(On D.J. Fluker’s status) “He’s doing okay. We’re not talking about injuries today because we don’t really know everything. So, I can’t help you with that stuff.”
(On their next opponent Clevland ) They’re an interesting team. They’ve got all kinds of fire power. We’re just in the early stages of learning about them. They’ve got a lot of dangerous players on both sides of the ball.”
(On how much live football he is able to watch) “It’s kind of going on in the background when it’s available. It’s always going. Games and replays are always rolling. I’ll catch looks and stuff. I don’t sit down and watch a game. Tonight’s a rare opportunity to do that. That won’t be the only thing I’m doing, though. There will be a couple other things that will be rolling at the same time.”
(On how refreshing it is coming off of a Thursday night game) “It was a good weekend. A really good weekend. Anytime you get a chance to win at home, it’s a big deal. To get a couple days to have fun with it, kick back and all that. Everybody enjoyed it. Everybody tried to do the best they could to get their rest and all that, but they had fun with it.”
(On what he saw from the pass rush during the game that makes him believe they can come alive soon) “There was real good activity from Jadeveon [Clowney] for certain, as well as Quinton [Jefferson] was really active too. Those guys were around the ball a lot. We were so close to three or four sacks. You can just feel it’s coming alive. I think just the combination with Zig [Ziggy Ansah] outside and what’s going on inside, I think we’re going to be able to work together better. We’ll spot them a little better.”
(On if Jadeveon is starting to look like he would have if he had a regular off season) “No, not yet. I think it’s all the prep time for him in our style of what we’re asking him to do. He’s rushing the passer all the time. I think he would’ve just had the benefit of all of the work off season wise with his hands and feet and the things that we do technically. I think he would’ve been further along. He’s a natural athlete. This comes to him. He’s active. He’s real active. The thing I really like is he’s really active in looking like he’s going to come alive and have a big game here in the next couple. Also, with Ziggy, Ziggy gives such great effort. Chases the football so hard. He’s going to make more plays, too. I think those two guys in particular would be the guys that pick up. We did not rush the backer as much in this game. They didn’t get many chances to help out. There’ll be more in the future.”
(On when he first decided to throw Jamarco Jones in at right guard) “It was weeks ago when we started flipping in and out and moving him around. When you’re a backup guy, the more you can do, the better. He’s been working at it. It’s not his first time ever. It’s his first time ever in a game for him. He’s had considerable work, but he’s a left tackle by his background. So, going over to the other side is enough of an issue in itself. It’s a really first class come through for us that he went over there and played so admirably under the circumstances and the guys he was playing against felt rushed. It’s been awhile that he’s been working at it. It’s just not a lot at any one time yet.”
(On the left to right movement comes easier for some guys more than others) “Yes. It just depends. It depends on how cemented they’re in there. He looked fine, obviously. It’s a good transition for him to make, but in his mind, he’s always been a left side guy.”
(On how big of a move Jamarco Jones was making last year before he got hurt) “He had made really good impressions because he’s really smart and put things up really quickly. Mike Solari was talking about him a lot, that he seems like a real natural player, stuff makes sense to him. That kind of thing. He got off to a really good positive impression that he made. He just wasn’t able to be around long enough.”
(On what has stood out the most about Russell Wilson’s first five weeks of the season) “I think what stood out is his consistency. He’s making the same plays one week to the next to the next. He’s just going one to the other. It’s his level of play that is really showing up depending on who he’s playing. We’ve had interesting chances already where we’ve thrown the ball a lot and not thrown the ball as much in different weeks. He continues to find enough opportunities to be productive. To have a game that made such an impression and he only threw about 23 times, that’s pretty remarkable. His consistency is there. His confidence. His command has been the same each week, week to week. It’s exciting to see. It’s something that I’m not surprised, I’m just wanting to see really when he’s really going to take over and really own it. I think we’re seeing that from last year and this year that he’s getting into that mode.”
(On how healthy Ethan Pocic is) “He’s going to practice this week and we’ll see what happens. He has to make it through the work. Thursday’s practice will be the big tell for him. We won’t know anything until Friday.”
(On if he thinks Jamarco has earned the spot to be the backup) “We’ll figure that out. I don’t have anything on that for you right now.”
