Transcripts of DC Joe Barry, OC Jim Colletto and GM Matt Millen From Lions Practice Today

LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOE BARRY
On whether it will be weird to see former Lions DT Shaun Rogers as an opponent: "No."

On what he has seen from CB Leigh Bodden, who was traded for Rogers: "We're excited about Leigh Bodden. I think we got a heck of a football player with him, and he's come in, he's fit right in. I think of all the DBs that we signed, Leigh was the one guy that, at least early on, didn't have any familiarity in the system, in our package. But gosh dang, I think it was awesome that he was here all offseason. He's gelling with the group, and he's fit right in, and he's making plays in practice. We got a really, really quality football player in Leigh Bodden."

On whether Bodden is a starter: "I look at it that we have three starting corners. That's the way I viewed it. Now, in certain packages in base defense when only two corners trot out there, obviously Brian (Kelly) and Travis Fisher are our starters, but I've considered Leigh a starter since we've gotten him."

On how much difference he's seen in the secondary through the first month: "I'm excited. I get a smile on my face when I think about it. Obviously we revamped that whole group, and we revamped it with good football players, A, and also B, players that for the most part, like I said besides Leigh, had great familiarity in this package and in this system. Then you look at guys that are still here from last year, now they're going into they're second year. Gerald Alexander's going into his second year. Daniel Bullocks, even though he was banged up last year, he's going into the second year of the system and adding (Secondary Coach) Jimmy Lake. When you look at everything - the players that we've added, the dynamics of the room - it's been great.

On how S Daniel Bullocks looks now after being injured for almost a year: "Yeah. We've kind of spoon fed him along. We had him on the PUP for however many days. And last week we kind of put him in and just gave him a limited role, and we increased it every day. (We) held him out of the preseason game against Cincinnati and then we've increased that role this week. So not quite sure if we're ready to say that he's going to play or not this week, but he finally got the stickers on his helmet so he looks like he's one of the team. He's out there and he's gotten the full clearance to go, so it's just, I've made the statement before: last year when he got hurt he was well on his way to being a really, really, really, really good football player. And I hope that he can get back to that form because he's a great kid, a great football player and he's worked his butt off to get back to where he's at."

On the players who must fill in the gap after DT Shaun Rogers' departure: "Well, Shaun's an outstanding football player, there's no doubt about it. His ability, his size and his athleticism for a guy that big is special. We lost a big part of the middle, the interior of our defense when we lost him. But we replaced him with some guys that we think are pretty darn good football players in their own way - Chuck Darby being one. Shaun Cody's healthy, Langston Moore, those are guys that have to step up and make the plays that people around Detroit got accustomed to Shaun making. Those guys have to step up and make those plays."

On CB Brian Kelly's playmaking abilities: "Brian, I've been fortunate enough to be around him. I've been around Brian Kelly since he's been a freshman in college. I was a graduate assistant at USC when he came in, so I've been around the kid since he's been 18 years old. Even when he was a young kid at that age, there was just something different about him. He's always been a no-nonsense guy. He's always been a very detailed guy. He's always been a guy that hadn't said a lot, just went about his business. He's obviously improved on that over his career in the NFL. He's a professional, he's a technician, he's going to do everything right. When you're a technician and you do everything by the book, you're usually going to be in pretty good position all the time. As a corner, that's important. Now, the key is that you have got to make plays. It's one thing to be in position; it's another thing to be in position to make plays. Brian's been able to do that throughout his whole career."

On what Kelly brings to his defense and the team as a whole: "I'm excited, and Brian Kelly's an outstanding football player, he's an outstanding teammate, he's been great in our locker room for us. He puts his arm around the young guys and helps them. Anytime a young guy comes up to me and asks, 'Coach, how do I act in a meeting, what do I do in individual?'- I'll say, 'Watch Brian Kelly.' If you're a young guy and you want to know how to be a pro, watch Brian Kelly."

On how much he expects his starters to play in the upcoming game against the Browns: "We haven't put an exact number count on it. We haven't said that they're going to play a half. All I will say is that they played about 12 plays the first game. We increased it to about 18 plays the second game. It will be more in this game. We're going talk about that tonight and tomorrow morning and we'll decide. But it's going to be much more than what they played in the first two."

