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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Quotes: Head Coach Jay Gruden (08-05-2016)

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On the defense's performance today:

"It was good. It was a team effort by the defense. They had great pass rush, number one, which made [Nate] Sudfeld a little uncomfortable, and then they had good coverage to boot so it was a good all-around effort by the defense."

On injuries:

"[Jamison] Crowder's got a slight hamstring [injury], he'll be OK. We just want to get him… we've got tomorrow off so I thought it was smart to give him today and tomorrow off. Hopefully he'll be back as soon as we come back Sunday. Trent [Williams], same thing. Just one more day of rest – which really means two – so he should be back hopefully Sunday. We'll check him out then."

On LB Steven Daniels:

"Steven Daniels has a labrum [injury]. He's probably going to have surgery. We're going to probably decide that today, but [it] looks like he'll have surgery."

On if there is a concern about exposing an injured player to waivers:

"Yeah, it's a concern, but this time I think we need to get it [surgery] done now for him. That was just such an oddity. It hardly ever happens. I don't think it'll happen again."

On getting the second and third teams extra repetitions:

"Yeah, I want to get them some more reps. Yesterday, I had a really long drive with the ones. They were out there for about an 18-play drive, so today I wanted to really feature the twos and the threes and make sure they got the reps. In the meantime, giving some of the ones a little bit of rest. You know, they did some good one-on-one work, did some good seven-on-seven work, first-and-10 work, and then the rest of the period was for the twos and the threes."

On training camp thus far and preparing for Atlanta:

"I think they [the practices] have gone excellent. The biggest thing is we're trying to just make sure we get our offense and defense and special teams installed so they get it mentally. Obviously we're going to make sure we start to evaluate our players, so we're starting to make our decisions on the 53-man roster. It's not going to be easy, you know? It's going to be important for us to get these guys ready for Atlanta. We won't start that preparation until later in the week, Sunday will still be a training camp day, probably Monday will be, too. Probably Tuesday we'll start looking at Atlanta and maybe put together a plan for them then."

On TE Jordan Reed:

"Jordan had a slight sprained thumb. He could have practiced today. We just held him out."

On mixing together different strings on one unit:

"Well, we're trying to give everybody some looks. The defensive line, in particular, we've got some depth there. So we need to get them all some reps with the ones and the twos. These guys are looking good. We're just trying to change it up a little bit. No decisions have been made. We have to have a depth chart out here probably early next week just for the media and for the program or whatever, but really it's wide open right now. I wouldn't even put a depth chart out until Week 3 of the preseason. We're trying to get everybody an opportunity and make our decisions."

On how he balances reps between the first, second and third teams:

"Yeah, just kind of what I did today. Yesterday, the ones got a lot of work. Today twos and threes got a lot of work. Now I've just got to make sure I'm monitoring how much reps these guys get and making sure I keep their legs fresh, make sure they get the necessary work, and make sure the twos and threes get some work so we can see them. Like I said before, whether you're a free agent or whether you're drafted, I don't want to come in here with any predetermined notions on these guys. I want to give them all opportunity to play and make plays and see how much they've learned and see how much they progress and go from there. And so far, it's looking good. A lot of guys have done some good things. From the start of camp to now, they're improving".

On if the team could place Daniels on the Reserve/Injured list if he is waived and later clears waivers:

"Likely, yes. That's Scot's [General Manager Scot McCloughan's] deal."

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