Jim Caldwell's quotes from Thursday

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

On the chance that T Garrett Reynolds could start Sunday: "There's a chance."

On how much he allows players to include their input regarding injury status: "That's the medical staff's job. They've gone to school a long time to make certain that they are absolutely the best at what they do. It's a medical decision."

On his thoughts about Panthers QB Cam Newton's comments: "I think you'll find that the unique thing about our guys is that they're intrinsically motivated, it doesn't take anything from the outside to get our guys fired up about things one way or the other. They're excited to get an opportunity to play. I think the same thing happened last week with a young man talking about Calvin (Johnson) and his weaknesses, things of that nature. Our guys just go play the game and I think that's the way we choose to deal with it."

On if he believed Newton's comments showed a lack of respect: "I don't know what his intent is or anything of that nature. I'm certainly not going to waste any time delving into it."

On if that type of activity is downplayed by the coaching staff: "You'd have to make that assessment, I don't know what every head coach does across the country. I know one thing, when you say down play as in, we don't pay any attention to it, then that's exactly what we do, plain and simple. We're not going to waste any time trying to figure out what someone else is saying and why they're saying it. That makes no sense."

On how long he believes it takes for a rookie receiver to develop chemistry with a quarterback: "It varies, just depends. Sometimes you find that the synergy is pretty good between them right at the onset; body type, speed, stride length.  All of those things are taken into account. Drop speed, delivery, trajectory of the ball, how he places it according to what routes they're running, if those things happen to be a little bit more in sync then they are with another, then it's a little bit faster. If not, it takes a little while."

On how he would assess the early chemistry between QB Matthew Stafford and TE Eric Ebron: "I think it's developing. He's a young player who is coming along. I think at some point you'll continue to see it get better and better."

On if he remembers what he was doing during 9/11: "Absolutely, I was in Tampa and my first year in the National Football League. I happened to be sitting in my office watching tape because it was a Tuesday. We had the day off that day because the players weren't around. My office had no windows and I didn't have a radio on or a television, anything of that nature. One of the guys, Clyde Christensen, came and asked if I have heard what is going on and that there was a plane crash. By the time I had folded my things together and finished up a couple things, I walked into the other room where there was a television. Myself, Clyde and Tony Dungy, we saw the second plane crash and within about five minutes of that I remember that all the guys that believe in prayer went to one room, gathered together and started saying a prayer. Not only for the victims, we didn't know how many there were, but you certainly saw there were going to be some fatalities, but we also were praying for our president and how he was going to handle this situation, our leaders and country. That was a stirring moment. It was probably within an hours' time that it happened and it certainly changed in which we went about our preparation that day. You couldn't get your mind off of the difficulties the way people were experiencing at that time. Families lost a lot of loved ones and individuals were affected all around us."

On how difficult it would be if his headset did not work in regards to communicating with his coaches: "You just find other ways to do it. There are some coaches that don't wear headsets but yet they're still able to do it. They stand by their defensive coordinator when the defense is on the field, the offensive coordinator when the offense is on the field, special teams guy follows him around, so there are a lot of guys that do that even today. It would not be uncommon and wouldn't be difficult to adjust to."

On the play of CB Darius Slay: "I think you can see he's an ascending player. He did some very, very good things for us. I think you're just going to see that guy continue to develop and grow. He's working extremely hard, he's got talent. He made some nice tackles and all during the preseason he's done well in that area. I think he's one of those guys that you're just going to see him continue to develop."

On how he would characterize his emotions this week: "It's no different than any other week. This is not new to me. It might be new to someone who has never been in the position or been through some ups and downs in the game and things of that nature, but I've been at it a little while. This is another game, another week. We're not where we want to be yet, so we've got a lot of work to do. It's hard to win games in this league. That's the thing that I think, often even people that are observers of the game, unless you're inside of it working from day to day, it is difficult. Sometimes no matter how well you play you can still lose. It's tough and a difficult task, but one that we take on the challenge because it's a lot of fun too. The rewards are great when you win, the feelings that you have after a victory is unlike anything else in life. Now, you move on quickly, but nevertheless, it's pretty special."

On filling the open roster spot: "The fact of the matter is that we did sign Garrett Reynolds. We do have one still available and we're in the process of determining what we want to do with it. It's not like we don't have a plan. We do and are working on it. You have to understand we're at Thursday in the week, so the most likely thing that is going to happen is that we're bringing somebody up that is presently on the team. Nobody is coming off the street and coming here to play for us in the next few days. We're working on it, we have a couple young guys that we've talked about yesterday; Seisay is a possibility, Ness is a possibility and both guys are working and guys who we believe in. Whomever you see out there for us filling that spot is going to do a really good job. We have faith in them and I believe that's how the system should work. Often times you're strapped a little bit and you may have to go outside to bring in a certain individual with a skill set that fits. That may be that you're either young or youthful on your present team or practice squad and you need a little bit of an older guy or something of that nature. I do think we have a couple of really good candidates in that regard that are in house."

On what mindset CB Bill Bentley and T Corey Hilliard are in: "I'm always concerned about that aspect, but we have professionals around here too that handle those kinds of things. But I do without question, know that that's one area in particular, when a guy goes on the IR, or PUP or whatever it might be, these guys have been on teams all of their lives. They've been around a group of men that they've grown attached to. Sometimes when they're detached from it, it can be difficult. As a matter of fact, there was a young guy that was out at Denver that ended up having some issues and ended up taking his own life, I think. He separated himself from his team, he had been injured, things of that nature. That's always disturbed me. I'm one of those guys that does have some compassion and empathy. I make certain that I get a chance to speak with them. I like to keep them around as much as we possibly can, but often times, their treatment requires maybe a different location. It just depends. Everybody is a little different. We try to keep them involved if we can as well, but most important is for them to get their health back and their mental frame of mind also, which is equally as important."

On if the team has any in-house counselors or psychiatrists: "The answer to that would be yes."

On how much of an advantage it is to have players with speed on the defensive line when you're playing a quarterback like Cam Newton: "It's a benefit, without question because that's one of the big problems that he'll give you. He's big and strong and he's a good straight ahead runner, but he also can maneuver and reverse the field. When he reverses field, typically he uses speed to get away from you. When you have guys that can chase him they can at least make him throw the ball a little bit faster than he'd like. I mean this guy can run and as big as he is, he's tough to bring down as well. But to have guys on the edges like Ziggy (Ezekiel Ansah), like George (Johnson) and Devin (Taylor), that can get up and go, it really helps us."

On if CB Cassius Vaughn has the skill set to play nickel cornerback: "He does. Sometimes I know I can be a little bit of a tyrant from time to time, but I think I try to answer most of your questions fairly straight forward. The thing I don't want to do necessarily is, often times in our discussions, what we do is incongruent with what information you need sometimes because it gives our opponent a chance to look at us a little bit longer than what we'd like. It gives them an extra day to kind of look at maybe a personnel grouping or I can figure out, ‘Okay, this is going to happen, that's going to happen. Well, in that case let's set this up.' We try not to, necessarily, give them any advantages if we can help it. I think everybody in the National Football League operates that way, but yet, the other thing that we understand as well is that what you all do in terms of getting the word out about what we do is what drives our sport. So, what you do is important and I want to be certain that I try to be as fair as I can without necessarily harming my team."