Head coach Gary Kubiak spoke to the media following practice Thursday afternoon.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
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*(on what happened at practice) "We're all in one piece. Everybody looked good. No problems physically, so
we had a good practice."
(on whether any personnel was different on offense or defense) "No, nothing different, just we'll have a tough decision to make again on whether we suit seven or eight defensive linemen.But (DE) Jason (Babin) is fine. Jason's had his two best practices since I've been here, yesterday and today, so that'll be a tough decision. That's all predicated on the linebacker situation."
(on having veterans who work well with younger players) "It says a lot about their character. Like you look at a guy like (S) Jason Simmons, I don't know of I'm right or wrong, but he's eight years, maybe, in the league, eight or nine. And last week tells you what he's made of. On Wednesday he didn't know if he was going to be up to be honest with you, because we were going to play (S) Guss Scott, and then he walks in here on Saturday morning and the doctors tell us (S) Glenn (Earl) shouldn't play. So he started and he goes out there and he's defensive player of the game along with (CB Demarcus) Petey (Faggins). He's always ready to play. He's a veteran guy. You can count on him and that's what makes your team strong, that guys like that are unselfish and ready to play all the time. That's what helps your team out."
(on how on some veterans could tell young players the wrong things to help themselves) "That might happen during camp or something when guys are battling for a job, but when we get to this point, guys like (LB) Kailee (Wong) and (S) Jason (Simmons), they last for a reason. And the reason they have been in this league so long is because they are big-time pros and they are great people. As along as I have been in this league, that hasn't gone away. Every time you look for a player who's hung around for eight, ten, twelve years, they are great people as well as good football players. And those two guys are good examples"
(on growth he's seen on QB Vince Young since college) "He's grown a lot. They've done a heck of a job with him to be put in that situation right away and you can see how he's rubbed off on their football team. They've played, the last couple of weeks, as good as anybody in the game. And they go to Indianapolis and they really had them beat in that situation. They go to Washington, who's got as talented as a team in this team as you'll find, and they beat them. He's brought a presence to their team. Their running game has gotten better because of his threat to boot and you can just tell the players love playing around him and that's what he was in college. He's a great kid, a great football player and he will continue to be."
(on DE Anthony Weaver being out of practice today)"His knee was sore and (Head Athletic Trainer) Kevin (Bastin) came to me, and they were going to limit him. And I said, 'Just hold him out.' We don't have any problem with him knowing what to do and how to do it, so we'll make sure he's ready to go."
(on TE**Jeb Putzier**) "It doesn't look good for Jeb. I think it'll be another week before he's ready to go. Something could change between now and Sunday, but it sure looks like he'll be out."
(on T Scott Jackson's role) "We've been playing light on the offensive line as far as our numbers. We looked at all of practice squads around the league and he was the guy that intrigued us the most. You can pull a guy from a practice squad, but he's got to go right to your active roster. He's played center, he's played tackle, and (it) sure looks like it was a good pick up. But for him to get involved in what we're doing it's probably going to take a few weeks."
(on T Eric Winston’s progress) "He's making a lot of progress, and one of the things that's helping is we've
kind of changed our routine with Zach (Wiegert) a little bit. Zach doesn't really
practice on Wednesday. We make (T) Eric (Winston) and (G Brad) Bedell take all
the reps. The only way those guys get better is if they get the reps, and we feel
confident in Zach being ready to play on game day. So we chose to go that way,
and it looks like it's helped Eric get better."
