Redskins RB Alfred Morris and HC Mike Shanahan took the podium today following the first day of training camp 2013 at the Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Center in Richmond, Va.
Quick Hits With Running Back Alfred Morris:
On topping his production from last season:
"You can always top production. It comes down to willingness and, I guess, how bad you want it in a sense. I always hold myself at a higher standard and I love a challenge. It's going to be tough to do that, but it is definitely not impossible to do.
"I trained very hard this offseason. I made sure I was in tip-top shape conditioning-wise. I fine-tuned the little things that just help my game even more for this upcoming season now just to help me get an extra edge on the competition."
On if he has been working on catching passes out of the backfield:
"Definitely. Everybody wants the ball so, I mean, it sounds selfish but it's true. The more you can do, the better your chances are to actually be able to help your team. Last year, why I only got like seven catches, I have no clue.
"I've definitely been working a lot this offseason, just building trust with the quarterbacks and coaches just to let them know, 'Hey, I can catch'. So I've been very good this offseason – OTAs, minicamp, I did well. Hopefully during camp I can just continue to build off that, and hopefully it will translate on game day."
On his 1991 Mazda:
"Actually, Mazda has her [the car]. She's getting refurb – Mazda is going to make her like new, like she came off the floor on '91. They actually just took it, so we're going to switch cars while they're doing it.
"They said it would take about 6–8 weeks to do it, but they're going to totally refurbish it, so I'm happy about that… They're just [refurbishing] it so that it can run for about 20 more years."
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--Check out the full Alfred Morris press conference transcript.
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Quick Hits With Head Coach Mike Shanahan:
On the plan for quarterback Robert Griffin III during camp:
"Initially, what we're going to do is what we did today. We had thirty minutes of individual work and we had different types of individual work, as you could see today, different things Robert was doing. During the special teams period, what he was able to do was get his footwork, for us to put him through all the situations that we had in team without being involved in any type of team drills. And then we had a seven-on-seven, which he took eight of the 10 plays, and did a very good job coming into that situation for the first time in a while. But that's our plan initially, make him feel comfortable with what we're doing, feeling comfortable with going back to doing some football drills, some football moves, and see how he does."
On wide receiver Pierre Garçon's comment that he thought "the Redskins' offense could be the best ever in the NFL":
"Well, if you're in this business, you want to be the best at what you do, and I thought for last year having six new starters and being able to accomplish some of the things we did last year, it was pretty impressive with basically a very young football team. So our expectations are high. We're going to concentrate everyday on getting better, and if we do that I think we have a chance to get better."
On the likelihood of running back Alfred Morris duplicating his production from last season:
"Alfred was a young guy coming in. Usually when you come in as a rookie, it's really hard to separate yourself because there's a lot of things going on in your mind. When Alfred came in, the first time we really saw what he could do was when we got him in a preseason game. Very impressive in the preseason and you're hoping that was going to carry over into the season. Obviously, it did. There's no question in my mind that he's going to be one of the best backs because of how hard he works, what type of shape he's in. You can tell he's confident just in running during the OTA days and even today. He's going to be a guy that just keeps on getting better. Now can he surpass what he did last year? I can't answer that, but I would be surprised if he doesn't have an excellent year, barring injuries."
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--Check out the full Mike Shanahan press conference transcript.
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