* On improving next season with the return of injured players: “We should be if anything maybe improved next year. Now, that doesn’t guarantee anything. Every year is a new season and every team has its own journey and writes its own story. But we should have the vast majority of those injured guys back and that will help greatly. And, of course, the fellows who have played in their stead will also be in good shape. Anticipating what might be a question from some people, Bob would not be ready to play now. He has been away too long and there would be too much of a conditioning issue to put him out there now. He may be healed from the surgery well enough where you might take a chance, but the conditioning level is too low. You can’t be away from football virtually for a year and then come back. That’s very difficult. That was the reason we put him on injured reserve. It was just about this time when he would have healed up, but no one anticipates you’ll go this far, No. 1, and No. 2, his having been out all of that time, timing and issues like that would have come into play. You don’t want to put a player out there who is not 100 percent and ready to go. That’s why we have training camp. Even if he healed this week, he would still probably need two or three more weeks to get conditioned and ready to play football. That’s the reason we put him on injured reserve – (linebacker) Tyjuan (Hagler) is in the same exact boat. (Cornerback) Marlin (Jackson) will be a long time yet before he’s ready to go back on the field yet – probably next summer. Anthony is going to require a little more time. I don’t think we were premature in making those injured reserve moves.”
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