.
Q. I don't think we talked to you since you made the trade. Can you talk about what that does for you flexibility wise?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think we were kind of looking at this year and next year and the amount of picks that we had in this year's draft and trying to kind of balance it a little bit for a variety of factors.
When you look at having first round picks in the fifth year option, having that many guys on the fifth year option. Also kind of balancing just scouting all the players in this draft and next year's draft and having more options and more flexibility at all positions, kind of getting ahead start on looking at next year's draft too and seeing that it's strong as well as this year's draft.
So we thought it made sense. Obviously from New Orleans standpoint we look back, there hadn't been really a team that had moved back that far for a first round pick, so it made sense for them too. Hopefully a win-win situation.
Q. How much specifically did the quarterback position and being able to have the flexibility there next year if you need it factor into the decision?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, we're excited about Jalen Hurts and we're going to support Jalen and want him to have a great career in Philly, and this was about flexibility for our team and about making sure that we had resources to improve our team for not only this year's draft, but next year's draft going forward.
We thought it made a lot of sense.
Q. When you look at certain positions heading into the draft, defensive back, wide receiver positions, you didn't really address too much in free agency. How important do those picks become heading into the draft? Is there more of a priority on those positions than maybe others?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: You can't really predict what other teams are going to do and you can't be in a situation where you have to do something. Certainly when you look at some of the mistakes that I've made personally it's because you try to force something.
So you can only do what the board allows you to do and there's obviously a lot of time between now and the time the first game starts for us to continue to address the needs of this team. And we'll go into the draft and we'll follow the board, and we've had a lot of discussions, a lot of good discussions about the players in this draft, and we just got to make sure we take the best players and not look at the draft as just a short-term fix.
Q. Brandon Brown with the Giants. He was part of your draft process until February; now he's in another team in the division. How big a problem is that for your draft situation, and how do you -- is there any way to minimize it?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Didn't I send him a thank you note for all he's done? Are you back.
Q. Well Brady did it, so, yeah. (Laughing.)
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Did he tell you he had that? I was really just thinking about you being here, which was unexpected. So how does Brandon Brown affect us?
Q. Is this a problem for you in preparing for this draft? He knows a lot about what you're thinking and what your priorities have been up until February; how do you handle that?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think that that's part of what happens when you lose good people, is that when you have good people around you, you try to embrace that and have them as part of every discussion that's going on, whether it's about your team and your roster or about free agency or about the draft.
But when you talk about February too, there is that part of the process that coach and his staff haven't totally dove into it yet. The final boards aren't set. You don't have this kind of seesaw of where you have obviously the scouting and the tape.
But you don't also have all the information of the character and the intangibles and the testing.
So to say that everything's exactly the same as it was when he and Ian left; it's not. Obviously the coaches are a big part of our process, and really the amount of work that coaches do in this is a huge part of complementing the scouts.
Just like we talk about that seesaw with the tape and the testing, we also talk about having the coaches balance it with how they see guys in their scheme.
So we miss Brandon; we miss Ian; also happy for them and their families for the opportunity. At the end of the day, whatever we got to do for this team we'll continue to do.
Q. Can you talk specifically about positions of need, one in particular, safety? At least apparent to us. But that being said, typically you go into the draft at least having those needs covered. Are you comfortable with and Anthony Harris and Marcus Epps being your guys right now going into that draft?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I think we have other defensive backs there too. We drafted K'Von Wallace. We got two guys, we brought Andre in here from Indy. We got Jared Mayden here as well.
And that's even before the draft, and obviously we got a long time until we play game.
But we like those guys. That's why we brought Anthony back. That's why we signed him in the first place. That's why we drafted K'Von. Marcus is a guy who played a lot of football for us last year. We're excited about him too.
And so I don't know that necessarily we perceive it the same way maybe that you described.
Q. The loss of Ian and Brandon, you talked about how this off-season you have a better sense of the coaching staff and what they want in terms of players. Is it fair to say that with those guys gone the coaching staff, their voice carries a little bit more weight this draft process than last year?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: No. The coaching staff has always been our partners in this. I think for us that was the same when Brandon and Ian were here. That's the same now I think for coach and his staff like being part of the process.
