With Arrelious Benn healthy, does he give help on special teams that Preston Parker couldn't?
“He’s a functional receiver in all positions and without giving too much away, we’re going to really mix things up as we grow in this offense and there are several different ways to do it. I don’t think we’re married to just what you’ve seen so far as far as distribution of wide receivers.”
There's a lot of different guys in the slot, what is the Bucs' use of slot receivers?
"I think there are several different ways to get to it, to operate out of it and to be married to a certain quote-unquote type of traits, that’s not our offense. It may be some, but it’s not our offense."
Is there anything specific about Preston Parker that made him not fit?
"Nothing really with Preston, just what we think gives us the best chance to win this week. As I said, we have long-term plans. We have a long-term vision of how we want to build a team but then you have to week to week do what you think is best to win right now and we just kind of, as an organization, felt this was the move to do to get us closer to winning."
Does that mean Parker will be back at some point?
"Oh, I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that’s how we make our decisions."
Will Benn be getting more time at WR?
“Arrelious is a receiver that I think can do many things and now that he’s back healthy again and practicing very well and I think played very well, now we’re going to up his repetitions in other things other than what he did Sunday, so that will be good to start getting him more and more work.”
“I don’t know. I think he will, yeah, but I don’t want to sit here and tell you, that’s the way it’s going to unfold. Again, I hope that’s the way it unfolds. Yeah, I hope that’s the way the situation presents itself.”
Would Blount still be considered No. 2 on the depth chart?
“Yeah.”
What is the situation at punt returner this week? Is there any specific player?
“Jordan (Shipley) is a guy, Mac (Brandon McDonald) is a guy, there’s a couple guys that can do it.
Are Jordan Shipley and Tiquan Underwood ready to step in right now and play on Sunday?
“Oh, yeah; I think they’ll be ready to go by Sunday. Will they have the same level of expertise as the guys that have been here? No. But for the things that we’re going to ask them to do, without a doubt they’ll be ready.”
Connor Barth has been so consistent, do you take that for granted?
"I don’t’ ever take it for granted. Maybe some do, but I’ve been there where it’s like kicking it between two toothpicks, so I was just thrilled about the job he’s doing. And it is a weapon. Certainly we want to score by sixes and not threes, but when you don’t score by six it’s nice to get three."
What are your thoughts on Demar Dotson and his story?
"Like you said, here and there there are those stories and the one thing they all have in common is they’re all tremendous athletes. And what they’ve done is they’ve taken that athletic ability and they’ve kind of put it into the game of football and if they have the traits to do that in addition to the athletic ability and can actually do it at a high level. And that’s what describes Dot (Dotson)."
What challenges does Jason Witten pose?
"He’s a really big weapon for them and you watch over time. Romo really really relies on him. That’s one of his guys. He’s going to go to him in the clutch. So we not only have to cover him but when you mix in those other wideouts. You know, if you just had to handle him or him and one other guy, that’s easy. But they have many weapons including two very good running backs. So this is a very very well distributed offense that makes it a challenge to handle everything."
How did you evaluate Benn as a kick returner and him handling his first contact since last year?
"In hindsight I was mad. Probably the first play of his comeback should not have come with the New York Giants screaming at you. So I kick myself in the rear end a little more than usual. But the fact we recovered it was great and then he bangs out a 55-yarder later in the game which is huge. He’s capable of taking it any time. He’s got tremendous speed and the thing I like when he’s returning is he’s strong. There was a one-arm tackle there and he’s running through that thing. When you have the ability to run through the arm tackle and the long speed like he does, you got a chance. And we’re getting better on the kickoff return and we have to continue. Week One I was really disappointed. Week Two I could see a glimmer of light. Hopefully Week Three we've got a chance to continue to improve."
























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September 21, 2012
9:56 pm
September 20, 2012
4:43 pm