HEAD COACH JOHN HARBAUGH
Opening Statement: "It's good to see everybody here. [I] appreciate you being out here. [It's] really the last day of training camp, in terms of getting into game week next week for the Chiefs. When we come back on Friday, we'll be in [an] official game week. It'll be six days up until the night game against the Chiefs on Thursday night, so this practice was pointing us toward that, and that's our preparation right now.
".I just want to say, looking a little more back on 'Joe D' [Joe D'Alessandris]. I just wanted to express again our heartfelt condolences, and our very best wishes and prayers to Joe's family, his three amazing daughters that have been who have been with him every step of the way, all of his great grandkids that – we saw a tape today with our players, his grandkids on the sideline before the game [and] running around here in the fieldhouse. All of those things mean so much when we look back on Joe's life and what an impact that he had. [We saw] some of the tributes that you all did. It's so appreciated. You guys really captured Joe just perfectly well with your tributes, both written and [on] TV, so thank you for that. This was a good man, a good coach, just a great person [and] a great man of faith, so he was kind of an inspiration for all of us here for sure. We want to honor him for sure with this season, and we want to honor Jacoby Jones this season. Those are two people that we're going to dedicate our season to this year and do everything we can to make them proud of us when they're watching from where they're watching. So, we appreciate those two great men very much."
Do you have a special moment or story that stands out about your time with Joe D'Alessandris? (Jamison Hensley) "There's so many really cool things. When he was telling me stories when he was growing up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, which is a football hotbed, a small town, and all they do is play football. It was a small town [in which] you had the Italian neighborhood, you had all of the different enclaves, and it was a small town, so they were close together. It was a block here, a block there, and they would get together and play against each other and with each other, and he said, 'All growing up, from dawn until dusk, it was really football. It was a football town.' Then, they would get to high school, and they were all on the same team, and they were a powerhouse, and those are some of his best friends to this day. I think that's pretty cool. He was working in the steel mill when he was 17 and 18 years old. That's the molten [steel]. You know the molten steel coming out of the big vats that we don't have anymore that America needs to bring back? We're for that, right?" (Laughter) "Let's bring back the steel mills, because guys like Joe D'Alessandris worked in the steel mills as a teenager, and he did mention, that what he was taught by the older guys working in the steel mill, that before you took your shift, you took a shot of whiskey – one shot of whiskey to get you ready for your tour of duty there. So that was pretty cool; and then all of the great coaching stories over the years, and then all of the players that said stuff [after his passing]. Even guys like 'RG3' [Robert Griffin III], as a quarterback, talking about him – those were pretty cool things."
Do you get a sense of how it's impacted –I'm sure all of you guys are feeling it – but specifically the offensive linemen, the guys that were working with him on daily basis. Did you get a sense of how those guys are dealing with this? (Cordell Woodland) "Yes. Ronnie Stanley said some really good things. I talked to Tyler [Linderbaum]; Patrick Mekari spoke to the team today about it. Those guys who were with him for a long time [but] even the young guys who were impacted by him, the rookies even; they were a little quieter today and locked in, as was the whole team, especially in the team meeting. His memory is going to be on our minds, and it should be, and it should motivate us."
How difficult is the next 24 hours? Setting the roster, talking to guys about not making the team? (Todd Karpovich) "That's an ongoing process, so I think we continue ... It's not like all of a sudden, we have to make cuts, and we haven't been thinking about it. We've been thinking about it really every day. So, we have a very good idea of where we're at. There are moving parts. There are different rules and eligibilities and different things like that – different injuries [and] things like that that you take into account in order to set the roster and take advantage in trying to keep as many of the good players as you can, because we have a lot of good players. That's what we're trying to work out now, and we'll have that done by tomorrow."
There was a report that the third quarterback rule has changed, and now, if you want to have that emergency quarterback available, he has to be on the 53-man roster. Will that change in how you approach that? (Bo Smolka) "It sure could. It just depends. We were kind of counting on the rule. I didn't know it changed until Chad [Steele] told me [as we were] walking off the field just now. I think the NFLPA vetoed it. That's what happened. So, they vetoed it for whatever good reason that they had, and we'll have to change our thinking on that."
Have you made the decision on the three open spots on the offensive line in terms of who will start there? (Brian Wacker) "We have. I'm not going to make any announcements on any starting announcements going into the Chiefs game. What would be the point? We'll just go play the game."
Last year, you rotated tackles well in the back half of the season. Do you anticipate that could be a practice you have before the regular season? (Kyle Phoenix) "Sure. That could definitely be a possibility. I think that's something that we did last year effectively. That's kind of a new strategy; not many people have done that before. We'll have to take credit for it with 'Joe D.' [Joe D'Alessandris]. [That's] one of 'Joe D.'s' innovations."
It looked like C Tyler Linderbaum was back out there today. How did you feel like he handled coming back out there today? (Jamison Hensley) "I thought [Tyler Linderbaum] looked good out there. It's good to see Tyler Linderbaum out there at practice. I'm pleased with that."
Anything you can share about maybe what you might have heard on C Nick Samac's injury? (Jonas Shaffer) "Yes it was an ankle sprain – not a major ankle sprain at all. [Nick Samac] was out there today as well practicing; he was at full speed, so he's OK."
