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Payton July 27

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Opening Statement:


"Just a couple of notes on practice: (Mike) McKenzie and (Brian) Young were the two that did not participate. We had two hamstring injuries: Devery Henderson and Tracy Porter went out. We'll evaluate where they're at after practice here. Todd Blythe got a little dinger in a drill that he was in and we'll see what kind of shape he's in. One note in regards to our personnel: we put DeMario Pressley on injured reserve. He has a right foot fracture that happened in minicamp. We tried to manage it a little bit but it was still becoming problematic, so he's going to have surgery done here – I'll keep you posted on when that takes place. We signed Marquies Gunn, a defensive end, after a workout today. So Gunn comes in and Pressley is put on IR. We think that the injury is something that can heal with the proper procedure and we just chose to go ahead and have it done right now rather than wait and try to treat it; it's just gotten progressively worse on him."

Is Pressley's injury a stress fracture?


"It's been an old injury that got aggravated again in the workouts. For it to heal properly they put a little pin in it and it will just take some time. Rather than continue to battle through it, it was one of those things that became apparent that it would be aggravated if he stayed on it. So we chose to do that right now and get him healthy and sign the other player."

How optimistic are you that Sedrick Ellis will be here in the next couple of days?


"I'm optimistic. He needs to get in here in the next couple of days because we're on to the end of our first week here and there are a lot of reps that you don't get back. It's not OK, just from a conditioning level and where we're at as a team. The picks ahead of him are done, and it's time. Hopefully he's as optimistic and eager because he needs to be."

How did Deuce do in today's practice health-wise?


"The MRI was clean and he practiced this afternoon. We're kind of on that one-a-day schedule with him and the news was good with the results of that test which was encouraging. We all kind of held our breath a little bit there."

Is this the time in camp when you expect some dings to come up?


"We've been able to stay relatively healthy for this first four days. We had to battle through the practice today; it started off a little slow and I thought the tempo increased as the practice went on. We had a little break in the weather fortunately, but this is that tough part of two-a-days where there's really not any light at the end of the tunnel, we're just going and the players need to understand that and I think they do."

Have you ever been part of a team where you have so many injuries that you have to be mindful of and did you consult with anyone?


"I don't know that it's that uncommon – just go back two years where we had (Deuce) McAllister's knee and (Drew) Brees' shoulder. I think that each year the most important thing is the transition after the season and the diagnosis and getting the procedures done in order to give them the best time to recover and be healthy for training camp. I think it's fairly common and we have a fair amount of time still, and in the case of Mike McKenzie and Jeremy Shockey and Deuce McAllister, we just have to be judicious in how we practice them, knowing that we have four preseason games and that doesn't get started until two weeks from now. That's a lot of time. The key is just to have no setbacks. Knock on wood, we've been fortunate in that regard."

Do attribute Porter's injury to coming to camp a little late at all?


"Being in late doesn't help you in any way, shape or form. It was a hamstring injury and Devery Henderson got hurt on the same play with the same type of injury, so it's one of those things that we'll find out where he's at. In order to play and get on the field, you have to be healthy and be able to practice. I think he knows that. You just get a little concerned when that period of time exceeds a day or two and all of a sudden, it's three days or four days and now you're missing more than just a day or two and that only hurts the player."

Jason David endured a tough season last year. How confident are you in his ability to return his form from two seasons ago with Indianapolis?


"I think that when you play good team defense, the corners are relying on the pass rush and you complement each other. I'm confident that what we saw on tape two years ago when he won a Super Bowl with Indianapolis is something that he can give us, and I think he is too. He's had a good start to this training camp and I think he's played very well. He's someone that has a great deal of pride and he wants to please and I think you're going to see a better player – not just an improvement on his part, but an improvement on his teammates that are playing on that defense that complement each other. He's worked hard."

What exactly happened to Todd Blythe?


"I don't want to call it a concussion yet until we find out, but they were doing a blocking drill and he got dinged and was a little woozy. We'll see how bad."

Did you cut practice short because of the weather conditions?


"Actually we got through everything; we just picked the tempo up a little bit. We got through all the reps and ended up being 15 or 16 minutes ahead of schedule. Early in practice it looked like it possibly might rain, so we just got going a little quicker and moved special teams back, but we got through everything that we wanted to. We just didn't take those long breaks because it seemed like it was a little cooler and we didn't need them."

Was the tempo reason that it seemed to be one of the more crisp practices of camp so far?


"It started off slow and then I thought it got going a little bit towards the middle of practice and that was good."

How is Jeremy Shockey doing so far?


"With Shockey, we're taking him one practice a day right now and he's picking things up mentally and physically getting into playing shape."

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