head coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement: "OK, good seeing everybody – appreciate you guys being here. [It was a] good practice, obviously, our last – you might call it – training camp practice. Everything else will be devoted toward Denver, so we're excited about that. [It is] the end of camp in a lot of ways, but also the beginning – the beginning of the season. One of the things we've talked to our guys about is the fact that you put so much work into building up to the first game, the first regular season game. It seems like a pinnacle – it seems like an end – and you're wondering what kind of a team you have, and you're looking forward to seeing it. I know the fans are [excited], and we are, too. And then you sit back and you realize there's really … Again, it's just the first game. There's going to be a whole journey after that, too, so this begins it. I told the guys to get some rest for the next couple of days. They've worked really hard – even the last two days – and put a really good, solid foundation under themselves as a football team. Now we're beginning our road for this season, and I think we're going to be a pretty darn good football team.
"One announcement: We did have a trade. Nick Easton was traded to the 49ers for a draft pick. You'll have to get that detail from [general manager and executive vice president] Ozzie [Newsome], which pick it is, and what it means when you talk to him. I'm sure he'll share that with you. (laughter) But, just a story on it … I knew it was kind of in the works. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen. Ozzie came out [to practice] and let me know it happened, so I went over to pull Nick out of the drill and tell him. He's in the middle of a drill! He was actually getting ready to take his rep in there, and they were yelling for him, 'Nick get in here!' I was like, 'No. He's not in. He doesn't play for us anymore.' I didn't say that. (laughter) Of course, you can imagine the mix of [emotions] – being shocked and also being excited. Of course, I said, 'You're traded.' This is pro football. You're traded, and he said the obvious first question, 'Where? Where am I going?' We said, 'San Francisco.' He's excited about it. It's a great statement for him to come from Harvard as an undrafted rookie free agent and to earn your way onto an NFL football team, [and it] is a pretty amazing accomplishment, and he is to be congratulated for that. OK, what do you have?"
**Just on a C Nick Easton, getting a guy that's an undrafted free agent and then turning him into a draft pick, what does that say about the process that the scouts go through when you finding a guy who is a diamond in the rough and makes a draft pick [for the Ravens] just a few months later? *(Garrett Downing) *"That's what you aim to do. Nick [Easton] could have made our team, too, if we didn't have as much depth. I think [the San Francisco 49ers] might have had an injury at center. We have guys like that. Those are the type of guys you try to develop first and foremost for your team. When you have a need, they're there for you, and we want to develop those guys. We'll have guys that we're developing on the practice squad, but when opportunities like this happen – and they don't happen all the time – it's definitely a feather in the cap of the scouts and all the guys doing the evaluating, including the coaches."
How often does that happen where you inform somebody that there has been a move made while [they are practicing]? Has that happened a lot since you've been head coach? (Jamison Hensley) "I think that was my first time telling a guy at practice he got traded. I don't remember ever having to do that. That's like when you're growing up, and you're watching movies like 'Any Given Sunday,' and you're like, 'OK, now it happened! It actually happened! I told a guy during practice he was traded.' Pro football. [Nick Easton] was stunned, but he was excited."
John, are there a lot of those conversations still going on now to your knowledge? (Jeff Zrebiec) "I'm sure across the league there are lots of those conversations going on, absolutely. And we are in the league, so we're probably having some, yes. There's no follow up question to that, I take it?" (Reporter: "That was pretty … I think that about covers it.") (laughter)
John, we've seen WR Breshad Perriman doing some pre-game work the last couple of weeks with [wide receivers coach] Bobby Engram on the corner of the field. Does he have a chance to get on the practice field this week, and is the season opener still in play for him? (Luke Jones) "I don't know. I really don't have the answer for that. I think he has a chance, yes. But to what degree, that's wide open right now. I don't know."
