OPENING STATEMENT:"Injuries: Eric Berry will not practice today, he is making progress. As is Jamaal (Charles), they both spent a lot of time here yesterday getting work done. But neither one will practice today and then we will just see how it goes the rest of this week. De'Anthony Thomas will practice today and he'll be full and do his thing. We will ease him in, but he's healthy and ready to go. We look forward to the challenge of playing the Dolphins; we know they are a good football team. We saw how they performed the last couple weeks, they've played some good football teams the last couple weeks and done well. Our guys will get out here, practice hard and get themselves ready to play."
Q: What do you think about the image of the NFL right now?
REID:"I think if we can just say this has enlighten us on the issue, if we can come out saying that, because I think this a part of life today. Not that it hasn't been in the past, I think it's been here a while. But if it can help make things better, which I think it will, overall I think that's what we are all striving for right now. In particular the domestic abuse and child abuse situations. I think it can end up being a positive for society and for the National Football League. I'm glad it's being addressed. I think positive things can happen."
Q: Do you think it's being addressed properly?
REID:"I'm not here to judge that other than I think eyes are opened. Somebody asked me about Michael Vick and I mentioned his situation. The one thing that I think is positive about Michael's situation is it enlightened people on dog fighting, so then action took place. So I've been involved in the domestic abuse part of this for many years through our charity, Laurel House, so I'm familiar with it. I've seen both sides and talked to people from both sides of it. It needs to come to the front and I'm glad to see that it is from that standpoint."
Q: Do you think that because the league is so popular and so many people watch it that the NFL has a responsibility to be proactive about issues like this?
REID:"I think they are proactive. They are out there and doing things and players are talked to all the time about these things. For the most part the guys are doing a good job with it. I think the NFL is a strong organization and I think they probably feel the same way that if this can help, that's what we are all looking for. We are in the fix-it business as coaches, so if you can help make somebody a better person and make the world a little bit better, amen to that."
Q: Is this something you have to address with your players?
REID:"Well I make sure we keep it open. I've always done that with the players, I talk to them about any situation that's out there. We normally hit these things before they happen and talk about it in the offseason and so on. B.J. (Stabler) does a good job at doing his job and keeping players aware of things too. We try to keep communication open."
Q: Laurel House in Philadelphia?
REID:"Yes."
Q: Were you active with that?
REID:"Yes, very active."
Q: You've said a couple times that it is your job to get your team in the right position. How much responsibility falls on Alex Smith when you're in the wrong position, to get you out of it?
REID:"He does a good job at that. I think you see that on the field. Alex is surrounded by some really good young players. The coaches aren't on the field so you need somebody who has a real grasp of everything, that's one of his real strengths. He is that on the field. And he gets people lined up if they have a little bit of a slip and he fixes issues."
Q: You have had so many different people come through here at the safety position. How has Ron Parker ascended above everyone?
REID:"He'd been working in there at certain packages right from the get go even in the OTAs. It wasn't that he wasn't familiar. We asked him to do both throughout here and that's the kind of player he is. I mean, he's a gifted guy. When this happened that was an easy move I think for Bob (Sutton) to put him in there and he did a pretty nice job for us there."
Q: You were talking about Alex earlier. How much of what you need from him changes?
REID: "Really not too much. You saw what Knile did. I don't want to take away any of the effort that Knile put forth. He's got a big responsibility each week, Alex does. I don't think there was too much change there what you saw this past week."
Q: Do you think Knile Davis is ready for that type of responsibility?
REID: "If it's work ethic that determines that and want to, I would tell you yes. Nobody has spent more time in the offseason than him working in the weight room, working on scheme and learning. He's a mature second-year player. He's worked on his pass game on catching the football, pass protection all these things that you need to be an all-around back. I think everybody has confidence that he can step in and do a good job there."
Q: Do you see a lot when a guy takes on such a big role? Does that carry a lot of weight with you that he can be ready and also come in and be effective right away?
REID: "Yeah. You've got to tip your hat to him for that. That's a hard thing to do. Anytime you're a relief pitcher and whatever position it is in this league, that's a tough assignment. You're not going to get all the reps, I know Alex mentioned that to you, but you're not going to get all the reps during the week so you've got to take some mental reps there and make sure you stay in tune with certain things and he's done that."
Q: Is there an assertive effort to get Dwayne Bowe more involved in the offense?
REID: "He had some pretty good plays there and then a few of them were covered. A few of them they just happened to be in the right defense, some of those double slant routes were his call and they rolled to it, but he had a pretty extensive package last week. We made sure we rotated him so we could make sure he got back in the flow, but he's always got a pretty healthy load in the game plan."
Q: You and Joe Philbin share such a background with your boys.
REID: "Yeah, we have talked. Our wives have talked. We talked. Yeah, Yeah. He's a good man. Joe Philbin is a good man."
Q: How do you approach this week and make sure the team has the same energy level, focus and execution?
REID: "I think you just get rid of the clutter and you concentrate on what's real and that's that we're playing a good football team. You have to come out here and you have to go through the process right? You've got to practice and you take each play and you go and you try to master that play and then go do your job. Go down and play a good, solid football."
Q: Are there some things that Knile does differently that you can take advantage of?
REID: "Yeah, but I can't tell you that. Yeah, there are certain things that he does very well. Everybody's different so as a coach you try to play off the players strengths and put them in a position that they can have success. To answer, yes. There are things."
Q: You guys do not have a lot of big receivers. Do you look to Travis Kelce to sort of fill that role especially down in the red zone when your options are limited?
REID: "Well we asked him to do that in Denver a little bit with our third downs and then we flex him out there a little bit too. He can do that. He feels comfortable doing that. I would probably say yes."
