On WR Jeremy Maclin's progression in punt returns: "It's a process with him; he's a rookie. He wants to make plays and do something productive to help the team. He's been back there a couple of times. The one play he had right before the half, I would have preferred that he just fair caught that ball and we've talked about it. Every situation for a rookie is a learning experience and he'll get better as he goes along."
On balancing Maclin's youth with his excitement on special teams: "It's a process. You learn by experience and the more he's back there, the more he's put in those situations, the better decisions he'll make, as all young returners go through things. They want to make a play; they think they can make a play every time they touch the ball. But they have to know the situation; they have to know the time and the place, and he'll get better as he goes along."
On self-scouting during the bye week: "You always want to do that, you want to look at yourself because you know your opponents are doing just that. They're trying to find a weakness, something you're doing that you need to improve on and you do that every week after every game. You always want to analyze the things that you're doing well, the things that you're not doing well, and go about correcting those things."
On the cover teams: "I thought we made some progress in the Kansas City game, as far as our lanes and discipline; we're getting better. Our kickoff team, in particular, did a much better job as far as guys getting down the field and being productive, using their hands, getting off blocks. I thought that was better. Our punt, we're still a work in progress, but we're getting better."
On the importance of getting CB Dimitri Patterson back: "It's very important. Dimitri is productive player. He has good speed, he's tough, he's a good hard-nose guy and he has experience and he'll help us."
On whether he expects LB Jeremiah Trotter to play any special teams: "When I was here in the past, Jeremiah played some special teams for us and did a great job. I know he is still capable. I don't know if that's in the plan right now. They're going over his role on defense and I think that will have a lot to do with whether or not he is going to be available."
On whether activating three quarterbacks has any effect on special teams: "(Head coach) Andy (Reid) does a good job of communicating with me throughout the week of what he's thinking, so I can prepare as the week goes along. It's not so much as whether it's three quarterbacks or what positions, it's how many guys are available that I can use and he does a great job of explaining to me early in the week so I can practice those guys and have them ready for Sunday."
On the typical number of players available to him on Sunday for special teams: "It varies from team to team. I've been on three different teams and each team has been different. It's really based upon the offense and defensive plan. What they need to have for our offense and defense to function and then I have to make it work. They always give me enough players that you have guys available to get the job done."
On the greatest improvement among the four areas of special teams: "Honestly, I think it's our field goal protection. I thought we started out very shaky there early in the year and the guys have worked hard the last couple of weeks and we've gotten that shaped up. We'll be challenged this week because they rush very hard but I think that group has made the most improvement."
On WR DeSean Jackson backing off of more punts in the game against the Chiefs: "To understand that, the punter from Kansas City, (P Dustin) Colquitt, is excellent at hanging the ball up and he's left footed. The spin is opposite, so it creates some problems catching the ball. I coached against him when I was at Oakland and he was at Kansas City and he gives your returners trouble catching the ball. You always want to err on the side of caution. The most important thing when they punt the ball is that our offense is able to jog out onto the field and take the possession. We'd like to catch every one, but I thought he made some good decisions because he would have put himself in position to maybe fumble a ball and we can't have that."
On working with P Sav Rocca on shortening the distance he drops the ball to punt: "Unless you've punted or kicked in the wind, in the rain, in the weather conditions that come up later in the year, the only way you learn is by experience. I wasn't here a year ago, but I was told he struggled quite a bit in the wind. We had a nice windy day yesterday and he had a chance to work on it. There are some things you can do to help yourself to be more consistent hitting the ball solid and he's worked on it and he's improving at those things."
On whether he knows now whether three quarterbacks will be activated for Sunday: "That's Andy call and he'll let me know. Really it's not going to have any effect, how many quarterbacks are up really doesn't affect how many guys I am going to have available on special teams. They'll have so many on offense, so many on defense, whether that's an extra quarterback or one less receiver or one less running back, Andy will decide that and we'll just go from there."
