Q. Nick, I was going to ask you about Steen. He was introduced as a guard, played tackle. How do you view him at this point?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, obviously we want to get him here and work with him and see what will happen next week at rookie mini-camp and get him in the building, but we think he has good flexibility. He's been able to play, and we feel like he can play both positions, and we'll see what happens.
Q. Talk about the difficulty of evaluating college safeties. It's been a long time since you've (indiscernible)?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I was preparing for this question.
Q. What is it about Sydney that made you change that, and I'm also curious about Sean Desai's influence --
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I think the first part is we still need safeties, right, so you've got to evaluate them, and obviously for us, when I talked about that, I was talking about the specific usage. When you look at Sydney, the way they used him at Illinois, they used him a lot around the box. He would blitz, he'd cover a tight end, he'd play in the run game, so you kind of had an incomplete evaluation.
Then the Senior Bowl, which Jim Nagy did a tremendous job there, they gave us the opportunity to see him being a post player, playing in the deep path, playing one-on-ones, and you saw the athleticism, and I think that really helped complete our process.
Sydney Brown was a passion player for a lot of people in this organization, he was a red star guy, and I think just a tremendous person with obviously really good athletic tools, leadership ability, and for us, just excited to get him in the building.
Q. (Indiscernible) throughout the draft process?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, for us obviously the important thing is making sure -- it's not our scheme, it's not our system. We tell scouts all the time we have to fit players that fit what our coaches are looking for, and Nick and our staff did a tremendous job of trying to explain in detail what they're looking for at each position, and Coach does a great job of showing video clips of here's what I'm looking for at this spot, at this position. Then when we send our scouts on the road they really can visualize in their head how this guy will look in our system. So Sean does the same thing for us, and we were able to talk to him about him and his vision for Sydney.
Q. Along the lines of the Senior Bowl, how valuable was that for Tyler Steen as far as playing guard?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, really valuable. You get to see him in the SEC playing tackle, and him going from Vandy to Alabama I think was huge growth, and playing left tackle for the University of Alabama, obviously that's a high-profile position. There have been a lot of NFL players play that position, and you watch him play tackle and he's had success there.
Then he moved at the Senior Bowl, he played guard. You could see him moving people off the ball, you could see his athleticism in space. This is a 6'6" 320-pound guy who started in the SEC, smart guy, comes from a great family, and obviously Coach Stoutland, a big part of our process, as well, like we talked about with Coach Desai, and really excited to get our hands on him.
Q. Will Tyler have a chance to compete for the right guard spot?
NICK SIRIANNI: That's really a long way away. We don't have to make that decision for a while, but best player will play at that position, and we feel like we have some good options, and the reason why we took him is because we feel good about him. Everybody in the building feels good about him.
Yeah, it's too early to say that, but the best player will play, so I guess that kind of answers that question.
Q. When you talk about post safeties, Howie was mentioning, from your perspective as an offensive guy, Nick, what makes those post safeties difficult for you as sort of an offensive schemer, play caller? What do you look for traits-wise?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you want the -- you get worried about guys on offense, that guys that are playing in the middle of the field that have range, that can cover, and we definitely think that Sydney has that, that he can get to the ball. He has great range to make plays from hash to hash.
That's one thing that you really are concerned about is just that ability to make plays all over the field.
Then also you're not blocking that guy. It's very rare in a post safety that you have somebody responsible for him. Happens on a select few number of plays.
So you look if a guy is not a great tackler, you think to yourself, well, if I get through here it's almost like there's nobody here left. We really think that he can tackle, he makes plays on the ball in space, so that's the offensive perspective of a deep safety.
Q. What went into the decision to move back three spots? Was it you thought you could get Tyler there plus get some extra picks?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: You know, I think for us, we wanted to take a couple more shots tomorrow, and so we understood -- we didn't know. We were really kind of trying to bring some good luck into it so we didn't lose these two guys. But I thought for us to get another middle sixth-round pick and to get another shot in the seventh round, we wanted to take those shots. Those have been some high-upside shots for us, when I think about some of the picks we've hit it in the sixth and seventh round, and just getting those shots I think also gives our staff some juice when they walk in tomorrow morning.
I think we've got a tremendous staff, and when I see that our scouting staff and you think about, all right, they're coming in tomorrow, we've got two picks, that was something that I was thinking of when we made that trade and felt like to have four times to call guys -- it's fun to get everyone in and to call guys and to get draft picks, and to have four more chances at that tomorrow instead of two, and that sixth-round pick we thought was worth waiting three spots for.
Q. To follow up on the scouting staff, those guys put a lot of time on the road. Who was in there this year?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Phil Bhaya is primarily responsible for the SEC. He has over-the-top responsibilities, as well. Phil is a local guy who played at Princeton, and he's a tremendous young scout. He's got a pretty wide skill set.
