KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: For the receiver. Plays really physical, plays with a good vision on the quarterback. I think there's a skill to knowing when to look at the ball. Not everybody has it. He does. Somebody who's aggressive in the run game.
Just somebody we're really happy we got where we did. He was somebody we wanted to take actually in our first pick before the trade-back, but we got a good deal and decided to take the chance, and obviously it's always treacherous, there's guys coming off the board. There's a group of guys that we were considering, but really happy with what we got. Really adds to that room, and Daronte, B-Flo, everybody is excited to coach him.
With that, any questions?
Q. Were there conversations, or what were the conversations like tonight about trading and moving around? Were there opportunities to move up if you wanted to do something like that?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, we kind of set just plans and guidelines, if these players were to fall to a certain place we'll call with this deal, and ultimately you have no idea if somebody will accept that deal, but we had all those conversations.
Look, credit to the league; I think the draft kind of went how the board was going, and there was no inefficiency to the market, and there was nobody left that we wanted to go up that high for.
Again, we were really excited about -- he's somebody that, again, we brought in our top 30. You talk about in our draft, like different bundles that we'd be happy with, he was one of them, and we're really excited we got him.
Q. Just a coincidence both guys you drafted came in, or do you put extra stock in when you go through that process?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: It's a little of both. Sometimes you bring guys in because you want to learn something more about them, or different things. You're asking different questions. It just depends.
But again, I think it is always good to get more time with people. We always talk about what's it going to be like when we're sharing a hallway with them, so when you get to spend a whole day with them and I get to look them in the eye and they get to look me in the eye in a really personal manner, you feel like you get to learn somebody because you can fake it for 15 minutes. It's pretty hard to fake it for a whole day.
Q. How competitive do you expect that room to be just in general the throughout summer and into the fall?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Extremely. I'm really excited. I've seen AB and Akayleb, they're putting in the work, and obviously Murphy has got resume to his name, and obviously we signed Joe on, and then we got obviously Mekhi to add to that group.
Tomorrow is not done. We're just really excited. The flexibility that Mekhi brings inside and out, AB could potentially bring inside and out, Akayleb showed a lot in his minimal time playing last season, so excited about that group, and ultimately, they're unknowns, and that's what football is, taking chances and seeing what they are. I think we've got great coaches and a great process to develop them.
Q. What's your intel, who got the better of the practice?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: It's funny because they were here -- I don't know if it was the same day. Obviously they both saw each other. Kev told them who's going to win one-on-ones. I just can't wait to see it. I know they're competitive. I've talked to their coaches there about how their practices are.
Excited to get them. They're both incredibly instinctive players, and they're going to make everybody else around them better.
Q. Did Mekhi take a big step forward when he went to USC?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, I think so. Obviously there's always a growth curve for players, but think a lot of it was he got to -- you go to a program that maybe wasn't as successful, and you go to USC where they were in a national title competition the whole year, so playing with that urgency, that every-game-mattering thing, I think something he spoke about really being important to him, and obviously going against a player like Addison every day at practice and playing against Caleb Williams and all those things certainly helped his maturity.
Q. How did you and B-Flo talk about this position group, and how much maybe did you learn through conversations about what he seeks?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, every one of those meetings that he's in, he's first a really good evaluator. He understands the language, helps you see the player, but then second, he'll finish with how we're going to use him, how in this situation, things he looks for.
Anybody who's watched his defense knows he likes versatility, different pieces he can move around. We think Mekhi has inside-outside flexibility, and ultimately at that position you just want people who can cover. That's the main point of the job, somebody that can do that.
Q. How do you identify when somebody can play that nickel because it does have very different responsibilities from playing outside?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, I think a lot of times you're projecting. It's like a running back with routes. A lot of times in college you don't get to see them run the whole route tree so you've got to project it on a couple cuts, and it's not easy, obviously.
For a nickel maybe you try and see when they go against a cut split, where it's more like a nickel wrap versus certain quick guys that you maybe know have slot receiver type of ability. From then it's really feet, it's competitiveness, inside, you've got to get in the run fit, they've got to be willing. It's a lot of different things. Yeah, ultimately you're projecting, but it's something that we feel confident that they have the traits to be able to do it.
Q. Your high picks these two years have been from (indiscernible) schools. Is that coincidence?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: I think there's no variables there. Just we have a process with our film. We have a process with our combine information, our character reports, all those things, and your first two picks can be from the same team and there's some odds that that happens, and I doubt that would happen again. We'll see, but you never know.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports