Trainer Rick Burkholder
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"I just wanted to talk about Spencer (Ware). In the game the other night he had a knee injury. He has a torn posterior cruciate ligament. With that ligament, often times with rehab, you can play. His issue is that he also has some damage to what's called the posterolateral corner of his knee, which is the outside back portion of his knee which is made up of ligaments and tendons, and he damaged those. At this point in time, our medical staff believes that he needs season-ending surgery to correct that problem. But like with all of these significant injuries we'll exhaust all of our options and look at second opinions and then do what's best for Spencer's knee and his career. We're in that space right now with evaluating what's going on, but our medical staff believes that he needs surgery."
Head Coach Andy Reid
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REID OPENING STATEMENT:"I'll fill you in on a couple of the other things. Jacoby Glenn won't practice today – concussion, still recuperating. Bennie Logan, we're going to back off of him. He's doing okay, he just had that swelling on his knee and we just want to keep that down. He's had some good work over the last couple of weeks. Steven Nelson has been battling through a little bit of a groin, so we're just going to back off of him. He's been a warrior with this thing and pushing through it, so just give that thing a chance to calm down. Ron Parker has a bit of a sprained ankle, it's not too serious so that's a positive, but again he won't practice today. And then Rick (Burkholder) mentioned to you about Spencer (Ware) and that we're going to exhaust all of the different things there in case the final result is the surgery part. With that everybody else will go ahead and go through practice. I'll talk to you about the quarterbacks. You have those guys coming up. We'll go ahead and let Patrick (Mahomes) start this week. Most likely the twos will be taking that group along with him and then Tyler (Bray) will also play. I can't tell you exactly how long I'm going to go with those guys and Joel (Stave) will get into the game also at the quarterback spot. And everybody else kind of follows that as we go. If something changes with that I'll let you know. You guys are going to talk to them (quarterbacks), so you might as well have a heads up."
Q:In terms of the running back position, if you can't get Ware back this year how does it affect you and how do you feel about the guys you have?
REID: "I think we're going to be okay there. Now listen, are you going to replace Spence? No he's a good football player, but the young kid (Kareem Hunt), he'll step in and he'll do a nice job for us, and Charcandrick's (West) got reps under his belt, C.J. (Spiller) has reps under his belt so we're okay. I don't want to take anything away from Spencer and how important he was to our team, but that's a position where we have a little strength, so we should be okay."
Q:Does this mean that Kareem Hunt is going to be the starter going forward?
REID: "Most likely, and again we'll rotate all of them but he'll probably be working with the ones."
Q:What had you seen from Spencer in preseason and training camp?
REID: "He did a nice job. He came back in great shape, was looking forward to having another real good season. Things happen, he knows that at that position, and whatever direction they go, whether he has to have surgery or they find another means he'll be back and going strong after he rehabs and goes through that. But he'd be the first one to tell you he's wishing the other guys good luck and go do a nice job for him."
Q:How's Kareem progressed so far in your opinion, when it comes to pass protection and everything else that he's going to need to do?
REID: "You know what, I would tell you that probably the last two weeks of camp I really thought he had picked it up. That last week, maybe week-and-a-half that we were up at St. Joe, I thought he was really getting a pretty good grasp of it. And then he's had a couple of pick-ups in these games which is going to improve that. Listen, these are teams that are being fairly vanilla right now so you're going to see it firsthand once we start getting into the season with teams being a little bit more creative."
Q:Short yardage and goal line, is that where you are going to feel that loss of Spencer Ware the most?
REID:"He sure was good at that. The other guys will have to step into that role. We just don't have as many snaps of those guys in that situation. I think they are capable of doing it. But, that was one of Spencer's strengths, yeah."
Q:Is it safe to say C.J. Spiller is on the team now that Spencer is out for the year?
REID:"What I think we have to do is see how it all works out. Right now, yeah, I would tell you today. We haven't even gotten that far yet. I'm not exactly sure who is on and who is off or not. He has done a nice job, that part I can tell you."
Q: How is Terrance Mitchell doing?
REID:"He is doing well on the rehab part. There is a chance he takes a few snaps at practice just to see where we are at. Probably won't play in the game, but he will start easing back into practice."
Q:Are you thinking sooner rather than later?
REID:"Yeah, I think he is heading in the right direction. We just are taking the steps on that, he had a pretty good tweak there."
Q:How do you think your first stringers did on both sides of the ball?
REID:"I thought the first group came out and played physical football. I mentioned the drops to you before. I will tell you the same thing, you can't have those. The positives were the run game, some of the fits we had with the front. We moved the ball well. Defensively, we were physical in the run game and we had an opportunity for an interception there that ended in points. But we were in position to do that. My money would be on 23 (Phillip Gaines) that that happens nine out of 10 times that he is going to make that play. Most of all, for him, it is great to get him back in the swing of things and seeing him compete. Last week, he was that close and this week he gets his hands on the ball and so on. So you've seen him progressing, which is going to help our team."
Q:How is Justin (Houston) feeling? I know he was sick.
REID:"We've had a little bit of this going around here. With TK (Tanoh Kpassagnon), he had the same thing. We've had a couple guys that are feeling a little bit queasy in the stomach, so hopefully we nail this. But those guys are doing better. We have a couple other guys trying to shake it off a little bit."
Q:At the top of the depth chart, are you pretty much settled everywhere?
REID:"Is there room for guys to still make it? Yeah, there are. That first group we feel pretty good about. For the most part, yeah."
Q:So Bryan Witzmann will be your left guard?
REID:"We will see how all that shakes out here. But right now, we have both he and Zach (Fulton) and we feel good with that. With both those guys, they have given us good work. We are very comfortable with both those two there."
Q:What about* *Ramik Wilson?
REID:"Yeah, I think Ramik had a really good camp. He is playing really good football right now."
Q:I was going to ask you about Zach Fulton and how versatile he has been for you.
REID:"He has been great that way. Zach, he just comes to work, that whole lunch pail thing. He comes with that lunch pail. He goes to work, he plays anything. Everybody has confidence in him and he is a good football player."
Q:Is Mahomes going to be your No. 2 quarterback going into the regular season?
REID:"Yeah, I would tell you that today, but we will see how everything goes. But, yeah, today I would tell you that. He has earned the right to do that."
