Head Coach Mike Smith
Q: How did it feel to have Martrez (Milner) back today?
A: “He hasn’t been out here since our mock game. He worked yesterday with our trainers and they gave him the go ahead to practice today. We will see how he feels after running around for two hours. He looked like he was feeling better.”
Q: What did you think about (Marcus) Pollard? He was in his second day here and seemed to be incorporated pretty well.
A: “He has spent a lot of time with Chris (Scelfo) over the last 24 hours getting up to speed. He will be able to do some things in the game on Thursday. We are ready to see what he can do. I don’t think he will have a full grasp on our offense, but he has been in enough schemes that he will be able to do some things for us.”
Q: What does this mean for the franchise now that Matt (Ryan) has been named the starter? How are you going to go about not putting too much pressure on him?
A: “I think this is a team game. There are 22 guys and the quarterback is the premiere position. Matt won the starting quarterback job in training camp and OTAs. We don’t want to put any undue pressure on him. He is one of our 22 starters. I feel like we have 24 starters. I think you have to consider your nickel back as a starter and your third receiver as a starter. He is a part of the process and this is a process we are going through. It started back in January. We are just going to continue to try and get better every day and improve. If we do that and work the process, the outcome that we want to have will come.”
Q: How can Martrez show that he is dependable?
A: “He has missed time so he doesn’t have the number of snaps and number of opportunities for us to make an evaluation. Martrez was on the football team last year so we had a chance to evaluate him coming in, knowing his athleticism. It’s going to be a tougher decision for us in deciding the direction that we need to go because we have a limited number of snaps to evaluate.”
Q: What kind of interest do you think is in the quarterback battle?
A: “I think that football fans are watching all of the battles. Not only the number two and three quarterbacks, but also who is going to be the tight end or the MIKE linebacker. If you enjoy the game of football and you watch and study your teams, you will find that all of the battles are important. There are a number of them going on for the many roster spots that we have. A lot of it will be determined by what happens on Thursday night.”
Q: Do you get a sense of D.J (Shockley’s) popularity around here?
A: “I know that there is a lot of familiarity with D.J. because he played high school ball here in Atlanta and he played college ball at the University of Georgia. I really know that he is well liked and does a lot of things around the community.”
Q: What does he need to show in the game on Thursday?
A: “He is going to have to go out, run the offense and move the chains. He is going to get the opportunity to do that with the first team this week. I think and hope it will be against Baltimore’s first group. They will be playing on Sunday when we get into October and November so we would like to see production and efficiency in our offense.”
Q: Has there been a winner at the right guard competition?
A: “I think that right now Harvey (Dahl) is the leader. I also think that is another one of those position battles. Like I said before, there are a number of battles going on. From the very beginning we have talked about putting these guys in competitive situations and letting them compete. We would like to let their actions on the field speak for themselves.”
Q: What do you think about your punt returners?
A: “I think that Adam (Jennings) has separated himself with the performance that he had on Friday night. I know that Harry (Douglas) has the skill set that could do it as well. It is really a two-man race, but I think Adam has pulled ahead.”
