Q: How did Thursday’s practice go?
Kubiak: “We’re all in one piece. Everybody looked good. No problems
physically, so we had a good practice.”
Q: Was any personnel different on offense or defense?
Kubiak: “No, nothing different, just we’ll have a tough decision to make again
on whether we suit seven or eight defensive linemen. But (DE) Jason Babin is
fine. Jason’s had his two best practices since I’ve been here, yesterday and
today, so that’ll be a tough decision. That’s all predicated on the linebacker
situation.”
Q: What do you think about having veterans who work
well with younger players?
Kubiak: “It says a lot about their character. Like you look at a guy like (S)
Jason Simmons (pictured right), I don’t know of I’m right or wrong, but
he’s eight years, maybe, in the league, eight or nine. And last week tells you
what he’s made of. On Wednesday he didn’t know if he was going to be up to be
honest with you because we were going to play (S) Guss Scott, and then he walks
in here on Saturday morning and the doctors tell us (S) Glenn (Earl) shouldn’t
play. So he started and he goes out there and he’s defensive player of the game
along with (CB) Demarcus Faggins. He’s always ready to play. He’s a veteran
guy. You can count on him and that’s what makes your team strong, that guys
like that are unselfish and ready to play all the time. That’s what helps your
team out.”
Q: Do veterans ever tell young players the wrong things
to help themselves?
Kubiak: “That might happen during camp or something when guys are battling for
a job, but when we get to this point, guys like (LB) Kailee Wong and (S) Jason
Simmons, they last for a reason. And the reason they have been in this league
so long is because they are big-time pros and they are great people. As along
as I have been in this league, that hasn’t gone away. Every time you look for a
player who’s hung around for eight, ten, twelve years, they are great people as
well as good football players. And those two guys are good examples”
Q: What growth have you seen on QB Vince Young since
college?
Kubiak: “He’s grown a lot. They’ve done a heck of a job with him to be put in
that situation right away and you can see how he’s rubbed off on their football
team. They’ve played, the last couple of weeks, as good as anybody in the game.
And they go to Indianapolis and they really had them beat in that situation.
They go to Washington, who’s got as talented as a team in this team as you’ll
find, and they beat them. He’s brought a presence to their team. Their running
game has gotten better because of his threat to boot and you can just tell the
players love playing around him and that’s what he was in college. He’s a great
kid, a great football player and he will continue to be.”
Q: Why was DE Anthony Weaver (pictured right) out of
practice Thursday?
Kubiak: “His knee was sore and (Head Athletic Trainer) Kevin (Bastin) came to
me, and they were going to limit him. And I said, ‘Just hold him out.’ We don’t
have any problem with him knowing what to do and how to do it, so we’ll make
sure he’s ready to go.”
Q: How is (TE) Jeb Putzier?
Kubiak: “It doesn’t look good for Jeb. I think it’ll be another week before
he’s ready to go. Something could change between now and Sunday, but it sure
looks like he’ll be out.”
Q: What is (T) Scott Jackson’s role going to be with
the Texans?
Kubiak: “We’ve been playing light on the offensive line as far as our
numbers. We looked at all of practice squads around the league and he was the
guy that intrigued us the most. You can pull a guy from a practice squad, but
he’s got to go right to your active roster. He’s played center, he’s played
tackle, and (it) sure looks like it was a good pick up. But for him to get
involved in what we’re doing it’s probably going to take a few weeks.”
Q: How has (T) Eric Winston’s been progressing?
Kubiak: “He’s making a lot of progress, and one of the things that’s helping is
we’ve kind of changed our routine with Zach Wiegert a little bit. Zach doesn’t
really practice on Wednesday. We make (T) Eric Winston and (G) Brad Bedell take
all the reps. The only way those guys get better is if they get the reps, and we
feel confident in Zach being ready to play on game day. So we chose to go that
way, and it looks like it’s helped Eric get better.”