HEAD COACH MIKE TOMLINThursday, July 31
Coach Mike Tomlin: I thought we had a very productive day today. We gave them the morning off, but more so than giving them the morning off, we provided some therapeutic options. We're getting to that point in training camp where we need to do a nice job of taking care of ourselves. Whether it's therapy, aquatic training, weight training, massages, we provided a variety of things for those guys this morning and they took advantage of it. It was productive for us. We've got some guys who have missed some time, some day to day guys back out this afternoon which was a good thing. It was a good spirited practice this afternoon. We are still coming together of course as a football team, but I like where we are. A quick injury update: Travis Kirschke will be back tomorrow; we just gave him a day to day, a little preventative if you will. He was starting to feel some repercussions of camp in his back, but we gave him the day off today and he'll be back out again tomorrow. Anthony Smith attempted to go today. He started practice but wasn't able to finish with his groin, so it might be a little more than day off at this point. We'll take a look and see where he is. Of course, Bryant McFadden came back successfully and did James Farrior. Humpal went out with a slight hamstring. It may be heat related. We will see where it is; hopefully he is day to day. That is the information that we have at this point right now. Everybody else is status quo. Also, we acquired Eddie Drummond here to day. He was a kick return specialist for the majority of his time in Detroit. Of course, he was in Kansas City last year. He is an East Liberty man and we're happy to have him. We needed a guy in that capacity to add to the competition when we lost Kevin Marion a couple days back, so we are marching forward. I will answer any questions.
Is he going to cover kicks?
He's a return man that has some special teams background in other areas. He's a runner, recovering kicker. He has shown he is capable of doing that over his career. We will definitely give him a shot at that.
What's happening with Jason Capizzi?
I'm sorry, I failed to mention Jason Capizzi. He has a foot injury. It looks like it is going to require some surgery. He is out.
Is it in relation to the stress fracture?
Yes.
Coach, what's up with Limas's eyes, finding out he needed glasses today?
You know, the old wide receiver in me, when you see guys struggling to pick out the blur of the ball that is one of the first things that you look at. We did and it was a minor issue there. Hopefully it is a winning end for him, but by no means are we going to lean on it. He has to go out there and catch footballs.
What about Bruce Davis? Is he coming along? Where is he at right now?
He is and we have a little focus on Bruce right now because he went to a quarter school at UCLA and he missed quite a bit of time in the off-season because of that. He was not able to participate due to rules. He has to hurry up and catch up and he is in the process of doing that. That might require an extra rep or two. He is in great shape and he is going to need it because he has some ground to make up.
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Any thoughts on what you find in the offensive line after the first week?
Things have been going well. I have been pleased with our pocket protections and our pass under pressure. I think we have done a nice job thus far with our blitz pick-up. It's been good, but we are a work in progress.
Do you have any special plans for the night practice tomorrow night?
Yeah, we are going to go out and be physical. Hopefully we will give the fans something to look at. We are going to compete a little bit. We draw energy from our great crowds here at training camp and I am looking forward to a great atmosphere tomorrow. We have backs on linebackers and blitz pick-up. That will be the highlighted drill of tomorrow's practice. We are going to focus on red zone and make people stand up and defend their precious grass and try to get some points down there. We are going to talk about situational football and the point swing is going to make us great. Defensively, we can't let people put seven on the board in the red zone. Offensively, if we are going to be great, we have got to put seven up. So we have some special treats for the fans tomorrow night and we are looking forward to their energy.
Are you going to do goal-line drills?
No, we are going to save that for family day. We want our families to come watch us be physical.
Is (Jason) Capizzi on the IR list?
We have settled with him being injured, not exactly IR.
