LB Coach Sheridan Speaks At Camp
...posted by Anthony De Rosa...
Giants linebacker coach Bill Sheridan spoke to reporters today at camp. The following is a full transcript of his comments.
Are your guys ready for Thursday?
Yes. Absolutely.
You’ve had a lot of injury issues to deal with during camp. Has that been a little tough?
Yes. Unfortunately, you get kind of used to it. Not just at linebacker, I mean that’s kind of the nature of the league, especially with the numbers being cut back a little bit in camp. We only brought nine linebackers to camp and up until yesterday, we’ve never practiced with nine linebackers. The players have been great about it. They’ve kind of double upped some of their reps, which you don’t like to do, because you get them worn out a bit, but they’re great about it and they know that’s just part of the deal and they just jump in there and take the extra reps. Yeah, you’d love to have the full allotment of three deep. In this time of year, you try and rotate them three deep, but we just haven’t been able to do that. Now, Gerris is back there practicing, which is wonderful, so it should be a little bit better as we move forward.
Anything about Detroit concern you?
No. No. It’s just a preseason game. I’m sure they’re not too concerned about us either. You know, most teams mostly just play their ones in the first quarter and then really you’re looking at your seconds and thirds. You’re trying to find out who is going to make the roster, so I’m not really overly concerned with scheme. We’re going to expose our players to what they’re going to do, and what we think they’re going to do, they have a different staff, you know, offensively, but I’m not overly concerned. Our twos and threes are going to be playing against their twos and threes for the majority of the game, especially in the second half.
Gerris (Wilkinson) just coming back and Danny (Clark) just one a day, does that make the weak side kind of a mystery going forward. Is that hard to evaluate?
Well, I think it’s unsettled, the position. I mean, I think Bryan Kehl has had a really good camp. It’s not beyond thought that he would play. But, yeah, the fact that Danny is only able to go once a day and Gerris is just starting back into it now, it’s an unsettled position for sure. I mean, Danny has run with the ones all camp and that’s good and if he wins the job, that’s great too. It’s not a done, settled decision about whose going to be the starting WILL linebacker and they know that.
How far behind is Wilkinson?
Just from the physical reps standpoint. But he actually has more experience in the defense than Danny because he was here a year ago with Steve (Spagnuolo), when Steve came in, but there’s nothing like getting the practice reps. He looked good yesterday afternoon, and I think he’ll pick it right up, but you just always have a concern about long range health, because he didn’t have surgery and is going to rehab himself through. He’s got some catching up to do from a repetitions standpoint and that’s the best way to learn the stuff and get oiled up.
