After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers concluded practice on Friday morning, Head Coach Dirk Koetter fielded questions regarding tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who was absent from the facility. His comments are below. Koetter, who had not yet had an opportunity to collect all the necessary information, said there would likely be more to come regarding Seferian-Jenkins's situation later on Friday.
On tight end Austin Seferian Jenkins' issue Friday morning:
"Obviously there was a situation that we became aware of this morning and we just don't know all the details yet. By the time we found out, we were into meetings this morning and we've been on the practice field, so right now we don't have all the information. We're aware of it, [General Manager] Jason [Licht] and I will be getting together this afternoon and whatever's going to happen will be forthcoming."
On if Seferian Jenkins has now taken a step back with his progress:
"Again, I don't have all the details. I wish I could give you more, but I just don't have the details. I've been busy this morning and by the time we found out about it, we've got to come out to practice, we have meetings. They'll be more to come."
On if he has a standard punishment for players in these situations:
"Again, we're talking about something where we don't know the details. I'm not aware of everything that went down yet. There's all kinds of policies in place by the league and that sort of thing, so it's just premature for me to say anything more about that."
On Seferian-Jenkins missing practice:
"That is correct, we have a player that's missing from practice. So any time a player's missing from practice, we want to find out the reason why. We want to make sure that they're okay, the number one thing is player's safety, to make sure everybody's okay. After we find out what the situation is, then we will address it and we will react accordingly, based on what the league policies are, what the team polices are, what ownership's policies are. There's a lot to go through. I've been at practice. I've been busy getting ready for the Rams since 6:30 this morning."
On if he has contingency plans in place for players missing practice:
"Any time a player's not here, obviously you have to have a contingency plan. We talk about it all the time: You've got your 53 guys and you have your 46 who you think are going to be active on game day, but what happens if a guy wakes up Sunday morning with the flu and can't go? Yeah, you have to have contingency plans for everything. A player's not a practice today, we had to adjust, be ready to go. Guess what, the game's going to go on at 4:05 and the guys that are dressed down for the Bucs, we're going to be trying to figure out a way to beat the Rams and we hope the crowd will get behind us and help us."
