On Thursday, September 12, 2013, Redskins HC Mike Shanahan addressed the media following afternoon practice from Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va.
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On what having four tight ends does for the offense:
"It gives you a lot of flexibility. You can use tight ends as wide receivers. Obviously anytime you have four guys up or three guys up, it gives you the flexibility to do a number of different things on offense."
On if he has ever had a similar situation with the tight end position:
"Yeah, I have, but not very often. Usually you don't have four legitimate tight ends."
On how cornerback David Amerson injured his back:
"Just woke up in the morning and was in the weight room and just told me he tweaked it a little bit, just a little sore."
On if Amerson and defensive lineman Chris Baker were limited in practice:
"No. He was full-go… Baker was full-go, too."
On began focusing on Green Bay after Monday's game:
"When you have a short week, normally you get in early, you take a look at the game, both offensively, defensively and special teams. You move on right then. You don't have a lot of time because you're in preparation for the next week. You're dealing with a short week anyhow. Normally, it's getting a number of things done throughout the weekend. When it's the second week of the season, you do have the luxury of looking at that team through preseason because you've got a little bit more time."
On if he discusses the environment at Lambeau Field to young players:
"What we try to do is work on the crowd noise. You can't hear when you have the football. Those are the things – even on third downs today we worked on it. Normally we work on it Thursday, but we do it in third-down situations. Tomorrow, you've got crowd noise the whole practice and that's something that is a little bit different. But yeah, you try not to get too caught up in that."
On players on the Green Bay defense other than linebacker Clay Matthews he is concerned about:
"Anytime you take a look at a defense that's right at the top 10 from a year ago – 10th or 11th – that you know is going to play a very sound defense, very consistent with [Defensive Coordinator] Dom [Capers] over the years. They do a good job. Great game plans. They change their game plans up every now and then to keep you off-balance. They'll always have a certain blitz that they normally bring in. You just know you're going against a well-coached team with a lot of speed."
On linebacker Brian Orakpo's performance in his first game back from injury:
"He did a good job. It's tough, that first game when you've been out a year, or close to it. I thought 'Rak did a good job coming in and making some plays. I think he'll be much more comfortable this game. The more you play, the more you get in the swing of things, I think the better he'll feel."
On linebacker Nick Barnett's role:
"The more comfortable he gets with our special teams, the more he'll be put in to that situation. But when you have eight linebackers that dress, we have some safeties, we've got some corners, we've got some wide receivers, tight ends, we just don't want to throw a guy in there to throw him in there just because he might get a few more reps… We brought him along slowly so that he wouldn't have any setbacks with his injury, and I feel very good about where he's at. But he is on a lot of units, mostly second-team, and we will work him in as time goes on."
On the advantages of building a program by drafting and developing players like the Packers:
"Number one, I think it's a great philosophy. It's a philosophy we're trying to adapt with our organization. That's why we try to keep all our draft choices if possible. If you do have good drafts, usually you're able to reward your players. You want to reward the players, because when they play at a certain level you want to be able to take care of them rather than going out somewhere else and taking them from another team. Hopefully we'll be able to keep that philosophy here for years to come."
On the advantages of building a team through free agency:
"When we went to free agency, the first thing we wanted to make sure is that we got leaders. Anytime you get a guy like [defensive end Stephen] Bowen and [nose tackle Barry] Cofield and you play against them a couple times a year and you communicate with players about what type of guys there are besides football players, you feel that you've added not only a young player, but guys that have got a chance to be captains of your football team. We were lucky enough to get a couple of guys like that that have helped us, but that doesn't always happen. That was kind of an unusual year, so you've got to count on developing your players and hopefully make the right draft choices and add a guy here or there depending on injuries or the amount of money you do have."
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