Dan Quinn doesn’t want to be crass and heartless when his players are injured.
During his press conference with the media on Wednesday, Quinn was asked about tight end Zach Ertz and safety Jeremy Chinn’s injuries against the Saints on Sunday and how he responded.
“You don’t want to be callous to say, ‘Oh this next man up or that.’ That’s not what we say at all.”
Yet, Quinn said his role is to lead the players to get “back into the mode of the game and responsibilities. And that, as a coach, the good news is that when you’re seeing a player getting up and walking off that they’re with the best of the best in terms of the medical side. And I have certainly been impressed over the weeks of when I’ve seen people respond in action here.”
Quinn elaborated further he appreciates his medical staff and pointed to recent injuries to Austin Ekeler and Noah Brown in how the staff was thorough and diagnosed significant issues, and he respects their work, saying, “And I have certainly been impressed with our team.”
The ‘next man up’ is always a theme. However, because the nature of pro football is so violent, guys are going to go down unexpectedly. Quinn elaborated on how he tries to get everyone on the roster and practice squad to be prepared.
So Quinn takes starters out of practice at various times, inserting reserves into their roles, to see how the players respond.
“So, each player in the game plan, they’re responsible for that for the week. Even if they’re unlikely to play in that game, you just don’t know when a guy gets sick, something happens at a practice and the next person has to be available. So, I think it’s important that of the, like we said, we look at this as not a 53 or even a 48-man roster, but 65 where it’s everybody can be into that.”
Quinn has a rule that, in practice, all players play. “If you really want a competitive team, the pressure has to be on everyone to deliver. You don’t know who could win the game for you. And so, you have to put that pressure on them to get that done.”