On Saturday's last two picks…
Mike Tannenbaum: Just to touch on the last two picks. Anthony Schlegel, LB from Ohio State, we liked his production, leadership and versatility. He was a sophomore captain at Air Force before he transferred, which really peeked out at us.
Eric Smith was a team captain at Michigan State. He was a productive player who had four interceptions his senior year. We think he'll come in and help at the safety position and be a core special teams player with us. He has outstanding character. From a leadership standpoint, we feel good about today and we have a second round draft pick next year from the Redskins.
On Saturday's last two picks…
Eric Mangini: When watching A.J. Hawk, Schlegel kept showing up and showing up. It's something when you go to watch one player and the other guy keeps making tackles. This is a guy that hunts wild boar with a knife to give you an idea of the toughness this guy has. He's an impressive guy. He's very likeable and you want to play with a guy like that.
In terms of Eric Smith, we looked at him as a core special teams player, smart and impressive in meetings. With these players we can address the inside part of the defense.
On the Ohio State players drafted…
Mangini: I think whether it is Ohio State guys or Virginia, these core programs have the same belief systems we have. I liked all the Ohio State guys we brought in here and they are very similar types of players. When you look at the program a guy comes from, you can tell a lot about him and that's a positive in our minds.
On the Ohio State players drafted…
Tannenbaum: When you look at the depths of that Ohio State team, you have players like Whitner, obviously Hawk, Youboty, and on the other side of the ball you have Santonio Holmes. Obviously that's a very talented team. We ran everything by Mike Nugent and he was fine with it.
On being pleased with the draft today…
Tannenbaum: I'm going to sleep on a bed of nails tonight (laughing). I feel good about what we have done today as an organization. Are we done? No. We have a long way to go still. We have five solid players that we think will help us short term and long term.
Again, we also added a second round draft pick next year. At the quarterback position we have depth there we didn't have. At the offensive line position, we have depth and flexibility. You can look at Trey Teague's career. He did play tackle with the Denver Broncos. Obviously it's up to Eric who plays, so we have flexibility there we didn't have. Otherwise, two guys we picked will help on defense and special teams will really help us.
On the possibility of drafting a running back…
Tannenbaum: We're going to measure the board and needs from the first pick to the seventh pick. Jesse Kaye isn't going to let us stray far from that board.
On the draft process with the new staff…
Jesse Kaye:It's been very good. As I stated last week we knew Eric a bit and we knew Mike of course. We didn't know how things would change. Everyone was a little apprehensive at first, but we felt good in the meetings and quickly built up some reform meetings. Both Eric and Mike allowed it to happen and added their input. We felt good about it but you're apprehensive anytime you are in a new situation like that. I feel good about it. I think we were very prepared and what we did today was a reflection of the organization.
On the stressing of the importance of leadership…
Jesse Kaye:It was a definite profile of character, football character and competitor that Eric was looking for and Mike wanted in this organization. It is very important what we did. It was highly emphasized and became a part of what we were doing.
On Reggie Bush going second and the choice of keeping the fourth pick…
Mangini: We looked at need, the board and players and once those things fit together we took the best player at that spot. It played out the way it played out and we are really happy with the people we got at those spots.
I think Mike's point about what we did for next year is that we do have an extra second pick for next year and we are trying to build the future and the process took a great step forward today. With the people we have, our thinking is not just for this year but for next year and the year after. We're always going to try to put ourselves in the best situation possible to succeed year in and year after.
On the draft today…
Tannenbaum: I really think since '93 the worm has turned and evolved into the need base approach. You try to marry the two. To sit here and say are we going to take an offensive lineman over a quarterback - I think could be different. You look at teams in the past losing players to free agency I think if you guys look at what happened in free agency in the first three rounds and go team-by team, you can clearly see what teams needed in the first round.
To highlight a team, look at what Indianapolis did in the first round. They lost Edgerrin and took Joseph Addai, and we could go over a lot of that. That's not to necessarily say that's Bill Polian's philosophy but since '93 there has been an evolution toward free agency and that you have to look at need as well as the board and try to keep the two as consistent as possible.
On Chad Pennington…
Mangini: In terms of Chad's rehab, there aren't a lot of parallels with his injury and football. His rehab is on track. You guys know Chad as well as I do, if not better, and you know what type of person he is. He was here at 7:00 this morning working out and doing rehab, that's who he is. He's going to put himself in the best possible situation to succeed. That's what he's always done and that's why he's been as successful as he has. I can tell you he will do everything he can to put himself in the best possible position.
On Quarterbacks…
Tannenbaum: I think stock piling quarterbacks is good business. You look at what Green Bay did. You look at the Aaron Brooks' of the world and the Mark Brunell's and drafting quarterbacks all the time. You look at Tom Brady being the fourth quarterback his rookie year. Drafting quarterbacks is a good business. Competition makes the best of it. All of us at the end of the day will play the best quarterback.
On talking with New Orleans about possible trade up…
Tannenbaum: We spent a lot of time over the last 72 hours hypothesizing and I think everyone in this room would say this is a harder year to say player X is going to go here, player Y is going to go here. So we were prepared for the uneventful, which people would say was Reggie Bush not going number one. I felt really good about, like Jesse said, our preparations for today. I tried to worry about things we can control as an organization. We took measured and deliberated steps and assessed opportunities and risks.
At the end of the day the decisions we made were solid from the standpoint that there was an agreement in the room collectively. We are going to keep measuring opportunities. Tomorrow we are on the clock early. We have two number fours, a number five, and a seven. We'll see what opportunities present themselves tomorrow.