(On if Tyler Lockett came into the game with a strong understanding of it) “When we watched him, we thought that he looked like the most experienced player in college football. We thought he had the best route running ability, the best natural moves and the best instinct. He just was a smaller guy. We weren’t sure how he’d translate his movement to the league. We held him in really high regard for all of the finesse and all of the instinctive things. Right now, there’s nothing that he can’t makes sense of. Some of the turn arounds that he made on the touchdown catch, on another catch he made on the scramble situation, it was just almost instant reactions to put himself in the great positions and all. He has the extraordinary ability to capitalize on that, too. He can finish the play and make the game catch and all that as he showed. It’s nothing new. It’s just pretty exciting to have a guy playing like that at that level and also, to have had the background with Russ. The two of them, they’re both just highly, highly instinctive football players. They’re working together and benefitting from each other’s strengths. It’s pretty cool.”
(On how players like Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner who are committed to excellence impact young players) “In a classic response, it gives them great examples to follow. Those guys are the epitome of leadership in any team, in any program. They’re rewarded because of that as well because they’re such crucial players for the level of play for the whole team. They affect other people and they help them play better. So, the influence on the young guys is extraordinary, more for some than others. You couldn’t ask for more. Not just in how they look when they’re on the field. Everything about the way they work and how they handle their business. Their language. Their response to situations. Their outlook. They’re very open to share with guys. We put them in positions so other players get to hear from them as well because they have such a great sense for what’s going on. It can have such a positive impact.”
(On how he helped this year’s team create their own identity) “These guys, Bobby [Wagner], K.J. [Wright], Russ [Wilson], and Duane [Brown] – from another program, but his emergence as well – and Justin Britt, it’s their time. It’s just their time. I can go back to late in year one; Kam Chancellor in his first year as a rookie, we could see that he was an extraordinary player and he wasn’t even playing. He was playing on special teams, and the way he practiced, and worked, and how he handled his business. I went to him somewhere in there and said, ‘When you feel something, you can say something. Speak up and take a little bit of a leadership role.” He said, “No, no, no. I can’t do that. I couldn’t do that.” I said, “Why not? Yeah, it’s good, you can do it.” He said, “I haven’t done anything yet,’ and he knew. He knew that he didn’t have the voice and the feeling for the voice to express himself, and it took time. Guys have to grow into that sometimes. If you’re speaking too early, and you’re not really regarded as such, you’re not going to have the impact. Bobby’s always been a leader in this program, this didn’t just happen. Now his voice is just really well grounded, and it comes from a place where he has great confidence, and that what he sees and what he feels is worthwhile to share with other people. So, I think it’s just an illustration of when the time came, it was his opportunity, he became the obvious leader in a team that had a lot of leaders in years’ past, and strong leadership. He was always one of them and the guy on the field making all the calls, but it took until the waters cleared a little bit, and he just was the obvious guy. There was no other choice, he was the leader, and he is the leader. So, he just assumed the mantle, and took it, and ran with it, and that’s kind of generally the case. Rarely do guys bludgeon their way into that role. What we do is nurture the relationship. Give the guys that have a voice a chance to speak out, call on them and put them into position to do things and show things that will help others. Give them the confidence so that they will emerge into that, ‘I do have something,’ so other people will listen. So, there’s a nurturing process that comes along, I think it’s crucial for the coaches to handle it.”
(On if Phil Haynes and Demarcus Christmas will be ready for next week) “Both guys seem to be killing the trainers. Those guys they’re working out with, they’ve worn those guys out. They can’t work against each other either, so it’s just with the trainers. Our guys are coming in pretty battered and bruised and that’s not the players, that’s the trainers from the workouts. They’re ready to go. They’re working as hard as they possibly can so that the transition they have to make will be as minimized as possible. We’re really looking forward to them coming back.”
(On Ed Dickson’s progress) “He’s going to week eight. He’s entering into that mode now. In the next four weeks or three weeks -whatever it is, he’s got to get going.”
(On what he thinks of Quinton Jefferson so far) “He’s playing ball. He just continues to do stuff every week. He’s really fundamentally sound, and well versed. He does so many things right, in the program a long time, knows what’s expected of him, Quinton’s [Jefferson] done a great job of finding his style of play, and the way that best suits his abilities. He just continues to be a really good player for us, and making things happen every week.”