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For those who didn't catch Patriots All-Access last night, here's what Pioli said during a meeting with all the Patriots scouts for this years' draft:
"Everyone in this room and outside of this room can identify the guys that are big, strong, and fast. We have to find the guys that truly play big, strong, and fast or function big strong, and fast, and have all the right makeup that we're looking for, alright?
"When you guys are grading players, let's make sure when you call a guy a starter, a backup, or a back-end roster guy, that it's based on what our standards are. Again, we're not concerned about how the rest of the league is doing and how a guy ends up. There's players that end up starting in this league by default. Let's use our standards. Our standards are what they are (slams pen down on table). Just because a guy is starting at Notre Dame for 4 years doesn't mean he fits as a starter for us. Just because a guy comes in and he can start for another NFL team doesn't mean he is starting quality for us. Know what our starting level quality is. Let's not get that mixed up at all, alrighty?"
There was also a subsequent interview with Mike Lynch:
ML: "Speaking of the clock, take us inside the room. All I can think of is Jeopardy. Know how the clock is going [Lynch tries to replicate it]? It's going down from 15 minutes, you're in the 1st round right there, when you're on the clock, did you know you were going to take Maroney right away?"
SP: "We knew who we were going to take. There were a couple of players we had talked about and felt confident in and wanted to take. What happens is when there's 15 minutes on the clock is people wonder "If you know who you're taking why don't you just take them?" Well, there's a lot of business that goes on in those 15 minutes-"
ML: "Such as?"
SP: "Such as you're getting calls from teams that want to move up into that spot because there's a player on the board they like quite a bit. Take, for instance, the 2nd round when we moved up into Green Bay's spot. Green Bay was sitting there using all their time on the clock. We called Green Bay as they're sitting there waiting even though they had a pick and they had an idea of who they were going to pick. We called Green Bay, they're on the clock, it's time to do additional business. So, you want to use that time wisely."
ML: "With so many people on your staff, coaching, scouts, etc., it almost seems like there's a connection with every single college in the United States. Somebody's got somebody's brother in-law who's a graduate assistant or offensive line coach or other assistant."
SP: [laughs] "We even have it with other teams in the NFL!"
ML: "I know you do! [more laughter] Which almost makes it hard because there's so many of Bill's disciples spread around the league now who think a lot like you guys do. Does that make it tougher to find the guy that you want that fits into your system?"
SP: "Well, being the fact that there's other teams looking for the same thing when you have relationships with people in other places, whether it be colleges or other NFL teams, it also presents opportunities that may not be there. You can look at it one way or the other. You can look at it as making things more difficult, or you could look at it as possible opportunities because you have relationships with people that you know and trust with other teams. Because there's teams we've done business with that even though we're in competition with those teams, you know you can trust the people on the other side."
"Everyone in this room and outside of this room can identify the guys that are big, strong, and fast. We have to find the guys that truly play big, strong, and fast or function big strong, and fast, and have all the right makeup that we're looking for, alright?
"When you guys are grading players, let's make sure when you call a guy a starter, a backup, or a back-end roster guy, that it's based on what our standards are. Again, we're not concerned about how the rest of the league is doing and how a guy ends up. There's players that end up starting in this league by default. Let's use our standards. Our standards are what they are (slams pen down on table). Just because a guy is starting at Notre Dame for 4 years doesn't mean he fits as a starter for us. Just because a guy comes in and he can start for another NFL team doesn't mean he is starting quality for us. Know what our starting level quality is. Let's not get that mixed up at all, alrighty?"
There was also a subsequent interview with Mike Lynch:
ML: "Speaking of the clock, take us inside the room. All I can think of is Jeopardy. Know how the clock is going [Lynch tries to replicate it]? It's going down from 15 minutes, you're in the 1st round right there, when you're on the clock, did you know you were going to take Maroney right away?"
SP: "We knew who we were going to take. There were a couple of players we had talked about and felt confident in and wanted to take. What happens is when there's 15 minutes on the clock is people wonder "If you know who you're taking why don't you just take them?" Well, there's a lot of business that goes on in those 15 minutes-"
ML: "Such as?"
SP: "Such as you're getting calls from teams that want to move up into that spot because there's a player on the board they like quite a bit. Take, for instance, the 2nd round when we moved up into Green Bay's spot. Green Bay was sitting there using all their time on the clock. We called Green Bay as they're sitting there waiting even though they had a pick and they had an idea of who they were going to pick. We called Green Bay, they're on the clock, it's time to do additional business. So, you want to use that time wisely."
ML: "With so many people on your staff, coaching, scouts, etc., it almost seems like there's a connection with every single college in the United States. Somebody's got somebody's brother in-law who's a graduate assistant or offensive line coach or other assistant."
SP: [laughs] "We even have it with other teams in the NFL!"
ML: "I know you do! [more laughter] Which almost makes it hard because there's so many of Bill's disciples spread around the league now who think a lot like you guys do. Does that make it tougher to find the guy that you want that fits into your system?"
SP: "Well, being the fact that there's other teams looking for the same thing when you have relationships with people in other places, whether it be colleges or other NFL teams, it also presents opportunities that may not be there. You can look at it one way or the other. You can look at it as making things more difficult, or you could look at it as possible opportunities because you have relationships with people that you know and trust with other teams. Because there's teams we've done business with that even though we're in competition with those teams, you know you can trust the people on the other side."
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