http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/
Some questions really sounded odd..i could picture borges asking them
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How big of an issue was the other backs' age (on the roster)?
"It wasn't a big issue. I'm saying I think you want to have young players at every position to work with. That's something you always want on your team. That wasn't what drove the pick. What drove the pick was the value of the player relative to the other players on the board and for our system. That's not to say they aren't other good players on the board that are going to play well in the league. There's plenty of them, but for what we need and what we ask our players to do, we felt like he had the best value on the board so that's why we selected him."
How is Corey Dillon doing? Is he training here?
"I talked to Corey. I've talked to him today and I think he understands and I explained to him what the situation was and all of that. We expect Corey to be ready to go. I'm sure that he will be. He's a professional. He's been a very productive player for us and we expect Corey to have major contributions for us this year as we do Kevin and Patrick. I think our backs are talented. I think they've been productive for us and I expect them to continue to be."
It's interesting that you called him today. Did you feel like he deserved to know what you guys were doing?
"I talked to most all of our players. Whatever our conversations are between a player and coach are player and coach conversations."
Is it standard to call players when you are drafting someone at their position?
"I talk to players all the time. Why would I not talk to them?"
Did you talk to [Russ] Hochstein and Steve Neal before you drafted Logan Mankins last year?
"They were actually here."
"
Some questions really sounded odd..i could picture borges asking them
"
How big of an issue was the other backs' age (on the roster)?
"It wasn't a big issue. I'm saying I think you want to have young players at every position to work with. That's something you always want on your team. That wasn't what drove the pick. What drove the pick was the value of the player relative to the other players on the board and for our system. That's not to say they aren't other good players on the board that are going to play well in the league. There's plenty of them, but for what we need and what we ask our players to do, we felt like he had the best value on the board so that's why we selected him."
How is Corey Dillon doing? Is he training here?
"I talked to Corey. I've talked to him today and I think he understands and I explained to him what the situation was and all of that. We expect Corey to be ready to go. I'm sure that he will be. He's a professional. He's been a very productive player for us and we expect Corey to have major contributions for us this year as we do Kevin and Patrick. I think our backs are talented. I think they've been productive for us and I expect them to continue to be."
It's interesting that you called him today. Did you feel like he deserved to know what you guys were doing?
"I talked to most all of our players. Whatever our conversations are between a player and coach are player and coach conversations."
Is it standard to call players when you are drafting someone at their position?
"I talk to players all the time. Why would I not talk to them?"
Did you talk to [Russ] Hochstein and Steve Neal before you drafted Logan Mankins last year?
"They were actually here."
"