Lions quotes: Jim Schwartz talks about Day 2 of rookie minicamp

Below is a recap of what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say about Day 2 of the team's rookie minicamp. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)

On G Larry Warford's injury: "He bounced up and we'll get him looked at. I don't think it's his shoulder, we'll see. It wasn't serious enough to keep him in, he stayed around. He caught an elbow and it hurt, so we'll see. We will err on the side of caution when it comes to just about every injury or any situation we have right now."

On being a typical second day and needing motivation: "No I don't think it was a motivation thing. If anything we're trying to slow them down. These guys got their feet under them yesterday and then, you know, they're all trying to impress and we don't have pads on and you've got to slow guys down a lot of ways. Sometimes we had too many guys on the ground from just getting out of control and little bit of trying too hard. You have to balance that. Usually when we have our veterans here, we don't have very many people on the ground because they know how to work together. That's one of the things that these guys are doing, you know, they're trying to impress us with their talent, but also they're trying to prove to us that they know how to practice like an NFL player. So that when we get into our OTA's and our mini camps, we feel confident putting them out on the field with our other players."

On seeing things from WR Corey Fuller that they liked at draft time: "Yeah, I mean we liked the fact that he had size and he had speed. He really only had one year of production at Virginia Tech, but he averaged about eighteen yards a catch last year. You saw that yesterday, he caught a couple deep balls. He's got a lot to work on just like all these guys and he doesn't have a lot of football background because he spent two years triple jumping and long jumping, but he certainly has good skill set and is a hard worker , you know and he flashes just about everything that you need. He needs more consistency like these guys. He can make a play. We've seen enough of that to know that he has that ability."

On RB Steven Miller being a multi-dimensional player: "Yeah, you know that's what he is, he's a returner, he's a running back, probably not going to use him as a receiver as much, but he's got some explosive speed. He's another junior college transfer, you know, he didn't spend a whole lot of time at Appalachian State, but we first saw him when we went to work out the punter, (Sam Martin). We had a good chance to get a feel for him and he caught balls when Sam was punting. So that was really our first exposure to him from a coaching standpoint. The scouts had already seen him. He runs real fast, he's got some multi-dimensional skills, he's good with the ball in his hands. We'll see if he can develop into a player that can have a role for us."

On what he is looking to upgrade in the punting game this year: "Every part. We were near the bottom in just about every part, from gross to you name it, net and we need to be just all around better as a punt team. We need to improve the consistency of what they have to do. It's not just about putting a good punt in practice, it's about having the consistency to do it time and time again. And also directional punt, that's a big thing we didn't do a very good job of directional punt last year. With the quality of returners in the NFL, you can't defend the whole field. You have to eliminate part of the field with the direction of your kicker. That only works if you can trust the punter to be able to punt to that window. There were way too many times last year that we were supposed to be punting to a window that the ball was somewhere where we weren't planning on it and we had difficulty covering it and we paid the price for it a couple times.

On pressure points in punting with late game situations: "That stuff will come with these guys. It's hard to put them in pressure. There's enough pressure for these guys just being rookies and first year players right now. That stuff will come as they get more experience and things like that. Just about every facet of it from hang time to direction, to distance, to coverage. We can improve all those areas."

On what he saw from TE Joseph Fauria today: "Good hands and just a giant wing span, the same things he did at UCLA. He made a lot of catches, had a lot of touchdown catches. I think from the practice today you could see a lot of that carry over. A lot of times he was covered, but he was still open just because he's so long and he has such a big catching radius. He has very soft hands for a big guy. There's other things that he needs to work on also, just being more precise with routes and blocking and things like that. But he can certainly flash in the passing game. It will be interesting to see his match-ups. Our tight ends have some height, you know 6-7 and a half, 6-5 and a half, Pettigrew's over 6-5, Scheffler's 6-5, Nathan Overbay is a shade under 6-5 he's the shortest guy in that bunch, so there's a lot of height, having those big targets helps our quarterback."

On how much K Håvard Rugland can learn in one weekend: "A lot. I mean, this is his first real chance to be around a full team work out. He's been in the offseason program, but that's just coming out and doing individual work. This is really the first time that he's even seen the whole operation of what goes on."

