New Orleans Saints Quarterback Chase Daniel
Media Availability
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
How did your injury occur?
"I hit it on a helmet at practice on Monday."
Have you injured your throwing hand before?
"I have. It was in high school actually. I fell down, got tackled, (my) thumb went straight to the ground and bent backwards and I actually finished playing the same game."
Coach Vitt told us the injury was a hairline fracture but that you should be fine when training camp opens. Is that how you understand it?
"Yes, the way I see it is that it's a lot more of a sprain than a hairline fracture. When we saw the x-rays, there was a little bitty line right there, but literally it feels like a jammed thumb right now. The swelling has come down a lot. It's getting better already and that's a good thing."
Coach also said that if you guys were practicing that it would sideline you two-and-a-half weeks. If this were the regular season, could you see yourself playing in a game?
"No doubt. I wanted to practice today, but they (coaching staff) thought, "Just sit out. Get the other guys some reps. You've done a great job." It's probably smart for me to not go and to give it some rest and the way I've seen it, it will give my shoulder some rest for giving me all those extra reps. I see it as a good thing. It's going to be fine."
This was a different OTA and minicamp for you than usual. Can you reflect on what you feel you accomplished and how it all went for you?
"I think it went as well as it could possibly go for me. I think the main thing that I was wanting to do was to get the confidence of my teammates. I think without a doubt, I've done that. The guys believe in me. They know I can run this offense and win in the NFL. Quite frankly, I think I can too. Do I have a long way to go? Absolutely, but I think this was the perfect opportunity for me to get into the type of offense we have, show the coaching staff and show my teammates, the players, that I can do it in a season if my name is called upon."
In this situation you get all of the OTA and minicamp reps. Does that give you confidence if you have to take all the reps in August? Could the situation happen better for you?
"It couldn't have. Right now, and I was talking to coach Vitt about this, this was the perfect situation for me as a player. I get to go in and run with the ones and experience being in the huddle. I think I grew into the role. It really fit me well. I have no doubt I can play in this league and play at a high level given the chance."
Going back to the injury for a second, last week you had the incident with a defensive player. Did you hit your thumb on a defensive player's helmet on Monday or was there too much physicalness?
"There wasn't too much physicallness. Do I wish it hadn't happened? Absolutely. It happened in a two-minute drill at the end of practice. It was really just a freak accident and we got pretty lucky. It could have been a lot worse. I'm probably going to be throwing in two-and-a-half, three weeks."
Whose helmet was it?
"I'd rather not get into that. It doesn't matter."
Are you still talking regularly with Drew Brees?
"Yes, I am. I got off the phone with him a couple of days ago when this happened to talk to him about everything and how practices were going, really just to set my schedule for this coming month out in San Diego with him."
Do you have just a soft cast or anything on it?
"Pretty much, it's a special kind of brace. This injury is different than if you were an offensive linemen, tight end, or running back. You could get a full cast, be in it three weeks, be back in no time, and really play with it. It's a little bit different with a thrower and a little bit different when you're throwing with your right hand and your thumb. It's made out of this carbon graphite material. It gives a little bit, but it holds the joint and the bottom part of my thumb in place. It really doesn't move. It still gives my wrist flexion and my four fingers flexion and really my thumb flexion from the top joint up. You don't have to worry about coming back and losing strength in any of those places, constantly flexing my wrist and hands. I take it off for a shower, so it's not something that's permanent."
Is it sort of like a splint?
"It's sort of a new-age type of splint. You could call it that."