On if he is concerned about players getting injured in preseason games: "I mean, you can't live life like that. I could walk outside, get hit by a car and get injured. Injuries unfortunately do happen and we're not thinking that, or hoping that, obviously. Guys are going to go out and play hard and play fast and hopefully that doesn't happen."

On the success of the pass rush against the Bengals and what that means to the defense to keep pressure on the QB in upcoming games: "I think any system of football that you play, defensive football, there's a lot that goes into pressure on the quarterback. If you can create four-man pressure without blitzing and things, it's going to help you. It's no secret, I've referred to it many times, that our D-line is the pistons that drive this engine. They've got to be able to create pressure. They've got to be able to win one-on-one battles in the pass rush game. It was good to see. We did it last week, but that's over, we've got to do it again this week. To answer your question, if we can consistently get that, it's going to pay dividends for us down the road."

On if he relies on players' performances in preseason games to make roster decisions: "We put everything into play. Obviously, we put a lot of stock into the way we practice and the way we prepare. You find out a lot about a player during two-a-days. Ultimately, guys are going to make this team based on what they do in the preseason games. We've tried to be pretty fair, especially with the battles; we've tried to give guys equal reps because, yeah, it is important. We want to see what a guy does when the lights are on, when it's live bullets and when it matters - when they do have to actually tackle a guy and get him down. Preseason games play a huge role in determining who is going to make this football team."

LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM COLLETTO
On whether this week's game will resemble typical third preseason games: "No, not really. We're not going to change what we're doing. We're going to play the first group a little more, but injuries are such a significant part in these preseason games we can't afford to get anybody hurt. We're going to take a gamble and play a little bit more. They played only 10-12 snaps; they'll probably play 20. But normally the rule of thumb is play a whole half and start into the third quarter. We're not going to do that."

On whether the starters will at least play the entire first half: "I don't know. We're going to see how it goes."

"It gets up to 20, 25 plays - you see what happened to Chad Johnson happened right in the first series of the game. I mean, you just don't know. So if we get through 20, 25 plays and everybody is doing okay, regardless of what's going on, they're coming out."

On weighing being cautious against getting to execute things that aren't done in practice: "Well, the linemen, they get enough of that. I don't worry about that so much. Linemen - knock on wood - tend to get hurt less, but you just never can count on that. But then 20 plays will give them enough."

On the competition for roster spots among the various positions: "A lot of spots. Receiver: the fifth position; there's a lot going on the line. I know some guys will start and then others are battling to find out who they're going to be. Really that's another reason why a lot of guys are going to play a lot of time in that game again because you have to find out who can do it."

On the likelihood of keeping nine offensive linemen: "I don't know what Rod (Marinelli) wants to do, but generally it's been about nine. But you only play with seven, but it's usually been about nine."

On how much positional flexibility will factor in: "Real big. You have to have a tackle who can play both sides, and you have to have a guard that can play center and a center who can play guard. And that one guy's got to be all three."

On what WR John Standeford has shown in the first two preseason games: "He's done a good job. Being an old Purdue guy, I have an allegiance to Purdue guys, but no, he's done real well. He's a good blocker and he's run routes well and he's played well in the games."

On how much of a difference he sees compared to a year ago: "Well, not a lot. The thing that's happened this preseason, we've had such combinations of players if you looked at who played in each quarter, you don't have a lot of continuity. But the biggest change is the good guys play the good guys on Sept. 9. And the push doesn't happen as early in a game as you'd like it to. It usually develops later on. But we ran the ball a little better against Cincinnati, but with all the different players in there the continuity isn't there right now. But I think that'll take care of itself."

On rookie RB Kevin Smith's development: "Kevin's doing a good job. He made a real nice run the other night and those are the kind of runs you're looking for. He's real good in pass protection. He's smart. He doesn't get intimidated by the atmosphere and that's good in itself."

On the possibility of using two running backs in the regular season: "Well right now we might end up using two of them a lot or maybe three. All of those guys have different things that they bring and keeping them healthy will be important. We just kind of have to see how that goes. I don't have any hard, fast rule right now what's going to happen."

"We have to sit down and figure out who's going to play all through the four quarters and they'll all play again."

On how new TE Michael Gaines is fitting in: "Well Michael has got the kind of skills to be kind of a half-wide receiver, he's a good blocker and he can do a lot of motions and be a blocker out of the backfield. He has a lot of potential to add to the offense to make it difficult to know what we're doing from snap to snap. Now he's got to figure out what he's doing from snap to snap."

