Q: How was your first practice back?A: It was good to be out on the field with the guys. I've got a lot of work to do, a lot to catch up on. That's to be expected. A long ways to go before I can help and contribute to this football team, but I'm excited about being on the practice field with my teammates.
Q: Are you looking forward to Sunday?A: Any competitor is always looking forward to an opportunity to compete. So obviously I'm excited about the game on Sunday. I'm excited about this week, the opportunity to prepare to play in a football game. So it's something to look forward to. It's motivation that I haven't had in the past few weeks, so I'm excited about it.
Q: How realistic is Sunday for you?A: It just depends on the coaches' evaluations of my performance out on the practice field, whether I can help the team or not, whether they decide to make their decision. It's totally in their hands. I feel great. My body feels good. I'm healthy, so we'll have to see about that.
Q: Were you farther back than you thought you'd be when you got back on the practice field?A: I don't know. Obviously, there was some rust to be expected. I haven't played football in eight months, since the Super Bowl. This is a highly competitive game. This is football at the highest level, so that's to be expected.
Q: How hard was it to miss out on all this time?A: It's been tough, but I've been trying to keep a positive outlook about it, a positive attitude to help my teammates in any way that I can, help the young guys come along. They're doing a really good job in there, so it's exciting for me to finally be back and to be able to play. So I'm looking forward to that.
Q: Do you think it is possible to get to a point by Friday where you feel like you could play this week?A: Well, obviously, yeah. Obviously, there's still an opportunity there. We have two more install days and three more days of prep before the game, so we have some time in that regard. So we're just going to see how the week goes and I'm sure a decision will be made between now and Sunday.
Q: When you see the defense perform the way it did against San Francisco, does it almost take a little pressure off of you in kind of hurrying back?A: They had a great performance on Sunday, no question about it. What I do is just, in addition to or supplement to what the guys do… We're all confident in each other with our talents and our abilities. So when you have everybody in the fold, when you have everybody able to participate, it can make for something really, really special and I think you saw a glimpse of what we can do this past Sunday and I think we're just going to continue to improve.
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