And giving us their perspectives is huge. I mean at the end of the day like as much as we could like a player, if there's not a scheme fit, if there's not a role, if there's not a vision, then it doesn't matter because we're not down on that field.
I think that the partnership that we have with our coaching staff is special. It's been a really fun process.
But the coaches also defer to the fact that these guys spend a lot of time and know these guys really well, and our scouting staff, our coaching staff, the amount of hours they put in together.
So again, I feel like it's very balanced in terms of the inputs from both those sides.
Q. What side of the football do you as the head coach think the team needs to improve more in the draft?
NICK SIRIANNI: Well, you're always looking to make your team better, as good as you possibly can, and so you're looking at all accounts.
So I don't think it's fair for me to say, oh, well, offense is more important than defense or defense is more important than offense. We're just looking obviously to get our team better. How do you do that? You get that with good players.
Q. But that's not answering the question.
NICK SIRIANNI: I danced around it a little bit.
Q. Which side do you think needs improvement?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, going back to -- again, you think about the players that you need, the players that you want, the players -- but one thing I can say is, and, again, I don't think that's a fair for me to say right now.
Again, I think 31 other teams would want me to give that answer to you, Howard, with them listening. But one thing that is very important is obviously the talent of the player, but then also the characteristics of the player, right?
And those are things that are there for you to find out in the scouting process. Do they have high football IQ? Do they have good character? Are they tough? Those are things that you really can see and find out, and then in a addition do they love football and are they competitive?
So, again, I think I've said this before: My experience is guys that have those five traits, they maximize their potential. So that's what we want. We want to be able to get guys in here that can maximize potential both offensively, defensively, and special teams wise.
Q. Given the experiences you've had with both Dickerson and Sidney Jones, what variables do you take into account with these draft process injuries, and specifically with, say, David Ojabo or Jameson Williams? How do you account for maybe not just the physical recovery, but whether it's the confidence or the return to form after the injury?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think the more time you have between the injury and the draft, the more information you get. So for us with Landon, the timing of that was a little different than the timing with Sidney, and it allowed you to see more of the progress of where it was based on the testing.
Obviously two different positions, different injuries, and so you take that all into account when you're looking at it. And then the value has to be right, the value of the player, and how we kind of feel the player fits for us and what kind of player we think that player was preinjury; how we base on our performance, on our medical staff who we have a lot of trust in, how they project that player to come back.
The draft's guesswork as it is. You're talking about taking guys, changing their environment, moving them from college to the NFL, putting money in their pocket, giving them more free time, changing schemes, and now you have another variable.
So you got to balance that as well.
Q. When you talk about the uncertainty, the top of the draft -- obviously you're at 15 so you got to deal with 14 picks -- it seems like this year's a little bit more uncertain when you look around the league. Do you see that with the board? Like last year Trevor was consensus pretty much number one. Do you see more uncertainty in this year?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: We see maybe the teams uncertainty about who particular teams are going to take; less so necessarily who we think those players would be, if that makes sense.
Q. That's what I was talking about. Those teams in front of you, do you have a better feel or a worse feel for, in a typical year, for what they think? Is it more difficult is what I'm trying to say?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think that there's consistency in terms of the players that we see going probably in the top 20. Now, a couple of those could change, but I don't think it's so drastically different in terms of the players that are going to go in the top 20.
I think where it will start to change is after that. I think you're going to see a lot of different boards. Some guys that are going between 21 and maybe 51 where we pick in the second round, and you'll see a lot of variables that go into those picks.
Q. To follow-up on that, I've heard a lot of comparisons, seen a lot of comparisons from this draft to 2013. You seem very sure about how you see the draft playing out. You guys were able to navigate that draft, which turned in the long run not to be very strong, but that ended up being one of your better drafts. How do you feel about that in relation to this draft?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Definitely a backhanded compliment. Appreciate that. (Laughing.)
But, you know, I think that people think about the 2013 draft because of the quarantine position. If I remember correctly, Buffalo traded back in that draft and took EJ Manuel, and I think that people are talking about this like when will the quarterbacks go.
