On his soreness:
"It is getting better. Getting better, feeling better. (Head athletic trainer) Joe (Sheehan) and the guys are doing a great job in the training room helping me start to feel better and so day by day improving."
On if he would be surprised if he doesn't play Sunday:
"We'll see. It is still early. We will see how it goes now until tomorrow. I feel better today than I did yesterday. Hopefully, that keeps up."
On if he is pleasantly surprised at how his shoulder is responding:
"I guess. As long as it responds, it is pleasant. I will put it that way. At this age, as long as you start to feel better, you feel good about that. I feel better from yesterday to today so hopefully that keeps up."
On if he has thrown a football since Sunday:
"I am going to try to throw a little bit today, if possible, and we'll see how it goes."
On if there is a personal hurdle he has to clear before returning to practice and play Sunday:
"Obviously, you just want to get to a point where you feel like you can do everything you need to do to be effective and do the things that you normally do. That is the main thing."
On potentially starting if he doesn't practice this week, given his veteran experience:
"That is obviously Coach's (Head Coach Mike Pettine) decision. I will study the gameplan and do everything I can to stay ready mentally. We will see how it goes from there."
On Arizona's defense:
"It is a good defense, very similar to the last few weeks. It is a good front, a good back end. You don't really look across this group and see any weak links. They are a very solid group, and obviously, they are No. 4 in the league. We will have our hands full with these guys, as well. Coaches have put a good gameplan together, and with every defense, there are things that you can take advantage of. Personnel wise, they have done an excellent job with personnel and putting that group together. Another physical group, very similar to St. Louis as far as how they play the game. It will be a tough task for us this week."
On if he has sustained a shoulder injury in his career:
"Not so much in this area. Thankfully, my shoulders have been pretty good for most of my career."
On how much his rib injury plays into his playing status Sunday:
"Obviously, once you get all of that going, it can all run together sometimes. I think the main thing is to get to the point where I feel good throwing. That will be the key. The ribs, it is what it is. You just deal with it."
On if it is special to hear Pettine's comments that if he is physically able to play he will be the starter, given some people outside the building think QB Duke Johnson Jr. should be playing:
"Obviously, if you are on a team, you want to help the team win and to be available to play. When the coach puts his trust in you, then it does make you feel good. At the same time, I can understand both sides of it. I understand the situation that I am in. I said this a long time ago to you guys: we drafted Johnny in the first round for a reason. There is a time, where at some point, that time is going to come where we are going to see what he can do. For me, that is not my decision and that is not what I get caught up worrying about. I have to focus on being ready to play and getting myself healthy and being ready to play against the Cardinals. That is where my mind is at."
On if it is amazing what a couple of days after a game can do physically for a player:
"Absolutely, it helps. Joe Sheehan and our trainers and the people available to us do an excellent job of helping us, everything we can do to feel better and get our bodies ready. We are utilizing that and it actually does help when you get rest and allow your body to heal, and taking a day off certainly helps. There are only so many days to rest. That is the thing. We have done everything we can as far as a treatment standpoint to utilize these last few days. Hopefully, it puts us in a good position to feel better and be able to play."
On if his injuries this season are par for the course for an NFL QB:
"I think it is just part of it. Anytime you take a hit on something or are sore somewhere, it is normal to take pictures of it – 'Let's get some X-rays' – just to make sure everything is structurally OK. Sometimes getting an X-ray for us is not as big as it is for the perception of it because it is just part of what you do to make sure everything is OK."
On if has he been evaluated for potential injuries more this year more than others:
"No, last year, obviously, I hurt my thumb and I missed time. I would contend that I was more injured last year than I was this year. Concussions are a totally different thing in itself. At the end of the day, for us as players, I think you just want to make sure things are structurally good. As soon as you can get it to where it is a pain tolerance thing, then in my mind, you have to be ready to go. That is how I see it."
