From the Podium: Scott Pioli following day 2

[aturnis]

From the Podium: Scott Pioli following day 2 <-- video

GM Scott Pioli discusses second and third-round picks

PIOLI: “How’s everyone doing? End of day two here, of our three day marathon, we’re really excited with today’s picks, the three players we pulled off today, and we really feel like we became a better football team today, we really feel like we got stronger, improved a couple of areas on offense, and certainly feel like we’ve improved ourselves defensively, improved a particular area, especially with our pass defense, and up front with some of our pressure with these players. And something Todd and I have been adamant about is making sure that we continually increase the competition on our football team for positions and making the team better. We think that we did that today. And so I will open it up immediately, everyone knows the order of the players that we picked so I will just leave it all up to you to ask about any particular players or questions that you’d like to ask.”

Q: Did you make a conscious effort to pick up guys that filled your needs?

PIOLI: “We have remained consistent that you want to draft based on some close mesh or combination of need and best player. The way that this fell most of the day certainly did allow us to hit areas that we felt were needs at this point in time. We go through our list of musts, needs and wants and we knew one area that we felt was a must was improving our overall pass rush. We think that we have improved that not only in the first three picks but certainly with all the picks we have made so far. We also felt another area was having more stability on the inside of our offensive line. As I have talked about before, it is not only drafting for today, but tomorrow, the near and distant future. With WR Jonathan Baldwin one of the things we feel strongly about is that we need to get better at the wide receiver position and I think we did that. I think we were fortunate and you are not always fortunate. I have been a part of those things where you get yourself in certain situations where the best player or group of players available, as I talked about last night, we felt there was a group of players where we could have gone a couple different directions.”

Q: The fact it worked out this way this year, does it have to do with the fact that you are uncertain about free agency?

PIOLI: “I think it has everything to do with looking at where our roster is right now. Whether that has to do with free agency the way it is or isn’t at this point in time, I think when you are looking at our roster right now there are potentially certain holes. We don’t know what is going to happen or what is not going to happen.”

Q: Rodney Hudson, what position do you see him starting out?

PIOLI: “Rodney has played three different positions, mostly guard at Florida State but he has also finished a couple of games at center and he has lined up at center. And actually his freshman year he lined up at left tackle. That certainly doesn’t have the physical stature for an NFL left tackle but he has the ability to play both guards and center. I think both guys on the inside right now, or certainly a number of players on the inside right now that have some versatility and have played guard and center and that stuff will sort itself out. There is a good chance that we will try and start him right off at the center position. Not the starting center, but start him off performing at center in practice.”

Q: What does this mean for C Casey Wiegmann?

PIOLI: “We haven’t talked to Casey. I can’t talk about the players who have contracts that have expired. I don’t know what his situation is but I don’t think it means anything. When we draft players or sign other free agents, we are going to get as many good players as we can. I am glad that you brought that up because please don’t ever read into us drafting players or us signing other players as it being the swan song or the certain end of any other players. I think it would be really unfair to the player and certainly inaccurate from our standpoint. And again, the fact that we haven’t had the chance to talk to players, that is pretty premature. I’m glad you asked the question because I want to be crystal clear on that. Please don’t read into that with him and players at other positions.”

Q: So would it be a wasted question if I asked you the same thing about Justin Houston and LB Mike Vrabel?

PIOLI: “I think that would be a wasted question. I will use your words, yes, that would be a wasted question.”

Q: Did it help in the evaluation process that Justin Houston could play the 3-4 or the 4-3?

PIOLI: “It helped in the evaluation and it also helped in the evaluation that he is playing for a coach and a defensive coordinator that has coached in this particular defense with Nick Saban at Michigan State and other places. We have seen him do some of the things that we hope he can do here. He is an outside player that does have some experience. There is a lot of room for him to grow but yes, we have seen him do some of those things and line up in some of the positions he may be lining up here.”

Q: Justin Houston mentioned that he had made some bad decisions in the past. What did you see in him to let you know he was past those things?

PIOLI: “He had a situation that he is acutely aware of as we are aware of and I think everyone in here is aware of. We talked about that with him, we have talked about it with numerous people around him and we have spent a lot of time talking with people and talking with him. He knows what he is signing up for and we know what we are signing up for. There certainly been an issue in the past that has to be dealt with and collectively we are going to try and get this thing right.”

Q: Is every draft pick a risk in one sense but would you say Justin is maybe more of a risk?

PIOLI: “There is certainly risk here. He had a situation and that is why he was available when he was available. Without that situation, he is not available there. Is there some risk here? There is certainly some risk and we understand there is risk. We talked about it internally quite a bit. We talked with other people, we talked about it with the coaching staff, we talked about it (Todd and I), we talked about it with ownership. We understand there is risk here and there is a chance for great reward. The reality is that there is a risk for failure and like I said, we have a system here in place and he knows what he signed up for and we know what we signed up for. Both sides know what we are getting into and we are going to figure this out.”

Q: What is it about Justin’s play that suggests it is worth it this time to take that risk?

PIOLI: “What he has skill wise, he was by far at that point in time in our evaluation, the best football player on the board. For awhile out there he was certainly the best pass rusher on the board. Generally speaking, I am relatively conservative. We feel that we did enough research on this player where we think that we have a chance to make this work. And again, we also realize the other side that there is a chance for failure here. We are going to do everything in our power and talking with him, he is going to do everything in his power and we are going to try and make this work.”

