Pat Narduzzi talked about the defense, the tight ends and more after Tuesday’s practice. Here’s a full rundown of his remarks.

Narduzzi: Just finished practice number eight. We had a great scrimmage indoors because of the snow last Saturday. Really had a nice scrimmage. The defense ended up winning the scrimmage; I don’t know if you guys heard that or not. But the defense won the scrimmage. We did some great things defensively and offensively; I guess after the first scrimmage, the offense is a little bit behind the defense. But like I said, great things both ways. We actually went to a two-minute at the end to win it and the defense stopped the offense, so that’s kind of how it ended.

As you guys move into Week Three now, are there are any sort of position changes or alterations that you’re considering?
Narduzzi: Not really. It’s been pretty stable. The great thing is, there’s not a lot of moving around. Herndon’s played a little defense early, but he’s been focusing on offense and doing a great job. But really, at this point, there’s not a lot of moving around. There’s a lot of, you know, from first to second, there’s movement up and down the depth chart but no position changes that I can think of. Deslin Alexandre’s playing a little bit inside, tackle, and really doing a great job. And defensive end - he’s doing both in there.

It’s one of those things they always say - defense starts faster than offense - but do you think it’s especially the case this year because you have so many experienced players back on defense?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I think for sure, defensively, you know, the front seven is pretty mature. There’s no new guys in there. Jaylen Twyman’s playing really well for one of the newer guys in there. There’s a lot of experience on defense. But they are still dealing with new stuff that we’re doing that’s different than we’ve done in the past. Offensively, again, we’re trying to replace some linemen up front and I think it’s always harder offensively because you’re trying to install slowly enough for your kids to pick up what you’re doing.

What’s the status of Chris Clark?
Narduzzi: Chris has stepped away right now, really, for personal reasons. I talked with his mom and dad - personally, there’s some things he’s trying to deal with that he needed to step away right now. So he’s away from the program and, you know, our best wishes are for Chris and his family to make it through these tough times.

So the door’s still open for him to return at some point?
Narduzzi: I never - that’s something that we haven’t really discussed. Right now, his wellbeing is the most important thing.

That leaves you with three second-year guys at tight end. What have they shown you this spring?
Narduzzi: Up and down, really. I think as the offense is being installed, those are three very talented guys. Sear, Charles Reeves and Grant Carrigan, I mean, three very talented guys that are going to all play for us next year, period. It’s not like you’re saying, ‘Hey, these two are really good and this one, not ready;’ all three of them do things - I would probably say Carrigan’s probably the best blocker at this point and can still run at 290. Just like Charles can run at 290. But they’re all doing different things that you kind of go, ‘Wow,’ so we’ll have an assortment of guys to be able to put in the game.

Those guys are both 290?
Narduzzi: Oh, I think so. Yeah. You can put them on the scale. They’re between 285 and 290. And they can run.

Is that a position now where you look in the offseason to see if there are any guys available who are older and have more experience like you did with Matt last year?
Narduzzi: Not really, unless there’s something that pops out there. We feel good with the three guys that we have. We’ve got a young group of defensive ends that have all been told they’re big athletes that can move over and play tight end as a young guy. So we’re prepared for that as well. We’ll find out when they come into camp who can do what.

How have the quarterbacks been through two weeks and a scrimmage?
Nadruzzi: They’ve been really good. I’m happy with where Kenny is right now. First of all, I’m happy that they’re staying healthy; the defense is staying away from them. But Ricky’s doing a nice job as well. They’re both probably where we’d want them to be right now.