Friday Media Transcript: Head Coach Pat Shurmur

Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- October 18, 2019

Opening Statement: (Corey) Ballentine and (Sterling) Shepard are out. Everybody else should be available. We’ll see how that goes. Alright, I’ll try to answer your questions.

Q: How is it to get Saquon (Barkley) back?
A: Well, we’ll see if he is back. But it’s always good when you can get a player of his caliber back in the lineup.

Q: Does it change things for Daniel (Jones)? How much easier does it make it?
A: I think it changes things for all of us.

Q: (Saquon) is not on the list, right? He’s not questionable or anything?
A: He practiced all week fully.

Q: You said ‘if he’s back.’ Why wouldn’t he be back?
A: Well, he practiced fully. We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s available, and if he’s back, he’ll be ready to go. I just choose not to tell you right now because we’ll just wait and see. There are a lot of guys that practice. Some of them will play, some of them don’t.

Q: To get him and (Evan) Engram back, and (Wayne) Gallman, what does that do for the offense?
A: Back to your last question, when you get some of your frontline guys back in the lineup, it can help.

Q: Other than your decision-making and what you choose to reveal to us, is there anything else that we’re not aware of that would prevent Saquon from playing on Sunday?
A: No, I don’t think so. But we’ll just see. All along here, we let him practice and see how he responds to practice, and he’s done a really good job with all of that. We’ll get him ready to play.

Q: If he is indeed back, if he’s there on Sunday, how much are you looking forward to seeing as many of your full complement of skill position players around Daniel for the first time? What will that mean for Daniel?
A: It means a lot to the whole team when you can get some of the guys that started out being starters and main contributors back in the lineup. It can help things. I think that goes without saying.

Q: Is Buck Allen caught up to speed where he could be the one or two running back, whatever is necessary?
A: He’s actually done a really good job this week getting himself ready to play. He’s available, and if he has to go in, I think he’ll do a good job.

Q: You talked with Mike Eisen about the fine line between being aggressive and being careless with the football. What do you want Daniel to know about that fine line?
A: I think each play stands on its own. I think he’s been very aggressive. He’s a very aggressive thrower, and he tries to get the most out of every play. But again, it’s a fine line. As you go through it and see different situations, you execute route combinations multiple times against multiple defenses, you start to see where the ball should go on time or if it should go to the outlet. I think that’s sort of what I was getting at.

Q: Are you saying you’re considering holding guys like Saquon and Evan out for long-term health reasons?
A: No. If guys are ready to play, and we’ll determine that, they’ll play.

Q: Have they been medically cleared to play?
A: They are, yeah.

Q: I think what we’re a little confused about is if they’re not on the injury report, what would possibly stop them from playing?
A: These are guys that are coming back from injury. I’m going to wait until the end to make sure that they’re ready to play. That’s all.

Q: But they’re not questionable?
A: No, they’re not. So, we’ll see if they’re in there. That’s all. I’m not trying to play a game here. I’m just choosing not to tell you who’s going to be up and who’s going to be down.

Q: It’s just confusing for us because if a guy possibly can’t play because of the injury, he would be on the injury report as questionable or doubtful or whatever.
A: Right. I got you. Don’t be confused by it.

Q: How is Sterling Shepard doing? Obviously, he’s out. How’s he kind of doing? I know he’s still in the (concussion) protocol.
A: He’s doing a good job. He practiced throughout the week, but unfortunately, he’s in the protocol. He’s one of those guys that we have no choice. He just can’t play yet.

Q: Did you see that full explosion from Saquon and Evan this week? Is there anything that they might not be…
A: They practiced well this week. They did a really nice job.

Q: How valuable has the 10 days since the last game been to you? Do you view it that way?
A: I mean, we had 10 days. We tried to use it to the best of our ability in terms of getting guys back healthy and putting a plan together to get ready to play Arizona.

Q: If you were asked this yesterday or the day before, I apologize. Do you know what to expect from Patrick Peterson on Sunday?
A: Well, just based on what he’s been as a player, he’s kind of a shutdown type corner that has excellent ball skills. When you throw the ball in his area, you have to be real good with it because he has ball skills and he can pick it off. He does a great job of covering.

Q: (Larry) Fitzgerald does most of his work out of the slot. How tough is that? Is that a challenge when a team puts their best receiver in there primarily?
A: It can be. It can be. So, we have to do a really good job of when we’re matched up one on one, how we cover him and who covers him. Then if we’re in some type of a zone, everybody has to be certainly aware of where he’s at. Yeah, it’s a challenge.

Q: Where does Tae Davis stand? He was a starter in Week 1 and then a healthy scratch last week. Where is he at?
A: Coming back from injury. We’ll see if he’s up. If he is, we anticipate he’ll first be obviously involved a lot on special teams. We’ll see if he gets scrimmage downs.

Q: I know you don’t like to look at it past this week, but do you think your guys recognize that if you win this week, obviously one of the teams ahead of you are going to lose, you’re sitting right there in the thick of the division race?
A: No. I’ll go back to what I said early in the week. We don’t do that kind of math. We really don’t. I think that’s a dangerous thing to do. I don’t think that’s something that if you’re involved in this profession, you don’t do that. I encourage our players to stay in the moment, be where your feet are, take care of Friday things and when we play on Sunday, do everything we can to put an effort on the field to beat Arizona. I’ll probably give you that answer throughout the season. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s how you have to play this thing. Then other people do the math.