Q: The way you divvy up snaps in the preseason is always funky with quarterbacks. You have to fight for everything. I'm sure you're very interested to see how they divvy it up, how much Eli needs, and Sage, and you, and whoever.
A: That's one of the other things is just talking to those guys. They didn't really expect to have me. I didn't expect to be here. Even the coaching staff, Sully and Kevin, they're excited to have me here and I'm excited to be here. But, at the same time they have to kind of get well, how are we going to do this? I think we're in the same boat, honestly. It'll be interesting to see, moving on, what goes on.
Q: With the lockout and everything, you're dealing with a lot of guys who haven't been around football for awhile. Does that make it much more difficult for backup quarterbacks?
A: I think it's tough, yeah, to come in and kind of get those guys going. It seems like it's more teaching. At my position, usually, you kind of come and guys have gone through some OTAs. You're not trying to coach them up on the way out of the huddle as much. I'm not saying they don't know their stuff. It's just it's their second day, their third day being out there. It's going to take more for me as far as the coaching aspect. At the same time I'm trying to learn the system again. It's going to take a little bit more, but I'm confident. We'll be fine.
Q: How would you characterize what happened with the 49ers? It seemed like there was a chance there and nothing materialized.A: I kind of knew from the spring that it wasn't going to be a situation where I was going to get to compete for anything. That was kind of frustrating for me all the way back then. This was last spring. This was before the season. As far as how they were giving the reps out and what not. That was the tough part for me. I kind of wanted to come back to New York then.
Q: But they brought you in. What was the understanding when they brought you in?
A: What happened was when the general manager that was there brought me in the understanding was that I was going to compete. Then he ended up getting fired and they brought in a new general manager. They have their own ideas. I kind of just got washed up to the side.
Q: Could you sense that early that you should've stayed where you were?
A: When that happened, yeah. I was like, man, this is not going to be good. So yeah, at that point, you know it's kind of going to be a tough deal.
Q: … They weren't waiting here for you. You must feel very fortunate that you have a do-over here.A: I actually was very happy, especially with the timing of it all – even with all that went on last year, still feeling like I was going to get the chance. And talking to Harbaugh, I think he was straight up with me. He said that anybody that's in camp is going to get the chance to compete for the job. I just happened to not be in camp. The timing of it, I'm glad that this was available because this is something I feel comfortable in and I think I could do well in.
Q: You didn't really miss all that much.
A: Exactly. It's not like they were in OTAs and they were in all the other stuff. We're all kind of doing this together.
Q: There was nothing on the field.A: Exactly. It's a good situation I think; probably the best as far as the timing of it all and what could've happened.
Q: If you go into the new place you have to learn the system; you're going to be behind.A: Yeah, not knowing what's going on, you're already behind. Here, there's nothing like that. I have a little bit of an edge.
