Opening Statement:
“Appreciate you guys coming out. Been here for a couple days now, so excited to really get around the players to once again collaborate with the scouts and hopefully pick a good player here come draft time.”
On how well he can really get to know a player:
“Sometimes guys walk in, they just have a sense about them. I don’t know how to explain it, but swag, I guess? Do the young kids still say swag? But they are short interviews, but at the same time you can gain information just as far as the confidence level, you’ll watch a little bit of film as far as their knowledge of the game. There are a lot of things.”
On what he’s looking for in particular:
“Good players. Just looking for good players, Karen [Guregian].”
When you’re interviewing them:
“That’s what I’m saying. We’re looking for someone who is very knowledgeable of not only the game, but also self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses. I think that’s an important part of it.”
On when he’s scouting quarterbacks, what traits are most important to him:
“The thing about quarterbacks for me, look, everyone wants the big arm, the mobility, and things like that. But I do think it’s important just to get a good sense of what type of competitor that they are. Their toughness, and things like that. Those are things you really want to look for.”
On how he measures those things:
“It’s hard. One thing I would say is the film. So you get on the film, and you kind of talk through things, you want to see how they they respond to adversity on the field and honestly, you want to talk about some of the adversity they had off the field as well.”
On mobility and how much that factors into the position:
“When you talk about mobility, I think you have to put it in two buckets. There’s one where it’s pocket awareness where guys can slide around in the pocket and still run a 5.2 40, and I think there’s another type of mobility where you have the quicker guys that can really get outside the pocket. So I mean, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
On the conversations with Eliot Wolf and the chain of command:
“They’ve been great. They’ve been great. We’re on the same page as far as everything’s concerned, and I would say as we get closer to the draft, we’ll definitely be one at that point. But at the end of the day, Eliot’s going to make the final decision on that.”
On the timeline on when they’ll know what they want to do on that:
“It’s my first time. My first time doing this, so I’ll tell you a little bit later. I’m not sure.”
On what he remembers about his combine experience:
“It was hectic. You go see medical. You go see all these teams, and it’s just like a whirlwind. It’s tough, but at the same time the guys are up for it. I would say you gain more information from this side, and also from the prospect side during the 30 visit. So, those are very important.”
On the fact it wasn’t too long since he was at the combine and if it makes it easier to relate to these guys:
“Absolutely, and I try to let those guys know, ‘Look, just relax, breathe, like, you’ll be OK. It’s just the process but it’ll be over soon.'”
On Eliot Wolf’s comments about wanting to weaponize the offense and what that means:
“It just looks like putting people on the offensive side of the ball that the defensive side has to prepare for. Whether that’s double-teaming or anything like that. But that’s what he means by that.”
On Wolf talking about a faster more explosive defense, if that’s something he felt they need:
“Every year, you’re always looking for bigger, faster, stronger players, so, I mean, that’s a pretty general comment.”
On Wolf’s comments about wanting to play younger players:
“Absolutely, and I would also say that you want to play younger players because first of all, they’re cheaper, and then second of all, I would say you want to have a good mix. You can’t have all 22, 23-year-olds out there. You need that 30-year-old that can kind of settle everyone down that has that experience too.”
On the upcoming free agency and what the priority is going to be:
“You know, it’s hard to build a sustainable team through free agency. But you do want those pieces that you can kind of plugin. But look, one thing I would say about free agents, you’ve got to make sure they’re a good culture fit, or good culture add as well. So that’s definitely important for us.”
On if he feels like it needs to be a slow-burn kind of build and Wolf’s comments where Green Bay wasn’t necessarily a team that made big splashes in free agency:
“You know, honestly, once again, if you want to sustain success, I don’t want to call it a ‘slow burn’ because we will be competitive, we will put a good team out there. Will we win a championship? I don’t know, and I don’t want to make those promises. But at the same time, I feel confident about our plan to really turn this ship around. Look, honestly, the way I think about this stuff, it’s been done a certain way at a high level for what, 20 years? But I would also say there’s more than one way to skin a cat. It worked for coach. We’ll see what works for Eliot and myself.”
On how he sees things moving forward with J.C. Jackson:
“Those discussions are still going. Look, I love J.C., coached him, saw him develop into a man. We’ll see how that goes going forward. But, look, heck of a football player, two years removed from injury, he’s probably going to move a lot better this year, so we’ll see.”
On his thoughts on Eliot Wolf’s comments about Kyle Dugger and Mike Onwenu, and Onwenu being a “cornerstone” player:
“Man, I love those guys. I love Big Mike. I think he has the versatility to play guard or tackle. Look, one of those guys that when he’s going, he’s dominant. With Dugger, I would say last year, going into the season, there were some questions about, ‘can he communicate?’ and all those things. He squashed all that this year. He did a fantastic job in his new role without having Devin [McCourty] there. So you definitely want those pieces to stay, and going back to what I talked about earlier, you develop through the draft. So if those guys stay, obviously they’ve been raised here, and they can help push the culture forward.”
On how much he’s connected with them this offseason:
“They’ve been in the facility. It hasn’t really been about football, it’s really just been about, ‘How are you doing?’ And those guys are excited to go through the process, which I think it is important for those guys to go through the process but hopefully, at the end of the day, they come back to New England.”
On if it comes down to it, if they’ll use the franchise tag:
“I mean, that’s always an option. But at the same time, with guys like that, you want those guys to be happy. You want them to be here for the long term. So that’s the plan.”
On if there’s any benefit of making it clear that the way they’re doing things is different from the way Bill [Belichick] did things, and even send a message to potential players who may play for them:
“Look, it’s going to be different. But at the same time, I would say, look, Bill did a great job for a long period of time. I don’t want you guys to take this as because we’re changing as shots toward the previous regime. In saying that, we will do it differently, and it’ll feel different. But at the end of the day, we would like to replicate the success that the prior regime has had. So, I learned a lot from Bill and also his staff, but now we’ll see what this chapter looks like in the franchise.”
On if he’s connected with Belichick since he took the job:
“That’s more of a personal question. Once again, I would say that I’ve learned a lot from Bill on the field and also in the classroom on how to be a professional. So you can ask him that question.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
