The No. 1 (criterion) in my mind for drafting a player is tape. How did he play as a college player? The second-most-valuable piece is going to be the character side, football and personal. That gives you a better way to predict how he'll be as a pro. Those two things will tell you. |
The quarterback position is such a defenseless position when his feet are on the ground and he's throwing the ball. We have to find a way to protect him. |
The quarterback sits in a defenseless position when his feet are on the ground and he's throwing the football. We have to find ways to try to protect him. We're going to put a little more onus on the defensive player. When the defensive player has an opportunity to avoid (a low hit), he must take that opportunity to avoid. |
The reason we wanted big receivers is based on the offense. The ability to block and be a factor on the inside is a huge factor. In the passing game, tall guys present huge targets as they cross the field. In the West Coast offense, you have so many horizontal routes and you have so many guys crossing the field that you need bigger targets. |
The salary-cap system makes you make choices, and some of them are not very popular choices. But because the money is so big, the choices have big consequences if they don't work out. It has a trickle-down effect on the rest of your football team. |
The team can designate one player on defense, and that player cannot change during the game. And if that player were to be injured, then that would be the end of that communication for that game, for that team. The system will not be designed, the way we propose it, to be put on more than one player. |
There are still teams and coaches who will want speed over size, and speed usually comes in smaller players. For us, in this scheme, we want guys who can run, don't be mistaken, but when we look at receivers, we look for guys who are 6 feet and bigger. |
There has been no contact and I've yet to see anything from Cleveland regarding Phil. The NFL has rules that prohibit anybody from contacting an employee of another team until the season is over. |
There was no question there were a couple of calls in the playoffs and the Super Bowl that we wish we had back. But, by and large, it was a very good year. |
There were not many days in recent years when he didn't wear his USC sweatshirt, |
There's no question that it creates a bigger advantage, |
They did what they did and they knew there would be consequences. But they won championships doing it. They made the trade-off. |
This was one of those deals that went down until the last minute. |
Those are the ones that stood out to us. We went through them play by play and tried to look at, No. 1, was the player blocked into the quarterback? And No. 2, could he have avoided the hit that he made? Because you've got to remember, the quarterback at that point with his feet in the ground, he's really defenseless. |
To say he looks like one player, I don't know who that would be. He's a combination of a lot of players. In the open field, when you watch him on film, Gale Sayers. |