Jets Brass on Clemens & Mangold
On the QB situation…
Mike Tannenbaum: We have four quarterbacks on our active roster and this is not to say that one of them is on the block or we're going to cut this person. We now have better depth at the quarterback position. That's where we are right now. We have two more picks on the first day. We have already taken three and we did add the second round pick for next year. So now we're going to go from there.
On the second and third selections…
Eric Mangini: The two people we added to the team in addition to D'Brickashaw are great people. I think they have all the qualities we're looking for. Nick is incredibly smart as a center. He took care of all Ohio State's line calls and got their offensive line set. He's a good young player. He does have the versatility to go from center to guard, which will help us. Team captains and great leadership are all those traits are exciting qualities for us.
In terms of Kellen, here's another guy who has a great TD to INT ratio and a great completion percentage. He's got that type of personality that's described as infectious. His players rally around him. So I'm excited about the depth and competition he adds and the person that we've added to the team. I'm excited about both these guys in addition to D'Brickashaw. I think we've done a lot of good things here.
On the possibility of Mangold starting…
Mangini: What I've told Nick is the same thing I've told all the current players on the roster: your job is to come here, work hard, play where you're told to play, compete where you're told to play and at the end of the day we're going to sort out who the best players are. He's going to give us great competition at a couple spots, both center and guard.
On Clemens' height…
Tannenbaum:I think we're high on all the guys we took. I don't think we're necessarily higher on Kellen than we are on Nick or D'Brickashaw. When we identified Kellen, we identified the qualities he has and the performance he put together in college. He's 220 pounds, so he has good size that way. There have definitely been successful quarterbacks at his height. If you look at his career, he has a 61 percent completion percentage; he has 61 TDs with 24 interceptions. There were some questions about his medical situation that have been cleared by our doctors. We're very comfortable with where he's at medically.
On why he chose Clemens…
Tannenbaum:All the feedback that we got on Kellen was outstanding: character, leadership through adversity…there are a lot of attributes at that position that he encompasses and we've identified in him. At the end of the day we feel that was the difference with Kellen and that is why we picked him.
On what factors contributed to …
Tannenbaum:Part of the preparation for this draft was done by Brian Schottenheimer who has done a great job evaluating quarterbacks. I can't tell you exactly what it was in the process, but whether it was fall scouting or the Combine, all of our information helped us make the decision when we evaluated all of the second round quarterbacks.
On picking offensive vs. defensive…
Mangini: I don't look it as my first offensive guy or my first defensive guy, I look at it as good solid players that we're adding to the Jets and adding the depth that we like.
On the theme of the draft…
Tannenbaum: The way I look at it, is that we have good players, good people and a good second round pick next year. It's well documented now and we look at our team right now, and there is no position where we can't improve the competition or depth. With the caliber of people and the intelligence of the players were all factors in our decisions and that's where we stand. We still have more picks and we look to make the most of them.
