Injury Report: "(DE) Victor Abiamiri has a knee sprain, most likely will not play this week. (WR) Kevin Curtis is getting a second opinion on his knee so he will not be out at practice today. (LB) Omar Gaither has a Lisfranc sprain and will have surgery here in this coming week some time. We're setting that up as we speak. (CB) Dimitri Patterson has a quad strain; it will be a struggle to get back for this game. (T) Jason Peters went through the walkthrough and did some things. He has a knee contusion and an ankle sprain; we'll just see how he does as the week goes on. (G/T) Todd Herremans will be back out at practice. He will be working at guard and possibly a little bit at tackle, but the majority of time he'll stay at the guard."
Opening Remarks: "I look forward to the challenge of playing the Redskins. It should be a great environment for a football game, Monday Night game at Washington, NFC East rivals playing each other; you can throw records out and everything else. It should be a very physical game and again we look forward to the challenge."
On whether Gaither's surgery will be season ending: "Yes, most likely it will."
On the challenges facing the linebackers: "We went out and signed (LB) Will Witherspoon. Will brings some experience to that position. He can play both WILL and MIKE linebacker. We can put him in there in the same position that Omar was in. (LB Jeremiah Trotter) will continue get some reps in there and then we have (LB Joe) Mays also as a backup there that can help out when needed."
On the learning curve for Witherspoon: "He just came from St. Louis so he's been running this defense. Are there some new things? Yeah there are some new things. Most of it is the pressure package that we have is a little bit different than what (Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo) is running, but the terminology is the same."
On filling Gaither's spot on the roster: "I'm just going to hang loose with that for a little bit and then we'll see what direction we go with that."
On whether he will put Gaither on Injured Reserve: "We'll see here in the next couple of day."
On whether he made the trade for Witherspoon with the thought that Gaither had a Lisfranc sprain: "I mentioned that he was going for a second opinion, but we felt like that was the direction it was headed. They talk about the separation in the Lisfranc and the stability and all of those things. The second opinion doctor put him under a stress test just to see how wide that gap was."
On how much confidence he has that Witherspoon will be able to start against Washington: "I think he can do that. I have a lot of confidence that he can do that."
On Kevin Curtis' knee: "The pain is not going away, that's the problem. We've done all the MRIs that we can do, every level of MRI so he's going to get a second opinion on it. MRIs don't tell the whole story. He'll get a second opinion and we'll see what that doctor says."
On changes he thinks the Redskins will have with a new play caller: "I worked with (Redskins consultant) Sherm (Lewis) for a long time. Sherm is a sharp guy, as is (Redskins Head Coach) Jim Zorn so they have some sharp offensive minds there. I don't know. I've only heard it through the media that that's what was going on. If that's the direction that they choose to go with Sherm, then he'll do a good job I'm sure."
On whether Witherspoon will make the calls for the defense: "He is able to do that. He'll have all the game plan down by the time we get there. He is sharp guy and he's getting familiar with the defense so he'd be able to do that."
On whether it is more vital for Trotter to progress now given the injuries suffered by the defense: "We'll see how he does here in the next few weeks. He hadn't played football for awhile. We're easing him back in to see how he progresses."
On whether there's any change in preparation after last week: "You always go back to fundamentals and make sure that you have those down. If we were off on some of the fundamentals or as coaches if we were off on the gameplan part of it, then we all go back and do our job a little bit better. But you go back to the basics and make sure that you get those right and that's what we're in the process of doing."
On where Mays fits into the MIKE linebacker spot and whether they thought about having him start in Gaither's absence: "We thought about that. Joe is a young guy so he'll get time here to keep working at that spot and he'll continue to get better with time."
On what has kept Mays from being a starter: "It's probably more of an experience thing than anything right now. Sometimes you take a step back and you can learn a little bit more and continue to progress forward in the future so that's what we did there."
On whether he discusses staying confident with Mays: "He knows that. He's a battler and he knows he's a young guy and he'll have a long career. He just has to keep learning. He had great experience in training camp and that will pay off for him down the road."
On whether he'll add a new WR if Curtis is hurt: "We just have to see what the deal is here with Kevin. We'd probably want one more."
On CB Asante Samuel having so many missed tackles: "He's going to keep working at that and we'll keep working with him as coaches and he'll get better at that part of his game."
On how Gaither is doing mentally: "I haven't spoken to him today but I did speak to him. Omar is a smart guy and he wants to play. It's that simple. He's disappointed obviously. He's been banged up a little bit but he'll get through it. Omar is going to play a long time in this league. He's a good football player, it's just a setback."
On how he envisions the offensive line lining up on Monday night: "Right now Peters at the left tackle spot and Herremans will work in at left guard."
