Quick Hits: Eberle's Return, Royce Freeman's Role, Uncertainty vs Jets + More
Comfort with Dennis Daley starting in place of John Miller at RG
"I'm really comfortable with Dennis. We feel like he should be starting. He has a skillset of a starter, he's just had some bumps along the way but now he has his opportunity. When Johnny [Miller] went down against Baltimore, we had Dennis play the whole first half of that game. I think he's got tremendous power, he's got quickness, has length, he should play pretty well."
Who will backup Daley
"In a pinch right now, it would be Deonte [Brown]. Brady [Christensen], Trent [Scott] will have a chance the next couple of days to practice. We'll make a decision but I think right now, it would be Deonte up next unless something changes."
Challenge facing the Jets in week one
"There's just so many unknowns in terms of preparation so what you end up doing is preparing for a lot as opposed to really honing in. I think the biggest thing is we know Coach Saleh is a great coach, we know that Zach [Wilson] is a great quarterback - he's been really impressive in the preseason. I think the focus has to be on us and playing to our standard. Every week you're going to get something thrown at you that you're not prepared for so we have to do a good job of our coaches anticipating and showing as many things as possible. At the same time, our guys have to go back to the old things playing hard, tackling, blocking, making catches, affecting the ball, those are things that win football games."
Alex Erickson's role
"We wanted to bring him in and get him here. He's someone we really liked in free agency and then when things didn't work out, this was an opportunity to get him here. We'll work with him, we'll practice with him. We've heard great things about him. His receiver coach in Cincinnati talked about him really well, so we'll get him here and get him started and see where that leads."
Kick returner
"If we played today, it would be Chuba [Hubbard]."
If Eberle will compete for kicking job
"We liked Eberle when he was here and we thought with COVID, having another leg here would be a smart idea. We liked him. We're going to compete everything out, Ryan [Santoso] has done a really good job so far but we wanted to make sure that we had enough guys here."
Royce Freeman's role
"Just having another veteran presence. We have some really good young backs that we like, Rodney Smith, Spencer Brown, obviously Chuba [Hubbard]. But in terms of that world of two-minute, third down, pass protection, he's been there, done that and I just really liked his tape. We thought it was an opportunity to add a veteran player that could do some of the dirty work and offers a big back presence. We're excited we got him here."
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