Broncos INTERIM HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JACK DEL RIO after practice today: On speaking with Head Coach John Fox “I did. I got to speak with John this morning for about 20 minutes on the phone. He sounded great. He’s looking forward to getting out of ICU. He’s still in ICU but his spirits are really good. He feels a little tired, obviously, as he’s gone through quite a bit. His body has been put through quite a bit but he’s in great spirits and he’s healing. We talked for a good bit and he obviously was wanting to talk about the team and how everybody’s doing. I assured him everybody’s doing great and that we’re going to work to make him proud. It was good to be able to talk to him and then be able to express that to the team.” On CB Champ Bailey’s injury “We’re trying to be smart. [Head Athletic Trainer Steve Antonopulos] is doing a good job bringing him back with the doctors and everything. He is working back; he is working out now on the side and we’ll increase that. At some point, he’ll rejoin us. You can’t rush that kind of thing. It’s just when he’s ready to go, we’ll utilize him.” On whether the added situational drills in practice are something he did in Jacksonville or something he felt needed to be incorporated “I guess a little bit of both. Certainly, I’ve had experience doing different things with the team. I just felt like, to add a little urgency to different situations that come up, we just created that little short period. Really, that was the only addition. But it’s the kind of thing where it gets your attention. It causes you to focus in for that moment on, ‘Hey, this situation is going to come up, or has come up, and this is how we’re going to deal with it. These are the things that we’re going to do.’ Kind of get our guys on alert.” On the impact that the Broncos comeback win in San Diego last season had on the team “I think the record speaks for itself. It was a tremendous turnaround. It was a pivotal point in the year. We kind of found ourselves at that point and have played great since. We go back and we understand that they did things that put us behind and we didn’t do some things we need to that put us behind. Anytime you do that, you’re in the NFL, a team is very capable of putting you in a hole.” On DE Shaun Phillips “Shaun’s been great. I mean, if you look at us losing [Ravens DE Elvis Dumervil] and how are we going to fill that void—it was a big question all through camp. Shaun came in—he’s a very smart guy, great experience and poise. He brought a certain element to our defense that we would miss without him. He’s been productive, so that’s the biggest thing. He’s backed up kind of the experienced, wise veteran guy that is also performing well. It’s been a big lift for us.” On how LB Von Miller’s return has enabled Phillips to do different things “Yeah. It frees [Phillips] up not to be the Von role, but to be a complementary player because Von is a special talent and requires a lot of attention by the opposing offenses.” On what Chargers WR Keenan Allen does “Produce. He’s just a young player that has played well with the opportunities he’s been given. He was a guy, you watch him in the draft coming out—he was a good performer at Cal and he looked like he’d be a good pro. It looks like they’ve found themselves a nice, young player.”
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 23:04:29 +0000
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