Comments from Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox following the team's practice.
On injuries: Did not participate - Jon Beason (knee), Chris Gamble (hamstring), Nic Harris (head), Captain Munnerlyn (shoulder) and Travelle Wharton (toe). Full participation - Marcus Hudson (ankle), Ed Johnson (knee), Tyrell Sutton (ankle) and Jason Williams (knee).
On who would start at middle linebacker if Jon Beason cannot play: We'll have some fill-in possibilities, but at this point I don't want to consider the other options. But there are other options.
On if there is a chance Beason will practice on Friday: He's day-to-day.
On why cornerback Captain Munnerlyn did not practice: At this point in the season, everybody's banged up a little bit, and he's a got a shoulder that's been bothering him, so we held him out of practice.
On weakside linebacker Jason Williams: For a guy that wasn't at camp, wasn't here for about half the season, for the opportunity he's gotten...Back when we had the injury to Dan Connor and made the move with Jon back to Mike (middle linebacker), Nic Harris got the first look. He got nicked up, and Jason's gotten better each week. I don't think he's a well-oiled machine at this point. But he's worked hard at it, made some plays. He's got some skills. Now it's just knowing our defense.
On the idea of the Panthers playing the role of spoiler over the last four games: We go in with the idea the same every week - doing everything we can to win - and it won't be any different this week.
On why other teams' tight ends have had success against the Panthers' defense: A lot of times I've been places where people make a lot out of that. There are certain people that have tight ends that are gifted players. Like any player, whether it's a running back, quarterback or wide out, they find ways. We're going to see another one this week in Tony Gonzalez. We've just run through a string of tight ends that are pretty good, and they try to get them the ball.
