Saturday Media Transcript: Head Coach Pat Shurmur

Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- November 10, 2018

Q: Opening statement:
A: You saw we released (G) Pat Omameh. It’s always hard when you release a veteran, especially a guy like Pat. Probably one of my favorite people that I’ve met doing this. Sometimes, it’s about the player. Sometimes, it’s about the situation, the numbers, and all that, but we wish Pat well.

Q: Why did you all decide to release him at this particular moment?
A: As you go through the season, you have to make moves to your roster. Some people question why we put (WR Quadree) Henderson down earlier, and now we’re putting him back up.

Q: What makes a cutting a guy who has actually played the right move? You have let guys go with experience and have inexperienced guy on the roster.
A: Pat came in and to his credit, he’s been a good soldier. We moved him around. We brought him in. We were going to play him at left guard. We signed him before we knew we were going to draft (G) Will (Hernandez), so he moved over to right guard. He battled for us. You just make changes, and that’s just the way it goes. We’re constantly looking to try to get the right combination of guys. We don’t have a problem playing young players. We’ll constantly change the roster, and then the players that are here, we’re going to continue to develop them. That’s why they play.

Q: Can you put your finger on why it didn’t work out for Pat?
A: I think he came in and competed and battled. Nothing in particular.

Q: Will Hernandez is a rookie who hears a lot of criticism about this offensive line. Do you have to talk to him about not listening to any outside noise?
A: No, we don’t worry about the noise. I think what’s important is he goes out and plays. He gets better each week. He has more good plays, and less bad plays. I’ve talked about this before, when you have rookies out there doing it for the first time, they tend to get better faster, or at least in our eyes. He played his best game last week, which is encouraging. He gets better each week.

Q: Does this mean (G) Jamon Brown will start on Monday?
A: We’re getting him ready to go.

Q: You are trying to go out and win every week, but if you are trying to give a lot of new, young guys playing time and maybe the results don’t go the way you want, how much patience at an organizational level is there for that?
A: I don’t know what type of question that is for me. I’m trying to go out and win a football game with the roster that we have. We’re constantly looking to upgrade the roster. That’s probably a question for somebody else.


Q: When the decision to waive Quadree (Henderson) back on Tuesday was made, was it in the back of your mind that you hoped that it would work out the way it worked out and that he would be back up here as your returner and not down on the practice squad?
A: For sure, and we had to do that. That roster move was to make room for (DL) RJ (McIntosh), that we had to move up at that point. We hoped that he would clear and then be available for us, like he was. Put him on the practice squad, and now we bumped him up.

Q: So sometimes it’s worth a risk in that situation to –
A: In some situations, you have to do that. I think every – you can probably go and talk to every head coach in the league and they’re dealing with working their roster because of injuries sometimes and sometimes it’s because you’re just trying to get the better players.

Q: I guess how everything shook out, you might just say why not just waive Pat (Omameh) for RJ.
A: There’s other reasons for it. Again, we have short term reasons, there’s some long term reasons, and certainly sometimes like I mentioned, it’s not about the player that’s getting released. It’s about the whole total roster and I think that’s safe to be said about this move.

Q: Do you like Odell (Beckham Jr.) saying he wants to win out?
A: Yeah. I worry about this game and winning the first game, but no, I think it’s great. I think that’s the important piece. You go out, you fight to win every game and then at the end, you add them up.

Q: Has the league been in touch with you at all about the air quality and contingency plans?
A: I heard something briefly. Pat (Hanlon) mentioned something about it because of the fires, I guess, but I haven’t heard anything officially from the league yet. I haven’t.

Q: Defensively, Curtis Riley – what has led to him taking what seems like he’s taking some wrong angles on some plays and it’s probably where some of the big plays have been allowed on the defense?
A: I think it’s – we’ll have to talk about which one specifically, but I think it’s important when you’re a safety, you got to be able to play the backend of the field, you got to play the middle, you got to play the half, and when the run breaks out, you have to take the proper angles. He’s taken the proper angle many times and it’s just something you work on.

Q: I don’t know how quite to ask this, but you invested a lot of time in a guy like Ereck (Flowers) or Pat Omameh in the offseason. Is it hard to admit a mistake, for lack of a better term?
A: I don’t think it’s admitting mistakes. I think it’s working with players and then trying always to put what we consider to be the best players on the field. Anytime you work with someone, it’s not time wasted. I guess I don’t understand the basis of that question. It doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, you move on.