News

On Ron Bartell’s injury: “He’s got a fracture of the scapula. I don’t know exactly how long that means that he’ll be out, but he’ll obviously miss some time.”

On whether Bartell will need surgery or not: “I don’t know the answer to that yet.”

On the possibility of adding someone at CB to fill in for Bartell: “Well, there’s always that potential, but these guys have worked their tail off during OTAs and mini-camp and training camp and then obviously we’ve signed some new guys, but I feel pretty good about where we’re at right now. I thought Pat Lee did a nice job coming into the game the other night filling in for Ron when he went out in the second quarter so we’ve got all the confidence in the world in the guys we’ve got here.”

On Joselio Hanson: “I thought he did a nice job. Again, it was one week into the deal, so he’s continuing to progress. I think as we keep going along and we feel more comfortable, we’ll begin to mix him in there a little bit more.”

On long snapping duties: “Well we signed a guy to the practice squad today who we would anticipate, if [Jon Condo] isn’t able to go, that he would come in and take that role.”

On Condo and the concussion protocol: “Yes, he’s involved in the process right now. That’s going to go all the way up until Saturday before we know for sure, or at least there’s potential that that could go all the way to Saturday before we know.”

On the difference in skill-sets between a center and a long snapper: “It’s totally different. When you’re a regular center and you’re snapping the ball, whether it be shotgun, it’s a one-handed snap, it’s five yards, there’s not quite as much zip on that as there is for a long snapper. It’s totally different. It’s not something you just come out here and you’re able to just do. There’s a skill-set required to do that.”

On Rolando McClain’s injury: “He came in the day after the game and it was a little sore and we decided to hold him out of practice today. I think he’s really more day-to-day. We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow.”

On Taiwan Jones’ injury: “Taiwan’s ribs, and he’s kind of the same way as Rolando – it will be something that will be a day-to-day situation.”

On the Miami Dolphin’s defense: “We played against them last year, but obviously I didn’t pay too much attention to that side of the ball. With the 4-3 scheme it’s a little bit different. Their front seven is very good. They’re very stout against the run. They’ve been in the top five in run defense for the last three years, so that’s something that they do exceptionally well. They’ve got a little bit of a pressure package that makes it difficult on us.”

On the running game against the Dolphins: “I think it’s important. That’s part of what we do in our offense is the running game and it sets up a lot of the other stuff that we do in our play-action passes and that type of stuff. We’ve got to get the running game going and I feel confident that we’ll be able to do it. It’s obviously a tough challenge this week against a very good run defense, so we’ve got to be on our game.”

On impressions of the Dolphin’s offense: “They did some nice things in the game the other day. They got caught up in the turnover battle there in the second quarter – not totally unlike the situation that happened to us in the third quarter against San Diego. They’ve got talent on their offensive team. Reggie Bush is obviously an explosive players coming out of the backfield, and they’re able to run the ball pretty well so it will be a challenge just like everybody you play.”

On Dolphin’s QB Ryan Tannehill: “I think he’s real talented. Obviously he went to Texas A&M so he’s really smart. I think he’s a good player. He was on the other side of some bad luck a little bit with some of those tipped passes that turned into interceptions. I’m sure they’ve talked to him and tried to get him to improve on some of the things that he can improve on. He’ll be a better player in Week 2 than he was in Week 1.”

On if he followed Tannehill’s college career because he attended Allen’s alma mater: “Yeah, I watched him play and I was impressed with him playing in college and I’ve been impressed with what he’s done in the league so far.”

On if he adjusts practice schedules to adapt to early start in Miami: “No. We’re up early in the morning. We meet early in the morning. We practice starting at 10:45 so we’re about 45 minutes behind schedule, but I don’t really see that as being a big factor.”

On if Jacoby Ford had surgery yet: “He did have surgery, yes.”

On whether he is looking to add more WRs: “Five is the number we kind of intended to take into the season, so where we’re at right now we feel good about.”

On getting pressure on a rookie quarterback: “Well, yeah. I don’t think it’s any secret that we feel like the way you stop offenses in the National Football League is you affect the quarterback. There’s a lot of different ways that you can do that, but obviously we want to get more pressure on the quarterback, more so than we were able to get last week.”

On reducing snaps for players on the defensive line against Miami: “Obviously, when you really take into account the Miami heat, we’re going to have to do a good job of our rotation, keeping those guys fresh and keeping them where they’ll be at their best in the 4^th quarter. So, we’ll have to do a good job of rotating those guys throughout the game.”

On Chargers taking away Darrius Heyward-Bey following the first drive: “When you’re calling the plays, you have certain things that you’re anticipating that they’re going to do, and you’re anticipating that you’re going to be able to feature a certain player, but they may not do exactly what you thought they were going to do on that play. The quarterback goes through his progressions and the defense tells him where to throw the football.”

On Ford’s timetable for a return: “I don’t know. He’s obviously out for a pretty good period of time. I don’t know exactly what that timeframe is yet.”

On the possibility of putting Ford on IR: “We haven’t made that decision yet. We talked to doctors, I believe it was this morning right before we got out on the practice field, so we haven’t had a chance to get back in there and kind of discuss it a little bit. We’ll probably have a decision made pretty soon on him.”

On how Ford’s surgery went: “They said the procedure went well. Again, we’ll see how long that means.”

On the classification of Ford’s injury: “As I understand it, it’s the Lisfranc that he had last year. It’s the same exact injury. They expected it to get better and it didn’t get better, or at least it wasn’t good enough for him to be able to do the job that he’s going to have to do, so we all felt like surgery was the best option.”

On [Mike] Goodson or Jones as clear backup RB to McFadden: ”No, I think it’s still a battle there and it will probably be a battle throughout the remainder of the season, and that’s really kind of the way we like it. Competition brings out the best in everybody.”