Coach Allen: As always I'll start out with the injury report. [Shane] Lechler still has the knee, [Aaron] Curry with the knee. Denarius [Moore] still has the hamstring. Taiwan Jones had a hamstring yesterday in practice so we held him out. [Eddie] McGee's got the hamstring. With [Matt] Shaughnessy we'll see exactly what it is, it looked like it was a little bit more of a bruise [on his] ankle. We held Richard Seymour out again with the knee.
Q: [Ron] Bartell was in there doing some things?
Coach Allen: Yes, he was in. It's a no contact situation for him. But he's able to get in there and work and do the same situation tomorrow before we can get him into some full live contact on the following day.
Q: Coach, how has [Miles] Burris looked for you there at linebacker?
Coach Allen: He's been up and down. He plays really hard, he's an energetic guy. He understands football, but yet at the same time we are throwing a lot of things at him. He's still got to continue to improve to get better. He's going to be a good player, we just got to work through some of the consistency issues.
Q: When is the point for a young guy like that for him to have everything?
Coach Allen: It won't be this year as far as having everything. It takes a while, this is a complex game and we throw a lot of things at him. But what you're looking for is every day you want to see him improve a little bit. We call them repeat mistake offenders. We don't want to see guys make the same mistake over and over again. He's done a pretty nice job at getting some of the things corrected. But you know every day is something new. We put in something new defensively. Our offense puts in a new look for him so it's just a chance getting to see all l those different looks.
Q: Yesterday you talked about [Mike] Brisiel and wanting to bring in top players like that. Is [Dave] Tollefson in that mold?
Coach Allen: Absolutely. He fits that mold perfectly and in addition to that here's a guy who's been on a couple world championship teams. You want guys around that have seen it done at the highest level and know how to win championships because at the end of the day that's what all of our goal is.
Q: What about his versatility? It looks like he's playing inside and out.
Coach Allen: He did a lot of things in New York you know playing inside, playing outside. And we've moved him around a little bit and used him in a lot of different roles.
Q: Do you have any kind of time table with Shane? And what's he doing right now? We don't seem him out here doing any work.
Coach Allen: He's out here some, but mostly in the training room getting some rehab. He's probably about a week away before we really actually get him out here and start working him. I don't want to put necessarily a timetable on it, but I wouldn't expect to see him out here in the next couple of days punting.
Q: How's [Marquette] King holding up?
Coach Allen: He's doing good. I'm mean you guys see him, obviously when he hits it, he hits it as good as anybody. He's just got to work on staying consistent.
Q: He's kicking a lot though, is his leg physically holding up?
Coach Allen: He's a young dude, man, he'll be alright!
Q: What do you tell a guy like that who's coming in and obviously got Shane ahead of him. Do you tell him we are going to try and help showcase you as much as possible?
Coach Allen: Listen at the end of the day we are trying to get him better, and we are trying to see where he's at. Like the situation we are dealing with Shane right now. If Shane goes down you got to have somebody that can fill that role. So we are looking for guys that can help us get better.
Q: Has [Brandon] Myers kind of established himself there at tight end?
Coach Allen: Yes. I think he's kind of worked himself into the number one guy. But I don't know that, the depth chart is consistently changing, so he's number one right now. Two weeks down the road we will see where he's at.
Q: Has he done anything particular to work himself in?
Coach Allen: Well he's done a nice job at trying to be consistent. I think from a receiving stand point, that's probably where he's a little bit more advanced as far as kind of knowing what to do and where to be. We've got to continue to work with him on the physical part of the game in the run blocking. But again, I've said this all along, I think with the tight ends we have, we've got some versatility and each guy has a unique skill set that we plan on trying to use.
Q: Who would you say is the best run blocker out of that group right now?
Coach Allen: Richard Gordon right now. He's a big physical guy. We got him back out here yesterday for the first time and you can really notice his physical presence. The first rep he had in one-on-one pass protection drill he stepped up and blocked a safety. So I see him as probably a little bit more of a physical presence.
Q: How about Miles Burris on defense for you, how's he looking?
Coach Allen: Like I said before he's doing a nice job it's the consistency thing with him. It's a developmental process with him. He continues to improve, but there still a lot of things we got to get corrected with him.
Q: What about with Nathan Stupar - at times in these individual drills you see him flashing and making plays?
Coach Allen: He's a little further behind. Nate's got to step up from the standpoint of just knowing what to do and how to do it. He's had a little bit more of an issue with making some of the same mistakes over and over. We have to get him corrected in that regard.
Q: You had four instances where I think defenders jumped and I think one was a lost fumble and a couple of drop balls. Is that the type of stuff in training camp you really get on when you go back to meeting rooms?
