Dirk Koetter spoke to the media on Saturday following practice and discussed the team’s day as they get closer to their first preseason game this Thursday at Miami.

(On the team getting ready to play)
“Competition is good, and part of that is the crowd. The way the noise is in here, it gets those guys hyped up a little bit. That part’s all good work, but when you cross the line we’ve got the officials and there was a lot of flags today so it was a good learning experience for Thursday.”

(On Chris Godwin
“Chris is playing really well right now. We look at it like we have four starting receivers. The only guy that hasn’t really been a starter is Chris, the other three have been, and we believe Chris is every bit in that category. He’s a good blocker. He’s as good of a blocker as we have and he’s willing to do the dirty work and that weighs into it as well.”

(On Noah Spence)
“He’s 100 percent healthy as far as his shoulder goes. I think one of the biggest things that will help Noah is that we’re a lot deeper on the defensive line. I think it’ll help all of those guys to play in a rotation and not have to play too many plays in a game. I think Noah will be one of the main beneficiaries of that.”

(On the O-Line)
“I think one of the keys anytime with your O-line is getting guys to play together, and we’re not able to do that right now with injuries. We probably had three of our top seven offensive linemen out today so you’re working with new combinations and that isn’t easy. I think the D-line in 11-on-11 pass rush was getting the best of the O-line today. Today was the first day we’ve worked on silent count and that’s a factor in it too. I don’t think we’ll need silent count during the preseason but we’ll definitely need it in New Orleans. I think the fact that our D-line is getting up the field so fast is going to make those guys better in the long run, but we’re working a lot of combinations and that’s not to the advantage of the O-line.”

(On if O-line injuries will impact Winston Ryan Fitzpatrick play time)
“It won’t change how much we use them. We’ll see about who’s ready to play on Thursday and who isn’t. It’s not going to change how much we play them, but it might dictate the play calls a little bit more, if anything else.”

(On Jameis Winston play time in preseason)
“We’ve got a plan for that. All that really matters is the first game, because even though we have it penciled in for all four games how we’d like to do it, but based on injuries that could change. To go back to what I said the very first day, we want to get Jameis work, we’ve got to get Fitz ready for game one and we’ve got to get Griff ready because he’s one play away from being the starter. You’ll see Thursday night what we’re going to do. We’re going to play all three of them and the tricky part is that you can’t play all three of them with the first team offensive line.”

(On O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate playing together)
“That’s a good problem to have, having talented skill players and that’s obviously something we’re excited about. We’ll see how it all sorts out. Injuries will come into play, chances are, at some point and then it comes down to game plan. How much are you in two tight ends, how much are you in three wides?”

(On the new rules)
“We’ve seen all the videos, we’ve had the officials do their presentation. I only saw one of the calls during the game the other night and the one I saw I thought was a good call. The officiating crew that we had here said that they thought another one of those calls was 50/50 and that not everyone would agree. I think there definitely will be some trial and error as both the officials and players adjust to this rule, but it is a rule now and it’s something that we have to adjust to, just like any other rule. It’s for the players’ own good, it’s for player safety so we just have to adjust and we’ll see how they call it.”

(On Cappa)
“Anybody that gets more reps is going to benefit from them and Alex is one of those guys right now. As far as tackle to guard he’s doing fine. When we drafted him we thought that he could potentially play all three, including center, and if you watch before practice he played some center as well. He’s doing fine, he’s got some things he’s got to work on, but the guys he’s going against are helping him get there faster than he would.”

(On injuries)
“I wouldn’t really characterize it as anything. This is training camp, we’re a month away from playing and you’re not pushing those guys right now. Every guy on the team that’s got something where the doctors feel like he should stay out will stay out.”

(On the long snapper)
“We’re confident in Drew. It’s pretty typical, even if you have two snappers, usually that second snapper is a luxury that is out of camp pretty fast. We have two good backups in Adarius (Taylor) Glanton and Alan Cross. Adarius has done it in a game before but we’re real confident in Drew. He’s going to get his work here in preseason.”

(On the defense)
“I’d say 60/40 for the defense today. The offense was a little better in some periods. It’s hard here because I’m left to determine what’s a sack and what’s not, and the defensive guys think every play is a sack and the offensive guys think it’s never a sack. It’s hard to tell because it’s not real football yet, but I can tell you from standing right behind them, that pass rush is real and that pressure, it’s hard to tell who wins some of those plays but I think the defense is still winning more than they’re losing.”

(On Jason Pierre-Paul inside)
“I think just his length. I don’t think those guards are used to guys that are as long as him. Then, when you watch him on tape, man, is he flexible. And he can bend. That man has some serious flexibility, he’s got power and he’s got speed and then he gets those long arms on those guys and they have trouble getting off.”