On how he views the cornerback situation: "I look forward to it every day. I'll tell you what; it's like having two Big Browns in the Kentucky Derby. You've got both those guys out there. I walk out there, I see (CB) Lito (Sheppard), I see (CB) Asante (Samuel), I see (CB) Sheldon (Brown). It's good. Those are good players."

On whether he has curiosity about how it will work out with having three starting cornerbacks: "There are a lot of other things I think about, but there are some things we think about with those corners. Here's the thing: there are going to be times where all three of them are on the field. There is no question about that. It might be 60 percent of the time, it might be 70 percent of the time. We are going to get our best football players on the field. It might not be just against three wideouts, you never know. Like I said, right now it's not a distraction. It's fun to get out there. I look forward to going to practice and seeing Asante out there and Lito out there and Sheldon out there. It's a good thing."

On whether Sheppard can also play on the right side: "He has played the left, except we've also matched him up. He's been both sides. When he went against (Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens) last year, he played the left and the right. He might be a little more comfortable (on the left), but there are times when we have to flop corners when they put two wideouts on the same side. He can play both sides. He's a good enough athlete to play both sides."

On whether Brown is going to be the slot cornerback in the nickel package: "Pretty much so. He's experienced there, he's done it before, and that's our plan right now."

On whether there are any major differences between right and left cornerback: "No, I don't think so. I'm not concerned about that. Asante has been playing all of his career mainly on the left, we have played Lito on the right and left and Sheldon on the left and right. Those two would probably be the ones we flip more than anybody else."

On how much he concerns himself with players' egos: "I feel for all players. All players want to start. They are competitive. Lito is a good person. I'm glad he's here, I think he's handling it well. He's a good player. We brought another good player in; we brought in two good football players in the offseason. We don't know how that scenario is going to be, but of course he wants to play a lot and of course he wants to start. He's handling it pretty well. I know it's tough on him at times, but he doesn't show it in practice. That's the main thing."

On whether Brown's physicality allows him to be able to play inside like a safety: "A nickel cornerback has to be a physical-type cover guy. Even sometimes we have used Sheldon as a safety. We feel comfortable with that a little bit. It's not going to be every down, but it's going to be part of the package."

On being able to use more 3-4 looks: "I think it comes down to our linebackers and our depth at linebacker. How much will we do it? We will do it some. We've done it a little bit before. It's always kind of a mixture for us. We will kind of wait until we see in training camp how it works out. I still like to do that."

On having a lot of players who can play multiple positions on defense: "You have to be (creative) a little bit. Just like (LB) Chris Gocong last year, we were able to take advantage of his pass-rush ability and his drop ability. We drafted (DE) Bryan Smith, we think he could be a guy who can maybe do some things like that. We've got (DE) Chris Clemons, a guy from Oakland who we think can do some of those things too, as a linebacker-type end. That's what you kind of look for. The biggest thing I think we have is we are a faster team. We're trying to get speed on the field. You want to be physical and you want to make sure you have speed. We're still looking for that guy who can be that physical guy who has speed, who can rush the passer, but who can still drop. Those are the things that go into your creative packages."

On what prompted the decision to want to get faster on defense: "I think everybody wants to be quick and have good speed. All of a sudden, you kind of draft certain guys. (DE) Trent Cole, a lighter guy, turned out to be a heck of a pass rusher. We're not modeling everything after Trent Cole, but we saw a couple guys who are very similar to him, who had that kind of speed and that kind of frame, who we think can get bigger. We just didn't go out and look for those types of guys, they were just there a little bit."

On how he goes about figuring out how his defensive plan will work: "There are things that you can do in the offseason. We make a study about what we need to do better. Things like turnovers, how can we get better at turnovers? You might be on the field and see how things were emphasized. I try to go into training camp and have our total package at maybe 90 percent, but trying to experiment a little bit. Some things might work and some things we might throw out, just like we talked about with the 3-4. You can't be the same every year, you just can't. I try to change some things or bring some stuff out we haven't done in the past four or five years."

On whether it has been a fun offseason for him with all of the defensive additions: "Yeah, I think it's been a good offseason. If you get Asante and Chris Clemons, those are two playmakers. I told our defense that we are on a three-game winning streak. We beat Dallas and New Orleans on the road and Buffalo here, and we didn't really lose any players. We picked up some more players and had a good draft with what we wanted draft-wise, so you feel good and you feel positive."

