Dick Vermeil Field Quotations

I feel very confident we can play. I go through these concerns all week because we can't practice like we normally practice. But when we line up and play Sunday I'll expect the people on the field to line up and play well enough to win.

He wants to play. I trust him because I know how unselfish he is. If he didn't think he could step in and run our game plan, he would tell me. As you saw on the practice field today, he's very sharp. He knows what he's doing.

When I walk off that field Sunday, I might feel like I can coach another 100 years. They just won't guarantee me that feeling every Sunday. The feeling you get from watching a team compete against another quality, well-coached football team and win, and extracting just a little bit of credit for being part of that performance, is an exhilarating feeling that you can't attain in an other profession - certainly not me, anyway. There'll be a right time, and it'll be clear in my mind exactly what it is.

Common sense would tell you that when you see your starting quarterback out there practicing, and knowing what he has gone through and all the little concerns and all the things you think about when you go through what he went through, it's a relief to see him back on the field and having fun and throwing the ball down field 50 yards, strikes, ... I think that's all behind us now.

I've been with him through the lowest time of his career. I've helped him come off the field with a terrible injury and I've watched him battle back to the point where you're willing to give up a first-round pick to watch him play again.

There's nothing like having talent. I've been on the field a long time, and we've never had better football players sitting in this room, collectively. We have some talented players on defense who can run and make plays. Our draft and free agency were good, and then the maturity of the kids that were already here blended together. I could just see from watching practice against our offense, it was going to be a much better defense.

He's in the tank. You miss two field goals like that -- not in the National Football League. He has thrown the red flag up the entire training camp in regard to being an accurate kicker on our practice field. So we have a real concern.

They hit (Green) too many times, and that's a credit to the guys on the other side of the field wearing that lightning bolt on their helmet.

I don't want to put so much pressure on him right now as a young player. He will become one of the great running backs in the National Football League just like Priest Holmes did. You become that. But each time he steps on the field he adds credibility to those kinds of credentials.

The last two times they had the ball they went down the field and scored, ... I figured if we lost the toss and kicked off they may win the game, and I didn't want to give them that opportunity.