Coach Allen: Yes. Those are the things that cost you games. We are really preaching the message of to learn how to win in the National Football league the first thing you have to learn how to do is not beat yourself. So penalties and turning the ball over those types of things can cost you football games. Until we get that corrected we are going to stand up here and say the same thing over and over.
Q: You let them go pretty much relatively live that last session. Do they look forward to that you think?
Coach Allen: Yes. That was the plan all along. It was a short yardage session so we wanted to see who was going to come off the ball and knock people back and who was going to play physical.
Q: Are we going to see more that of that full contact, tackle to the ground?
Coach Allen: We will see a little bit more. We've kind of got it planned out when we are going to do it. We won't do a ton of it but we got at least one more session of live contact that we will do before we play our first preseason game.
Q: Do you think the offense got the better of the short yardage situation?
Coach Allen: Yes. They got the better of the short yardage no question about it. I thought they did a great job of mixing things up and keeping the defense off balance.
Q: Coach, as much as you preach ball security you've been part of some teams that really know how to turn the ball over. How do you teach that?
Coach Allen: Well you live it and you preach it every day. You look for opportunities that are teaching moments on the tape to see when there are opportunities where the ball is hanging out there a little loose and you got a chance to get the ball out. You know obviously getting pressure on the quarterback and getting him to make bad decisions that leads to a lot of turnovers. You've got to work it and you got to live it. You can't just give it lip service.
Q: As far as tackling, was that a concern coming in or is it back to basics this past week as far as fundamentals go?
Coach Allen: Well a lot of it is back to basics, a lot of it is fundamentals. I mean that's what at the end of the day training camp is for. We are practicing a little bit differently than some people and allowing our guys to front up a little bit more. Our hope is that's going to help us as far as tackling is concerned. But tackling is about body position and more so than anything else it's about a willingness and a want to, to get the guy down on the ground.
Q: Did [tackling] jump out to you as a sore spot when you watched film of last year?
Coach Allen: Yeah, at times it was definitely an issue. We've talked about tackling and how we've got to be a great tackling team if we want to be a good defense.
Q: Was there a particular group that stood out to you as needing work on their tackling secondary or linebackers?
Coach Allen: I think all of us. The hardest tackles to make are space tackles. And the guys that get into those situations more so than anybody else are linebackers and DBs so those are the guys that have to work on it more than anybody.
Q: On that linebacker theme, what have you seen from Philip Wheeler from the strong side?
Coach Allen: I think he's done a nice job. He gives us some athleticism at that position. Obviously we've been able to rush him some and also put him back in coverage. But I mean, he's a guy that hadn't played a lot on the ball but he's done a nice job there. And I mean obviously coming from Indianapolis and that Tampa-2 system. His stack linebacker off the play look has been really good.
Q: What kind of tackler is he?
Coach Allen: I think he's a good tackler. I mean we will obviously find out when we start really playing preseason games because we haven't done a lot of that. From what I've seen so far I would anticipate him being a good tackler.
Q: Going back to takeaways - your Monday night opener when you were with Denver you got to see Matt Giordano. Tell me what you have been seeing here in terms of his play, his level of intensity?
Coach Allen: The consistency Matt brings. He's a pro, he comes to work every day. He got a chance to see some of the things that we're doing defensively when he was with us in New Orleans . So the system is familiar to him. He's a consistent pro and that's really what you are looking for back there.
Q: He seems like he's come close to really clocking a guy out here. Is he a guy you got to tell to keep it dialed back while we are out here?
Coach Allen: No, he understands how to play the game. We are going to push it to the line and see how far we can go. But he's a guy who understands we need everybody out here until I see him where he just decks somebody we are going to let him play and I think he's done a nice job of it.
Q: Alex Parsons seems to be a guy who was practice squad the last couple of years and now been put in a good spot; what are you impressions of him so far?
Coach Allen: I've been pleased with Alex, he's come along. He worked as the first team center all of the off-season and obviously now we've moved Wiz [Stefen Wisniewski] up there and let Wiz get a lot of those reps, but I like Alex. I think he's done a good job for us and I think he's a guy who is a potential center/guard swing candidate.
Q: Tommy Kelly says he's been working on not jumping. He anticipates. Is there anything you do special to keep him to not anticipate as much?
Coach Allen: We are going to try to do things to incentivize Tommy not to anticipate so much. But Tommy has done a good job. He's working, he's trying to do everything we ask him to do. We're going to continue to work on that part of his game as well as the fundamental and technique. He's a real talented player. If he'll just clean up a few things he's got a chance to be one of the better interior linemen in the league.