On how the depth this season compares to previous seasons: "At certain positions, I think we have good depth. Our defensive ends, we have very good depth; our corners, we have very good depth. (We have S) Quintin (Mikell), and (S Sean) Considine is coming back healthy. Something could change overnight, all of a sudden we get a few injuries. We're still looking for depth at defensive tackle. There are certain positions, like linebacker, where we want to make sure we have good depth. We drafted a couple young linebackers, we moved a defensive lineman to linebacker in (LB Andy) Studebaker, so we're still looking for some good depth."

On what LB Stewart Bradley brings to the MIKE position: "Size. He's tall, he's big - 245 or 250 - but he's got good height. He's smart; he's picked things up. He did a great job in the offseason, he was here almost every day, learning things, so he's done a good job. He's got good size."

On whether Bradley will be the defensive signal caller next year: "He'll be the signal caller next year."

On when he realized he needed to get Bradley on the field more often: "It's hard for a rookie linebacker, but once we got him on the field, (LB) Omar (Gaither) was making sure of certain things. We didn't throw everything at him right away. We wanted to see how he was going to handle that middle linebacker position. He responded. He had a couple of pressures against the Saints, and all of a sudden got the interception. The thing I never knew when we drafted him as a SAM linebacker, is how good he was going to be inside. He still has a lot to learn, don't get me wrong, but he looks good to me inside. All of a sudden we put him inside in that game and he makes a couple of plays. He'll keep getting better."

On how he feels about his depth at defensive tackle: "I think it has to sort itself out. I don't think there's anything written in stone right now at defensive tackle. We drafted (DT Trevor) Laws from Notre Dame. He's fighting for that rotation and we think he's going to be a good player. It's hard to tell without the pads; I hope he's going to be that third tackle in that rotation. We're still looking for some other depth in there, but it's going to have to sort itself out. It's too early to say right now."

On whether it is possible the player they want to rotate in at defensive tackle is not on the roster right now: "I don't know, I can't say. It's hard for me to evaluate guys without pads in that position. I can see ends, I can see their quickness, I can see the athletic ability outside. But, at tackle, you have to be able to see how physical they are and how they handle certain things. It's a hard thing to evaluate in these camps."

On LB Akeem Jordan: "I see him as the swing guy, I see him as the fourth-best. I see him as the guy who has to learn to play SAM and WILL. I thought he had an excellent year last year, he has helped himself. I see him playing not a whole lot unless somebody gets banged up. He's a swing linebacker right now."

On how much the lack of turnovers last season affected the team's offseason approach: "We did a survey and we all want turnovers. I remember we led the league in turnovers in 1999, but had a 5-11 record. My thing is, we want turnovers, but there are other things we want to be good at too. Last year, we were number one in the NFL in red zone (defense). We were number one as far as giving up touchdowns. Those things are important, but you want to get turnovers. It's a stat you want to get, just to put our offense in a good scoring position. We did some studies to find out what teams are getting turnovers. There is no common thing. All of a sudden, a lot of turnovers were overthrown balls or tipped balls, things like that. All we can do is practice. You'll see at practice more of an emphasis on turnovers."

On what Gaither brings to the weakside linebacker position: "The thing about Omar is that he has a natural feel for this game. We put him outside, he's been there before. He played MIKE last year and picked it up right away. I think he feels comfortable in the position. He's still a playmaker. He probably could play SAM, MIKE, or WILL. He's one of the few linebackers, I think, who could play all three positions. He's a valuable guy for us."

On whether Gaither is more valuable on the weak side: "I think with what we have with Chris (Gocong at SAM) and (Stewart Bradley) at MIKE, yeah I think so. But, if something happened, I wouldn't hesitate putting him back inside."

On how he plans to use the linebackers in the nickel or dime packages: "It's a little early, but I think we'll keep Stewart Bradley in at MIKE linebacker and Omar in there as a WILL linebacker. If we go dime, I have to decide which one to keep in there. Right now, it would either be Stewart or Omar, as far as the linebackers."

On how he feels about rotating the three cornerbacks: "I have no hesitation about that. I just look forward to practice. I look at the film and I see two thoroughbreds out there. That doesn't even bother me."

On Sheppard's attitude: "It's good. I know it's frustrating for Lito. He's a starter, everybody wants to start. He's good. He's been a professional, he's worked hard out there and hopefully it's going to keep up. I think he wants to be here. We are in a little bit of a situation. Maybe it's bad for them, but it's good for me. I like it."