCOUT SHELTON QUARLES

(On what brings him to Orlando)
‘‘To be an advance scout, so I’m looking forward to being a part of this organization once again.”

(On his departure from the team as a player)
‘‘It wasn’t as bad as what it seemed. To have the opportunity to be a part of this organization is great for me, great for my family. We love the fans, ownership, and they have been great to us. Having the opportunity to be a part of this organization feels really good.”

(On this position signifying his retirement as a player)
‘‘It’s pretty close. It’s about as close as you can get without actually saying it. They offered me a job and I look forward to, hopefully, doing a good job at what I’m going to be doing.”

(On discussing what his job will entail)
‘‘I’ll be going out for the games and checking out the other teams and giving my report on how they are doing.”

(On being told he was no longer needed as a player)
‘‘It was tough, but it’s a part of the game. You understand that because of football. The reality is that you want to play forever but that’s not necessarily going to be the case.”

(On his opportunities to play for other teams)
‘‘We had opportunities, but for me, staying in the Tampa area and being a part of the organization was what I really wanted to do. In whatever capacity they would have me. They offered me an opportunity to be a part of it and it was a no-brainer for me to accept.”

(On if this opportunity had been in the works for awhile)
‘‘It actually had, believe it or not. But the media is not privy to conversations that I have had with Mr. Allen. We have been talking about it for probably over a year now. It didn’t work out last year because I was still able to play, and this year it did.”

(On how close he came to working out for other teams)
‘‘It was pretty close, but like I said before, being here and being close and being a part of this community was most important to me. I had opportunities to leave after the Super Bowl year but because of my relationship with the players, my relationship with the coaches, and my relationship with the ownership, was the reason I decided to stay and take less money.”

(On the difficulty of retiring as a player)
‘‘It is difficult, but I make the best of it. I’m looking forward to it.”

(On the excitement)
‘‘I’m overjoyed with the opportunity to be a part of the organization. I’m looking forward to traveling, and scouting the other teams, and giving the best assessments of what they do.”

(On how tough it has been to watch practices)
‘‘Not tough at all. You can see how hard I’m sweating right now and I don’t even have pads on. It’s been pretty easy, but we will see.”

(On what he will miss most)
‘‘Probably, I’ll miss Sundays most. Now, because I’m still a part of the organization, I can still be around football without having to put in the hours that ordinarily you would have to put in. I’m excited about that.”

(On importance of staying within Bucs organization)
‘‘It’s big for me and big for my family. I always said I wanted to be a part of the organization and be around for a long period of time. This gives me an opportunity to continue to do what I’m doing.”

(On his lack of interest in coaching)
‘‘It’s too many hours. I know the commitment it takes to do that and I wouldn’t want to do that to my wife or kids.”

(On how it feels to be able to stay around the game)
‘‘It feels great. I don’t have to put in the same hours, like I said before, to be a professional athlete. I get to be around the guys as much as I can, and I have the opportunity to. Like I said before, I’m excited about the opportunity and I look forward to doing the best I can at my job.”

Reader Comments

Por (walter miller) on August 01, 2007 (Suggest removal)

What’s up with Sabby? Have’nt heard anything about him so far during practice.

Suggest removal

Page 1 of 1 pages