On how his back is feeling: "Good. Glad to be back. Feeling a lot better than the few days I wasn't out there. It was back spasms."
On whether he had dealt with that before: "No, this was the first time. It was really scary. I didn't know what was going on so I decided to take some time off, see the doctors and that's what they told me it was. It was a big relief."
On what caused the back spasms:"I guess I wasn't doing enough crunches and sit ups. As a big guy you don't really think about it until it starts affecting you. Once that happens, you take it seriously and start doing everything that they tell you; like core, back knees, and neck are some of the most important parts of your body. You want to make sure you take care of that, make sure it's on track, and then everything else will follow."
On what he has seen out of guards Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner:"Norwell has stepped up. Especially in one-on-ones and all that, he's a tremendous player and I like going against him. He makes me better and going against the whole offensive line right now, we make each other better. In addition, going against Trai -- he's been at it for a while. He comes from the SEC and they have the whole hype behind them but he has backed it up. Seeing both of those guys work together at guard and going against them every day is making us all better."
On the ongoing defensive end rotation: "I have trust in all of the guys that we have in our room right now. You can put Frank (Alexander) in there, Mario (Addison), Kony (Ealy), you can take Charles (Johnson) out and put other people in – I'm still going to trust those guys you put in from that D-line room. We all put this work in during the off season and during camp and the coaches have the confidence in putting those guys out there."
