Andy’s Wednesday News Conference

Andy Reid had his Wednesday news conference and faced quite a few questions about the safety posiiton now that Sean Considine has been put on the injured reserve list.

Head Coach Andy Reid Press Conference

11/7/07

Injuries:

“[S] Sean Considine was put on [Injured Reserve] with his shoulder strain. It’s the same shoulder that he’s had repaired before. It just gave out on him again. We’ll see what we do as far as whether he has another surgery. That hasn’t been determined yet. Or, he just rehabs it and gets it back. With that, we brought up [S] Marcus [Paschal] from the practice squad to join the team in that position. He will be a backup in that position and [S Quintin Mikell] Q obviously will fill in as a starter.”

Opening Remarks:

“Again, we look forward to playing the Washington Redskins. This is our second go-around with them. We came up a little short on the first one and we know what kind of football team they are, how good they are. They are a good football team, very solid in all phases. It’s important that we take care of business and get ourselves prepared to go down there and play a good football game against a good team.”

On whether Considine’s injury could be a career-long injury:

“I don’t know. He’s going through the evaluation process right now. I think they are going to be able to either repair it or he’ll be able to rehab it and be okay. We’ll just have to see down the road how things go with this thing.”

On whether it will be a hard transition for Mikell going from free safety to strong safety:

“I think he’ll be okay. Really, the safeties in this league right now, and in most cases, are mostly interchangeable. You ask him to kind of do the same thing, whether it’s on the weak side or the strong side. He’ll play [against] the tight end a little bit more, and so on. But, I don’t think it will be that big of a transition. It’s not things he’s never done before.”

On how Considine’s injury occurred:

“Actually, he landed on it. That’s how it happened.”

On whether this is complicated because of FS Brian Dawkins injury:

“I think we’ll be alright. It’s good that Dawk had a week in, got enough snaps there. He came out feeling good. He’ll just build on that. I think we’ll be okay there.”

On whether Dawkins is completely ready to go:

“Yeah. Like I said, he came out feeling good. He’ll practice all week and that’s why he won’t rotate, obviously, with anybody.”

On whether he thinks Dawkins will improve from last week:

“He made a couple nice plays on the ball. Then, he had a couple that he missed on. He slipped on a big one that he could’ve had a nice interception on. But, he made the nice play against [Cowboys WR Terrell Owens] T.O. in the endzone there. Then, as far as hitting, he didn’t have any problems with that, which was probably the biggest concern, that it didn’t reoccur with the stinger.”

On whether CB Lito Sheppard is okay:

“Yeah, Lito’s okay. He’ll practice today.”

On whether they thought of keeping DE Marques Murrell and letting go of someone else:

“We looked at that. The Jets had guaranteed him an opportunity to play right away. So, we’ll see how that all works out there.”

On how close Murrell was to getting a spot on the roster after training camp:

“The thing he did was he improved all the way through. He started picking up on the scheme that was a little tough on him initially. But, he was a good player. A player who obviously we liked because we brought him here, and we tried to keep him here. They had a vacancy where he could step right in and go.”

On how close S Marcus Paschal was to getting a spot on the roster after training camp:

“Well, he did a nice job, too. It’d be a little bit of the same answer. He’s plays very well. He’s very, very intelligent, and that showed up. You see it, even though he was on the practice squad, he’s the first guy in the building and the last guy to leave. [He’s] very diligent on knowing what was going on even though he wasn’t on the roster then.”

On whether they will make any changes at kickoff returner to get more explosive:

“We’ve looked at all sorts of things and we’ll see what we can do to get better in certain spots. I’m not going to go into all that exactly. But, we’ll look and see what we can do, whether it’s schematically or if we have to try somebody else in there. We’ll do that, too.”

On whether we will see something different on Sunday regarding kickoff returns:

“Well, we’ll see. We’ll see how it goes this week. I’m not going to tell you anything right now, but I’ve got to see how things work out this week.”

On whether the defense has been let off the hook from last week’s game:

“I told you this, and I mean this, I think everybody has a piece of the pie here. Everybody has to pick their game up. I’m talking from the guy sitting right in this chair here. We’ve all got to pick our game up and get better. This is a team sport. It is not about one guy. We’ve all got to do better. When we do that we’ll play better and win some football games.”

On whether they will do what they’ve been doing with the offense or whether they will make changes to be more explosive:

“I’ve mentioned this before, so this isn’t something new. When you go through tough times, that’s where you need to go, is go back to basics. You make sure those are intact and you’re doing things the right way. I can’t sit here and tell you that’s not what we’re doing. We have looked at all that and we are concentrating on the basics.”

On whether running the ball is more of an option:

“Scoring is the option right now, however it gets done. We’re running the ball more now than we ever have. But, we don’t have the points to show for production. I’ve told you that before, whatever it takes to score and win games that’s what you need to do, whether it’s running or throwing.”

On whether he will change the playcalling at all:

“I’ve got one of the best in the business doing it. Our numbers are great, everywhere but the red zone. We’ve got to take care of business there and we’ll get that done. We will. We’re going to get that done.”

On whether he looks back at last year after the Colts game when they went on a winning streak and tries to get that back:

“I know the one thing that changes, everybody picked their game up. I’m talking about coaches, all of us. We all picked our game up and we did a better job all the way around. I’m not taking anything away from [former Eagles QB] Jeff Garcia or anything else. I thought he did a nice job stepping in there. Everyone around him played better on both sides of the football and the coaches, they did a better job. That’s what we all need to do right now.”

On whether he’s worried that the message he’s sent the past eight seasons is not getting through this year:

“I’m not, but I want the answer. I want to make sure that we do the right thing. I want to make sure that I’m doing the right things and that everybody is right there with me doing the right things. We can all do better then you get those questions answered.”