Jim Caldwell's quotes from Monday

Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell had to say on Monday. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)

Opening Statement: "First thing, I want to open up by announcing a couple things in terms of the roster. Number one, C.J. Mosley is back with us. He's served his suspension and it was one week for the Falcons and then this past bye week. He's now back with us and we'll be moving forward from this point in time. And then also, Kyle Van Noy will be activated as well, so we're looking forward to getting him back out there in action also. I have an opportunity to meet with the team this afternoon and I know most of them, I've talked to a few of them already and had an opportunity to get a good break in. We got a few days that I think the great majority of them enjoyed. It was a great time of healing, but then also a little bit of a respite for the guys as well. We have a tough stretch ahead of us, a very difficult stretch, but the good thing is we only have to play one game this particular week coming up, and it's against a team that's certainly red hot at this time and is playing extremely well. So, we're going to have our work cut out for us."

On ESPN's report that Mosley was smoking marijuana in London: "None of those reports were released by us and I'm not going to comment on any of them."

On why the Lions handled Mosley's suspension instead of the NFL: "I'm not going to go and ask if it is true, if it's not true, all of those things. I'm not going to respond to it. Like I said, it wasn't released from our organization."

On what message it sends to the team to suspend a teammate for smoking marijuana: "What I think is that without question, whenever we take an action, I think the team understands what we're trying to get accomplished. We explain it to them and move forward."

On what the week will be like for Van Noy and how the team plans to work him into playing: "Well, he's been practicing a bit with us and certainly has had the opportunity to get out on the field. He's been moving around and I will immerse him a little bit more into the details of our preparation, and we'll see where he goes. I think he looks good, he's performed well, so we'll see how that works."

On how concerned he is that Mosley may face further punishment from the NFL: "That's a league issue, an NFLPA issue and we're not going to comment on any of that further."

On how disappointed he is in Mosley: "Well, it's an internal matter, we've handled it as such. We've stated our case clearly and we're moving forward."

On if there is any value in watching an opponent live rather than later on game film: "I think so. Perhaps you don't realize that every single game that's on, we not only go through the live copy of that game, but then also all 22 regular copies that we get, every game. Regardless if we have a break or not, we typically, at some point in time, have an opportunity to go through. And what it does for you is it certainly gives you a feel for substitutions, which you can't get in between. It gives you a little bit of a sense of injuries and why they occurred, tempo of the game, all of those kinds of things you can get from the television copy that you may not be able to get, obviously, from watching the film. Often, that little snippet of time in between snaps is usually not shown."

On if the commentary during a televised game helps with analysis of an opponent in terms of injuries: "I don't even have to answer that, do I? That's not really why we listen to the game. I know you all listen to those parts, those portions of it with great interest, but from a coaching standpoint, we don't. We look at the things that deal with the game, the issues in the game, those things that have an effect on us, and basically that's it."

On if the team has a better feel for where DT Nick Fairley is at physically and if the team has a timetable for his recovery: "No, we really don't. Right now, he's under the doctors' care and their supervision. I know he's gotten a couple of opinions and hopefully it'll be just one of those things where he can heal and we'll see what happens in a couple of weeks and kind of make a determination from there."

On if there is a chance that Fairley will be out for the season: "I'm not certain where it is at this point in time. To be honest with you, nobody knows. There's anything that can happen. It could be an unbelievable turnaround or it could be lengthy, so we'll have to wait and see."

On if it will be difficult to recapture the momentum the team had coming off the win in London: "It goes both ways. When I was younger and I was coaching, I didn't like bye weeks because of the fact that I thought that they got you out of rhythm, and it was probably more so me than it was anybody else. And then some of that still kind of sinks in as a coach because of the fact that you do like the rhythm that you're in. We're accustomed to routine and things of that nature, but when you look at the other side of it that we need healing, we have quite a few guys that are injured. This week has given us a chance to get some guys closer to where they should be. I think it's a value. I think I can put up with a little bit of my concern about rhythm and those kinds of things.

On possibly filling the open roster spot that is available: "We're in constant flow here the next day or so and we'll get everything kind of ironed here shortly."

On if he anticipates WR Calvin Johnson, RB Reggie Bush, or any of the tight ends to be available on Sunday: "We'll have to wait and see to be honest with you and it'll be just like every week. It'll be a day to day thing until we're certain."

On who levied the punishment issued to Mosley: "Everything that we do we basically consult the entire organization. We talk about it, there's nothing that anybody does on an island. I don't think that's done in any organization. So the answer would be it was collective as always."

On the health of the three injured tight ends: "Not really certain. I know Michael (Rothstein) asked the same question about them and if we thought anyone would be ready to go or anything of that nature, we'll have to see. Some guys are still being treated, so toward the end of the week we'll have a little bit better idea but you all know that we typically will direct you toward the injury report."