On LB Alex Elkins: "Yeah, junior college guy who went to Oklahoma State and did some good things there. He tweaked a hamstring a little bit and wasn't able to do a whole lot for us. So, he's continuing in the run of not having a whole lot of experience. But we'll work with him. He'll get over that pretty quickly and he's got good height and good speed. A lot of times when you're signing those undrafted free agents, when you're drafting late, you're not really drafting them based on what they've done. But you're drafting them on skill set and what they can potentially do in the future. We think he's got some mobility that we'd like to work with."

On if a player can come out of camp and win the return job: "There are a lot of different facets to it. We have guys on our team who can do it. It's one of the reasons we drafted Ryan Broyles. He hasn't been able to because of his injuries, but he was very good at it in college. I mean, he was a four-year producer as a punt returner. So, whether a guy wins the job strictly as a return specialist or whether we compartmentalize it and have one guy as a kick returner, one guy as a punt returner, we have a lot of other guys that can do it. You would like to see a guy go and win it. Miller certainly has the abilities to go do that, but at this point, we're just evaluating and working with them. Once we get to preseason games, it's the same thing with catching balls. It's easy to catch balls now. It's a lot easier now to catch punts and things like that. All of a sudden you get in a preseason game and you've got guys beating on you and running down and trying to make plays. It's a lot different. You really can see who can react under pressure and who can make those good, quality decisions back there."

On the skills of a punt returner vs. a kick returner: "Well, you know, they've become a little bit more similar. First of all, catching a kick is a lot different than catching a punt. It's two different deliveries of the football. Catching a punt's a lot more difficult. Catching a kick, that's the easiest part of being a kick returner. But the way the rules have gone in the last couple years, getting rid of the wedge and some different things like that, you're seeing more man blocking, which is what you see on punt return. So, rather than just sort of running full speed and taking that one cut that kick returners used to and the emphasis was on just a straight line guy who could take one cut and explode, you're seeing guys pick and choose a little bit more. That's more the skill of a punt returner. So, the guys are on them faster. Their line up five yards quicker, they're returning balls from deeper in the end zones and guys are on them quicker. So, that start-stop ability becomes a little more important. I think what you're seeing is, you know, those skill sets are getting closer together just because of the rule changes."

On WR Patrick Edwards: "I like a lot of things about him. I liked him last year. Availability was a big thing last year. He would have a really good day in training camp and then he would miss a couple days with a hamstring or some other injury. Like a lot of other players, a couple days ago we talked about Nick Fairley and just being on the field. With Patrick, it's the same thing. His availability to practice and to put one good practice on top of another one and be out there and available is an important thing for him. He's a lot stronger right now than he was last year. He's not real tall. He's 5-9, but very strong now. He runs much better routes and has a much better understanding of the offense. He's another guy that's in the mix returning kicks and punts. But just that availability to be out there all the time, to be consistent from practice to practice is going to be his challenge."

On if G Rodney Austin will play more time at center or guard: "No, he did it last training camp also. Actually, the mini-camp one year ago when he was a rookie, first practice he was a guard and second practice he was a center and that sort of blew his mind right from the very beginning. But he played a lot of center for us in training camp last year. When you're an interior offensive lineman, that's an important thing. You have to have the flexibility to play guard or center. Typically, you take seven offensive linemen into a game, so somebody's got to play center if your center gets hurt. Usually, it's one of your guards or your back up. But the more you can with stuff like that, the better. His best position is probably guard, but it's important to just work on that stuff. A lot of our guys do. Even guys like Rob Sims take snaps with the quarterback from time to time just to be ready in case of an emergency. But with a young player like Rodney, the more he can do, the better chance he has to be able to stick."

On if Edwards' best opportunity to play early would be on special teams: "Not necessarily. You know, whether it's an opportunity at wide receiver or special teams, there are going to be a lot of opportunities for him. He might be able to take advantage of a Ryan Broyles recovering knee surgery or Nate Burleson recovering a broken leg and things like that. There are opportunities in our offense as well as special teams."