Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(on RB Arian Foster's injury) "He has a pretty good calf strain, and we left him in (the training room) today. He's hobbling; he's on crutches today and will be for a couple of days. He's going to be fine, but don't expect me to bring him back out here. We've got two weeks left, so we'll just go to work on getting him healthy, getting him ready for training camp. It's unfortunate, but we feel lucky, too. He didn't do anything; just took a step. He's going to be OK, but like I said, don't expect to see him again (in organized team activities)."
(on whether RB Arian Foster could return to practice during the team's minicamp June 11-13) "No, I don't expect that. We've got two weeks left of the offseason, so obviously we're not going to do anything to take a risk with him."
(on whether he expects RB Arian Foster to be in danger of missing any parts of training camp) "No, luckily we've got, what, two months almost now before we get ready to go. It might have ruined Arian's summer; he's going to have to be here a lot, but that's OK and he's going to be OK."
(on if there are any other health issues with the team) "No, we've still got the problem with (TE Phillip) Supernaw and (NT) Sunny Harris. They have not been back since they had their issue the second day. I rested a lot of older guys today, or veteran guys. I wanted to watch a lot of young players practice in different positions, with the first group and stuff, but other than that we're fine."
(on the status of S Ed Reed) "I had a long conversation with Ed yesterday. I think he actually got back to Atlanta on Saturday. We have him in a rehab program there in Atlanta. Next week, I think, is their (Baltimore's) ring ceremony and going to the White House, so that's pretty important for him to get that stuff done there. But he will be back here as we approach the mandatory minicamp and be here for the rehab process, so you guys should see him in, about a week."
(on the play of the quarterbacks today compared to Tuesday's practice) "They were better today. They struggled a little bit yesterday, especially in some seven-on-seven stuff, but that's part of it, and come back today and were pretty darn good today. I actually let (QBs) T.J. (Yates) and Case (Keenum) split the team portion of practice today with the first group and held (QB) Matt (Schaub) out. I wanted to see those guys operate with our ones, and both of them, I thought, had a pretty good practice."
(on the improvement shown by QB T.J. Yates) "T.J.'s career has been interesting because it was like, 'Boom,' at once, and so many great things happened that year and his confidence is sky-high. And then you come back your second year and play the preseason, not play but about 20 snaps in the regular season and it seemed like nothing went right in those 20 snaps. That's part of being a backup quarterback, because you hinge on that confidence for long periods of time, so we just need to get him going again. He's working hard, he's doing good stuff, he's getting pushed extremely hard. What is this, now, year three? So I'm expecting him to continue to grow as a player."
(on RB Ben Tate) "Ben's fine. Obviously, he steps up today and works as the starter, but Ben's been working good either way. He's had a really good offseason; he's been here every day, and it's an opportunity for him this next six practices to be the bell cow, so to speak, and that'll be good for him in the long run."
(on FB Greg Jones' performance thus far in minicamp) "We're not in pads, and obviously that's where a fullback's strength is, when you watch them in pads. But what we're going to do is we're going to be smart with him. He's definitely going to be a one-a-day guy, maybe a one-every-day guy. I know what he can do; I know what he's going to bring to this team and I want to make sure I get the most out of him late in his career. I've been very impressed with his mental approach and his professional approach to what he's doing. That's why we brought him here."
(on NT Earl Mitchell) "You watch practice every day and Earl acts like a full-time starter. What year is Earl? Three, four, something like that? If it's time to be a big-time guy, it's time and Earl's acting like that. That's been big for him."
(on what he wants to see out of RB Ben Tate in the offseason and training camp) "I just want him to be healthy, that's the biggest thing. When Ben's on the field, he's productive. He needs to have a good offseason, which he's doing his part and he's done all of that. Obviously, now his reps are going to pick up, but to me, if Ben's in one piece, Ben is going to be very productive for this team."
(on what he told the team at the end of practice) "Oh, I don't even know what I said. I forget from one minute to the next. We were just talking about a couple of things. I think what I was probably talking about was I told the guys that it says a lot about your team when the coach can sit down 12 veterans and watch you practice the way you practiced today. That's a big part of what we do for a living. We're going to have guys get hurt; we're going to have guys miss games, and there can never be an excuse in what we do. So that was my message today, and I liked the way we practiced."
(on rookie TE Ryan Griffin) "He's doing a lot of good things. Doing a lot of rookie stuff, too, but he's very talented. He's getting a lot of reps because O.D. (TE Owen Daniels) is only going every other day. He fits the mold for what's been successful with us, so we're excited to have him."
NOTE: The final two questions of Gary Kubiak's press conference are not included in this transcript. Some of the recorded audio was indecipherable due to wind.
