WR Anthony Schwartz (8.31.21)

On if the past 24 hours were nerve-racking while waiting to learn whether he made the initial 53-man roster:

“It was pretty nerve-racking just knowing that you are losing a lot of guys and you still never know if it is going to be you or if it is going to be someone else. It is a little nerve-racking, but it is great to still be here and great to be part of the team. I am ready to work.”

On his biggest takeaways from playing in his first preseason game on Sunday:

“Really, the best thing was just being able to play football again. The last time I played in a football game was back in December of last year. It was great to just be back out there. It was great to be out there on an NFL field playing with an NFL football team against another NFL football team. It was just amazing. I can’t wait to do it some more.”

On if special teams coordinator Mike Priefer expressed excitement about using him as a returner and what that did for him as he was fighting through an injury during training camp:

“Me and Coach (Priefer), we talked a lot, especially during the spring when I got here, just about returning. I told him when I came here, I did not return in college. He said we were going to work hard in getting you returning and getting you comfortable. It was great during the spring and even coming back here to get returning. It is a little tough not being able to get those reps again because it is different than playing receiver. You have to be completely comfortable catching kicks. Going back on it, I try to just visualize myself catching kicks when I am watching practice and then when I was able to go back out and practice, I pretty much was right where I left off just being calm, being confident and just building on from there.”

On the difficulty of catching kickoffs:

“I would say it is more difficult than it seems just because it is up in the air for a while and so sometimes you might lose a split second of focus, and you have to keep it on because if you lose it, that is when the muffs happens and that is when the little bobbles happen. It has to be perfect because a little bobble or muff can mean that much from scoring a touchdown and getting a good return to getting a bad return or even losing the ball.”

On how meaningful it was to get reps with QB Baker Mayfield at Atlanta:

“It was very great because of course Baker is our quarterback. We ride with him. Practice is practice. You are going to get comfortable in practice, but the game is a whole different thing. You are going against different people. You are going against another team. There is pressure on there. It was great to get those reps with Baker and just build on it some more.”