Q. Just what you have on the D-line now inside and outside, how deep you are, the talent you have, veterans, young guys. For both of you really, what that's going to enable you to do up front once everyone gets working together.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think it's just kind of -- it just represents how we feel. We want to build a team with an O-line and D-line, and it was important for us to make a statement in this draft in this off-season that this is how we believe we're going to win.
I think we had a press conference, and I said it's probably going to be a little bit predictable of an off-season, we're probably going to go O-line and D-line, you guys know how we try to build it, and I think every opportunity we had in this draft where the grades were the same, so we weren't going off the draft board, and we saw a lineman, we wanted to pick that lineman. I think it worked out.
I don't even know totally what we did. We were just talking about what do I do tonight. We hang out with our guys, our organization did a tremendous job. I really want to thank everyone in this organization. There's not an area, scouts obviously, coaches obviously, but everyone in this organization, from the kitchen staff to PR to equipment to video to medical to video, they all participated in this draft.
We just represent those people. But just a huge part of what we do.
So we'll hang out for a little bit, and I and Coach does the same thing, we just reflect and kind of go through a little bit what we did, how it came about. I'm sure there will be some moments we'd like to get back, just like when you're in a game, but I'm proud of the process we had. I'm proud of the organization that we're part of.
Q. Can I get Nick on the same thing, on what you have up front, on defense?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, obviously we like to come in waves on defense, and we know that a big part of our success the last two years has been the defensive line. Obviously that's been the success of this organization well before I got here, too.
It's good to have that depth. It's good to be able to come in waves with those guys.
Really excited about the pieces that we added, from Jalen all the way to our last pick with Moro. Really excited about that, and we know we have a deep defensive line. You come out of this draft like this, and you look at each other like all right, we're pretty deep. Now we've got to -- now Howie has handed us these pieces, and it's our job to get them better as players.
But what's cool about it is it's on us as coaches to get them better as players, but they have so many resources throughout the building. That starts with Mr. Lurie. I can't say enough about how unbelievable the process was, of what went down, and how many people are involved in getting these picks right, and then the undrafted free agents, and then next step will be the mini rookie camp tryouts. It's really an unbelievable process that so many people go into. Obviously Howie leads this process, but so many people contribute to the process.
It so much reminds me of putting a game plan together in a week to get ready for a game. It's pretty cool.
Q. (Indiscernible) double dipping on Georgia after doing Alabama the week before. You said the longer you do it, the less complicated it becomes. You take the best players from the best programs. Obviously you did that with Georgia this time. When did that change?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think it really started in 2021. Obviously 2020 was a weird process for us, not making excuses, but we weren't all together, and you didn't get to know the people as much as you normally do because of COVID. I'm not crying for us. Obviously a lot of people were affected by COVID.
In 2021 we knew that we had to make sure our process was really tight as Coach came on board, and we started with two Alabama guys. The way those guys worked, the kind of players they are, certainly the kind of people they are, it just reminded us that no different than when you're trying to hire someone for a position -- obviously you want guys to be really talented at what they do and whatever role they're in, but the other stuff matters, as well.
The competition level matters, too.
You see those guys play in the biggest games, on the biggest stage against the best competition, and so it's an easier -- it's hard enough when you have all the factors going into a draft pick. We talked about it a lot. You've got guys coming from a college town to the NFL for the first time, don't have classes, they're on their own, all the things that we've talked about before.
But it takes the part out of the big jump in competition because the guys that they're playing against are the guys that are playing on Sundays.
Q. When you look at the running back position, since you came back in 2016, you haven't given a veteran a deal beyond one year. You haven't drafted a running back higher than the second round, nor given any of those running backs a second contract with you. Yet you guys remain among one of the better rushing teams in the league. Can you explain further your philosophy on the allocation of the cap in terms of that position?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I feel like it starts with the O-line. Obviously for us, that's where it starts. We have a tremendous O-line. We have tremendous coaches. When they put the game plan together, giving our runners a chance.
The guys that we've had have been successful. They're talented guys who have been successful. I'm really excited about the opportunity to get swift, bring him back to Philly. He's a guy that we've known for a long time. Even when he was in high school we were watching him. We knew what kind of player he was, watched him through college. Really excited for that opportunity here.