So when anyone ever talks about drafts they start with the quarterbacks, and feel like the quarterbacks are kind of the anchor of any draft. So there's some uncertainty about where the quarterbacks go in this draft, so I think for us we just go by our rankings and what we think is the right way to stack the board.
We'll be prepared to take our 15th player at 15 and our 18th player at 18.
Q. Curious to get your take on the boom in wide receiver contracts of late, and how that kind of shapes your opinion of the value of the drafting a wide receiver.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think every year a position kind of becomes like -- I like that word, the boom. It's like the new mining town, right? It's like it becomes you have pass rushers, you have offensive linemen, and now you got wide receivers.
So I think at the end of the day, and we talked about this a little bit when we were at the league meetings, it's just you got to make a decision on what your priorities are on building the team and whether you're going to kind of go with the flow or you're going to kind of figure out what is the most important thing for your team, and if there's some value in being different and figuring out what now is kind of the next area.
I think we spent a lot of time. Coach and I talk about this all the time. Like if we're going to be the same as everyone else we're probably going to finish in the middle of the pack. Sometimes you got to take risks and you got to kind of stand out there and do something different than everyone else.
So that doesn't mean that there aren't right decisions to make at that position. But at the same time, if you're doing the same thing that everyone else is doing, you're probably a step late.
Q. You've been very active obviously on draft day with trades. Curious about the process. How much of that work happens before the draft? How much are you crafting those trades as things go on? How many different plans do you have? How many people are involved in all that and just what that process is like?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: In the first round we've always found that it's helpful to have those trades mapped out beforehand. The way that goes isn't like, hey, we're definitely doing this.
It's if we're moving up, hey, if there's a player that we want that falls to that spot, here's what we would do; are we good on the trade compensation, so that you pick up the phone and I say hey, Nick, you know, the guy's still there; you guys good? Yeah; trade's done.
So you're not sitting there and going, we think it should be this and this and they think it should be this and this. It's too hectic to do that in the first round. Now after the first round it's probably too hard to map those out.
So when you get into the second round, third round and beyond, it's -- those do happen on the clock because they're simpler. But when it gets into the first round, all those conversations will be had before the fact. Even our trade last year was kind of -- we kind of set parameters of what that was, and so when we picked up the phone and called Dallas we kind of knew what the trade was going to be and what the price was going to be and that we had discussed that.
So I think that's the easier way to go in the first round so you're not in a situation where you guys are kind of scrambling, because there's a lot to do when you're in the first round. You move up. You take a pick. Now you're on the clock. Now you kind of got to get situated. You got to call in the trade. You got to make sure your guy's there.
So that's how we do it. My feeling is that's how a lot of teams do it just based on the conversations we've had throughout the years, and I think it makes it flow easier.
Q. How many different scenarios would you say you have ready to go, ready to spring if it works out?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: You know, we've two picks, right? So I think you're planning every scenario about who you would move up for, who you would be really comfortable staying, how many players you would be comfortable staying, and what are the tiers that you would move back for, and what you would take.
Obviously like there's price that doesn't make sense to move back either. We're not going to move back 10 picks for a fifth round pick. So I think that at the end of the day you kind of go through all those and you have a really good sense of what you want to do, and I think for us and New Orleans, that was one of the comforts of the trade.
Like we both knew what we were comfortable for. It didn't really matter what the trade chart said. They were comfortable with the deal and we were comfortable with the deal, and I think those are the best trades.
Q. You guys used early picks in the last couple years. Are there lessons you can take away a from those picks? You've talked about how hard they are to evaluate. Is there something you can take away from the last few years?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think you're constantly evaluating the things that you do wrong, and you also want to learn from the things you did right and lessons that you have from that.
We discussed that a lot about the scenarios where we've done good things and how obviously this is a hard process. Like you're going to mess things up, but what can you learn from those picks that's didn't work out?
I would say with Jalen obviously I know he gets a lot of attention in this city and I know he's working his butt off, and when you look back -- we were having this conversation this morning with our strength and conditioning staff. Like that was a hard year for some guys because you had COVID, you didn't have an off-season program, and so sometimes the book isn't necessarily written on all those guys.
