Ron Rivera Presser: We’ll make a decision about Chase Young playing on Sunday morning

Ron Rivera spoke to the media today after the team had off yesterday for Thanksgiving. The team placed LB Cole Holcomb on IR today, and Rivera said his foot sprain wasn’t getting better. They also activated LB Milo Eifler from IR. Dax Milne was ruled out, so the team will have to use one of their backup options(Alex Erickson, Danny Johnson, Jahan Dotson). Chase Young had two good days of practice this week, and a lot of things are adding up. Young is listed as questionable for Sunday’s home game against the Falcons, and they will make the decision on his game status Sunday morning.

Ron Rivera

Cole Holcomb:

Chase Young:

“I think it’s just the consistency of it right now. Now you see, first of all, he got more reps. Okay. That’s a good sign. Big part of it too is about his conditioning. The nice thing was yesterday, when he got treatment, he wasn’t as sore as he anticipated being. So that’s another good sign. So there’s, a lot of things that are adding up right now as he’s continuing to work and hopefully we’ll see how he is Sunday.”

Dax Milne/Punt returner:

Thanksgiving week:

“Well, the big thing is a couple weeks ago the schedule was in flux going into the Monday night game and then coming out of it, the schedule was in flux. We did a couple things a little differently that week going into Houston, and the guys really responded. And talking with some of the players and the coordinators obviously, and just getting their feedback on us as coaches being able to get work done, they were all positive about it. And then talking to players, thinking that, ‘Wow, you know what, getting a little extra time would be kind of a neat deal.’ That’s why I felt really positive about it because of the way they responded. I thought today’s practice was good tempo, they were up-tempo, it was very efficient. They picked up pretty much where they had left off on Wednesday’s practice. So, I feel pretty confident about these guys and their preparation.”

Logan Thomas:

Cole Turner:

“I’m very comfortable with him. I mean, like Armani, he started out fast and unfortunately he gets hurt, but he’s got the skillset. He’s got what you’re looking for. But we anticipate Logan being fine. He was a little under the weather today, so we sent him home. In fact, I think we sent a few other guys home as well. James Smith-Williams was under the weather the other day. He’s back today. But, if Cole ends up being one of the guys that’s out there, we’re very comfortable with what he can do and his abilities. I think John is fine as well. So those three guys should be ready to go.”

Christian Holmes/Benjamin St-Juste:

“As far as Christian is concerned, he’s a young man that just continually progresses. What’s been kind of interesting is if you listen to it, people talk about guys that perform and produce on special teams, they have a knack for taking themselves to another level. This is a guy that’s been practicing at another level lately, and we’ve noticed.”

Percy Butler:

“You see Percy coming in on some of the three and four safety stuff that we’ve done. Again, these guys have really stepped up their game. They’ve done some really good things and they get noticed for it and you see them a lot more. So, giving opportunities is something that we most certainly do want to do.”

Drake London:

“We do. There’s some other things that we can do as well if that’s concern. But, Drake is a guy that we took a nice long look at going into the draft. Obviously Atlanta had the pick a couple picks before us, but when you look at matchups, those are things that you most certainly do think about just because of player size and abilities. But again, we got a lot of confidence in our guys.”

Rookie expectations:

“Well, the neat thing and the unfortunate thing is, other than BRob, from where he started from — the other guys really haven’t had to play a lot just because of Jahan getting hurt as well. And us losing Phil, but you want them to maintain, you want them to continue to be consistent. Another young man that’s really kind of flashing off a lot has been JR. He’s a big physical guy that’s really done a nice job. I think when you look at Armani as a young man that was having a very good year, unfortunately the injury bug caught up to him for a little bit and that kind of happens to rookies. They kind of hit a bit of a wall and so this may prevent our guys from hitting walls, you know? And because of that, that could be a good thing for us as we get further into the season, we’ll have a lot of young guys that are ready to play.”

Jahan Dotson:

“Well, I think the one thing really is we’re not playing him as much first of all. But I also think you gotta give credit to what we’re doing with Terry and Curtis as being a really big part of it. Dyami has done some nice things, so he’s been rotating in there as well. Cam Sims has had a couple opportunities, Dax Milne has, so I think it’s really just kind of getting Jahan back into the mix more so than anything else. Because coming out of camp, going into the regular season, Jahan had a bigger role. I’ll put it that way. So maybe it’s an opportunity for us to find out how to get him fit back into what we’re doing.”

Terry McLaurin getting the ball more:

“A little bit of both. It’s interesting because between him and Curtis [Samuel], you really see that position itself growing. That’s been a really, really neat thing for us to watch. It’s one of those things that if we can continue to run the ball doing things that we need to, there will be some guys that won’t be targeted as much either. That’s kind of that give and take of it all.”

Safeties:

“Well, I mean, one of the concerted efforts really is we feel those three guys when we used the three safety sets are probably our three best cover guys on the inside. But we also look at it, Bobby fits the run exceptionally well. Kam Curl fits the run very well, so whether we’re in Buffalo or we’re in sub with that group out there, we get the same kind of safety fitting it. Some of the matchup stuff that you think about and rotating down a guy, if they have a bigger guy at the slot, the rotation could be going with the bigger safety in terms of who’s rotating. And then the other two just stay back.

The guy that’s kind of got a little bit of both in him is D-Foe. We’ve also seen one thing and that he’s got tremendous range. I mean, he really does, he’s done a nice job showing us that. So, we have to be aware of that. The four-safety stuff gives us an opportunity to add an extra DB down into the box that we feel fits to the run very well. And so, we don’t feel like we’re losing anything when we get to that point.”

Bobby McCain:

“He’s been really neat because you see them rely on him through his experience. The one thing that you know, they kill Bobby on is right now, they’re getting on him about when he comes down, he has to turn around to talk to them now. And so they keep telling him ‘man, you gonna turn around one time and they’re gonna run the ball.’ So they tell him and Bobby said, ‘Okay, great. I’m not gonna, I’m just gonna wave my hands at you guys.’ So they get a little of that going back and forth and it’s kind of good.”

Redzone offense:

“I think it’s really just the missed opportunities more than it’s anything else. I think sometimes when you get down into that area and you miss that opportunity. On first down if you’re not as good on it as you need to be, second and long makes it harder. And so we’ve gotta be better probably on our first play of that series.”

Curtis Samuel:

“Pretty much. A guy that brings a little bit of that out of him too is Terry. He and Terry have a great relationship from the time they were together in Ohio State. And I think the hard part for any time a guy gets hurt, especially a guy coming into a new situation, it’s tough to get that confidence with your teammates, especially cuz you’re hurt. And so, we really see his personality now that he’s been playing. He’s been playing very well for us. You see the acceptance; you see the guys just kind of connecting and that’s part of who Curtis is. Curtis is a fun-loving guy just from my time being around him and noticing that, just how much he loves the game. I mean, he really truly does. It’s one of those things that he can’t wait to do the things that he does on the football field. He really enjoys it.”

Scott Turner

Thanksgiving:

“It was good. You don’t really get days like that during the season, so we were able to work ahead. I still stopped in here yesterday for a little bit, but I was at home and able to spend time with my family. Was really good and enjoy the holiday like a regular person.”

Grady Jarrett:

Taylor Heinicke:

“I just think he just needs to keep doing what he’s doing. We have some plays where he missed some throws or we’ve had some negative plays obviously that have come up. Just eliminate those, but just keep playing his game. He doesn’t have to do anything special or different. Bring the energy that he brings and play smart football.”

Efe Obada

Matthew McConaughey:

Practice Updates

Injured players: