HEAD COACH TOM COUGHLIN
RE: FIRST PRESEASON GAME...
First preseason game, the starters will play 15 to 18 maybe. The seconds will play about 20-25 and then we'll let the thirds play anywhere from the end of the third on or maybe the top of the fourth. There are a considerable number of guys that are not going to play. There are probably eleven that are not going to play and you know who they are; the PUPs and the guys who are really not practicing. The rest of them will have an opportunity to play. The objctive is always to win but it's all about personnel. We'll play them just exactly the way that I've talked about it. I will not sacrifice that part of it. Hopefully we're good enough and deep enough that the guys will get in the game and respond and enjoy themselves. I want them to play hard and give us a chance to do some evaluating and trying to figure out how people fit.
Q: Are you considering giving Marvin Austin more snaps?
A: Not necessarily.
Q: How important are these preseason games since you guys are only going once a day?
A: Well they're an opportunity to tackle and have total physical contact, which we need. I was asked the other day by one of the writers about maybe if you tackled in camp; they were trying to determine the direction the game was headed in. We never tackled in camp. I don't know if some people have scrimmages, I think we have four scrimmages. That's what we do with our preseason games. It is very important to us. We do need the work. We will, of course, build their playtime up as we go along, but we have a most unusual start to our season in terms of the Wednesday, Sunday, Thursday concept of the first few games. Hopefully we will get our work here done in the preseason, build up, get everybody an opportunity, see how our team fits together, do a good job of how these kids will all be put together to the best of our team with special teams being a major consideration and we'll go from there.
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TE COACH MICHAEL POPE
Q: When you arrived at camp, the tight end situation was one of the question marks. Are there any answers yet?
A: Seems like that has been the case for a number of years because of the migration of players. We do have more new faces now then maybe we ever have. It's very rare to lose two players in one game at the end of the season like we did, so we've been trying very hard to replace those guys with athletes and I think we've been able to do that. The thing you don't replace is the experience and the amount of playing time, and the rules and regulations that we're playing by now disallow us as many opportunities as we might have had in the past. We're just learning as fast as we can to catch up.
Q: Actually Bear was the only one who had any experience with the system coming in.
A: With this system, that's correct. Beckum had played quite a bit, but of course he's probably not going to be able to start the season with us. Bear is like the lone wolf like he was a couple of years ago when we were here and he was the only one standing if you can think back to that time because he's a tough cowboy. Hopefully he can continue to be that.
Q: You've dealt with a lot of different personalities, a lot of different shapes and sizes.
A: That's what they say about me.
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DE JUSTIN TUCK
RE: Being included in conversation of all-time great Giants defensive players…
A: If I can be in that conversation, sure I would love that. No question. But that's not why you play the game. I never said to myself… L.T. and Michael Strahan – I want to be in that category. I always say I want to go out on the football field and win football games. You never allow yourself to even think about that fact because to me, those guys are like football guys and I'm kind of like a peasant.
Q: Do you think legacies are defined solely by championships?
A: Not solely. I think that boosts it. That definitely gives it a huge boost. I don't think it's solely.
Q: Was it good seeing Terrell back?
A: Absolutely.
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QB DAVID CARR
Q: You don't feel like you're not getting enough attention for a backup quarterback around here?
A: I guess in this area you kind of feel that way, right? Maybe a little bit, but we're fine with the attention that we have.
Q: Is it hard to not notice what the difference is as far as the two backup quarterbacks in New York?
A: Yeah it's kind of funny how a guy with two Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVPs is the third- or fourth-most popular quarterback. Eli and I just brush it off, you know how he is, but we kind of like it that way. We relish the underdog role. We go out in the morning and do our work. We show up and study like we're first-year guys and we go about our business the same way. We try to get our guys better and then see what happens in the game. We don't really get caught up in all the other stuff.
Q: Does it almost play into your hands? You guys prefer to not necessarily be the newsmakers, do you like the fact that a lot of people are focusing on the other New York team?
A: Yeah it's crazy that the defending Super Bowl champs don't really have a lot of pressure on them. It's weird to say that but we don't get much attention. Like I said, that's our personality… All the other stuff is great for other teams but we kind of relish the role we're in.