Q. The linebackers this year, seems there's not that many being talked about, like Devin Lloyd and Nakobe Dean. What do you feel like -- from a GM perspective, what do you feel -- like the value seems to be going down with those guys in that position. Do ever forsee it being cyclical and being up there?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: There's different guys at that position, and when you talk about off-ball linebackers, their value in the passing game is important, and so there's different values in the passing game.
Obviously pressuring the quarterback, being able to blitz and create pressure is an important part of that too, but being able to match mirror routes, being able to make plays in the passing game I think is an important part of that too. Being instinctive.
So you're talking about really good players that you just mentioned, obviously, and I don't know what the attention is going on in the media, but I know this is a good linebacking class and I think there will be good players that come out.
Q. Howie, the first rounds over your career as a GM, you've done better in pre-14 picks versus post-14. Clearly that's going to happen more often than not, but have you done a study saying that you guys are in the norm versus the rest of the league in relation to those picks, or is there something that's missing when you guys get past that pick number 14?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think that obviously -- like I hope we're picking in the late 20s and early 30s as much as possible, but when you look at the history of the draft and you really look at it and you break it down into like 1 through 10, 11 through 20, 21 through 32, the hit rate's going to decrease naturally.
And why is that? Well, one, I don't know that there's any draft and I don't know that you would find any team in the league who is going to say that I got 32 first round grades on guys. I got 32 blue players. I got 32 potential Pro-Bowlers. That's never going to happen.
So every draft there's a cut off on difference makers, and so that doesn't mean you're going to be right on the difference makers. Think about all the top 10 picks that haven't worked either.
But usually those guys who have such unique skill sets, such unique tools in their body, that they have a different chance to hit than other guys.
And so I think that the higher you pick the better chance you have of obviously getting a player who has got the full complement of skill sets: good production, good tools in their body, good character. Those guys go really quick on draft day.
And as you go through the draft, whether in the first round, second round, third round, fourth round, fifth round, it gets harder just naturally because the amount of players -- the funnel gets smaller.
I also think -- and I had this conversation with probably maybe one of the greatest GM's in NFL history on a beach a long time ago, and it was like, 10 years ago my draft board and your draft board were going to be different, right?
We had scouts go to these small school places. Not everyone knew anything. I don't know if it's 10 years ago at this point. 15 years ago, right? And so the top 100 players on my board may -- you may have 75 of those guys. But now we're basically in the information age where everyone really knows who the players are, who the top 100 players are going to be.
That doesn't mean we have them in the same order, but there's not as many surprises. There's not as many, wow, like I don't know where that guy came from. We were talking in our draft meetings like I know in 2007-2008 I remember watching guys -- like is it a disk that you put in the computer to watch guys and use your computer to kind of go through it?
Like you were going through those guys, and shoot, we drafted a guy. Andy Studebaker, I mean, you go talk to Ryan Grigson. Ryan Grigson brought us a freaking DVD of Andy Studebaker. That was the first look at him before we gave it to Doc and freaking put it in the system. Well that ain't happening anymore, right? Like everyone's going to know that guy.
So I think the process has changed. What's my point in all this? Maybe not much, but I think that at the end of the day, what we're saying is like everyone's getting all this information, right, so it's not where all of a sudden -- you know, I promise you one thing: whoever we take in the third round, you're going to freaking know, right?
Like you may not have a couple of years ago. Maybe you looked for and go, Man, I got to find freaking Cal-Poly stuff.
So all this information is at your fingertips, and so it just makes everything narrower and your margin for error narrower.
Q. Focusing on the pro day circuit, what's your personal approach to scouting? How familiar do you get with all the prospects? And how hands-on are you in the meetings?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I mean, I like to watch as many guys as I possibly can. Knowing that my expertise is more on the offensive side. That doesn't mean I'm not watching the defensive side, but my expertise is more on that side, especially with the skill players, with the quarterbacks, with the receivers, with the tight ends, and with the running backings.
But I feel like I'm able to give some good perspective on the defensive players as well in the sense of what it's like for an offensive coach to game plan against. That's kind of how, right, to go about the defensive players. Like what is it going to be like for an offensive coach to game plan against this defensive coach?
So I want to try to get my eyes on as many guys as possible knowing where my expertise is. As far as knowing the player, I think that's really important. Obviously I can't physically talk to every single player in the draft, but I want to be involved as many -- in as many of the Zooms as I possibly can be, as many of the 30 visits when they come in here, the combine interviews, the Senior Bowl interviews, because I want to know the person as well and how that fits in for us.
So, yeah, did I answer your question? Okay.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: He's got a passion for it, Zach. He loves watching football. He loves talking about it. He's got a passion for it. He did tell me today that -- to remind me that the off-season program starts on Monday. (Laughing.)
Q. Jeffrey mentioned at the owners meetings the importance of psychological testing as part of this evaluation. Can you take us into that process as much as you can, kind of what you're looking for? And then Nick, having been at a couple different previous stops, maybe something that's different about what you see here with that component?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: We try to dig deep into the background and the character, and really the first credit to that goes to our scouts, all of the guys that are on the road all year. They do a tremendous job of being experts in their school and in their players.
So they're the ones who really alert to us some guys that we may need to spend extra time with. Then all you guys know Dom, and there's nobody better in the National Football League than Dom DiSandro about getting to the bottom of guys and figuring out guys and talking to guys and understanding who are risks and who are fits for this team.
He knows our team backwards and forwards. He knows the players that fit for our culture, for our team, and our city. So very fortunate to have those two pieces.
And then we have experts who do talk to the guys that we have some questions on and try to get to the bottom of it. Coach and I can think we're good at interviewing players, but at the end of the day like we didn't go to school for it. We don't have that area of expertise.
So we try to do that and really put up just like we do a player evaluation, we try to do a character evaluation on all these guys. Now, some of them are easy, right? Some of them are really easy. It's not too hard to figure out a three-time captain in the SEC. Devonta didn't take long to figure out, right, Landon didn't take long to figure out.
But some of these guys, they're complicated. So we spent a lot of time talking about them and getting as much background and talking to as many experts as we can to try to figure out the person as much as the player.
Q. Nick, to follow-up on Zach's question before, just last year at this time obviously you're the head coach for the first time, getting your feet on the ground; has there been an evolution for you and your staff for this process? Is it a little bit easier the second time around?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I mean, of course, because you're not showing for the first time -- you're not going through the process for the first time together. I think one thing I know that coaches in my past have prepared me for is to be able to clearly define what you see and how you're going to use a player.
So I think that's just the thing that's made it easier, is you guys already know how we're going to use guys. That doesn't mean you don't continue to have those conversations or they don't evolve or they don't change a little bit here and there, because you're constantly changing your -- you're constantly changing your process. You're constantly tweaking it to make it better.
So those conversations happen. But mostly the conversations of, hey, this is how we would use a player with this skill set. Here's what we would do, how we would use them. Here's a player in the past -- we've had those, and so we're just continuing to build on that and that we started last year.
Q. Why the late start for the off-season program, and why fewer practices than allowed?
NICK SIRIANNI: Well, again, a lot of -- everything that we do is going to be thought out of with the players' health and safety in mind very first.
And so that was one thing. We felt like we did a good job last year of staying healthy for different reasons and different thoughts and everybody's voices going into it. I got to make the decision on -- you know, as far as what the final decision is, but we really felt like we benefited from some of those things that we did last year of the time length, of the things that we did.
We felt like we were able to get what we needed to get done in those weeks that's we had last year, and so we wanted to be able to -- we know we were going to be in person more this time and we're going to see 'em face-to-face more this time, but we just wanted to do what we felt were comfortable for the players' safety and health, while also getting what we needed to get done.
We feel like that's where we are. We're comfortable with that's where we are, with the amount of time that we're spending in this off-season.
Q. And just how it relates to player health and the things that you guys have done.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: No. Coach talked to me about it and I think what he's saying makes a ton of sense, so excited to get the players back on Monday.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports