TRANSCRIPT: Ryan Cowden’s Patriots Draft Press Conference 4/26
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Here’s what Ryan Cowden said during his press conference on Saturday:
On how he feels he’s done settling into his position and some thoughts on how things have fallen together so far:
“Settling is probably maybe an aggressive term. I don’t know that that’s happened yet, but it’s been great. It’s been a real exciting venture for me. Familiar with a lot of people in the building already over my years in the business. Obviously, I had some connections with the coaching staff that came in. A lot of great guys there. I’ve known Eliot for a long time over our careers. For me, it’s just trying to come in, find a way that I can add any value to the organization, be a resource, continue to learn myself, and also try to help us get back to where this organization needs to get.”
On if he can rundown some of the standouts and higlights from the first couple of days:
“I think the highlights, you know, this is a long process. If you guys have heard, the draft starts probably 18 months prior to that draft actually occurring is when that process for these prospects begins. For our scouts, that’s when it happens, too. I think one of the highlights is just seeing all the work that goes in behind the scenes, the time away from home by the scouts, the amount of reports, the investigations, the end of the person, the calls, all that stuff, it’s just a huge amount of work that really kind of largely goes unseen and unnoticed, but it’s paramount into us making these decisions. So the highlight for me is when the guys that you select and you feel like fit some of the fabric of the organization, when you’re able to acquire those players, it’s kind of like that’s the exciting part, the culmination of that whole process. And now here they are as a chance to come help your team.”
On if there’s one common theme that they’re looking for in this draft iwth the players they’re bringing in now and what is that theme:
“It’s this idea in that from free agency and now through the draft, they’re not always going to be perfect and fit exactly to the criteria. But the most that we can sit there and talk about that, we’re adding guys who love playing football, guys who are great teammates. We all want talented players. We do. But there’s an idea here that can’t be overstated enough is that if you don’t get the person right, then a lot of that other stuff can go to the wayside. I think we’ve been trying to be very intentional about the people, about some of the people to build the foundation that Coach Vrabel and his vision has here for this football team. That started in free agency, and that’s been a major emphasis for us as we’ve gotten into this draft process.”
On if Mike Vrabel put him up to this, if it was Stacey James, and how did we get the benefit of talking to him this afternoon:
“So what happened was, I think somebody made a major error and my name wasn’t supposed to be in the rotation, and somehow it got slid in there. And at that point, it was too late, so they didn’t have a choice. So I think somebody made an error totally on that.”
On if he can give the Cliff notes on the guys they took today, starting with Craig Woodson and then all the way up to Andres Borregales and specifically him being a warm weather kicker coming to New England:
“Yeah, sure. Look, Craig is a player that we had some great exposures at the East-West game. Craig was able to come in here. He’s a great person, a high level character, a really smart football player. I think the communication skills that he possesses at the safety position are something that sets him apart. Cal has had a history of having really good communicators in their program from the backfield for the defensive secondary standpoint. So that’s a little bit about Craig, just a great person and a high-level communicator at the safety position.”
“Josh has an amazing story. Josh has faced a ton of adversity in his in life. Josh is eager and looking forward to continue to be coached, continue to develop some of the traits and skills that he possesses. Josh has had a relationship with our defensive line coach, Coach McMillan. They’ve had a relationship for a long time, and it helped us understand the picture of Josh, too, a lot of ways. Again, going about investing in people, you guys have probably heard Coach Vrabel talk about that. Investing in the people, it’s what we want to do once they become a part of our team.”
“Then as we get into farther… As we get into when we took Swinson, he really had an interesting career at LSU. He kind of started and was in the back end of things, behind some good players, but he always had a knack to rush the passer. I think over the last two years, he’s got more opportunities to do that. He brings a little bit different … his ability on the edge to create pressures, have some disruption out there from a hard program at LSU.”
“And then with the kicker, we’re excited. We thought that Borregales has a big leg. He’s really talented. I know the idea about kickers a lot of times is strong legs, and that’s obviously paramount. I think the weather is one of those things where we all talk about it, but is there really a metric or a measurement that says what is the production in cold weather games? If I’m not mistaken, I think Nick Folk kicked it Arizona, maybe, and did okay for a long time here to some degree. So I think what you want to focus on is what’s the mindset and the makeup of the person? What’s the talent level? How explosive is the ball coming off his foot? And then it’s just like anything. I don’t think we can base that on ‘this guy had this exposure.’ Not a lot of guys that you’re going to find. Your pool would really shrink if you said, ‘Let me go find cold weather kickers, and who are they?'”
On the fact that Craig Woodson was probably the biggest reach and it would seem he was a player who was targeted, and what they saw in him, and does he have nickel versatitlity, do they have a specific spot in mind for him:
“Sure. Like I said, I think last night I spoke to some people, and I don’t want to pigeonhole Craig or any of our players into one spot. I think Craig is a safety. I think he has the versatility to play a lot of roles that the safety position requires. And as I mentioned before, the communication skills is something that sets him apart. Craig is a skilled, like I said, a high-level communicator, and we have a process here that we believe in in terms of our evaluations, our process of scouting, and we’re always going to try to stay true to that. I think I had just been there on the heels in Tennessee of coming in and I’m not going to make this comparison to a player, but talking about trusting your evaluations, Kevin Byard was a non-Combine guy out of middle Tennessee that had high-level communication with a smart guy. In the third round, it was ‘Tennessee reached.’ I’m not ever going to compare players, but comparing situations, it’s a situation where a team trusted the board. I’ve had those scenarios in Carolina, Tennessee, New York, and that’s what you want to believe in. For us, regardless of what the perception on the outside is, what matters is what we think inside that room.”