On what the team has to do to make the playoffs: "I'm not concerned about that not one bit. We're focusing in on one thing that we can be concerned about and that's the game that we play next. We'll let the other things kind of fall in place. I think it was about a week or two ago I was talking to the team a little bit about the issues of looking ahead and there's a couple of really good sports analogies that occurred. One a few years back, one of the best golfers around was playing at Whistling Straights I believe it was, I can't remember exactly which one. Here was the scenario, he had ended up I think the first five or six holes he was playing extremely well. As he walking up to, I believe it was hole number five or six, he could look down and see green on number seven and maybe on number nine. So he stood up there and he was kind of studying the greens on seven and nine while he was still playing I think it was either five or six. In subsequent to that after that he went on to completely obviously lose his position in terms of how well he was playing and started to back up to the field because of the fact he started to look too far ahead. I think that's what can happen it our case as well. You can't look too far ahead particularly not in this business. It's a day to day business. It's a minute by minute business. It's a game by game business. We have to make certain that we keep our guys focused in on that. The other one was rather you're doing good or bad, I think Bernhard Langer during the course of the summer was playing an event. He was on the last hole, I believe it was sudden death they were playing the 18^th hole I believe. He hits a bad shot and whoever he was playing against hits a great shot and is on the green. He's off the green and all the announcers said, ‘It's over with, that's a bad shot, and he can't recover.' He ends up hitting out of the rough right next to the hole, putts it in, and wins it when they had counted him out. I think that's the same thing that happens with us. It's such an ebb and flow in terms of how people view our team that if you get caught up in those things obviously you're certainly going to be I think worse for wear. The media does I think overall have an effect on guys. They read, look, watch, and to say that it doesn't I'd be naïve.

As a matter of fact I'll tell you two other stories. In 2011 I think it was, we were having a tough season at Indy. I was walking out of the locker room and a young kid reaches over, he hands his hat and wants an autograph. He's probably five years old. So, I reach up and give him an autograph and hand the hat back to him. He then kind of leans down to me, he has a really sort of distinctive and deep voice for a little guy and he says, ‘Coach Caldwell I'm sorry you're on the hot seat.' I kind of chuckled because this is a kid that probably didn't know exactly what it was but he knew it wasn't a good thing. Then the other thing, this weekend wasn't exactly a bye week for us because my wife and I went to North Carolina and had our grandchildren for four days. They're seven and five (years old). We picked Trey up from the house after he'd gotten back to school and we'd go over to another school to pick up Joshua. So, on our way over to the school, Trey calls me Papa Coach, so he says, ‘Hey Papa Coach who are you voting for?' I thought that was a little strange, obviously Election Day is coming up on Tuesday but maybe a seven year old talked about Election Day in school. I said, ‘I'm not certain, why do you ask?' He says, ‘Because I'm voting for Kay Hagan.' I said, ‘For Kay Hagan?' He says, ‘Yea, I'm voting for Kay Hagan.' I said, ‘Who is Kay Hagan?' He says, ‘She's running for the senate.' So I look at my wife and the next thing he says is, ‘Tom Hillis is not for me, he's not for us.' I said, ‘Okay. Alright.' He's pretty serious about this so he asked my wife the same question and she kind of danced around a little bit. We get back and we're settling down, getting the kids settled and the television comes on. Here comes a commercial talking about Kay Hagan and etcetera, that ‘Tom Hillis is not for us.' So, obviously the media does have a very strong effect even on the young ones, so I'm assuming it will affect the older ones as well. We try to make certain to keep an even keel by staying focused on what they have to do and tend to their business. I think our guys will do that. It's this time of year where things can get a little bit distorted and out of whack if you don't pay attention to the job you have to get done. But, I think after they saw, most of the guys I'm sure that they saw Miami play, that'll get your attention quickly because they are really, really good."

On what the Lions need to work on the most to sustain their success: "I know you'll probably look at this as one of those things that you've heard me say time and time again, but it's everything. I think even more so at this time of the year because of the fact that there's nothing, there's not one area, not one that I can say we've arrived and we don't have to worry about this any longer. I think you see that in the National Football League, it's so competitive, it's so difficult that every single avenue in terms of your overall operations gets challenged on a weekly basis by a whole new set of superior, outstanding individuals with great minds and also great athletes that are out there performing those particular schemes and etcetera, they put it to a test. So, there's not anything that I can tell you that we feel that we don't have to work on. We have to work on everything. We have to work on every single facet of our operation, all of it. We better find a way to get better at it, that's the key. We better get better fast. We have to get better every single week. You see it so often in this league that the halfway point means nothing. They don't give out any halfway trophies. They don't give out any commendations at this point in time. We have to keep working."

On what concerns he has about Miami: "We played against them last year as well, so I had a chance to see them up close and personal. They have an outstanding pass rush. They're beefy up front, linebackers that can run and obviously a skilled and athletic secondary as well. Then offensively, they give you all sorts of problems. You saw where they had the wide splits on the outside, a quarterback that can run, he's throwing the ball well, backs (running) that can move it and receivers that can run and catch. Just across the board, they give you all types of problems and difficulties. Special teams, they have guys that can run and cover and they can give you problems just in terms of the return game. They've done a good job overall. That's one of those teams that you can tell just keeps getting better and better each week. This is the time of year, this is the time of year in November, when you better be at your absolute best because this is where the difference is made. We better make certain that we're at our best at this point in time."

On how quickly Van Noy will be a part of the rotation: "We'll see. We'll see how it works in terms of rotation, but certainly any guy that can run, tackle, who's smart, has toughness and great leadership is certainly going to be able to play some role for us. We'll see how significant that is as time goes on."