Q: What does the bye week mean to you? Is it a time to preserve your body for the remainder of the season?
RG: Yeah, it's resting up. You've got some days off now. You want to take your mind off of football, get your body healed, get stronger, just get away from the game for a couple of days and then come back refreshed next week ready to roll.
Q: What was your reaction to hearing Jimmy Garoppolo was traded?
RG: He's a special player. He gained a lot of trust with all of his teammates here. I've seen many, many trades here since I've been here so, I'm not really shocked anymore when I see a trade like that, but it's really good for him. I wish him the best. He's a really good player.
Q: What are your thoughts on bringing Brian Hoyer back here to the organization?
RG: Yes, I played with him my rookie year and second year. He's a great dude. It's good to see him back. When you see a player like Jimmy go and with everything that he's brought to the table and the connection that you've built through the years with him and then it's good to see that we have Brian come in. We've had a connection since my rookie year. He's thrown a couple of touchdowns to me in preseason before, my rookie year. It's good to see him back.
Q: What makes you believe that Jimmy is a special player?
RG: He's good. He's a good player. We'll see how it pans out, but he's a good player.
Q: Does he still have to go out there and prove himself?
RG: Sure. He did a great job when he was here. Every time that we went into the huddle with him he did super well. He always threw nice passes when he was in. What he was asked to do, he was doing it at top speed.
Q: Will you be surprised if he goes out there and succeeds or do you already think he has the skills to be a starting quarterback in this league?
RG: I won't be surprised at all.
Q: What do you guys have to get better at in the second half of the season?
RG: I would say putting more points up on the board. Red area - we've been getting stopped quite a bit, just kicking field goals. We had six field goal attempts last game, so I would say we've got to improve in that area for sure. Finishing the drive and putting points up on the board
Q: Are you concerned at all about another wide receiver in Chris Hogan appearing to be shaken up a bit by injury? You guys are starting to take some lumps injury-wise.
RG: Yes, I mean, it's football. It happens and it's just kind of like the next man up as an organization. As I see the wide receiver group, they all work hard. They're all studying every day and they all go out to practice ready to work. Whatever the situation is I know that they'll be giving their best shot out there and they'll do fine.
Q: How do you feel physically after the first eight weeks of play?
RG: I mean, I'm feeling pretty good. We just had a good day of practice today, just going over and reviewing some stuff, doing some red-area stuff, just overall a good practice, a solid practice before we take a couple of days off. But it's good to get that run in before you get a few days off, but I'm feeling good. You can always take a break, definitely. I truly believe in the bye week to get away from football and let your body heal, let your body rest and hopefully when I come back I'm feeling way better.
Q: Despite it being a business, is it still weird to see guys like Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garoppolo here one day and then gone the next?
RG: I mean, yeah, it is, for sure. You're not surprised, but at the same time you kind of are surprised. It's definitely a little weird feeling. We just had those two backup quarterbacks with us this year and then you see they're going to be starting for other teams, and then the guy that was throwing me touchdowns my rookie year in preseason games seven or eight years ago comes back and now he's our backup quarterback, so that's kind of shocking, for sure. I definitely didn't see that playing out, but it's the NFL. You see things like that happen all the time now.
Q: Has your routine throughout the bye week changed at all through your career or is it pretty much the same?
RG: I would say it's definitely evolved a little bit. Definitely put more time into getting the body more right. I'm not 21, 22 now anymore. I would say I'm probably spending a little more time on the body, just getting it right so I come back fresh.