On the fact they’ve been moving up and down the board today and the thought process on some of the moves:
“Right. I think that’s the fun part about the draft a little bit and sometimes opportunities don’t present themselves. There’s always got to be two partners, right? There’s got to be somebody willing to come up and somebody willing to go down. What you try to do is just as best you can, can you get to a line of players that match the value on your board? When we say that, sometimes it does say, ‘I don’t really feel great about this line of players at this pick. Can we get down to where we feel like the value matches as closely as possible to what we see or how we evaluated a player?’ So a lot of the times that becomes the reasons why you want to maybe move up and down. And that’s another reason why having draft capital is important. It is currency within the draft to be able to move and either acquire players or acquire more picks to give you more swings at the plate. So that movement, a lot of times, is reflective of trying to match where you place value of these players on your board.”
On the fact that since free agency to the draft, it seems like they’ve increased the talent level on the roster and the depth looks better, and how happy he is with where the roster and what his optimism level is that the ship is turning here:
“Sure. Well, we hope that the talent levels increased, otherwise, I think Mr. Kraft might say, ‘Well, what have you guys been doing for the last few months?’ But that’s our job, right? That’s what we’re tasked to do. I think you never settle. You can constantly chase. When we’re done tonight and after we sign the post-draft players, the first thing we’re going to look at is tomorrow or on Monday. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe wait till Monday. But we’re going to look at it and say, ‘Where are we not good enough? Where did we not fill? Where do we not have enough depth?’ So it’s an ongoing, constant, hard look and really focus on your roster. And where do we have to get better at? And I know that probably sounds maybe cliché, but it is a real thing. And as soon as you think you’re good enough in one position, you should probably take a look at it again because you’re probably not.”
“And to the second part of your question, look, we’re excited, we really are. I think from everything we’ve tried to do, from some of the personality and the energy into the building, trying to get to know each other as new staffs coming together, empowering the people that were here to lean into them for their decisions. I can’t think, from my behalf, I can’t thank the scouting staff enough, the college guys, the pro guys, the scouting assistants, the ops, the analytics group, our IT help. It has been a lot that we’ve asked them to do that’s different over these last couple of months. Just excited about how that path is going. And hopefully, we can continue to add more and more to that.”
On the fact they’ve mapped out a plan from the time he got here through free agency and the draft and how well he feels that plan has been executed, and if he feels they’re where they want to be heading into the seventh round:
“Sure. Plans are something we all have, right? In different walks of life, there’s always plans. I think one of the biggest things you have to be able to do is deviate from the plan when it doesn’t go accordingly. Reacting and moving in new spaces and being able to be fluid with everything we do, it’s paramount because whether it’s free agency and you feel you’re as aggressive as possible in anything you can do, it’s a player’s choice where they want to go. And so a lot of times you may hear from the outside, ‘Well, I can’t believe they didn’t get this guy,’ or, ‘Can’t believe they didn’t get that,’ when you’ve done everything in your power to make that happen, and the player has a choice. The free agent part of that isn’t free for the club. It’s the freedom of choice by the player.”
“And so we try to then shift and move and constantly readjust those plans based on what happens and who we can acquire. And going into the draft, we have a plan. But again, you’re at the mercy of the pips. We move around in the draft to try to get a line of players we choose. But you don’t know where it’s going to fall. You don’t know who might go in front of you. You may think you’ve got it lined up and a guy goes just before you. And now you’ve got to be able to really react. So the old knees bent, head on a swivel, that is a real part and I think we’ve tried to stick to some parameters of the plan when I go back to before about the people. So regardless, if we aren’t able to acquire a person that maybe we really wanted to, let’s focus on making sure we’re still getting the right people as we adjust.”
On the fact Eliot Wolf told a story about what he called a ‘healthy dialogue’ that was had between he, Matt Groh, Alonzo Highsmith, Cam Williams, when it came to a player before they picked at 38, and what he remembers from that and if he views it as a significant thing in terms of how they came together, and how he views the ‘melding’ of the two groups coming together:
“Sure. We’ve had these long relationships, but they’re on the surface. Things change when you’re actually working day in, day out, the hours that this job requires. That changes than just knowing somebody on the fringes and on the surface seeing them at the combine and all-star games, right? So that’s been unique, and that’s been something that I think we’ve both been intentional about trying to make sure that we go and take the steps necessary so that we can start to understand each other. Then you end up where you’re so busy, sometimes you can skip over things, I think, through the process about, ‘Hey, well, let’s make sure we both see this, or ‘Let’s make sure we talk about that.’ I think the point he’s making about before the pick was really about one of those moments where there was a time element involved, right? Like, the clock’s ticking, a time element. There’s some discussions. There’s a couple of players that involve really opinions from both sides. And what we say is, ‘I want to lean into the opinions of the staff,’ whether that’s Eliot, myself, Cam, Zo, one of the college guys, Matt, whatever that is, those opinions matter. I’m never going to have all the right answers, I can promise you. But I think collectively, when we put those thoughts and opinions together and are able to voice those and respect each other for where those opinions come from, I think that can get you to the right answer. I think what happened last night was just an illustration of that in real-time. It was really good. I think it’s a healthy, thing. I think in the end, what that does is it allows us to come to a consensus after listening to each other’s opinions and understanding that you respect where those come from because of the work that’s been put in by each of those individuals.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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