MIKE MACDONALD: I like the West Point shirt, that's cool.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Thanks for coming out. Great weekend, grateful, very thankful to everybody that contributed to this process. We're working on rookie free agency right now. Obviously very excited. You know, it's kind of like surgeons, right? Like after an operation, you never hear them say like boy, that didn't go so well. (Laughter) We're obviously all very excited. Coaches, scouts, all did a great job. They're in there working right now trying to sign guys and it's going to be exciting. A lot of competition an, yeah, very grateful to Mike and his staff and all their efforts, so. Yep. With that.
Q. John, through this process, what did you learn about Mike?
MIKE MACDONALD: No pressure.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Just this weekend? Confidence, clarity very well thought out. Yep. No panic. Easy.
Q. Mike, for you as well. Your first time being in that room.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: No pressure.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I spoke to it before, just having trust and how we operate. I think we had a lot of conversations throughout the process of how it was going to go and how we wanted it to go, and so you're playing that out in your mind as it starts to play out. Like John said, just really thankful for everybody in the room other there and all the work that they put in. There's a lot of people behind the scenes, many of whom you know and many you don't, just thankful for, like, the shared vision they had in the buy-in coming from our staff. It's not easy to get all that information on the same page. You know, that I have been scouting all fall and that whole process and all of a sudden, here comes new coaching staff and the language that we're using and we're trying to merge those worlds. So, easier said than done, so a lot of respect on their end and it was a really awesome process seeing it unfold.
Q. John, you got two more corners today, a couple more offensive linemen. Can you take us through what really stands out to you?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, we only scouted DBs at Auburn. (Laughter) Yeah, no, it just literally fell that way. We had those guys right together so it was amazing that we ended up selecting both of them, both really cool kids and -- kids, young men. Sorry. And competitors and to add to that room, those two guys, it's a big deal. Excited to get them here and get them going.
Q. Mike, where do you see each of those guys fitting in?
MIKE MACDONALD: Come in and compete, that's the theme for the whole draft class. Nehemiah is probably more of an outside guy. Definitely early both guys on special teams we anticipate to come in, make a huge impact for us. D.J. probably both inside and outside, but, come in, man, compete, we'll figure it out. Kind of like the offensive line. Let's go defensive line. We got a lot of reps to be had out there, so it'll hash itself out.
Q. John, what is it about the scheme that they played --
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Is that yours?
Q. Yeah.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: That's pretty cool.
Q. -- and the way that they -- what is it about the scheme at Auburn that highlighted them and their ability to translate?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: It wasn't necessarily scheme, quite honestly. It was just the skill set with Pritchett, the speed. D.J., he can play nickel, he can play outside, too, so it wasn't necessarily a scheme evaluation. They're both talented cover guys. There's things both of them need to clean up and once they get here, they'll understand that and they'll have a clear vision for where they're headed.
Q. John, what went into that decision to move down in that fourth round?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Just we had several players right in there that we knew there was groupings so it made since they were very aggressive, a lot of calls this morning and they just were the most aggressive of the group and it was the one that made the most sense as pertains to what we wanted to go and what our board looked like and what would be possibly giving up in order to acquire both the guys that we did and luckily we were two positions we targeted at that spot.
Q. John, did you see D.J. potentially playing inside, is that mostly based off his tape or did you guys get a chance to see him do that at the Senior Bowl as well?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Both, yep. He's taken reps in there and you can see it in some of his college film as well. So, yeah, he's a really smooth mover. He's like 175 pounds, I think, but really quick. Easy mover.
Q. John, what do you like about Tyrice Knight?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: I think that's a good one for Mike. Mike's more the linebacker guru.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, again, the first thing that pops out on the tape is he sees the game quickly, so it's instincts I guess is a good way to put it, but moving where the ball is going kind of before everybody else is a maybe a good way to describe it. He stays square. I think he brings some thump at the point of attack and then when we brought him in, we got to meet him and we just really liked the person and the competitor. His demeanor is soft-spoken right now, but I think he's a very clear communicator and then just a guy throughout the process we started to really like and. Linebackers are paid to make tackles. He makes a lot of takes, so that's a good thing.
Q. Your contacts in Michigan, what'd you hear about AJ Barner?
MODERATOR: It's great that we had the guy that helped recruit him right down the hall with Jay, but just talking to Grant Newsom worked with him previously, but our type of guy, top-level worker, big-time competitor. I think he can block and run pretty significant route tree as well and then he played for Jay on special teams in all four phases so we're going to expect him to come contribute in the kicking game as well as soon as he steps in the door.
