EAD COACH ANDY REID
OPENING STATEMENT: “Alright, so I don’t have any injuries for you. I’ll tell you that everybody practiced yesterday but other than that it looks good so far. With that, time’s yours.”
Q: Do you plan on utilizing all seven wide receivers?
REID: “We’re kind of going through all of that now, there’s a chance though that we have all seven up, yeah.”
Q: You kept Chris Oladokun on the practice squad but not Shane Buechele, did you have a choice there? And if so why did you pick Chris Oladokun?
REID: “Chris (Oladokun) is a good football player, he doesn’t have a lot of experience now, but he’s gaining it. You saw his athletic ability and his arm and so on through the preseason, he did a nice job with that. You know Shane (Buechele) made the decision to go to (the) Buffalo (Bills) and it’s a good new start for him and I’m sure that is what he was thinking about.”
Q: What is your confidence level with the defensive line with Chris Jones being absent?
REID: “Yeah, so I would tell you, you move on. I mean as a coach, when a player is not here, then the next guy is up and rolling. Chris (Jones) is a great player, but we’ve got other good players. They’ll have to step their game up to fill the role of defensive tackle, defensive end and so on. Everybody just has to play their best and then you work through it. But to think that you’re going to fill in for Chris, that’s not what you’re doing. You’re just – the next man comes up and you try to utilize his strengths and let him get in there and play. We’ve had success doing that and so we’ll do it again. I know the guys are excited to get in and play.”
Q: Do you have any indication when Chris Jones will show up?
REID: “No, there’s no indication, either way. They talked the other day, I know (General Manager) Brett (Veach) filled you in on that so I’m just working with the guys we have and making sure we’re set there.”
Q: How long do you think Chris Jones will need as a ramp up period once he gets here?
REID: “Well one thing about Chris (Jones) is that he keeps himself in good shape so I would anticipate – I haven’t seen him, but I’d anticipate that he’d come back in relatively good shape. Just kind of getting himself – working himself into football shape. As long as he’s physically in good shape, you can kind of start working him in and getting him going. Then you play it by ear after that.”
Q: What’s the sense around how the team feels about Chris Jones hold out?
REID: “Everybody makes their own decisions, I mean, that’s the way it is in life and that’s the way it is in football. Certain guys do it one-way, certain guys do it another way. Chris (Jones) has chosen to go this route, some other guys have chosen to get their deals done and come in and play. Listen, I am not here to criticize one way or the other. We’ve had a lot of success with the guys that we have and we go with it. My standpoint is we’ve got a heck of a Lions team coming in here and with the guys we’ve got we’re going to get those guys ready to play against the Lions and I know they’ll be fired up to play. Other than that, I take the distractions and throw them out the door and let’s get on with what’s real and that means the guys that are here, you know, the Lions are going to show up with a good football team.”
Q: How do you handle the event and atmosphere of having the pregame ceremony with the Super Bowl banner and making sure you focus in on the game?
REID: “Again for us, once we got done with the ring ceremony we’ve focused in on the job at hand. There’s a number of guys (who) weren’t part of that team (that won Super Bowl LVII) so I’ve stressed to our guys this is a new year. The (banner) ceremony is probably more for the fans than it is for the team itself. We’ll be out there and do our thing but like I said we’ve got our hands full with a good football team and the game following up this ceremony, so we’ve got to keep our focus on that and that’s where our energy is going.”
Q: What stands out to you about this Detroit Lions team?
REID: “We look forward to this challenge, this is a big, big challenge for us. They finished absolutely on fire, (last season) they play aggressive football. (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) has done a great job up there with his guys so I know we’ve got to really have a great week of preparation going forward. Between (Lions Defensive Coordinator) Aaron (Glenn) and (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) they’ve got good coordinators, both their schemes are good on both sides of the ball. Like I said they’ve got good talent. Our guys will come in here and focus on that, they’ll study the players and they’ll study the schemes and by the time we get to Thursday we’ll have all the different situations down, so it’s a normal week. Today for me is a Monday, in the football world so that’s how we’re doing it as a staff, the players are off on Mondays during the season if it’s a Sunday game. We’ll start the regular week tomorrow with the players in here lifting and doing their stuff there then we’ll follow up with our Wednesday and Thursday practices from there.”
Q: Last year the Lions struggled defensively. What changes have you seen and what challenges from their defense do you foresee?
REID: “Yeah they kind of answered that, midway through the season. I thought they really were playing good football as it went down the stretch there defensively. I know they’ve made some upgrades to their defense – some of the players we know, one of their safeties (C.J. Gardner-Johnson) was in the Super Bowl against us. Anyway, there are players there that I’m familiar with that are really good football players so we’ve got to be sharp from an offensive standpoint.”
Q: Is there a point where you might want to get involved with the Chris Jones negotiations?
REID: “I’m not going to get into that, whether I’ve been involved or not involved. This is ongoing, I think (General Manager) Brett (Veach) explained it the best, it’s an ongoing thing. Right now obviously my focus is on what we’ve got here – you guys have been around me long enough to know how I roll with that. That’s where I’m going. I let Brett do his job and his guys over there, I have full trust in them and the way they are going about it.”