Q. When did you think D'Andre was a real possibility? And for Nick, how do you think he fits in your offense?
NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously yesterday when Howie asked me to watch him -- was it yesterday? The day before. Whatever, one of those --
HOWIE ROSEMAN: When they took -- maybe I should go first.
NICK SIRIANNI: You go first.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: That's my bad.
When they took Gibbs 12th, we thought maybe it was an opportunity. They signed Montgomery in free agency and they took Gibbs, and we knew he was in the last year of his deal, and we went into this draft feeling really good about our running back room. We really liked the guys that we have on the roster. We think it was a talented group.
It wasn't in our mind a position that we were actively looking to upgrade, but at the same time, we're always looking for opportunities to improve the team, and when this came about, we just felt really good about the player, we felt really good about the person, and it adds another tremendous player and person to our locker room. We feel like we really know who he is as a person, have a lot of connections with him.
I know I've mentioned his name a lot, but again, Dom has known him and his family for a long time. We knew him really throughout high school. He had been in the facility as a high schooler, so I had met him when he was in high school. It's kind of a cool story of a local kid comes home and obviously a talented local kid.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think that obviously first want to say the same thing that Howie just said right there. Like we really are happy with our running back room. This was just another great piece to add.
But you can definitely see his ability to make people miss in space, and you saw that against our defense last year. He had some unbelievable runs against us last year, where you look at each other like man, that guy is hard to tackle, so he has the ability to make you miss and also accelerate through the hole, which will serve us well in some of the draws that we run and some of the RPOs that we run.
I don't know exactly how we'll use him perfectly with each individual run, you've got to get your hands on him to see that, but also in the passing game, I think he's a dynamic playmaker that's done some things that we've done with guys in the past, with some of the different routes that he runs.
But he has a great ability to read defenses out of the backfield, to make guys -- to separate from tight coverage out of the backfield, and has really good hands.
Obviously, again, can't say enough about the running back room that we have. We're really excited about the pieces that we had going into the draft, and we're even more excited about it with the addition of D'Andre.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: It really started week one when we played them. You saw the explosiveness when we played them. Every time he touched the ball you knew there was a chance he could take it the distance.
Q. You spoke about the conditions that it would take to trade a future pick. What was the process like last night into today for you?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, that's fair. I think obviously we ended our picks last night a little bit early in the third round, and we do what everyone does, we finished our press last night and we were tired, as we are right now, and we go back and we look at the board, and then we wake up and get together.
Ringo was a guy that stuck out on our board. He had a really high grade. He was a guy that we were considering at those picks when we picked in the third round.
Then we go through it and kind of say, all right, what's our grade like, a year from now not having that pick, how is that going to affect us, who may be available at that pick. We had higher grades on him than the pick we traded. We felt like this was a 20-year old kid who was a good kid, tremendous physical tools, and we really had an opportunity to develop him. He doesn't have to come in here and be a superhero. He can learn.
We think we have tremendous veterans at that position who can show the way, and he can come in in a role where he's learning, and there's not a lot of pressure on him, and he can develop.
We believe in the player and in the person.
I know there was reports. We watched the draft. They're in our draft room. We don't have a question about his work ethic. We don't have a question about his medical.
For us, it just made some sense. We wanted to get him in the building. We thought getting him in the building and being around Slay and J.B. and Avonte, and obviously we've got young guys at that position too that we like. We thought that would benefit us and him. And we're excited to add him.
And I don't know that I've done that. I'm sure you'll have that pretty quickly. I don't think I've done that in a round that early since I've been in the draft, and again, thank you to Jeffrey for trusting us and trusting the process.
And when we looked at our scouts' evaluations, you look at his objective profile and then look at his character report for us, and we thought it made some sense to do.
Q. When you reset overnight like that and you don't get up to the very top, so is it a calculated gamble, or do you have sort of a group that you're comfortable with?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: In terms of --
Q. Well, you didn't get up to the first spot, so if they say we're going to take --
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Again, we don't change our board overnight. It's not like we come in and -- we raise a guy. But I think we felt pretty confident about -- we were picking third. We did the trade before the draft. I think we felt pretty confident what was going to go one, and we had a pretty good indication what was going to go two for us to do it.
Obviously you've still got to be in a position where you'd feel like whoever you're going to take at that pick was worth your third round pick next year, but we felt really good about the position we were in before we started the draft.
