These quotes come via the Colts (6/11/2010). After the jump, Caldwell seems to give a less-than-stellar review of Curtis Painter when directly asked if Tom Brandstater's signing is an indication of the Colts being unhappy with Painter.
Jim Caldwell (discussing Donald Brown, Austin Collie, and Jerraud Powers): "There are a lot of similarities between those three. They are wise beyond their years. They are very settled. Powers, you would think he is 35 years old just in terms of his mannerisms, certainly not from a physical standpoint. But they are all very settled. I think they are extremely mature."
Jim Caldwell: "I think we got a lot accomplished. First of all, from an introductory standpoint, in terms of schematically things that we changed that are new, we were able to get familiar with those things. I think we improved in terms of overall execution. I think our team has a real strong work ethic. This is an eager and hungry group. I think overall that we improved almost in every single phase, not to the point where we’d say we’d be able to play tomorrow, but I felt good about what we got accomplished."
Jim Caldwell (discussing new QB Tom Brandstater): "We have not had a great opportunity to look at him other than seeing him on film in previous years, but we’re certainly happy to have him. He is a guy that has strength and size and is smart, so we threw him into some drill work and watched him from a mechanics standpoint. He looks like he has some potential. We’re excited to take a real good look at him in the fall."
Jim Caldwell (discussing Curtis Painter): "I think anytime they get into their second year or get a chance to immerse themselves within the concepts of our system, you can see some improvement. I can see that he is a little bit more comfortable in execution, in terms of his play calls and checks and things of that nature. He has a little bit better grasp in terms of his read progressions, and he is becoming a bit more accurate. All of those things, I think you’ve seen him improve upon. It’s not a real easy offense to grasp and manage, but I think he is improving day after day."
Jim Caldwell (on whether Painter's psyche was hurt as a result of Week 16 last year): "No. He’s a very resilient guy, and the other thing is that he knew it wasn’t necessarily aimed at him. It was more aimed at me than him. That was something I made certain he understood. It should have no effect on him in that regard."
Jim Caldwell (on whether signing Tom Brandstater is an indication that the team is unhappy with Painter): "I think you have to make certain that you look to improve anytime you can and throw some guys into the mix and see how they function, see if we can make ourselves a little bit better anyway we can possibly do it."