Opening Statement: "Thanks for being here. What questions do you have?"
How was your Thanksgiving? (Jim Forner) "How was my Thanksgiving – that's a nice question. It was outstanding. It was awesome. [I made it] home about mid afternoon, and the dinner was almost ready, and football was on. What's better? Personally, it's my favorite holiday. How do you guys feel about Thanksgiving? Where do you rank it? A lot of agreement here. Because you don't have any obligations other than you have to get the meal right and just enjoy one another's company, right. No present to buy, [and it's a] Thursday. I don't know. It's a great, great holiday."
We saw OLB Kyle Van Noy had the sack late in the fourth quarter. I think he played one snap on the last drive. How's he progressing? We didn't see him out at practice. (Luke Jones) "Yes, [Kyle Van Noy] didn't practice this week. [He's] kind of working through a thing or two. Not major stuff, but stuff that will be touch-and-go up until Sunday, so we'll see where he's at."
Can you say whether you guys expect TE Charlie Kolar to go on IR? (Jonas Shaffer) "I probably really can't say that right now. We'll know ... we have the bye week next week, and [executive vice president & general manager] Eric [DeCosta] and [head certified athletic trainer] Adrian [Dixon] and [chief medical officer] Dr. [Andrew] Tucker will go through that probably the next few days. Then there will be a decision."
I think you said earlier in the week DL Michael Pierce had a chance to play maybe. Any updates? (Alex Glaze) "Yes, Michael Pierce practiced today, so we'll see where he's at [for Sunday's game]. That's something in terms of how he's feeling. We're going up against a big, physical offensive line, so ... he'd be a great addition, but he's got to be at his best, too. He's got to feel that [way]."
Does the fact that you have the bye on the other side of this play into a lot of those, "Does a guy play or not" type of calculations, because maybe you say if you give him a full two weeks off it could help with an injury? (Childs Walker) "It's probably part of it – [a] minor part of it. But definitely a consideration, sure."
What have you seen from ILB Roquan Smith and his progress? (Brian Wacker) "Yes, yes – full practice. Again, same kind of conversation. You have to get there and see how guys are feeling if they're ready to go."
With ILB Roquan Smith being out the last couple of weeks you have had to shuffle some guys. ILB Chris Board is someone that's played a good bit the last couple of weeks. What does he provide in some of those sub-packages where maybe you have turned to him a little bit? (Luke Jones) "Yes [Chris Board]'s an underrated guy. Chris is a really good football player, and on the passing down stuff, he really has a knack; zone coverage; he's good in man; he's a good blitzer. So, he definitely brings something to the table. Heck, maybe we should have had him out there a little bit sooner this season. He did a really good job last week."
The Eagles' numbers rushing the football the last seven weeks lead the league. Are there any adjustments that they've made in terms of different ways they're approaching their running game than they were earlier this season? (Jonas Shaffer) "Yes, I really couldn't say. That'd probably be a better question for them. We're just kind of taking them as we find them right now – what they're doing now, [and] we're trying to do the best we can to stop it."
QB Lamar Jackson has talked about slow starts on offense and wanting to get off to a faster start. What do you guys need to do to kind of speed things up out of the gate faster? (Brian Wacker) "Yes, I mean it just comes down to execution and not putting yourself behind the eight ball. [We have to] just try to stay ahead of the sticks, extend some drives and see if we can score. We really haven't done that to start games very well the last few games."
