News

Opening statement: “I wanted to update you guys on the injuries. We placed Richard Seymour on injured reserve today. And then really there’s no other updates to the injury report other than Mike Goodson was ill today so he did not practice. Everything else is really how it was yesterday.”

On the open roster spot: “We’re going to keep it open right now. There’s obviously options that we can do, but we’re not going to do anything with it right now and we’ll make a decision later in the week how we want to fill that roster spot.”

On if it’s likely it will be filled with a practice squad guy: “Potentially, yeah.”

On if they’d also look to put QB Carson Palmer on injured reserve: “There’s obviously, with Carson already being ruled out, if there was something where we needed to get a guy to the active roster for some reason then we could do that.”

On the quarterback rotation in practice: “Same as yesterday.”

On if he will make the starting quarterback decision by tomorrow: “I think we’re going to watch how practice goes, but I would think that we’d be closer to ready to make a decision by the end of practice tomorrow.”

On if he expects any of the other injured players back: “Obviously, we’ll see. Tyvon [Branch] didn’t practice today, but that’s kind of been what he’s done the last couple of weeks. He’s still pretty much in the same situation. Phillip Adams didn’t practice again today and then Mike Brisiel didn’t practice today so we’ll see if those guys are ready to go tomorrow. If they’re able to do something tomorrow, then I would think there might be a chance.”

On Brisiel’s injuries: “It’s a little more with his ankle than it is with the concussion.”

On if Brisiel has cleared the concussion tests: “Yes.”

On if he wanted to get Tony Bergstrom playing time anyway: “We want to look to get Bergstrom some playing time for sure, so we’ll see how Mike is doing tomorrow and we’ll have a better feel.”

On the Chargers: “Obviously, I’ve got a respect for Norv Turner and what he’s been able to do, specifically offensively there. I think they’re a dangerous offense. Philip Rivers is still an outstanding quarterback. Defensively I think they’re very much improved. They obviously get after the quarterback really well and they do a great job of taking the ball away. They’re a good football team and it’ll be a tough battle there at their place.”

On if he anticipated Brandon Myers getting so much of the tight end playing time this season: “No, not really. I think injuries played a little bit of a factor. Richard’s [Gordon] had several injuries throughout the season. We were able to use Tony Bergstrom in that role some to try to fill that role that we anticipated Richard filling where we could have a guy that could be a little bit better blocker on the end of the line of scrimmage. No, I didn’t necessarily anticipate that Myers would get that many snaps, but that’s really the way it worked out.”

On if the playing time had something to do with his receiving abilities: “Carson had a lot of trust in him and he did a nice job. It was one of those things where Carson knew that he was going to be where he needed to be and felt real comfortable with him. Brandon did a nice job of being able to find the holes in the zone and get open and when we threw it to him, he did a nice job of catching it.”

On if teams taking Myers’ away has been a cause of his number of catches decreasing the last few weeks: “I think that’s a little bit of a factor, but I also think that he’s played a lot of plays and it’s Week 16 or Week 17 of the season and so, I think when you play that many plays and you’re not used to playing that many plays, you get worn down a little bit.”

On Miles Burris’ energy and playing ability: “In terms of his energy, it’s been there the whole time. He’s the type of player that we’re looking for as far as a guy…he loves football; he’s willing to work and he’s got a team attitude. Those are the characteristics of the guys that we’re really looking for. He fits that mold to a ‘T.’ You don’t anticipate a 4^th round draft choice out of San Diego [State University] starting for you for the whole season, but he earned that right and got himself into that position. Obviously the injury to Aaron [Curry] provided that opportunity, but he took advantage of that opportunity and he’s done some good things. He hit a little bit of a lull there in the middle of the season like a lot of rookies do, but as the season has progressed and we’re coming down the home stretch, the last few games he’s played a lot better.”

On his involvement in the offense: “We’ll talk about the things that we did well and the things that we didn’t do well in all phases of the game – offense, defense, and the kicking game.”

On if he offers suggestions: “There’s things that I’ll say that, ‘hey, listen, why don’t we do this?’ Or, ‘what do you think about this?’ It’s more communication than it is necessarily demands, ‘hey, I gotta see this.’”

On if that communication goes on during the game: “Yeah, it goes on in all phases of the game. That’s how we operate. That’s the way we do it.”

On if GM Reggie McKenzie is involved in the starting quarterback decision this week: “Reggie and I talk about a lot of things. There’s not many critical decisions that go on in this organization where we don’t at least communicate about it. Yeah, he knows exactly what we’re doing as far as that’s concerned.”

On if he’s surprised Sebastian Janikowski wasn’t selected for the Pro Bowl: “A little bit. Those are tough situations because, obviously, Phil Dawson had an outstanding year also. But we certainly felt like Seabass was very deserving and very worth of that honor.”