A lot of players that were there for the Falcons [last year] are people that we were responsible for bringing in, |
Back then, you didn't have the quarterback-coach communication (through the speaker system in the helmet), |
because of what happened to us last year. |
Everybody has high expectations for a first pick. Everybody thinks that the guy is going to walk out there and be a superstar, and it just doesn't work that way. But a lot more do end up playing for a long time and getting the job done than those who fail. |
He wants to be called Mike, I'm really pleased with Mike. |
He was so much more confident then. That's when we knew we had something special. |
He wouldn't talk to anyone, including me. It was terrible. So I quit. |
He's had a lot of progress the last three or four days. |
He's not really had a chance. I know he has the ability, or I wouldn't put him in there. I'm not throwing him to the wolves. I want to give him a chance and see how he does. |
I do think Kurt deserves the right to see what he can do. Our room for error is not very good. We can't afford to have the interceptions and those kinds of things. |
I mean, the play comes from me, then I give it to somebody else, who gives it to John, who gives it to the team. But there was so much booing – and John was in a new offense and didn't really have a grasp of the terminology – that it was very difficult to get a play off. It was just awful. It was so loud – you can't believe it. It was just a miserable situation. |
I thought he did a better job than [it appeared] standing on the sidelines looking at it, ... He missed some targets, but I think three games should give us a good evaluation to see exactly where he is. |
I've never seen anything like it. I had no idea it could be that bad. I wasn't sure why he didn't want to play in Baltimore, but the people took it personally. I've never seen a player get booed non-stop in pregame warmups. It was brutal. |
If I had it to do over again, |
It was tough because they were booing when we were in the huddle and guys had difficulty hearing. And, to add to that, John had to get the plays off without taking penalties. Like I said, I didn't prepare him because I had no idea it would be like that. |