On when his body starts to feel normal again:
"In February (laughter). Obviously, I think the older you get, especially talking to older players, that is usually the case. It takes a while. Hopefully, towards the end of the week, you start feeling better and feeling like yourself and ready to go again. It is usually late Thursday. Friday, you start to feel better, sometimes Saturday. Then, it just depends on the game and what happens in the game. You get stretches in a game where there are not a lot of hits or for whatever reason you don't take a lot of shots, and you are able to put those two weeks together and really gain some ground. It is part of the job description. I don't really think about it too much as far as that goes. As long as you can go out there and know that you are not going to injure yourself any further or anything like that, then in my mind, you have to be ready to go."
On if the Browns are all in and Pettine's message for each player and coach to make a self-inventory:
"He has done a good job of sending that message. I do believe the guys are listening and heeding it. We have to put that into action. That is the key for us to grab hold of this thing. Nobody wants to be in this situation. That is life. We are not the only people in the world right now that are in a situation that they don't want to be in but are finding themselves in. It is not ideal, but at the same time, it is the character of our team that will be revealed in this. We have to be able to respond. We have to be able to take those things that Coach Pett is saying and put them into action, and that will start on Sunday. I think it is obviously a tough time, but I think we have the makeup of guys in here to respond to that."
On the great players on the Cardinals defense:
"They have done an excellent job personnel wise with that group. They are pretty good all the way across, and then they add a guy like (DL) Dwight Freeney, who came in in my draft class, and you turn on Monday Night Football and he is getting sacks and disrupting the quarterback. You are aware of where those guys are at all the time. At the same time, I like our players and the guys we have and our matchups, too. I believe in the guys we have out there. We will have a good plan together and we will go out and execute. That is one thing that we have learned over the past few weeks playing against good defenses. At the end of the day, there are still things that you look at and go, 'Was it them or was it us?' Denver certainly made their plays and St. Louis made their plays, but we also had our opportunities, too. That is my focus and I think what we are talking about as an offense unit is just to go out and make sure we take care of our job and don't do the things that are going to hurt us. If we do that, then I think we will have a chance."
On if teams that play home games on turf are different when playing on a grass surface:
"Yeah, I definitely think there is a little bit of a difference just because the surface is different. There are certainly teams that take it into consideration when they are building their team. You look at the team speed of St. Louis, for instance. I definitely think they are a faster team on turf. Arizona, I don't know if that is the case or not because I think they are rolling the grass in and out still. They are grass all the time. I don't know if it will affect them as much. I know having been out there and played out there that that grass is a little different than grass in Ohio. The thing I see about these guys on tape is that they are reflective of their division. They are very physical, just like St. Louis, and I am sure we will find out with Seattle down the road here. That division is a very physical division. This defense plays very similar to St. Louis as far as the physicality and the way they approach the game."
On how the turf in St. Louis compares to the older versions of AstroTurf:
"It is not like landing on AstroTurf. I played in college on the old stuff and ran my 40 at the combine on the old stuff. It is way different. It doesn't skin you up and take off chunks of skin at a time like the old stuff did. I think everybody has welcomed that, everybody that has played on that old stuff. I don't know how many of the young guys even know it existed. I think obviously, with all of us if we had our choice, we would play on grass if we could just for the overall feel and the effect it has on the body. I don't think anything beats grass, in my opinion."
On pin-pointing why he has been sacked frequently:
"No, not necessarily. Other than that I give credit to the opponents we are playing against. That is just a byproduct of us having thrown the ball a lot those games. When you are throwing the ball a lot, that is just part of what is going to happen, especially if you are playing against teams that are good rushers. My confidence in the guys up front does not change or waver at all. It is still an outstanding group. I believe in them completely. I give credit to the guys across the ball from us. They are good players but so are our guys. From my part of it, I go back and look at those things and go, 'Could the ball have gotten out better or quicker?' I am constantly riddling myself over that. It is first and foremost on the quarterback to get the ball out and make the job of those five as easy as possible by understanding your reads and knowing where to go with the football. Those are the things that I look at when we talk about correcting it. What can I have done better to help get the ball out quicker and make their job easier?"