On injuries, also saw S Kyle Hamilton leave practice and then he wasn't out there today, and then WR Nelson Agholor as well? (Brian Wacker) "I'll just say this about all of those things ... I definitely don't mean to interrupt you. There are no serious injuries; those guys [don't] have anything that's going to keep them out – unless something crops up that I don't know about. I'll say that, then something will happen, maybe, and you guys will be like, "Oh you didn't tell us the truth." It is what it is, but there's nothing now that's going to keep anybody out of practice on Friday that you don't know about. [Rasheen] Ali is still up in the air – I can tell you that. But other than that, we're not really going to get into too much talk about the injuries, because why? It's a competitive disadvantage to get too deep into what your guys' injuries are. That puts them not in the best position, competitively, and us the same thing. We like to keep our opponents guessing a little bit; that's a benefit to us. That's kind of where we're at during the season. If I believe the opponent already knows, and it's obvious, I'll just say it, because they know he's on the concussion protocol with Ali; so, until he gets off the concussion protocol, they know he's out, so I can talk about that. Anybody else like that, it wouldn't be favorable to us or the player to give out information to the Chiefs or the Raiders or anybody else. It just doesn't help us. We're trying to have every possible edge we can."
Does it feel there are more questionable injury types when you're trying to sort this 53-man roster than other years? You mention RB Rasheen Ali and other players that you have to kind of figure out ... Plus with the change this season where you can put two to IR short-term before you cut. Does that all feel different this year or not really? (Bo Smolka) "Well that's a little different, yes; that you don't have to cut guys and then bring them back and all those [things]. They cleaned that rule up, so you can just do it if guys need to be on short-term IR; and those rules have been good. [It] used to be you had to put a guy on IR for the rest of the season, or you had to carry him. That wasn't good for anybody, so I think the NFL has done a fantastic job of just bringing common sense into the equation with that stuff, because guys don't want to bounce around teams. They want to get dug in, they want to keep developing, usually with the team that they're at. So why should injuries cause people to start moving around? So that's been really good. As far as the difference in the injuries – we haven't had a lot of serious injuries. That's probably the biggest difference. We've had little things here and there, but that's ... If you don't have little things here and there, you're not even practicing. We've had little things off the field – Josh Ross' issue was a car accident, so I feel we've had a great camp that way. But that's day-by-day, so we just have to keep going day-by-day with that and see where we go."
It will be about 24 hours until everything gets finalized. For you, what does the next 24 hours ... Are you constantly talking to general manager Eric DeCosta? Are you talking to the coaching staff? How does that process of over the next 24 hours go for you? (Jamison Hensley) "We've had most of those conversations already. For now, it'll be just if anything changes, if anything becomes available, we'll have a conversation other than just talking. We have a plan in place. Everything is written firmly in chalk – it can be erased at any moment and change. Well not everything – Lamar [Jackson] will be here; Mark Andrews will be here." (laughter) "That's in stone – that's engraved in stone tablets in the mountain, at least for now."
We know important special teams is to the consideration for those final three roster spots. Did you get a sense for with the new rules by the end preseason, what the kind of traits you're looking for from those guys to fill those spots? (Jonas Shaffer) "We do have a plan for that. It's still going to remain to be seen, because it's still in experimental stages right now. We kind of have some clues as far as what type of body types we want in different spots – bigger, smaller, faster, all those kinds of things, hopefully. And we'll just see how it plays out."
Obviously, the injuries went quite well, and this being the end of camp; overall assessment then of where you think, did you get done really all that you wanted to get done during this time? (Pete Gilbert) "I think we did. You always want to get the most done as you possibly can. What are we measuring that against? That's kind of hard to say what the amount of getting stuff done was. But I feel good with the process in the sense that everybody was locked in; everybody was fully committed, [and] everybody did the best they could in every circumstance. We chased perfection as best we could, and we're going to try to do the same throughout the course of the season. Like I told the guys, we're going to play Thursday night against the Chiefs. We've been pointed toward that the whole offseason, of course, since the schedule came out. But after that game, [when] we get in that locker room, [and] we come back Friday from that game, there's going to be another game in front of us that's going to be the Raiders. After that, I think it's the Cowboys, is that right? So, we're going to have a full season, so that will be a beginning for us, not an end. It's an end right now, because that's the next challenge. After that, it'll be a beginning and a launch point, and we're going to try to improve every day throughout the course of the season."
RB Owen Wright's injury. There's been a lot of talk about the number three running back role. Do you feel pretty good about the options in-house or is that something you feel you might have to look outside? (Jeff Zrebiec) "I would just say, that's all speculative. It just depends. I like the guys in-house. If there's something on the outside that looks really great, I'm sure we'll look at it. It just depends who the names are [and] what the options are. It's like going for it on fourth down. What are your chances of getting it? Is it going to help us win the game or not? It just kind of comes down to that. We'll be open to anything. If the right player becomes available, I'm quite sure [executive vice president and general manager] Eric [DeCosta] will be looking at him, but people aren't in the habit of getting rid of really great players right before the season starts."
