Q. Who's your starting quarterback Sunday?
COACH SIRIANNI: Get right after it, right? We still got time to make that decision. Jalen is questionable, but we still have a little less than 48 hours to let the body heal, see what's going on even a little bit more.
So it's an unknown right now.
Q. How much work has he been able to do this week?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, he was limited the last two days. Obviously with Wednesday being a walk-through he was able to get a lot of mental reps, and all the guys were able to get a lot of mental reps, but limited the last two days.
And so, again, I feel confident with either guy, either of the guys if they have to go play the way they prepared all week.
Q. How will you do the first team snap distributions this week between he and Gardner?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, I don't know exactly what the count was on it, but like I said, I'm confident that because of the walk-throughs, you get so many reps in walk-through. That first day, that Wednesday, I think as an offense we got 125 walk-through reps.
And so Jalen got more than half of those, and then like I said, I don't know the exact count with the guys. Again, I feel confident that both of them will be ready to go when either of their numbers are called.
Q. (Regarding Jordan Howard.)
COACH SIRIANNI: Jordan Howard will be out.
Q. Boston Scott?
COACH SIRIANNI: Boston is questionable. Still seeing how you continues to recover.
Q. Would Boston be -- he hasn't had reps this week. Would that factor into the decision about whether he can play or not?
COACH SIRIANNI: I'm confident, again, just with where we are in the season right now, I'm confident that if Boston is up and ready to go, he's up and ready to go.
So I'm just waiting to hear back with his illness.
Q. With Jalen, how do you guys go about making that decision and who weighs in?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, a lot of parties at play to make sure we do what's best for Jalen and his body and obviously the team.
But player health is the first and foremost thing. So a lot of discussions with the trainers, doctors, we got to listen to Jalen, how his body feels.
So those are really the main guys of who is making that decision and helping make that decision.
Q. How much does the bye week change your thought process bringing other people in? Other words, do you say -- not with Boston -- but with injured guys you say, let's let this guy calm down maybe; we have the extra week; get ready.
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, not at all, to be honest with you. All you're thinking about is how you win this game, and that's kind of been my message, right? I'm not thinking about anything else but this game and how we win this game.
I don't want the players to be thinking about what they're doing next week or what they're doing two weeks from now. It's just how do we win this game.
But we always are talking about the player's health first. We want to make sure the guys are healthy and they're doing the right things.
But we won't put a guy out there that's not ready to go. Having the bye has nothing to do with it. It's just about what can we do to put our best product on the field to be able to beat the Jets.
Q. How has Jason Huntley shown through training camp? Sounds like you might need him. What has he shown you?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, speed, a lot of speed. I think every time he touches that football you can see how much speed he has.
And, you know, he's been here, and I think we do a good job, I really do believe we do a good job of giving our young guys extra reps to develop.
You add up the 15 plays that -- 5 plays a day that they're getting of our offense of our defense, I think that adds up throughout the year. I'm confident that he's been in a good room with a good coach and other good players that know how to mentally prepare. So, yeah, if Jason's number is called I'm really confident he'll be able to step in and do a good job.
Q. Jalen was really confident and said he's going to play. What would it take for him not to be out there?
COACH SIRIANNI: Again, if he's not ready to go -- I mean, again, we'll listen to all the different parties, and if he's not ready to go, he's not ready to go.
And so it's just going to be about what his body is telling him and what our trainers and doctors are saying. If he's ready to go, he'll go. If he's not, he's not.
Q. I guess what I was going to day is was it pain threshold? Was it his ability to run? Are there certain benchmarks you're looking for?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, not necessarily. Again, I don't want to say if he does this then he's playing, if he doesn't do this. It's just is he ready to go? I'm not the doctor in this scenario, not the trainer in this scenario. I got to listen to the guys in charge of that and have that the expertise in that and listen to them.
If he's ready to go he'll blame if not, he won't.
Q. If I could change the subject a little bit, you guys obviously had Joe Flacco for the first half of the year. He knows your quarterback room really well. Do you have to change verbiage or anything like that?
COACH SIRIANNI: You know, that's a good question, because there are a lot of times where you go to these great lengths to change verbiage and you screw yourself up.
But then there is a fine line in saying, Hey, we can really get them with this. So, you know, my experience is you go in there and you throw them off a couple times, and then they got to be -- maybe all the defensive lineman will come back to Joe and say, That's not what that is.
Again, you do enough to throw them off. You don't go overboard to where you screw yourself up.
But we been doing a lot of these things at the line of scrimmage for a lot of years together, right, with Shane and myself and Kevin, and so we have backup words that we have been practicing and that we use.
So if they're listening, we're going to have a couple things that will mess them up. Again, you don't want to go overboard there. So you avoid all extremes at both ends of the situation.
Q. On the flip side, you guys did the joint practices with the Jets but you didn't have Gardner at the time. Is there that element of surprise if you do have to roll with him?
COACH SIRIANNI: You know, yeah, I think so. Again, I would imagine they're looking at a lot of different angles of us just like we would look at a lot of different angle of them.
As far as the joint practices go, yeah, we're all looking at it. I know they're looking at the practices. We're looking at the practices. In all honesty, we are both different teams than when we went against each other in August.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports