JBell
That's still my Quarterback
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On Podcast "Hangin' With the Boys" with Nate Newton, Shannon Gross, & Kris Daniels
Main Role
Keep everything organized throughout the draft. Manage scouting department, do some scouting myself. Help run and organize meetings as we put together draft board. We've got the greatest director in the world in Will McClay. A lot of unsung heroes in the room that put together a great package of information that allows ownership to make great decisions during Draft.
# of players on Draft Board
When Parcells was around, we had a really skinny draft board. If a guy has earned a spot on a draft board, we'll put him on their board. We're not going to limit it to 150.
Trysten Hill
We knew of him in the Fall. Everyone can watch tape and have an opinion. When he declared, then we start to dig into his character, him as a person. He checked off all the boxes.
He had a coaching change, new set of rules, new sheriff in town. He may have tested the patience of the new sheriff, and part of what happened is they didn't start him. But if you watch the tape, he was playing when they needed him. You might not start for certain reasons, but when it's time to make sure someone's playing, he was playing for them.
Why Hill at 58?
Trysten has all the tools and traits to play Under Tackle in Rod's scheme. Rod's scheme is based on penetration and being disruptive. When you can find a bigger man who can play with the quickness of a smaller guy, you hit the jackpot. If you got a big guy that can be disruptive and helps you against the run, but you don't lose any quickness...that's what we see with Trysten Hill.
Why they pass on certain guys
Medical, off the field things, scheme things. You might see a nice highlight package on ESPN, but there's a lot more things you have to take into consideration. You wanna make sure everyone's on board. You don't want to waste a resource that everyone's not on board with.
Draft Philosophy
You gotta look at the contracts of current guys on the roster. If we know we're losing 3-4 players at a certain position within the next two years, maybe that's a good spot to start adding some depth to. You can't keep them all. We're going to have hard choices to make on where to allocate salary dollars.
Connor McGovern
It surprised us a little bit too. He wasn't a "targeted" player of ours. But he was high on our draft board. He's a good, versatile player that already plays how we want our guys to play. He's cut out of the Colombo cloth. Gives us versatility along our line. We can't keep everyone. We hope we can keep LC, but you don't know how things will work out. He was too good of a player to not take at that point. We've done a good job of following our draft board. When a guy is a round or two ahead of the discussion, take him and it usually works out. 2nd round grade. We weren't dialed in on taking a guard/center, but he was hard to pass up. We've shored up areas with free agents to where we don't have to enter the draft thinking, "if we don't draft a safety, we can't play football."
Tony Pollard/Mike Weber
Tony's more of a space player. We love his versatility. 7 KR TD's. Played as a slot WR and RB. The other thing that took us over the edge was the Senior Bowl. He showed the ability to run the ball between the tackles. More of a kickoff guy than a punt guy, but I'm sure he'll get the opportunity to work at punt returns. Mike is a really good RB as well. It's great competition and saved us from having to find a veteran guy like Morris.
Donovan Wilson
If he had to pick one under the radar guy out of the draft picks it'd be him. Interesting career arc at A&M. Big hitter, packs a big punch. Got some coverage skills too. Going to be a great ST player before he finds some playing time.
UDFA's
Added 6 or 7 guys they had draftable grades on. Added a few 4.3 guys at WR, excited about them.
Good Guys/Good Character
Wouldn't say it's a focused effort, but it's something we look for definitely. The way we compete in practice, you've gotta be made of the right stuff. One of the first things guys say from other places off the waiver wire is, "Do we do this every day." Garrett and Rod demand high effort every day. Nate: Guys that can focus hard and practice right, it helps you cut down on mistakes. Jimmy believed in that. Practice hard and practice smart. Stay focused. Dana Stubblefield was better than me. But I knew how to handle myself under certain situations.
NFC East Best Draft?
Everyone did good. Commanders added a QB. Giants did the same thing. Have the potential to have 4 young QB's for a long time if they all hit. We loved Montez Sweat.
Who Cusses the most when a guy gets drafted before our pick?
Probably Will McClay.
Amari Cooper
We looked at receivers back in the fall and realized there wasn't going to be a WR available in the first round that would be good as Amari.
On Draft Grades given right after the Draft
Everyone thinks they got an A. Everyone thinks they got good value. But then people get on TV and the radio says "oh they took him too early, they could've waited." "We took Tony Pollard too soon." Do you know we could have waited? Or maybe we had intel that said we knew someone else liked that guy too. In the trade down in the 4th, we liked 5-6 guys but didn't LOVE one guy. So we were able to pick up more picks.
Draft Grades is Baskin Robbins. Everybody likes a different flavor. Sometime's vanilla's pretty good, but sometimes you like Rocky Road.
When do you know if you've had a successful draft?
Going back to Landry: Year 3, you're gonna know about a player for sure. Parcells used to say the best of them get 50/50 right. One of the most criticized picks in recent years was Frederick, and I think that turned out fine. Anyone that sniffs being a reach, the odds are against you in perception. Newton: I had to eat crow on Frederick real quick. Most guys can't admit when they're wrong.
You're not going to be right on all these guys. We know that.
Role during OTA's/Minicamp
The coaching staff usually takes over full force at this point.
Main Role
Keep everything organized throughout the draft. Manage scouting department, do some scouting myself. Help run and organize meetings as we put together draft board. We've got the greatest director in the world in Will McClay. A lot of unsung heroes in the room that put together a great package of information that allows ownership to make great decisions during Draft.
# of players on Draft Board
When Parcells was around, we had a really skinny draft board. If a guy has earned a spot on a draft board, we'll put him on their board. We're not going to limit it to 150.
Trysten Hill
We knew of him in the Fall. Everyone can watch tape and have an opinion. When he declared, then we start to dig into his character, him as a person. He checked off all the boxes.
He had a coaching change, new set of rules, new sheriff in town. He may have tested the patience of the new sheriff, and part of what happened is they didn't start him. But if you watch the tape, he was playing when they needed him. You might not start for certain reasons, but when it's time to make sure someone's playing, he was playing for them.
Why Hill at 58?
Trysten has all the tools and traits to play Under Tackle in Rod's scheme. Rod's scheme is based on penetration and being disruptive. When you can find a bigger man who can play with the quickness of a smaller guy, you hit the jackpot. If you got a big guy that can be disruptive and helps you against the run, but you don't lose any quickness...that's what we see with Trysten Hill.
Why they pass on certain guys
Medical, off the field things, scheme things. You might see a nice highlight package on ESPN, but there's a lot more things you have to take into consideration. You wanna make sure everyone's on board. You don't want to waste a resource that everyone's not on board with.
Draft Philosophy
You gotta look at the contracts of current guys on the roster. If we know we're losing 3-4 players at a certain position within the next two years, maybe that's a good spot to start adding some depth to. You can't keep them all. We're going to have hard choices to make on where to allocate salary dollars.
Connor McGovern
It surprised us a little bit too. He wasn't a "targeted" player of ours. But he was high on our draft board. He's a good, versatile player that already plays how we want our guys to play. He's cut out of the Colombo cloth. Gives us versatility along our line. We can't keep everyone. We hope we can keep LC, but you don't know how things will work out. He was too good of a player to not take at that point. We've done a good job of following our draft board. When a guy is a round or two ahead of the discussion, take him and it usually works out. 2nd round grade. We weren't dialed in on taking a guard/center, but he was hard to pass up. We've shored up areas with free agents to where we don't have to enter the draft thinking, "if we don't draft a safety, we can't play football."
Tony Pollard/Mike Weber
Tony's more of a space player. We love his versatility. 7 KR TD's. Played as a slot WR and RB. The other thing that took us over the edge was the Senior Bowl. He showed the ability to run the ball between the tackles. More of a kickoff guy than a punt guy, but I'm sure he'll get the opportunity to work at punt returns. Mike is a really good RB as well. It's great competition and saved us from having to find a veteran guy like Morris.
Donovan Wilson
If he had to pick one under the radar guy out of the draft picks it'd be him. Interesting career arc at A&M. Big hitter, packs a big punch. Got some coverage skills too. Going to be a great ST player before he finds some playing time.
UDFA's
Added 6 or 7 guys they had draftable grades on. Added a few 4.3 guys at WR, excited about them.
Good Guys/Good Character
Wouldn't say it's a focused effort, but it's something we look for definitely. The way we compete in practice, you've gotta be made of the right stuff. One of the first things guys say from other places off the waiver wire is, "Do we do this every day." Garrett and Rod demand high effort every day. Nate: Guys that can focus hard and practice right, it helps you cut down on mistakes. Jimmy believed in that. Practice hard and practice smart. Stay focused. Dana Stubblefield was better than me. But I knew how to handle myself under certain situations.
NFC East Best Draft?
Everyone did good. Commanders added a QB. Giants did the same thing. Have the potential to have 4 young QB's for a long time if they all hit. We loved Montez Sweat.
Who Cusses the most when a guy gets drafted before our pick?
Probably Will McClay.
Amari Cooper
We looked at receivers back in the fall and realized there wasn't going to be a WR available in the first round that would be good as Amari.
On Draft Grades given right after the Draft
Everyone thinks they got an A. Everyone thinks they got good value. But then people get on TV and the radio says "oh they took him too early, they could've waited." "We took Tony Pollard too soon." Do you know we could have waited? Or maybe we had intel that said we knew someone else liked that guy too. In the trade down in the 4th, we liked 5-6 guys but didn't LOVE one guy. So we were able to pick up more picks.
Draft Grades is Baskin Robbins. Everybody likes a different flavor. Sometime's vanilla's pretty good, but sometimes you like Rocky Road.
When do you know if you've had a successful draft?
Going back to Landry: Year 3, you're gonna know about a player for sure. Parcells used to say the best of them get 50/50 right. One of the most criticized picks in recent years was Frederick, and I think that turned out fine. Anyone that sniffs being a reach, the odds are against you in perception. Newton: I had to eat crow on Frederick real quick. Most guys can't admit when they're wrong.
You're not going to be right on all these guys. We know that.
Role during OTA's/Minicamp
The coaching staff usually takes over full force at this point.