Q. John, when did Jerrell first get on your radar?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Oh, shoot, the scouts, those guys knew about him. For me personally it was when he was at the Ohio State workout. I wish I could have said I went to Findlay and scouted this fall, but didn't quite have time for that. But, yeah, he went to the Ohio State workout, had a great workout. He's a monster of a dude and we brought him in. He had a great visit, great visit with the staff, treated everybody in the building with a lot of respect and he just has a really nice upside and he did what he's supposed to do. He dominated at a level he's supposed to dominate in at Findlay and, yeah, length, size, he's a former basketball player that's re-worked his body and he's still on the come so it's a really fun shot at an amazing upside.
Q. John, does the age and a lot of these guys being seniors, is that intentional or just a product of the COVID year?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Product of the COVID year, yep.
Q. Could Michael Jerrell play guard?
MIKE MACDONALD: Probably right now staying at tackle.
Q. Mike, just for the style football, brand football you want to play, just how important is it being in the trenches the way you see a football team?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I don't think you go into the process saying we have quota, but absolutely, that's where the game starts up front and it's going to be really important for us to be dominant in that phase. If it stops there, then you really don't have a shot the rest of the play, so, again, the style of play, we talk about all that, but we want to be physical, we want to be imposing, we want to create any lines of scrimmage and I think you're seeing the investment in that, and we're going to have awesome competition on both lines of scrimmage. It'll be fun to kind of iron sharpen iron throughout the process, throughout camp. I'm just excited to go finally do some actual team drills here start of OTAs, so, been talking about it a lot, but now it's time to go do it.
Q. Mike, Barner's kind of billed as a blocking tight end. Do you see upside for the receiving aspect for his game, too?
MIKE MACDONALD: I do.
Q. What did you learn about him on (inaudible).
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I do. His run after the catch is good. Again, I think he's an underrated athlete. I think he's got a little bit more weight to put on, but the blocking tight end is a really important position. It starts in the C-gap in the run game and who's going to defend it and who's going to block it so you have to be able to answer those questions and those skill sets don't just grow on trees, you know? It's tough to do. So we expect him to be able to do that. So it's a coveted skill set.
Q. John, this group collectively has I think almost 300 starts in college. Kind of tied in with what Michael asked, do you see that as a product of the COVID year --
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
Q. -- or was that like a priority, you wanted guys who had a lot of game play experience?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: No, that's a product of the COVID year, and then the decisions that a lot of these guys last year to stay and that's a lot of NIL as well influence, you know, guys just I want to stay in school, I'm making some good money, more experience, whoever's advising them, yeah.
Q. John, a bigger picture question because we might not get you for a while. There was a standard that was set here pretty quickly after you got here, you guys compete for division titles, make playoff runs, all that stuff.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
Q. Still some rookie contracts and whatnot but you pretty much have your team assembled. How much progress do you think you've made in the past few months to kind of get back to that level?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: I think we've made a lot of progress and we're always going to keep looking at the same. We're never going to be like this rebuilding or whatever term you want to use. We're not that. Like, the standard is the standard, so, yeah, nothing's changed in that record. We're always going to be pushing the envelope. Now, just because we got through this draft doesn't mean we're not going to stop, either. We're evaluating these guys when they walk in the door, we're going to be helping them out as much as we possibly can. We have all the tools in this building to help everybody, all the individuals, there's a ton of individuals that can assist these guys and accentuate their strengths and help them with their deficiencies and we're just going to continue to do that all the way through, and we're going to continue to be talking to other teams about possible trades and cap casualty guys and what have you and I can't say it enough. It's a full year process. It just doesn't stop. It hasn't stopped, quite honestly, since 2010, so.
Q. (Inaudible).
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Who?
Q. (Inaudible).
JOHN SCHNEIDER: No, I know, that was awesome. Good job. Yeah, phenomenal. (Laughter) He's from Moldova. (Laughter) No, what do we like about him? He's huge, he's tough, really aggressive. Again, you guys hear this all the time, boy, I can't believe he was still available. That was one of those guys. Okay, you're waiting, waiting, keeps coming, keeps coming and he's been primarily a right side player, he's played right guard, right tackle, but size, length, a really Senior Bowl week and competed at a high level and Dave said he did a really fun press conference with you guys, so that's great.
Q. John, do you have any thought of a quarterback --
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Nope. No quarterbacks. Nope. Nope. (Laughter) We didn't have any -- no, again, it's just one of those -- once the 12 or the six went in the first 12 picks I think it was kind of like wow, all right, so. And then there was slots all the way through and it just didn't fit.
Q. What's your long-term plan?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Are you being serious right now?
Q. Yeah.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: That's a serious question? (Laughter)
Q. Yeah.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: What's your long-term plan?
Q. That's what the draft is about, it's not just this year.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, we just traded for Sam Howell. He's got two years left on his contract. He's, what? Two years younger than a lot of these guys. Geno's here. We have a really cool room right now. We're trying to add a couple guys right now and we'll continue to work it, so, you know, we'll see where it goes. We're always looking at that position. I can't tell you what our long-term plan is because I honestly don't know, but Sam is a huge part of it because we made a major trade to get Sam before we got here. Serious question, though. That was very serious the way you did it, too. What is your long-term plan?
Q. Maybe almost as serious, with Sam, he's been in the building. You've had a chance to have him here and go through. What have you learned about him?
MIKE MACDONALD: Man, we're going on three weeks now. I'm impressed with Sam, how he operates. We're building it slow offensively. The whole playbook's not in but command of the huddle, impressed with. He can spin it out there, that's easy to see. Just getting used to his personality, you know, I think he's starting to blossom a little bit more, that personality's starting to come out, but really excited about him. Like John said, it's a cool combination of guys and I think we've got some great coaches working with them every day. It's early, but, you know, the returns are very positive.
Q. Mike, a lot was made maybe more than needed to be made, but some of the redecorating in there --
MIKE MACDONALD: Redecorating? That's a good way to put it. (Laughter)
Q. We haven't had a chance to ask you about it. That was the thought process behind that?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I mean obviously our coaching staff's respect for this place is off the charts. I mean, that's why we wanted to be here and the standard that's been set here is extremely attractive. It's obviously a great organization. I mean, the history of success that we've had here, that's what we're chasing, we're trying to be back to Super Bowls and playing elite defense and smashing people up front. These are the things we're chasing.
Obviously we have a huge amount of respect for the coaches that have been here, the history. I think what we're trying to do with the players in terms of messaging is hey, like, we want to create our own message and our rallying cries and stuff that's ours for this team. So that's how it was, yeah. I think you can walk around the halls and see all the history and stuff, I think it speaks for himself.
Q. John, with Nehemiah, he's returned kicks before. Is that something you see him factoring into potentially for you guys as well?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, I'm sure Jay will give him a shot back there, yeah. If you're into 4.37 or I heard him tell you guys 4.26 or whatever and I was like wow, that's even better.
MIKE MACDONALD: That's faster than I thought.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Let's stick with that! That's not what the card says, but, yeah. I'm sure Jay will give him a shot.
Q. We have seen you over the years (inaudible) some guys and most recently comes to mind in that regard. How special is these guys that on day three that may have a chip on their shoulder, may have been overlooked and they're going to be coming in at the end of the week trying to prove something.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, for years now we've had a blast on day three. We always talk about Monday being the entertainment night, let's get through Friday. Last night was like whew, that felt like eight hours just getting through that, second, third round and today's the day we really like truly love because this is where the heart and soul of the class is. Like, these are the guys and the guys that staff's working on right now. Yeah, this is the day and now we'll see how teams adjust with the people they drafted, who they signed, what's going to be on the waiver wire, who wants to trade some people because you have to adjust your team after this weekend based on what you did and what your salary cap looks and your roster numbers. Yeah, we love day three.
Q. What's the idea behind the shirts on day three?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Oh the, yeah -- sorry. Our gas station shirts, yeah, this is like we're going to work. Getting up and this is the day. This is the day, like, we just get after it and it's just like, hey, we're not going to outsmart you, we're going to outwork you.
Q. Mike, do you prefer --
JOHN SCHNEIDER: That has nothing to do with gas stations, I guess, but, just. Hard work. (Laughter).
Q. Do you prefer Tyrice at one spot, Mike, or at least to start out?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, we'll start him -- I'm not sure. We'll start him at both. I think he can progress to being a Mike linebacker. He has a will set to play Will, so we'll kind of figure it out as we go, but I think a natural transition or a natural progression, it's otherwise to go from Will to Mike rather than the other way, so, that's probably how we'll wind up doing it, but both spots inside I think he can find a home.
