HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL FROM TODAY’S PRESSER
The Lions completed their 14th practice today at the team’s practice facility in Allen Park. Lions Head Coach Jim Caldwell addressed the media as LB DeAndre Levy returns to practice.
Jim Caldwell on ….
On LB DeAndre Levy’s return to practice today: “Yeah, certainly it’s great to get him back into a little bit of activity. We’ll see how nicely he progresses.”
On how much rust Levy will have to shake off after missing time last year and this preseason: “Not real certain. Guys that have played as much football as he has, you know often times they catch on rather quickly. He never really gets away from it to be honest with you. He kind of keeps his head in there all the time, so we’ll see.”
On Levy saying he wants to play in a preseason game: “Usually those guys that are really intrinsically motivated, I mean you have that problem all the time. It’s a good problem to have.”
On what his plan is with Levy this preseason: “We’ll see. We’ll see how he does. Right now we’re just trying to get him back in the swing of things and we’ll make our decision a little bit later on.”
On the importance of getting Levy into a preseason game: “It’s not a necessity. It’s not like it has to happen. We’ll just kind of see where he is from a health standpoint.”
On the progression of rookie LB Antwione Williams: “I think as you watch him you can see he’s a heavy-handed guy and he learns rapidly. He’s got a systematic approach to learning it appears, because he learns pretty quickly, so we’ll see. With enough experience, and seeing different looks and things that certainly give the guys at that position some problems, we’ll see how he progresses.”
On if he wonders why guys like Williams don’t get invited to the NFL Combine, and if that matters: “No, it really doesn’t matter. There are also a lot of guys that make it in this league that are from smaller schools, right? Smaller divisions, so they don’t get invited often times, either. That’s why college free agency is so important. There are a number of guys that make up the body of your team that come from those ranks.”
On how well rookie C Graham Glasgow played against the Steelers: “He did alright for a young guy. We’ll see how he does this week.”
On how close the battle is between Glasgow and C Travis Swanson for the starting center position: “Well, I think the big thing that he’s doing right now is he’s competing with himself first to make certain he understands everything that we’re doing, how we get it done. That’s a chore unto itself. Then I think they get to the point where now they’ve got a good grasp of things so they can move along and they can really get in there and fight and compete. Now, he’s doing well and he’s getting better, but we’ll see.”
On the development of rookie WR Quinshad Davis: “He’s one of those guys that has the body type that you like. He’s a big target, he has a wide catching radius, and he’s also tough. Not only that, he appears to have the ability to contribute on special teams as well. When you add all those things together it’s pretty exciting to see him work and compete and develop, but we like what we see.”
On S Miles Killebrew’s performance at Pittsburgh: “It’s like most of the young guys, I think it’s all of the same theme for the most part, the same narrative, that they’re learning, they’re trying to develop. They’re seeing things that they haven’t seen at the speed at which they see it, so that takes a little bit of an adjustment. But with him, I’m not certain we have anybody on the squad any more eager to get in pads than Miles and have an opportunity to get out there and play in a ballgame where he can actually tackle, because I think sometimes out here what we do, we don’t take anybody to the ground. There may be every once in a while I see a little twinge of frustration in his eyes. I think he’s got some ability and we’ll see what happens.”
On how the PAT yardage being moved back affects the team working on two-point conversion plays: “I mentioned it before, I think amongst the group that as soon as they made the rule, particularly moving the PAT back, that it really made you consider things. Number one, you knew for a fact there were going to be a number of teams that would actually go for two rather than kick and therefore you had to have more in your arsenal. Typically, you work on a couple. Well now, you have to have five or six because the other thing is you may go for it yourself in a number of different situations like we did the other night, but you also may go for it just to kind of exchange the point differential. When that happens, a team is going to have to keep up by going for two if they score. So I think you have to work it more than you’ve ever worked it before and you have to have more plays in that particular area than you’ve ever had before.”
On if he anticipates going for two-point conversions more: “Yeah, it just depends on the game. You know, the weather is sometimes a factor, but with us we have 13 games I think indoors, so it’s not going to be as much of a factor. But when we do play those games outside, it’s also something to consider. It does weigh in on your decision.”
On if he has altered his expectations regarding what teams will do about kicking off from the 25-yd line: “Not really. I think you’ll see that during the preseason people kick it short intentionally because of the fact they want to see guys cover and kind of see how that works. But in terms of their approach, or how they’re going to treat that particular new rule, I think you’re going to see a wide spectrum. I mean, you may even see us do something a little bit different depending upon the weather, depending upon situations and depending upon how well we’re covering.”
On if he needs to increase preseason playing time to evaluate veterans: “It’s not a blanket across the board, but you will see an increase as we go this next game. There will be a little bit of an increase in some cases, that’s not every single guy. So don’t quote me saying, ‘Well, you said you were going to play this guy more,’ that’s not the way it is. It just depends on who that individual is, but I think you will see an increase in most cases.”
On the next step for QB Jake Rudock: “He’s got a long way to go, but you can see that he’s coming along. He’s operating a system that’s not very easy, he’s taking chunks of it and pieces of it and putting it together. He’s one of those guys that has a real uncanny ability not to get nervous. He kind of takes it in, can digest the information and it looks like he’s performing pretty well for a young guy. He’s not functioning like an older guy at the line of scrimmage, but he’s doing well for a young guy.”
On if Rudock has to throw deeper down the field to keep progressing: “I’d rather have him take what’s there, what he sees. There’s a progression, particularly in most pass plays. There’s a deep component, there’s an intermediate component, there’s a short component to it. They take a look at all three. If they think the deep one is there, it goes deep. If they don’t, they work themselves down. So rather than forcing something up the field , if he looks at it and thinks he’s got it, he can take it. If not, he just kind of works with his progression.”
On the most important thing he wants to see from Week 1 to Week 2 in preseason: “One of the things that you typically suffer from is not tackling during the preseason, as you’re tackling the first couple games. Our tackling wasn’t perfect, but I think we did some things that were OK. This game will give us another challenge because they’ve got some guys that can really move and make you miss. Really good football team as well, so it’ll be a real good challenge for us just in that particular area. But the fundamentals are still key. I think just like anything else, your base colors are blue, green, and what’s the other one? Red? Your base colors, and every other color comes off that. I think fundamentals are exactly the same way. They’re the basis of what you do, and from that you can develop all kinds of schemes and things to do. If you can tackle, you can block, you can catch, you can throw it. Those are the things that we’re interested in.”
On CB Darrin Walls’ performance and leadership: “Darrin’s really steady. He’s a true professional, he does a great job just in terms of his preparation. I think he sets a great example for the younger guys because he’s all business. He’s not a guy that does a whole lot of rah-rah leadership style. I should say, doesn’t demonstrate any sort of rah-rah leadership style, but he does more so by example. In every phase, the way he studies, the way he prepares for meetings, the way he comes out on the practice field, the way he gets himself ready for games is really a special trait to emulate.”
On if TE Matthew Mulligan not practicing today was due to a long-term injury: “I don’t anticipate one.”
On if Mulligan is injured: “You know we don’t talk about injuries.”