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Opening Statement:** "Obviously, today is a busy day. Players were in here earlier. We've begun the process with cuts. We've been real busy on that all day long. That will continue through tomorrow. We'll pare this down to a 53-man roster and 10 practice squad players."
Q: Have some players already been told and will you hold off on all of them until tomorrow?
Coach Allen: "We're not going to make any type of announcement or comment on any of the releases until, I believe, tomorrow afternoon."
Q: Has this cut-down period been more difficult to find your 53-man roster because you have more established veterans?
Coach Allen: "There is no question, it's been harder. I saw this coming back, really, in OTAs and specifically in training camp. I knew that there were going to be some tough decisions that had to be made. I know that there are going to be some guys that we're going to end up not being able to keep that are going to end up on other peoples' rosters. It's a tough issue, but it's a good problem to have. So, although those are tough decisions that you have to make, it certainly bodes well for your football team."
Q: How much time do you actually spend evaluating the last game, or do you just get right to the process of trimming the roster?
Coach Allen: "I'll tell you what you do, and what we did this morning: We don't grade the tape, per se. But, really kind of going into that last game, you have a pretty good feel for where you're at on the 53-man roster and you're really trying to kind of confirm some things. So, what you do is you go back in and you watch the tape and really some of those specific areas that you wanted to kind of confirm, you go back and look at those areas and see how certain individuals played and whether or not they helped their cause or hurt their cause."
Q: When you have the team picked tomorrow, do you think you'll be able to look back on that last game and see where a player or three actually made the team based on the last game's performance?
Coach Allen: "I don't know if it will be made the team, but certainly it would be a situation where I think they confirmed that they're worthy of that roster spot. There were some things last night, some really good things that showed up. I do think there are certainly some areas where some guys, you might at that and say they kind of confirmed a spot on the roster or maybe confirmed a spot on the practice squad. So, it was a big game for a lot of those guys."
Q: Did you talk to Matt Schaub today? Is there anything new on his elbow?
Coach Allen: "Matt has a personal issue that he has been excused for. So, I haven't had any opportunity to see him, and I'm not sure exactly when that will be. He has something that he is having to deal with right now."
Q: Do you expect him back on Monday for practice?
Coach Allen: "I do, but again, I haven't talked to Matt. Like I said, he has a personal issue that he needs to deal with and we're respecting that."
Q: You kind of hinted that Sebastian Janikowski was going to be fine. Do you anticipate him being able to go for the opener?
Coach Allen: "I do. I expect him to be able to go, and I visited with 'Sea-Bass' before the game last night. He is feeling a lot better. I think really that was a little bit more of a precautionary thing last night. It was nice to see Giorgio [Tavecchio] come in and perform like he did."
Q: Did Kaelin Burnett have any injury issue yesterday, or did you guys just hold him out?
Coach Allen: "He injured his knee in practice the other day. We're trying to determine exactly what the extent of that injury is. But, it was something that we felt like it wasn't worth risking putting him in the game last night. That's for sure."
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Q: Once all the highlights get rolling from last night, in particularly Derek Carr's performance, I think the perception from the outside is not whether you should pick him but how could you not pick him as the starting quarterback? How do you process all that?**
Coach Allen:"Yeah, there's a lot of things that go into a performance. There's a lot of things that factor into the decision making process, but I will say that I was very pleased with what I saw out of Derek Carr last night."
Q: Does that first series weigh a lot on you in terms of being able to go up against the first-string Seattle defense when you're evaluating him?
Coach Allen:"Yeah, they were the No. 1 ranked defense in the league last year. It's a good defensive football team and they had nine of their 11 starters playing, but what I really look at is I look at the offensive unit as a whole. Denarius Moore makes a heck of a reception over there on Richard Sherman. Latavius Murray has a couple of really nice runs in there. We did a pretty good job in protection on that drive, so there was a lot of things with the ten other guys on the field that, those guys performed well."
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Q: Do you anticipate having Gabe Jackson starting at left guard in the first game?**
Coach Allen:"Well, listen, I've been really pleased with what I've seen out of Gabe Jackson. I've said this, I think we have a deep group of offensive linemen. I think guys that can play in several different positions and I think this training camp, this offseason, being able to really keep that core group of guys intact and working together for most of the offseason, most of the preseason, I think has helped our offensive line. Again, I think we've got a lot of guys that if they're not starting, that certainly we can plug in and play and not feel like we lose anything."
Q: When you get to practice next week will you know who your starting quarterback will be or is that something that you will determine during the week?
Coach Allen:"No, we'll know exactly what we're doing."
Q: Last year you didn't make any public announcements of it until game time on Sunday. Will you announce something or wait until Sunday?
Coach Allen:"Well, I haven't given that any consideration really at all to be honest with you. I think the biggest thing is I want to be able to check on Matt [Schaub] and see where Matt is health-wise. Like I said, he was making some progress last week, threw on the side with the trainers. I feel like he'll be ready to go, but I think we need to see how he's doing Monday when he gets in here."
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Q: There's a lot of talk about the play of the wide receivers the last couple of weeks and you mentioned a few times that you wanted more consistency from them. With sitting out Rod Streater and James Jones last night and to have some of the catches you guys came up with last night, they must have been one of the more positive things you've seen over the preseason.**
Coach Allen:"Yeah, absolutely it was a positive thing to see. One of the things that I wanted to see, I wanted to see our guys be able to go out and make plays. I thought the whole team was able to do that. Specifically, I thought the offensive guys were really able to go out and make some plays. Denarius Moore made some really good plays. The play that Mychal Rivera made down the seam for a touchdown was a heck of a play on a deflected pass. Seeing guys like Latavius Murray running the football, that was very good to see. Seeing our offensive line block the way they were able to block, there were a lot of positives that I saw last night in our offensive's performance."
Q: Have you seen that kind of chemistry with the offense and Derek Carr in recent practices? It seemed like everything clicked together.
Coach Allen: "Yeah, listen, I get a chance to watch all these guys all day, every day. We've said all along that Derek is going to be a really good quarterback in this league and he's shown those signs, and you've seen those signs, throughout practices. It was good to see that our whole group offensively was able to go out and function the way that they did last night."
Q: Is there a real benefit to having a quarterback like Derek Carr with that kind of arm strength, because it seemed like a couple of those passes were put on a dime where they didn't have any chance to react to it. Is that kind of accuracy a real bonus for an offense?
Coach Allen:"I think the biggest thing with the quarterback position is timing, decision making and accuracy, and I feel like all three of our quarterbacks have those elements. Obviously, each of them has their own strengths, each of them has their own weaknesses. But I think all those quarterbacks perform well in that area, or in those three areas."
Q: Do you expect Sio Moore to practice next week?
Coach Allen: "I do. He was kind of a game-time decision in the game. I just didn't feel comfortable that mentally he was really ready to go after taking the blow to the neck in the Green Bay game. It was really my decision to hold him out."
Q: Will David Ausberry be able to practice next week?
Coach Allen:"Our expectation is that he'll be ready to practice on Monday."
Q: Are Chimdi Chekwa and Taiwan Jones in the same position, or is that yet to be determined? Coach Allen:"That hasn't been determined yet. I'm hopeful that both of them will be able to go. I don't know whether that's going to be Monday or at some point during the week. Those are two that I think we've got to see where they're at Monday when they come back. They'll be off today and off tomorrow, so I think we need to see where they're at on Monday and we'll have a better feel for where they're going to be."
