Opening Comments:
Good evening. No need to discuss the first three [picks], right? We talked about them earlier. Jerry’s already has been in here.
Adrien Robinson is a guy who we really like athletically. He did an outstanding job in his workout. Doesn’t have much to show for his collegiate career – not many catches. Was a move guy – did some good things with the move action. Blocked in space pretty well. Wasn’t used that much as a receiver. We do think he has those qualities, but he’s a big kid. He’s much more than that. We think he can develop. We think with Mike Pope, just like a lot of people think, he can become the player that we hope that he will be.
Brandon Mosley was an outstanding player in college; came from a junior college. He has actually played on both sides. Has very good gym numbers. Ran well in the 40-yard dash. We think he has good flexibility. He may be a guy that can handle learning both guard and tackle right away, so we look forward to that.
McCants, a big, tall kid. I just asked him a minute ago what he weighed. He said he was 315. That’s a good thing. He has great big, long arms, almost 36-inch arms. He has played on the left side. I kidded around with him about being Secretariat. That he is not. He has such height, he’s going to get bigger and bigger, and he may give us some flexibility. We’re going to start him out on the left side, and if we have to move him to the right side, that’s fine. But he’s excited.
Both of these guys are physical players: this Mosley guy, if he has a chance to put you on your back, he’ll do that. McCants did the same thing. He hustles, he works. You see him downfield trying to get after people, and I watched him earlier in games against outstanding competition, so I was glad to see the way he played. There’s no question in my mind that in the fourth round we did a very good job, where we picked, in getting what we call "true value" for those two spots. Same thing with McCants at the spot where we took him.
Kuhn we had evaluated at a little bit higher level. You talk about gym numbers, now he’s got them. All the way across the board he had done very, very well in the gym numbers, as we say, in terms of the way he worked out. He is a physical player. He’s a penetrator. I think he’s learning the game, and I think a lot of it is in front of him. From a standpoint of drafting where we were at the bottom of each round and remaining there, I think we have addressed some of the circumstances that we had to address with quality, quality people.
And I spoke of our first three rounds earlier and I do feel very good about playmakers on both sides of the ball in regards to that. You can never have enough corners, for example, in the Hosley decision. There’s a competitive guy. A good cover guy. Very, very fast. I asked him where he was. He’s not 170, he’s 182 when I spoke to him last night.
Q: Adrien Robinson didn’t catch many passes in college. How far away is he?
A: He’s got a lot of work to do to understand the pro game, but he seemed to handle the things that he was asked to do very well. He was used as the motion guy and then brought back in the rim. You see so much of the running game today, the zone run off of what we call the rim action with the tight end or the receiver or the fullback coming back across the formation, giving you a little misdirection, helping set up the naked. He did that. He did that well.
Q: Jerry Reese called him the JPP of tight ends.
A: He’s athletic, a very, very athletic guy.
Q: Is that based on his potential?
A: Yeah, sure it is. Obviously on paper he hasn’t quite achieved that, but we think that he can and it’s all in front of him and we’re anxious to get to work with him.
Q: He’s got the same sort of "sky’s the limit" potential?
A: Well I don’t know. Let’s watch him play a little bit before we get into that. He is very athletic. His numbers are outstanding. He’s very anxious to get going. We think he’s untapped and that’s why, I think, Jerry basically said what he said.
Q: How much is it a factor that you have a tight ends coach in Mike Pope that can develop those guys?
A: It’s a big factor. But to be honest with you, it’s also a factor out there because the college players all know about Mike Pope and the coaches in college know about Mike Pope. As a matter of fact, the people in professional football do as well. So when one comes our way, chances are you’re going to hear comments about ‘Well, Mike Pope will coach that guy and he’ll be a football player.’ We’re hoping that can continue.
Q: Was his blocking okay in college?
A: Yeah, it was. He blocked in space very well, which tells you a little bit about his athleticism. I don’t think he had as many opportunities, nor did he do as well when he stood at the line of scrimmage. How’s he going to do when a six-eye steps over him at 290, the defensive ends we play against? That remains to be seen. But he does have big, long arms. He’s all of that. It’s going to not be easy for him because when you’re building strength with that kind of arm length the numbers don’t always show up, but he’s very interested in being as good as he can be. He sees it as an opportunity here and he’s real excited about it.
Q: Have you met any of these guys since you picked them?
A: No. No we didn’t. No. But our rookie minicamp won’t be this weekend, but it will be the following weekend and then they can stay.
Q: Brandon Mosley can play guard?
A: Well I think he can. We may even slide him in there to start.
Q: He hasn’t played guard before?
A: He’s played both tackles, I can tell you that. Now whether he’s played guard or not, I don’t really recall that.
Q: What is it that you see that makes you say ‘This guy can play guard’?
A: He can run. He’s athletic. He has all the numbers. If you go ahead and look at them, his numbers at the combine were outstanding in terms of all of his run, jump, change of direction kind of stuff and strength-wise too. I think he had 30 reps.