And then Alan Wolking goes every year, and obviously we have other guys who have been in there.
I think those guys do a tremendous job in the SEC. It was funny because I was saying this, and I'm not trying to overshadow those guys because they do a great job, but I went to Georgia last year at practice, and I remember coming back and being like -- Coach was like, who did you like there, and I'm like, I don't know, like the whole defense.
It's just kind of amazing to think of all these guys that we got. These two guys came in today, and I know you guys had a chance to sit down with them, and they're like lobbying for like three more guys.
I think that, what is it, the EPL -- European Soccer League? Is that it? Premier League? I'm losing my mind; it's late at night. But they relegate teams. I was worried they were going to relegate us to the SEC if we took more Georgia guys.
Q. You mentioned Brown being a passion player. Who were the evaluators that were passionate about him and why?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I don't think that's fair to signed of signal those guys out individually. At the end of the day, if he doesn't work out it's my fault and if he's good it's my responsibility.
Q. What are the characteristics that make that type of player so passionate --
HOWIE ROSEMAN: When you watch him on tape, this guy flies around. He's got exceptional play tempo. He's a big hitter. You see him flying around, making plays on the ball. He can find the ball. Like I said, he can blitz, he can play in the run game, he can cover the slot, he can cover tight ends. He's one of those guys, he's fun to watch, the way he plays the game.
I think our fans are going to love Sydney Brown, and we're excited to get him here.
Q. Red star player, what does that mean?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: That's a guy who kind of exemplifies what it means to be an Eagle, so it's great character, captain, testing numbers, intelligence, plays the way it should be played, practices the way it should be played.
We sit there the day before the draft, we do that Wednesday, right? We did that Wednesday? We go around the room, and we give every scout a chance to stamp their red star on guys. Goes back, it's a long tradition, not only here but a couple of other places that people have been, and when we're looking at the draft board we have a red star on the guys, and Jeffrey a lot of times will go, hey, don't forget, and we're deciding between those two guys, that's a red star guy.
I think for us, it gives our scouts a chance to really put their name on guys, and that gives them a lot of pride.
Q. Generally speaking, how many guys get that --
HOWIE ROSEMAN: We've got a lot of red stars on this list. Devonta Smith would be a red star, Landon Dickerson would be a red star. I could probably go down 15 red stars. We like our red star guys because they're passion players for us.
Q. Generally speaking, how many guys get that distinction in a class?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: About 10, and they're all different levels of the draft. They don't necessarily mean the first round. There are guys that are in the fifth and sixth round. There are undrafted free agents that are red star guys. Sometimes the scouts, they understand the first-round picks -- the first-round picks are usually organizational decisions. Those are ones where everyone is involved in.
But when you get later in the draft and certainly when you get into the undrafted free agent process, guys have a chance to put their name on guys and go recruit guys, and they do it with our coaches. It's a really fun process, and the other part we have to do on Wednesday is the bills come due, right? We have to pay our bills.
Anyone, any scout or coach who has an undrafted free agent from their area or position coach --
NICK SIRIANNI: I wasn't telling Brett that I was paying that bill.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: -- come due. We give them a little cash bonus. If we have an undrafted free agent who makes the roster, the position coach gets a little bonus and the area where the scout comes from gets a bonus. The race is on. Saturday afternoon, tomorrow afternoon the race will be on. It's a prideful thing --
NICK SIRIANNI: Do you think it's right we make them wait a year to get that bonus?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I was just thinking about that. It's almost like they should charge interest on us. That would be like 3 percent --
Q. You guys have added three O-linemen in the first couple rounds the last three years. How important was it to replenish the young talent on O-line?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think for us, it's what we believe in. It's what we stand for. I think for us to come into the draft and try to make sure the value hits the position is important, as well.
I think when we look at the first round, those positions, the defensive linemen that we drafted, they were the right guys at the right position in the draft for us. The board kind of spoke to us for both those guys, and when we're picking this late in the second round, obviously there are going to be a lot of guys go.
You always start the day and you're sitting there and you've got a couple guys, and you're like, man, that would be great if this guy goes, and at one point I'm like, how many more picks do we pick, and they're like, 28. It's like, okay, why don't you guys tell me every five picks how many more.
But it's a long kind of process until you get to the 31st pick in the round, and I think when we were there, we looked up and we had kind of kept our eye on it and saw two guys we really liked.
Q. At the trade deadline you said you were looking for luck.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: We got a couple good luck charms there that we just go through. Just fun things. Coach is not superstitious. He doesn't believe in it, so I can't really go there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports