Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(opening statement) “The guys that did not practice today were Arian (Foster), Ben Tate and Wade Smith. Other than that, everybody was back to work. Obviously, (Brian) Cushing (is on injured reserve).”
(on the quarterback situation) “Case (Keenum) will start this week. Actually, I talked to Case and Matt (Schaub), I think, Tuesday before I gave them their break and talked to the team this morning. But Case will start and hopefully we’ll grow from last week. I thought he did some really good things. I thought we played some clean football and we’re going to have to do that here down the road to improve. That’s the way we started working today.”
(on if QB Case Keenum is the starting quarterback for the rest of the season) “No, there’s no decisions made for this season. We’ll keep going.
It’s the decision I made for this week. Matt (Schaub) will back up Case. Matt’s back to work today, first time on the practice field really doing any football stuff since his injury. We’ll get him prepared to play.”
(on if starting QB Case Keenum is based on QB Matt Schaub’s health) “No, Matt’s fine. Matt’s fine and it’s just the decision I made based on what I saw take place last week with Case and him taking advantage of an opportunity and I want to see him move forward. He’s got to improve. He’s definitely got to go and improve. With this football team we’re playing, our football team’s got to improve around him. Like I said, a decision for this week.”
(on how worried he is about the running back situation) “On a scale of what? One to? The highest number, whatever that is. I’m very concerned. We understand Ben (Tate’s) situation. I think they’re both going to give us everything they can to try and play this week. I don’t think we’re going to know anything until later in the week, which is probably a good thing. I know it’s a good thing we had the bye. Neither did anything today. I shouldn’t say neither. Arian (Foster) actually went over there and moved around today with the trainers. What we have to do is we have to prepare these three young guys to play. We’ve got to get Ray (Graham), Deji (Karim) and DJ (Dennis Johnson) ready to play. Ray’s had some good practice. You can tell DJ’s been working and been on a team, just because of the way he came back and worked. We’ll see, but we’ve got to get those guys ready to play.”
(on how QB Matt Schaub was when he found out QB Case Keenum would be starting this week) “Obviously, disappointed, which I wouldn’t expect anything else. We talked for a long time. He’s a competitor. He wants to be the guy in there. I understand that. I know it’s very difficult on him. It’s very difficult on me too to be honest with you. But I’ve got to make decisions that are best for the football team right now. We talked through it. We move forward. His attitude’s good. He’s back to work today trying to get himself ready to play.”
(on if the quarterback decision was one of the toughest he’s had to make as a head coach) “I’ve had a lot of tough decisions in my football life. That’s part of the deal. That’s part of my job. We’ve been struggling as a team and battling to get back on the right side. I thought we went out and played better football. That’s why we had an excellent chance to win last week in Kansas City. We didn’t close the deal or make the play to close the deal, but I thought we played cleaner. We played some good football, so I want to see us grow from that. That’s why I made my decision.”
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Can we load anymore stress on Keenum than making it sound like Kubiak will be breathing down Keenum's neck at every turn? Give the man a break for a while...........and pray that Schaub has no need to come in limpin' and Schaubin' again.