Q: So in his case, it seems the upside, physically, talent-wise is worth rolling the dice a little bit?

PIOLI: “It’s not just the physical talent because we’re not going into this blind. We spent some time with this player. We spent time with him, we know people from where he came from, we know from where he played at, we talked to people in Statesboro, we talked to people in Athens (Georgia). It’s not just ‘well we kind of feel good about this, let’s take a shot at it.’ We did a lot of work, there is a lot of due diligence and again, we feel that we have an opportunity that this is going to work or else we wouldn’t have done it. And again we’re going to find out if we’re right or wrong on this.”

Q: How comfortable are you moving outside your comfort zone and rolling the dice on a player like this?

PIOLI: “We’re comfortable with the pick we made.”

Q: Allen Bailey had a quote from before the draft that he was most comfortable on the end in a 4-3 defense. Obviously you play a 3-4. Where does he project?

PIOLI: “We’ll see. Where we see him probably making the greatest contribution initially is as a role player in sub-situations and being an inside pass rusher in sub-situations and upgrading our inside pass rush. From there, I think that’s what we have to figure out – whether he’s going to be strong enough, stout enough to play defensive end or is he a person like what happened with LB Mike Vrabel when he came out of Ohio State when he was close to 280 pounds and got skinny and became an outside linebacker. I think initially we feel that he can come in and contribute in our sub-situations and we’ll take the rest from there and figure out exactly where he’s going to go.”

Q: Are you surprised that the lockout is back in place?

PIOLI: “I haven’t been brought up to date. I heard a rumor early this afternoon as to what was going on and I was told it was false. We work right up until this and as soon as we got done I’m getting the scouts organized, the coaches organized, getting people organized for what we’ve got, is a short night tonight and an early morning tomorrow. I’ve got to get caught up to know exactly what’s going on. You all probably know more than I do. I know we received a bunch of emails and information but I haven’t gotten caught up to know exactly what’s going on.”

Q: You haven’t received a memo from the league?

PIOLI: “I haven’t looked at my email. We’re in there working on the draft. I might even have an email from you in there that I haven’t read so don’t be offended.”

Q: You guys like versatility for a player. What’s the fine line between jack-of-all-trades but master of none that maybe because they’re getting all those places because they’re not good enough at one spot?

PIOLI: “You’re right. We love versatility. We love players that can do multiple things for a couple reasons, I’ll address that first: You have an opportunity for a player to make it in more than one way on your football team. The other thing you have if he is a backup; he gives you an opportunity to manage your roster numbers far better. Now, in the case of particular players, there are some players who may necessarily be on the surface – and (Allen) Bailey may be a good example – where he’s a jack of many trades and is perceived as being a master of none. We however think that he may be able to have a chance to be a master at one thing, which is rushing the passer from the inside position, being a good sub-inside rusher. Different but similar to a DE Wallace Gilberry who found a nice little niche for himself last year lining up from the inside and rushing from the inside in sub-situations and being productive. So not every player is going to be that guy that you can use on all three downs or in all three situations – the way the game has become a little more segmented, you need some specialization – and finding players that can play roles, as long as you don’t have too many role players that play small roles, you’ve got a chance to do something with players and make greater use of your overall roster.”

Q: As a guy who likes to throw the iron around a little bit, when you read his numbers from lifting, are you impressed?

PIOLI: “Yeah, yeah I am because he’s a strong player but he’s also explosively strong. There are a lot of guys who don’t necessarily have explosion. The other thing he’s got to go with that is he’s got extremely long arms. If we get him and keep him in one position because he’s been a guy who’s moved around a bunch of places, if we can get him in one place, keep him there and make use of the tools and teach him the techniques we’re trying to get, he may have a better chance to develop and become more successful. Am I impressed with the numbers, absolutely, but the flipside of that is I’m not someone that gets too caught up in numbers. I like to see good football players too. What you see with him is his strength in the weight room certainly translates to the football field.”

Q: Are there are a lot of armchair quarterbacks out there that follow your draft picks and the direction of the organization?

PIOLI: “I think that we certainly became a more competitive football team internally with one another and I think that we became a better football team at the end of two days. We have a lot more picks. We’re becoming a bigger, strong, tougher, faster, smarter football team. Now the deal is to try to continue to consistently compete for championships. That’s the bottom line. We became bigger, stronger, faster, better.”

Q: As thorough as you guys are on checking out players and their backgrounds and so far, did you guys send somebody to Hog Hammock, Georgia?

PIOLI: “You know, a lot of people volunteered to go to Hog Hammock. I don’t know if you’re familiar, it’s a little island down there and a lot of people volunteered for that trip. As a matter of fact, we’re thinking about having a little media event down there so if you guys want to load up come Monday, we may not have a lot to do. Let’s take a bus or a minivan down there. No one actually went there but we talked to some people. As a matter of fact, when we called him and we asked him if he was on the island, he said ‘No sir. We don’t get service on the island’ so he had to go to the mainland.”

Q: How far is the mainland?

PIOLI: “Far enough that you can’t get service. I’m not exactly sure. Like I said, I’ve never been and I don’t have any plans to go. Hopefully if he gets married some day and invites us it’s not on the island.”

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Balla-ass GM

(note: Profanity within)

, nice cameo by Flop.

[Ericgoodchief]

The media didn't ask him about not taking an offensive tackle.

[Mr. Laz]

personally i'm not a big fan of versatility for most players

I want to get as many players as i can that are the best in the league at one position.