On how much of a test former Lions DT Shaun Rogers will be for the offensive linemen: "Well we're putting rubber suits on (Dominic) Raiola and we're pumping him up to make him look a lot bigger, but no, we don't do anything. I could say we'll go try to cut him on the ground every down, but we're not going to do that."

On how facing a player like Rogers is good look for the coaches: "Yeah, he's about as big a defensive nose tackle as you'll see in this league, and we'll see if we can try to make him run sideline to sideline."

LIONS PRESIDENT AND CEO MATT MILLEN
On his reaction to the death of Gene Upshaw: "I was shocked. I think we all were. I couldn't believe it. We heard it this morning early; and I tried to call a bunch of people - I tried to call some on the West coast, which wasn't real good at four o'clock in the morning. Everybody had the same reaction. Nobody knew; it just caught everybody by surprise. It's a shame."

On having known Upshaw a long time: "Oh yeah. Gene was the one who took me in my rookie year. He and Art Shell - as soon as I showed up they grabbed me and pulled me in and he's been a friend ever since. That's a shame. He was so good for football.Â When you think about it, I can't think of anybody who's had as big of an impact both on and off the field in the National Football League. He's been a huge figure since 1967 when he showed up. He's had a big impact on the game and he's had a big impact on a lot of players - they (young players) don't even know. There's a lot of guys who have no idea all of the stuff, all the sacrifices, all the foundational work, all this stuff has been done that he's been behind."

On Upshaw's legacy: "From the outside, people will probably look at the last works; being able to get all of the work done with the union. For me, it's what he did in our locker room. It's what kind of a player he was is the legacy that he passed on. All too often, when you start talking about those old Raider teams, everybody just thinks they were a bunch of nuts who just happened to play well together. But Gene played the same way he was as an executive with the Players Association because Gene was very clever. He was a clever player. He was physically gifted and talented but mentally he was a notch above because Gene would always use you against you. And that was same thing and the same way he operated as an executive.

"I've always said this - we used to joke all the time about Gene that he was 'dumb like a fox.' You could say whatever you wanted to say and in the end it ended up going his way. You'd (ask yourself), 'How did he do that?' When I think about Gene, I'll think about all of the things in our locker room: how things went smoothly, how practice went well all the time, how he played at a high level continually and he had a lot to do with all of that. I think he was the (team) captain forever."

On how Upshaw's death will affect NFLPA negotiations with the NFL: "I haven't even thought much about that. The loss of Gene for me is way bigger than what kind of CBA comes out. That will take care of itself."

On whether he and fellow teammates envisioned Upshaw eventually emerging as political figure: "Oh, we called him 'The Governor;' we called him 'The Governor' when he was a player. That's what he was. He was one of those guys who conducted himself that way and saw himself that way and everybody else saw him that way. It was no surprise that he did what he did. He was a gifted guy, at the right time and right place and above all else, Gene Upshaw loved our game. It didn't matter about winning; it mattered about getting the thing right.

"To me, that piece can't be replaced. The passion that the guy had for the game that he played for a long time, that's irreplaceable. That's going to be missed."

On Upshaw being a giant in the players' labor movement and the controversial nature of that: "Well, as far as the controversy goes, anybody in that position, anybody in any position of leadership, is going to have controversy. They have to. You can't like everything all of the time. It can't happen. All I know is that from a player standpoint, when he first got into it, the foundation was being set for what was to come. And what had come from those early years and the work that they were doing, all came to fruition and every player in this league has benefitted from that. It's easy to say that Gene wasn't doing a lot for the guys who had retired but even the guys who retired, it's gotten better since he's been in than when (we) left. You can look at that body of work that he has since he played - I mean, look at the body of work that he had from when he played and he's in the Hall of Fame. You look at the body of work since he's played and its Hall of Fame material too. You're going to get a fight from me for anybody who wants to dog the guy because I think the guy did a fantastic job."

On whether he has a favorite story about Upshaw as a player: "When I think of Gene, what I'll always remember is how - I have no idea to this day how it happened - he put a chew in before the game, he would stick it in his left (cheek) and he never spit the whole game. To this day, I don't understand that. That just blows my mind. I don't know how he did it. It's what he did."

On how Upshaw's absence will impact the NFLPA: "It's going to be huge void. I don't know if you can replicate what Gene brought to the table."