Q. You said before that you ask your linebackers to do a lot. Are there certain things you saw on tape that you said that could be a really good fit for what we want to do?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I think I addressed it earlier when we were talking about what we saw in him, but the ability to play square, anticipate plays, solid at the point of contact. I do think he can improve his hand usage, but I just think he sees the game and it's slow for him and we're going to ask our guys to man the middle of the defense and I think he can do that eventually.
Q. And do you still have Dodson as your middle linebacker and Baker as your weak side --
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, that's the plan right now, but what's cool about both those guys is they both played both spots so that's something that you might not have seen in our scheme in years past that you might see with our guys is based on what we ask them to do, any particular call they could end up switching spots which provides some versatility for us, and so we'll see how that shakes out.
Q. (Inaudible) versatility to the defense. How did that play into some of the players drafted as well?
MIKE MACDONALD: Of course it's important because you're going to ask guys to do multiple things on any given down, but I think if you think big-picture, yeah, we want to be able to put guys in position to do what they want, what they can do best, so guys that have an elite trait, we're going to try to do that as much as we can, but if you can do more than one thing, now all of a sudden we can present the same looks and do multiple things out of those looks and create match-ups that we're trying to create. So, yeah, it's this one big moving puzzle. If you have more options you can get to more stuff more easily and you're creating better match-ups for your guys and ultimately you're in a better spot to win each situation that's given. So kind of a convoluted answer but that's how we see it.
Q. In that, so you need smartness and instinct and how much goes throughout your line to be able to move those pieces. Might be a convoluted question.
MIKE MACDONALD: A couple convoluted things back-to-back there. Yeah, you want smart football players that can adapt and adjust but when we've moved guys and they're playing 17 positions and I come up here and brag to you about how our guys are moving around, it's like, well, is that best for the player? Is he going to be able to play his best football if he's playing 17 positions? I don't think that's the right answer for you. But if he's playing a couple things that he can play really well but it's complementary I think we're in our wheel house there if that makes sense. When we say versatile, it's not like they're doing a thousand things. It's just a complementary menu where you can kind of keep it moving and keeping the offense off balance.
Q. Mike, with Knight, what stands out about his coverage ability and dropping in?
MIKE MACDONALD: Well, I think he's an efficient mover. I keep saying staying square but we want to be a square defense. You got to be able to go through us and not around us, so we're going to ask our inside backers to play anything from out of the back field, their number two weak which takes an elite skill, which we'll see how well he does that but I think staying square and being able to play the middle of defense is important. You got to be in a position to break and handle checkdowns and press into routes and live in worlds that we're going to live in. Again, I mean, he hasn't done all the things we're going to ask him to do schematically but nobody every does so you're look at how he moves and how he thinks and try to project it the best you can.
Q. (Inaudible).
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Good. They're both doing good.
Q. Does it appear they'll be ready for training camp or too soon?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, it's probably too soon. Well, Abe, he's doing great but we'll see.
Q. All three offensive linemen you drafted describe themselves as (inaudible) when you're evaluating that position, in particular, where is the balance between technical ability and athleticism versus the attitudes?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, we try to stay away from the word soft. Like when people are soft, that's not very good. Eliminate those guys, right? No, Steve Hutchison talked to us the other day about their group, right? That they played with, like, hey, look, offensive linemen need to play as a group. They need to be you have to, nasty, they should be walking around the building together. They should be in their own world. That's what we're trying to get together. We have been blessed to be around a lot of really great offensive line groups. When we were in Green Bay we had line that was together for ten years and it was a big deal and those guys all would probably tell you they weren't the most talented guys but they worked together as one. That's what we're trying to establish and tone-setting was definitely something that was a factor in the guys that we wanted to acquire.
Q. John, was not drafting any safeties about how you feel about the guys you have and free agents and then Kobe and Julian, etc.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: To a certain extent, yes, because our grading scale represents that, what our team looks like and so, yeah, it's a good group right now.
Q. John, it was on (inaudible) last week we had Rashaad Penny in for a visit, is that still something that could happen, or.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Sure, we had him in, talked with him. Good to see him again. He's such a great person, you know. Good to see him. Yeah, it's a possibility.
MODERATOR: Anything else? Thank you.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Thanks for coming out this weekend, guys.
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