Vic Fangio

Q. CB Eli Ricks, noticed him the past couple of days. Where is he in the conversation when you talked about that spot opposite of CB Quinyon Mitchell? Can he get involved with that? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, he [CB Eli Ricks] can and you’re right, he has made some plays the last few days that were good plays. He needs to eliminate the negative ones, too, which I think he’s working hard to do and I see definite improvement from last year to this year.

Q. You had said last week it was time for CB Adoree’ Jackson to show who he is as a player. How have those last few practices been for him? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Vic Fangio: It’s been good. I think Adoree’ has had a good camp. I think he’s competing well. I think he’s focused with a good mindset and I like where he is at right now.

Q. Are there certain positions where you really need those preseason games to get a full evaluation on players? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, you need full speed action to really tell. I mean out in practice, nobody’s getting tackled. You don’t know if you made the tackle or missed it. We’re not finishing on the quarterback. We’re trying to stay away from him. We need games.

Q. At that corner spot, there’s only so much you can tell obviously out here, but what do you think about CB Kelee Ringo’s tackling ability and whatever he’s achieved so far with CB Adoree’ Jackson? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: I think [CB] Kelee [Ringo] will be a good tackler. He is a good special teams player. I don’t think tackling will be his issue at all.

Q. As far as when you guys do have a preseason game, and I don’t know what the starter situation is, but would a guy like DB Cooper DeJean be a guy you’d like to see in safety in a real game? (Martin Frank)

Vic Fangio: Possibly. Yeah, possibly.

Q. What have you seen out of LB Smael Mondon? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Good stuff. He is having a good camp. He is progressing well. The ILB position has a lot on their plate and he’s sorting through that, but I think he’s making good natural progress at all that.

Q. We talked about the depth on the edge. How are guys OLB Ochaun Mathis and DE Ogbo Okoronkwo doing? It looked like Ogbo was pretty active yesterday. (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I think so too. he’s [DE Ogbo Okoronkwo] definitely, a guy I think has more been a defensive end most of his career. We asked them to drop a little bit here and play a little bit differently maybe than he’s been accustomed to. So he’s fighting through that and learning that stuff. Not just from a mental standpoint but the technique part of it. But overall he’s doing good. Same thing with [LB Ochaun] Mathis. I think he’s a big strong guy who’s got some pop to him and hopefully we can develop his all around game to where he can be a player.

Q. With the safety’s evaluating them in 11-on-11s, S Reed Blankenship was saying you kind of let them go and problem solve on their own out there, especially with the younger guys. What are you seeing from them? How they’re handling that? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: From the younger guys, well [S Andrew Mukuba] hadn’t been practicing, so can’t answer that. [S Andre] Sam’s been doing a good job. I think [S] Sydney [Brown] is making real good progress. [S] Tristin [McCollum]. Tristin, same thing. Making good progress from last year. Tristin just has to eliminate his negative plays. He has the ability to play the position; he just needs more consistency.

Q. At that corner spot. Are you seeing any separation between CB Adoree’ Jackson and CB Kelee Ringo right now? What would you like to get? (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: It’s close. I think both of them are having a good camp, but it’s close and been happy with both of them and we’ll see.

Q. You said in the spring the thing about reps are the burden of leadership. So if it’s close between a young guy and older guy, do you lean on the younger guy because he needs the reps to get better and there’s upside? (Bo Wulf)

Vic Fangio: Well in [CB] Adoree’s [Jackson] case he’s a veteran but he’s new here and the things we’re asking him to do are new to him. So that kind of cancels out that argument.

Q. One more about CB Eli Ricks. He’s such a narrow, skinny, lean guy. What have you seen about his physicality and he hold up playing the run and doing the things? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: He hadn’t played enough yet to know, but he’s going to get a bunch of snaps in the preseason and hopefully that will show itself, but he’s played good football in college. You bring up a good point we’ll see.

Q. Going back to the edge spot. You had said last time that nobody stood out either positive or negatively just yet. Has that changed with OLB Azeez Ojulari or OLB Joshua Uche yet? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I think Josh has had some good practices here of late, he’s flashed and had some really good plays. Like a lot of the guys that are new, he just needs to eliminate the negative plays and the negative plays aren’t something that you guys may see or know. It’s just reacting and covering and the way we want to play the run. The nuances of the defense. He has to master those, but overall he’s had a good camp and I see him getting better each and every day and the same thing with Azeez.

Q. When you say that S Sydney Brown has made progress, in what areas do you feel specifically that he’s taken the biggest strides? (Olivia Reiner)

Vic Fangio: Overall, the entire game. Again, he just needs to put some polish on his operation and just recognize things a little quicker and I think that will take his game to the next level.

Q. Do you think S Andrew Mukuba will be available on Thursday? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Probably not.

Q. What have been your impressions of Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo in his new role? (Bo Wulf)

Vic Fangio: I don’t know. I’m watching our 11 guys that are out there. I’m not evaluating Kevin.

Q. What do you think of DT Ty Robinson trying to, as a rookie, how do you think he’s picking things up? Where do you think his progress is? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: I think he’s picking things up at a good rookie’s pace. I don’t think that will be an issue for him in the long run. Just kind of see him be a little bit more active and a little bit more decisive in his play, which with the more reps that he gets, I think that will come.

Q. In the playoffs last year, you said you’d like to mix and match with the linebacker pairs training camp, so they have the background with each other. What’s the importance of that for the two linebackers? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: Because if one goes down you don’t want that play in that game or that rest of that game to be the first time those two guys have played together. Same thing with safeties. We eventually will get to that too. You just don’t want to always be ones, twos, threes. You want to mix guys up because you never know when somebody’s going down and now they got to play next to somebody that they’ve never played next to before, even in practice. You want that done in practice.

Q. It seems like you’ve thrown a lot on LB Jihaad Campbell’s plate in the last few weeks. How do you gauge when a rookie is ready for that and how do you think he’s responded to it? (E.J. Smith)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, that’s a good question and it’s a harder question with the practice time and reps not being way up there. It’s a fine line that we’re trying to manage. We’re probably a little guilty of putting too much on his plate, but time is coming, days are disappearing. You see scenario inside linebacker playing inside linebacker

Q. (Regarding whether he would ever play three inside linebackers on the field at the same time)… (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: Probably not.

Q. Last week you said you wanted to see more DB Cooper Dejean at safety. Have you gotten more to evaluate him there? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: Yeah and just like I thought he can be a good safety. Just the other day we had a route that we struggled with last year in games to pick up and he did it like he’d been a safety his whole life. So yeah, he’ll be a good safety if we need him there.

Q. We’ve seen some interior linemen getting reps on the edge. What do you like about that and how many of your guys can do it? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: It won’t be a steady diet of it, it’s just when we’re in a nickel package and we want to make it an odd look, one of them will kick out.

Q. (Regarding LB Jihaad Campbell having reps at EDGE and what Fangio has seen from him)… (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, he needs a lot of work at it. Again, that’s going back to the previous question that’s adding things to his plate right now and in defense of him, he hadn’t been coached up enough to be on the edge and play the way we want to play. So part of that’s him being overloaded, part of that’s us not getting him ready, which is just a product of lack of time and lack of reps.