“Sorry for being late, we have this thing called football to do.”

Doug Pederson opened his Friday press conference by stating the obvious.

Less obvious is the health status of Tim Jernigan, which he described as “day-to-day.” Pederson said he’s “still optimistic” that the defensive tackle will play on Sunday. Cornerback Sidney Jones is more likely to get the green light along with right tackle Lane Johnson. Jones was a full participant in Thursday’s practice while Johnson was limited.

Other notes:

  • Jernigan still has not been activated to the 53-man roster, so they would have to make a corresponding move if he’s cleared (putting Ronald Darby on injured reserve with the torn ACL)
  • Jernigan is mixing in with the 1st team, each day is increasing his reps and will get a few more on Friday
  • Richard Rodgers is “in that Timmy conversation,” has done well this week and they’ll see where he’s at before heading to New Orleans
  • expects to see more snaps and more production with Golden Tate this week, they were able to coach him off of last week’s film and get him up to speed on some of the tempo code words they use
  • Doug compared Sidney Jones’ injury situation to that of Eric Fisher in Kansas City, early injuries are tough when guys are just starting out their NFL careers
  • Superdome is a loud place – they tried to go inside the NovaCare bubble this week and crank the noise to emulate at least something resembling Sunday’s road atmosphere

That’s about it, kind of a “meh” press conference. Full injury report in a few hours.