Q: The other day Coach (Todd Haley) said that the time a QB has with his WRs is an overrated thing. Do you believe that?

MATT CASSEL: “As a QB you’d love to develop some rapport and a relationship with your receivers, and as long as they’re going out there, doing their job, being at the right depths and running the right routes, then I think you can get in a rhythm pretty quickly.”

Q: Is it just a comfort thing knowing where a guy is going to be, or are there some actual tangible things that come along with time?

CASSEL: “I think with time you start to realize what somebody does well, what their strengths and weaknesses are, what routes you like them on, what you don’t. Right now, we try to accelerate the learning curve with a guy like WR (Chris) Chambers who just came in last week. I’ve watched some film on him, I know that he’s a good player and he does certain things well, and maybe certain routes that you don’t throw as much to him.”

Q: What was it like for him, he said he didn’t even know his routes all that well on the last couple of drives, but he executed and he said that was experience, what was it like in that moment for him?

CASSEL: “I don’t know what it was like for him in the huddle, I know it was going about 100 miles an hour because we were in two-minute mode, so we were getting up to the line of scrimmage, we’re getting in and out of the huddle trying to preserve a little bit of the time we had, and so he did a great job of adapting to the situation and just kind of going and learning on the fly. He made some big plays for us.”

Q: Were you kind of filling him in on certain things?

CASSEL: “Sometimes, if there was a little help, or just a reminder here or there, but he did a great job.”

Q: Did you say you watched film on him?

CASSEL: “Just watched him a little bit throughout the course of the last year, you know he played for San Diego so it was really easy to get that film and watch some of the things he did in route running and how he caught the ball in certain situations.”

Q: Does it help for a WR to know the QB well too, so he’ll know what you’re going to do in certain situations?

CASSEL: “I’m sure it does, especially, when you know the system. I think it’ll help when certain hots are here, or they’re going to force us to throw slants because we have a sight-adjust on, or something like that. It really does help a WR to know that this ball needs to come out quickly because of the protection scheme or that I can hold on to it which gives them more time to run their route.”

Q: Theoretically, how long does it take for a QB and a WR to establish that rapport?

CASSEL: “I don’t know. Last week, it happened pretty quickly with myself and Chambers. It just goes back to both parties doing their job and Chambers did a great job of being in the right spot last week and knowing what he was supposed to do.”

Q: Does he bring an element that maybe you guys didn’t have as far as WRs go?

CASSEL: “He definitely brings speed, he’s savvy, he’s definitely a professional – he’s been in the NFL for a long time. Any time we’re lucky enough to have a guy like that on the team, he brings a lot of veteran leadership as well.”

Q: How much did the offense change from when Chan (Gailey) was in charge?

CASSEL: “It’s hard to say. We never got to go into a regular season game and gameplan and do those things with Chan. It definitely changed dramatically from the time that Coach took over the play-calling responsibilities from when Chan was here.”

Q: What else changed in terms of terminology and other things?

CASSEL: “There’s terminology, there’s route concepts, there is a lot that changed throughout the course [of the transition]. Formationally, for the most part, there has been some carry-over.”

Q: WR Lance Long seems to be your new favorite receivers, how did he go from being on practice squad three weeks ago to being the guy you throw to the most on Sunday?

CASSEL: “Well there’s a reason why he’s on the field on Sunday. Obviously the coaches noticed something and noticed that he had a spark and he’s definitely got a great skill-set and a great skill level. He came out Sunday, he prepares hard, he works hard, he’s diligent about what he does, and he came out and he performed. Anytime he gets open and I’m able to get him the ball, that’s a good thing.”

Q: What are his skills?

CASSEL: “He’s a great slot receiver. He’s got tremendous quickness, he gets in and out of his breaks well, he catches the ball, he’s a tough guy – he’s not afraid to lay in a block on a linebacker or a safety. He’s a great player and he’s been helping us, there’s no doubt about that.”

Q: How tough has it been and how big has the challenge been this year with the WRs changing since training camp and the shuffling on the offensive line, and now the switch at RB, how big has the challenge been to get some consistency?

CASSEL: “It starts with me doing my job first. I can’t worry about all the outside distractions. I have to have confidence in the guys up front. I have to have confidence in the guys on the outside, and the guys behind me that everybody is going to do their job. At times there’s been inconsistency and it’s not because of any one thing – it’s not because of all the rotation that you just talked about, and the carry-over and change. It just goes back to us playing better fundamental football on a consistent basis and that’s what will make us better.”

Q: Does your return to Oakland have special meaning or will it be emotional after last year when your father passed away before you played at Oakland with New England?

CASSEL: “Yeah, it definitely brings back memories already; I’ve talked about it with my wife a little bit. It was a tough game last year. My father passed away last year during this week, it’s a tough go, anytime you lose your father during that, but it was a great way to honor him last year by getting a victory up there in Oakland and have the team rally around me. It was a special day in my career, there was no doubt about that.”

Q: You put up good numbers the last time you played Oakland, what can you take out of that game from earlier this year, what were you doing well in that game?

CASSEL: “Well, we just executed well. I thought we ran the ball well throughout the course of the day. We took what was there in the passing game. We’ve got to go in with the same mentality and we have to eliminate the turnovers that we had last game. Obviously I threw two interceptions and if we can eliminate those, create drives and put ourselves in a better situation at the end of the game, then we’ll be in position to win.”

Q: They’re at different stages in their careers, but do you see a little bit of (Patriots) WR Wes Welker in WR Lance Long?

CASSEL: “I do, you know, he’s got a similar mentality in that he’s a bulldog. He just goes out there and he works hard. Like I said, he’s a guy that you really do want to see in the slot in terms of his quickness and how he goes about his business. There are definitely some resemblances between Welker and Lance.”

Q: A few years ago, QB Trent Green’s father passed away and he talked to us about how important it was for him to go out and perform well to honor of his dad. Was that in your mind last year?

CASSEL: “There’s no doubt. It was such a whirlwind of emotion last year. My father passed away on a Tuesday and I got the news, and then I left for the next two days to be with my family and make arrangements and then I came back and had a good discussion with Coach (Bill) Belichick and decided that I would be ready to go and Coach (Josh) McDaniels was my position coach last year and was a huge rock for me during that time and really helped me and said whatever you have to do to get ready for this game, let’s do it. But I think it’ll be a great way to honor your father. And we went out and it was pretty special because of the way the whole team reacted. Even after the game, there was a lot said and done.”

Q: So that will be something that’s on your mind whenever you play?

CASSEL: “I think there are always those memories there, you know. They’re not all good memories, but they’re definitely memories and it’ll probably be a little bit emotional but at the same time I’ll look at it as a way to go out and honor him on Sunday.”