Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- August 18, 2019
Opening Statement: I thought it was a good practice. The fact that the heat went up and the humidity went up was a good thing, so we pushed them through it. It was probably a little bit more physical than you would have two days after a game, but being that we’re still in training camp, I felt like it was necessary. The guys handled it great. We had some situational stuff within the team periods that we wanted to work on. We got that work done, and now we move on to tomorrow. I’ll try to answer your questions.
Q: It seemed like on every pass play, Kevin Zeitler was doing this kind of hitch late, right before the snap.
A: He’s been doing it all camp. That’s just the way he sets up.
Q: A guy threw a flag on it once. I was just curious, what is the rule there?
A: Not on him. There were other holds (on the play) there.
Q: From a procedural standpoint, how come that’s not a false start?
A: It isn’t, because he’s not trying to deceive in any way. That’s just the way he does it. We’re aware of it. The whole idea of the false start deal, especially when we’re using him to tap the quarterback, is the intent to deceive. We’ve checked it out. He’s fine. It looked a little goofy to me the first time I saw it in the spring, but it’s fine.
Q: It seemed like he was only doing it on pass plays.
A: No, he’ll do it on run plays. As you noticed, we were working silent count. We use a guard to trigger the silent count, which he did. There just happened to be a lot of pass plays today. That’s all. Observant, but there’s nothing to it.
Q: I might have missed one, but I think today was the first day of no yellow jersey at all for Sterling (Shepard). Did he get some sort of clearance, or is he just feeling that much better?
A: No, he’s been cleared all along to be out here, as we all saw. It’s just the next step in the process. He’s fine.
Q: Is he definitely going to be ready for Week One?
A: We believe so, yeah. Absolutely.
Q: Based on what you’ve seen from DJ now in preseason weeks one and two, what are you specifically looking for-
A: DJ?
Q: Daniel Jones. It’s easier to say that, right?
A: Now he’s DJ.
Q: Maybe it’ll catch on now that I’ve said it. But what are you looking for specifically now this week?
A: Same thing. In each outing, you want him to go out and execute well. The beauty of the preseason games is that each defense presents different problems. When we go to play the Bengals here, we’re going to see things from the Bengals that we didn’t see from the Bears. As you move forward, it’s just another step in the process. We want him to execute well. We don’t want him to fumble snaps or fumble the ball in the pocket. We want him to keep executing well, throwing the ball, and getting us in the right place.
Q: Do you see a tougher competition likely for the team as a whole?
A: Not really. Listen, we go out and compete against whoever plays against us. I don’t know what Zac Taylor’s strategy will be in terms of who he plays, but I think what’s important is that we go out and compete.
Q: Are you going to look at Kamrin Moore’s situation? I guess he was legally cleared.
A: I don’t know any of that. He’s still on the Commissioner’s (Exempt) List. I really have nothing to add there.
Q: It sounded like the charges against him were dropped. Is he going to stay there (on the Commissioner’s (Exempt) List? Will you look to bring him back?
A: I don’t know that. That’s a league issue that I probably wouldn’t comment on, unless something came from the league. Being that he’s on the Commissioner’s (Exempt) List, there’s really nothing for us to say or do.
Q: What happened to (Golden) Tate?
A: He’s in the concussion protocol.
Q: From the game, obviously?
A: Yeah.
