*On Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, Redskins HC Mike Shanahan addressed the media following afternoon practice at Redskins Park in Ashburn, VA. *

. On the health of cornerback David Amerson:
"He practiced today. He did some drill work. No contact. He passed his tests. He'll be tested every day and go through the protocol and if he passes his tests each day, he should be ready to go."
 
On if he has noticed a difference in Bears defensive end Julius Peppers, who has one sack this season:
"I'm just hoping that after this game he still only has one sack. Very talented player. They've had a couple of guys go down. Those guys should be ready for us, at least two guys, and two very, very good defensive players should be back this week."
 
On the role of tight end Fred Davis:
"We have got four tight ends that we believe are football players in the National Football League and each week it could change. We could have three guys up, we could have four guys up. Each week we've had four. It all depends on who practices great during the week. We're going to play our best players. Fred has come off an injury. Jordan Reed has really stepped up, especially in the passing game. He's gotten more reps and he's really taken advantage of that opportunity. We're going to evaluate these guys week-by-week and whoever practices the best and performs the best in practice we usually give that opportunity in the game."
 
On if Davis is moving as well as he did before the injury:
"Yeah, I think so. I think there was that setback after that – I forgot what game it was when he hurt himself – it took him a few days to recover from that. Besides that, his health is pretty good."
 
On if it is hard to incorporate two pass-catching tight ends into an offense:
"Anytime you've got talent, that's what you want. You want depth, and that's what I feel like we have. We have some depth at that position. We've got a lot of guys competing, guys that can do both – guys that can block, guys that can catch. That's why we kind of go through the week and determine who has the best practice and who can help us that week and sometimes it will be a scheme, sometimes it will be just a matchup. It all depends on the team we are facing."
 
On the Cowboys' defense adjusting to quarterback Robert Griffin III's success running by having linebacker Sean Lee spy him:
"First of all, they didn't have Sean Lee spying us. They played man-free and the two linebackers were free and whatever way the back went, that linebacker took that guy man-to-man. The other guy just was in the area and they played 3-deep zone. It wasn't a spy. It was just the type of defense that they run."
 
On if other teams will game plan more for Griffin III rushing than they did in the first four games:
"I think everybody will approach Robert differently, but you've got to get ready for a quarterback that has the ability to run and pass. There's no question about that. I think everybody could see that he made a couple of plays with his legs, so he is able to make plays where you couldn't really see that in the first four games. So, yeah, I think anytime you have a quarterback that can do a few things, it puts a lot more pressure on the defense."
*
On the growth he has seen from linebacker Perry Riley, Jr.:
"Perry is a worker. He's got a lot of athletic ability – his speed, his quickness, his toughness, and you want to keep him on the field as much as you can. As he gets more experience being a veteran player, we can expand his role. If it's blitzing or if it's one-on-one in coverage, he kind of has the ability to do it all. He's a playmaker and he just feels more comfortable every time he's out there. He's a big plus for our defensive football team."
 
On what Bears Head Coach Marc Trestman has done to return quarterback Jay Cutler to the level of success he had under Shanahan in Denver:
"Well, you can see that even though they do go downfield, they have a short passing game as well. That looks a little different than what I remember from the past. Yeah, everybody's got a little different flair on how they deal with the quarterback. You can see Jay right now feels very comfortable within their system and he's doing a good job."
 
On what he saw out of Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall when he drafted him in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft:
"We had [Elvis] Dumervil and him – we had Brandon – and [Domenik] Hixon. That was three guys in the fourth round that turned out being pretty good football players. Champ Bailey came up to me after the first minicamp we had and he said, 'What did this guy do? How come he lasted to the fourth round?' That was after the first day of one-on-one. 'He said he had to have done something bad, because there's no way this guy could last until the fourth round.' So that's what our players thought about Brandon the first time they had one-on-one. You could always see his speed on film. You know, he did play free safety the year before. Then, after the year at free safety, he went to wide receiver. You didn't see all that speed unless you worked him out one-on-one. But he was very talented, very strong. You have a hard time bumping him because with his strength, DBs usually just bounce off of him. That's one of the reasons why he's had so much success."
 
On if there are adjustments for young players like tight end Jordan Reed when defenses begin to focus on him: *
"Any time somebody takes somebody away, especially if it's a tight end, usually you have to double-team him, and if you do, then you open up somebody else and that's what you want. You want to have as many weapons as you can. Most people will try to put a corner or maybe a big safety on a guy, and hopefully, with their athletic ability, cover a guy like that… He's got a lot of confidence in himself and we've got a lot of confidence in him that not too many people can cover him one-on-one. He's got some size. He's got some strength. He knows how to set up people running routes and for a rookie, that's a little bit unusual."
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