Q. It's been reported that you brought in Glenn Schumann, Georgia defensive coordinator, and you're in the process of looking for guys. How influential was that visit for you guys to get a lot of these Georgia players, and how much do you take away from talking to them?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, a lot of the things we do are about relationships. Obviously we know Coach Schumann, but we know a lot of people at Georgia throughout the years, and we don't try to put one person in a position where they're the only person we talk to. We try to investigate with as many people as possible, to get as many information as possible. That's what we did here with all these Georgia guys.
Certainly I know the jokes about Georgia, they're coming, and maybe they have been there, but for us, it's about the individual players, and if we were going to bypass a player just because we had taken another player from that school, I mean, that would be silly, too.
For us, where we took the players is based on their grade, and obviously a great tribute to Coach Smart and his staff about the kind of players and people they develop.
Q. What did you guys like about Tanner, and how did you weigh the balance of a third-string quarterback presumably against other positions?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I'll let Coach talk about the evaluation of Tanner. Again, when we look at the things that we value, it starts with the O-line, starts with the D-line and it starts with the quarterback position. We like Ian, obviously we like Marcus. This isn't anything about them. This was about that we think it's a really important position. We had a guy who was highly graded on the board, and so we took him. It's no reflection of anyone else. We can go back to the championship game and the 49ers were playing their fourth-string quarterback, and I think for us, you look at that, and these guys are hard to find. If you like one, you'd better take one.
NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously through the process of talking to him, intelligent, really knows his offense and made good, quick decisions with the football. So we think he's a great decision-maker, has a big arm, and we think he's accurate.
Those were the first couple things, like the things you look at with a quarterback, the first couple things that ever come to your mind when evaluating a quarterback are those three things I said and then ability to extend plays. He definitely has those first three things, and we're excited to work with him. No indication of anything with the room. We're excited to work with the entire room.
I've got a lot of high hopes for Ian Book, too. That's why we brought him in here, and it's going to be good with Ian, he did a lot of scout team reps last year. We have a good developmental program where he gets some reps, as well, there, but it's going to be good to see him in the off-season, as well, but looking forward to working with all four guys. We feel really good about that room.
Q. When you look at the Georgia and Alabama guys that you have on the roster, it seems like pretty much all the Alabama guys are on offense and all the Georgia guys are on defense. Does that speak to strengths of those programs or did it just work out that way?
NICK SIRIANNI: We're just trying to set up a good game in the preseason over these scrimmages.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Alabama has had a tremendous defensive tradition and obviously Alabama scores a ton of board. Their offensive coordinator became the offensive coordinator at Baltimore. I don't think we can put -- those programs are just good programs, they're good teams. Just like we're trying to build a balanced team, we want to have a really good offense, and we want to have a really good defense. And I think those schools have shown that.
Q. You guys could still make moves during camp, but how do you feel about this roster after the draft, and do you see holes, or do you think this is a roster that can compete right now?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, in all honesty, I think that's what the next couple of days are for is to try to just absorb what we did, see the things that we're still looking for. Roster building is a year-round process. We don't think we're complete in any way, shape or form. We're always going to be looking for ways to improve the quality of the roster.
But in terms of kind of where we are right now, I think, one, we've got good players here and on the field, and we've got to come together as a football team. I think that's a huge part of this.
But I'm just proud of the organization and the weekend we had. The results will play out over the next couple months and certainly the next couple years.
Q. What did you like about Moro that late? Is it sort of a traits thing? What do you see in a prospect in the seventh round?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think for us, it's how we stack our board. We try to balance just like you try to balance on a seesaw.
But you're trying to just balance the traits that they have in their body, what you see on tape, and the character. For us, we stacked the board that way. That's how we do our whole process. That's the first round, that's the second round, that's the seventh round, and then we go by the board. Whatever is shown to us and whatever stands out on the board is what we'll pick. If they're even grades and we need a position, we'll probably take the position.
But that's how we do it, so in the seventh round we're not saying, hey, this guy was better traits, let's bring him up here. Our seventh round pick, when we talk about him, that's a guy who has traits in his body, he's got 34-inch arms, he went to Texas as a 16-year-old, tremendous testing. He's got position versatility.
He was standing out on our board. We're excited to get him in the seventh round. Sixth round we talked about Tanner, he was standing out on our board. I'd say most of the picks, they're kind of made for themselves. You see it, you see the board, and we have a process here where we remind each other, try to make calm decisions in calm times.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports