COACHES’ COMMENTS ON THE PRESEASON

Mike Holmgren
On the importance of preseason games:
"The preseason now has taken on a very special meaning because of the new rules and free agency. We have a lot of young people we have to play in those games -- people who are very vital to the team. At the same time, although Brett Favre has been MVP of the league for the past two years, he still has to get ready to play. We use our preseason games to get our football team ready for the regular season. Now with Toronto, we have a fifth game on our preseason schedule and we are very pleased. It’s very important for the development of our football team."

Jimmy Johnson
On the importance of preseason games:
"It’s a good thing we’ve got five preseason games, because we definitely need some work."

Pete Carroll
On shortening the preseason:
"You can just see the play around the league. It’s shabby this time of year compared to what it is by the opener. We’re geared for installing in this fashion right now. I think it’s real important to the quality of our play."

Mike Ditka
On the importance of preseason games in evaluating talent:
"We’re going to play a lot of people. We have to do that because we’ve got to find out who can help us and who can’t. That’s very important."

Mike Nolan, defensive coordinator for Washington Redskins
On the importance of preseason games:
"With free agency, you’ve got to play guys as quickly as you can. It’s like college. You’ve got to have a system in which the language is easy to learn."

Dick Vermeil
On the importance of preseason games in evaluating talent:
"It doesn’t count, but it does matter. It matters to a lot of people, because they’re going to be graded on every snap. And if they fail too many snaps, they’re not going to play in the National Football League. That’s all."

Jim Fassel
On preseason injuries and the preseason schedule:
"I don’t know how you can prevent that from happening, it’s just part of the game. I think the schedule is just right the way it is."

Lindy Infante
On the need for starters to play in preseason games:
"You can’t put those guys in a sterile environment and expect them to be ready when the season starts. If the starters don’t play, they go out in that first ballgame and it’s a shock to their system because they haven’t played at the speed of the game."

Norv Turner
On preseason injuries and the preseason schedule:
"I like it as it is. The key injuries that everyone is talking about happened in the first two games. If you only have two games, they’d still be hurt and now you’d be into the regular season without having two more games to get the next guy ready. I think four games has been excellent. I think it works."

On the importance of preseason games in evaluating talent:
"In a salary cap system with free agency, if you can’t develop young players, then you’re not going to be better. One of the reasons we’ve improved is that we’ve continually developed young players and where you find out about the young players is in the four preseason games."

Tom Coughlin
"You need the games to look at your new players. It is important that you keep the right ones and that you can get some that can play on special teams for you. Some guys look great running down the field in practice on special teams, but in a game, it's a different story. They don't know what they're doing out there. So you just can't make those decisions from practice."