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McCarthy: It's great to have James Jones back

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is excited to have James Jones back.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy spoke with the media Monday following his team's 53-man roster cuts and the signing of James Jones over the weekend. Here are some highlights from his presser:

On James Jones:

It's great to have James Jones back. He looks good, obviously everybody's excited. He has a certain energy about him, obviously a very good fit for us, excellent player for us. I'm glad he's back.

Things happen in free agency and players move on. He's been a big part of our success in the past.

Learning curve for him?

It'll be new concepts, there are every year, but variations of concepts that existed when he was here. I don't think he'll have any major learning curve or anything like that. He'll focus mainly on the game plans and things like that and the pass concepts that are in for this week.

James is a guy you see here late at night. i'm sure he'll be here all night getting ready.

On Myles White's release:

Myles White did a heck of a job. Obviously he did enough to make our 53, but things went in a different direction, that's a part of the business. Those are tough and hard decisions.

Personally, I haven't talked to Myles yet, I'm sure we'll have a conversation.

On Jared Abbrederis:

Jared just needs to play. I mean, he hasn't played a lot of football. It's great to continue to work with all of those guys.

The thing that really impressed me about Jared was his ability to catch punts and handle the football.

On facing the Bears:

Saturday is probably the worst day of the year, Sunday is a transition day, you're trying to focus on game plan meetings. It's a big time rivalry, something we all enjoy playing in. This is distinctly different playing Chicago the first game of the year down there. John Fox is an outstanding coach, I've had the chance to compete again John a number of times. He's put together an outstanding coaching staff. This is a whole different challenge for us, it's something we're getting ready for. 

On saying the Packers will kick the Bears' a**:

I don't really talk to our football team the way I talk to the Chamber of Commerce.

What's different for them?

They're obviously changing the personnel. His teams (Fox) are going to play a different way. You look at the things they've asked their offense to do, you try to anticipate what they're going to do.

On Bruce Gaston:

He's made a big leap. He deserves to be on the 53. I saw him here a lot, he put a lot of time in. it's exciting to see guys like that take advantage, he's done a very good job.

On Datone Jones and Letroy Guion:

We want Datone and Letroy here. We'll keep them in the same routine and make sure they're ready.