HEAD COACH JOSH McDANIELS

On whether his team is where it wants to be heading into the San Francisco game

"We're where I think we could be by now. We're going to find out a whole lot of what we need to work more on, on Friday night. I don't know whether I've ever been a part of a first preseason game that's gone exactly the way we wanted it to go. So I would expect there to be plenty of things for us to work on after Friday's film."

On how much he finds out in a game versus practice

"We're not out there yelling and screaming at them behind the huddle. We can't talk to them too much in-between plays. You really find out who knows kind of what's going on and if they can handle their role and their responsibility without us being in their ear every play. You're definitely going to find out some things about players that you may not have already figured out. But that's preseason."

On QB Chris Simms

"He's doing fine. He's getting better every day. He works extremely hard. He's very diligent in the meeting room. He's come out here and he's had some really good days, and then he's had some days where, you know, he's struggled. But that's kind of training camp. For a quarterback in this offense, that's kind of how it goes. You put in a bunch of stuff one morning. You go out there and you may not be totally comfortable with all of it. But you get better at it as you go and Chris has worked really hard at it."

On TE Tony Scheffler

"He can do a lot of things. Tony's very versatile. He's a guy, obviously, who's got very good speed and hands in the passing game. He's also shown a good solid toughness in the running game for us here in training camp. That will be important because when we're in those two tight end sets and want to try to run the ball, he and (TE) Daniel (Graham) and our other tight ends are really going to have to do a good job on the edge too. So we ask him to do a lot in our offense, and Tony's showed up and worked hard every day. He's getting better just like everybody else is."

On expectations for special teams in the San Francisco game

"It's been one of our focal points here in training camp every day. We worked on it for 35 minutes today in practice. (There are) so many areas for us to improve in the kicking game from last year, and we need to improve in them. We weren't very good last year in the kicking game in any phase. If we can improve in all four core phases and in our specialists' performances, then it's going to help our team dramatically. So we put a big emphasis on it, and we really want to see how this thing goes. We're going to put the best that we've got out there Friday night early in the game and see where we can take it."

On CB Alphonso Smith and WR Kenny McKinley returning punts

"We're just getting everybody work. (WR) Eddie (Royal) was back there earlier this week and Kenny didn't get as many earlier this week as Eddie did. So we had the two young kids split a little-well they're all young-but the two younger kids split the reps today. So you'll probably see all of them back there at some point in the preseason. But they need the work and they're willing to go back there and catch them and they're working hard to get better."

On how much he anticipates playing RB Knowshon Moreno in Friday's game

"Plenty. We're telling everybody to be ready to go for a long time, and Knowshon's in that group too. All our rookies and all our young kids need to play a lot. This is their first opportunity to play in a National Football League game and find out what it's all about. There's really no way to simulate the speed of the game in these kinds of practices and they're going to find out an awful lot about competition and what this is all about. So he needs to play, just like all the rookies do, and we have no plans on taking those guys out too early.

On whether anyone won't play/will be held out for precautions:

"Nope. We're going right now. We're telling everybody to be ready to go."

QUARTERBACK KYLE ORTON

On getting off to a good start against San Francisco

"I want to get off a good start, but the reality is it's the first preseason game, and I want to come out healthy and just keep on building for the first (regular season) game when it really matters."

On how long he anticipates he'll play against San Francisco

"I anticipate to play until he (Head Coach Josh McDaniels) tells me to come out of the game. I'm sure he's just going to see how the flow of the game goes. I'm sure he wants to get us some good situations down in the red zone and some other things. So I think the offense is taking the mindset that we'll play until he tells us to come out."

On if the starters will play the entire game

"I don't think we'll be playing the entire game, by any means, but I'm sure we'll play our fair share."

On WR Jabar Gaffney

"Jabar's a great player. When I first got here, going back, I took a look at some of the New England stuff just to kind of get an idea of how the offense flows. On all the big plays, you kind of rewind it and see who that receiver was making the big play, and it was Jabar. He might not have been the biggest name there, but he certainly made his fair share of plays, and he's really stepped right in and done the same thing here."

On Gaffney making plays in training camp

"Oh, no question. He's made big plays, he knows the offense, obviously, better than anybody, and he's kind of been a teacher of the group."

On Friday's game against san Francisco

"Obviously, you want to come out and get off to a good start, but really I just want to keep showing improvement, run the offense how the coaches want me to run it and ultimately get ready for the first game when it really matters."

On having guys who have been in the system like Gaffney and RB LaMont Jordan

"There's always little questions that pop up, and until you've been in live game situations, you don't exactly know which ones those are going to be. So having a guy who's been in this system for a while and knows it, that's good to have."

On the excitement of playing against the 49ers

"It's nice to play somebody else to see where you're at as a player, as a unit and as a team. We think that we're making improvements every day and we're going to be a pretty good football team. So we'll see where we're at come Friday."