If you make, let's say five yards, defensive coordinators don't want to see a second-and-5. Because now you're sitting there wondering, are they going to run it? Pass it? So the first down kind of sets up what you're going to do, |
in the twilight of his career. He knows that every year he comes back, he's getting closer to not playing anymore. He's had a great career in the National Football League. He's been on one team, caught over 500 passes. He's been a staple here. I think he knows there are only so many years left in him. He's going to play until he can't play anymore. |
It could be more ugly football for us. |
It didn't look good. We are keeping our eyes open with all these guys, but he did have a good workout. |
It is harder for me because we know all the work he has put into it, |
It was important that Mike get to kick those field goals. Our mindset was to get into field-goal position and let him kick some field goals. |
It would be the first time he didn't show up for one since I've been here. The one thing about Curtis Martin, if he doesn't think he can help the football team, he won't do it. If he thinks he can help the football team then he will play. |
It would have been a great story if Brooks had went out there and scored 21 points, ... That would have been great theater. But the reality of that is very difficult, as we know, in this league for any QB when defense is playing good. And the Ravens played well. |
It's a fun time if you have a job. It's not a fun time when you're a guy who doesn't have a job. |
It's a good barometer of where we are as a team. |
It's a performance-based business, and it's hard for a player to all of a sudden think that something he's buying over the counter could be banned and affect his ability to play and get the job done, ... It's up to the individual player to either say, 'You know what? I'm not doing it,' or 'I'm going to take a chance. If they test me, I won't be one of the guys that it shows up on.' |
It's a very slow process. He's just kind of laying low. I've talked to him once, basically when I first got the job. At that point, he anticipated coming back. I don't know where it stands at this point. |
It's always hard to lose good players, he's a Pro Bowl caliber player. He's been a good player here his whole career, ... We're going to miss him, there's no doubt about that. We've lost some players already. I'm not all of a sudden going to make it a gloom and doom situation. |
It's been tough the last couple of weeks, it really has. |
It's easy for a guy to want to come back now. The hard part is when all of a sudden you're packing the truck up and you're getting ready to go to (training camp). We'll see. |