Q: What impressed you most about Rueben Randle?
A: He’s NFL-ready – he runs the entire route tree. In this day and age in college football, it’s all about the spread offense, and guys don’t run the full tree. This kid runs the full tree. He kind of looks like a big, pro wide receiver out there with how he runs routes. I think he’s going to be a quick fit into the offense with how he plays; he’s big, he can post guys up. People mentioned Hakeem Nicks when we talked about him in our room. He’s not blazing fast; I don’t think Hakeem is blazing fast either. He’s game fast and he’s bigger than Hakeem – very good hands, ball skills. A talented football player.
Q: How close were you at taking Randle with the No. 32 pick in the first round?
A: He was in the discussion. There were five guys in the discussion, and he was one of the guys who we spoke about as well. We were really surprised a little bit with him still being there because we thought he would’ve gone early in the second [round]. He was still there, and I think we’re fortunate to get a guy of his caliber.
Q: Are any of those five guys still available?
A: No. They’re all gone.
Q: Why not move up a couple of spots to ensure you get the player you want?
A: We like using all of our picks, and we’ve moved up to get guys before and it hasn’t worked out that great for us. We’re a little bit leery of moving up and taking guys. We’ve done that in the past and I don’t think our success has been very good.
Q: In Hosely’s case, what did you say about the drug test?
A: It’s a personal conversation. We’re aware of that, obviously. He’s not the first one to have a situation like that. He’s a young kid—he’s very young. He’s 20 years old. He’s an early-out junior. He knows that’s a bad decision that he made and we expect better from him. We feel like we have a good player in him as well. He’s not a big man, but this guy has athletic arrogance. He plays like a big guy. His skill set, years ago, kind of reminds me of Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones – he plays kind of like that. He runs in there kind of like a little linebacker. He throws himself in there. He has outstanding cover skills. He’s productive. He’s an interceptor, he can intercept the ball, so we expect him to be in our nickel packages. And a bonus is that he’s a punt returner. He can return punts and kicks, but he’s probably a better punt returner than kick returner. He has a lot of good qualities that we like. We think if he was a couple of inches taller, he would be in the first [round] [in the conversation] with the first two guys—those two top corners.