Q. A lot of the trading up and down has been the story of the Draft, not something you guys have done much of. Has this process been different than past drafts?
CHRIS PETTIT: No, I don't think so. Since I've been here, like Dave said I think in his presser, we have tried. We've tried to trade up and down before, and it has to work out -- it's worked out this year where we've been able to gain assets and used those assets to gain a player that we really like. I wouldn't say it's any different. Every year since I've been here we've been aggressive in trying to better the team. Just this year, it's working out.
Q. What's that moment like when you trade back from 42 to 50, and Azeez is very much in the conversation at 42, are you waiting every pick or were you sweating it out?
CHRIS PETTIT: We had a bunch of guys that we really liked there and like I said before, you've just got to be patient. You can't get too high or too low and the board will come to you. You have to trust it. When you have a group of guys there, it makes you feel better as the time and picks go by. Azeez was 1 in the group and he was there and he was the right player for us.
Q. You hear a bunch of things about Azeez as a pass rusher, and some people say he's the best pass rusher in the Draft. They don't usually last till 50. So where do you see him as a pass rusher and is he a legitimate edge guy now that you guys added to your team?
CHRIS PETTIT: Yeah, I believe so. You know, the thing that separated I think Azeez from others was he's pro-ready with his hands. He had real good hand use. He's instinctive. The guy has the ability to make big plays in big spots. He's ultra competitive. He has good instincts. He had good hand use for being an underclassman that we liked.
Q. What's your report on Robinson? What did you like about him?
CHRIS PETTIT: A-Rob jumped of, I remember I was sitting here through the pandemic in the office, threw on the UCF tape and his instincts, his toughness and his tackling jumped out to me immediately as I was watching the tape. A little unknown about him, didn't know much, threw the tape on one day and really caught my eye with his competitiveness and instincts.
Then we've kind of followed him throughout the process. We had two interviews with him down in Mobile which got to help us know him as a person, most importantly, and then I went down and saw him at his pro day as well to really spend a lot of time with him.
I think what immediately jumped off was his instincts, toughness, competitiveness.
Q. Aaron Robinson started his career at Alabama, so that's SEC ties for all three guys this year, most of the guys last year. I think it's pretty universally accepted that's the best conference. Is that why you guys keep going to the SEC or do you have stronger relationships there? More scouts in that area? Why is it the SEC?
CHRIS PETTIT: I don't think we say, all right, this is the SEC we are going to scout it differently than any other part of the country. It's just the way the board has fallen that the SEC players at the time we are ready to pick are the ones we feel best to be Giants. It's a very god conference. There's big people that play fast and tough and we like that. But I don't think it's any different than -- we don't scout it any different than any other conference in the league.
Q. We've heard a lot about the meetings you guys had down at Senior Bowl. I meant to ask you last night, I know you guys had a relatively limited group down there, right. I know it was you, Joe, Pat. How many others were down there with you guys?
CHRIS PETTIT: We had other scouts, as well, Kevin Abrams, Tim McDonnell, Marcus Cooper, Brendan Prophett, Patrick Hanscomb and Jeremy Breit was our crew. Just worked out like that. We tried to get the scouts that had the most players at the game. It was tough on us because Senior Bowl is one of our best weeks as a staff, and we had other games going on at the time so our other scouts were spread out over those other All-Star games. So we had a limited crew and we worked and it was a good experience.
Senior Bowl did a great job allowing us access to the players which Joe said was really our only limited interaction we could have with players face-to-face. We took advantage of every interview that we could.
Q. The other thing I wanted to ask you is obviously we've all talked about how the 2022 picks are being described as gold. You know how you prepared to scout this year, the challenges that you faced and you met. When you see you guys stacking up picks for next year, what does that mean to your group and the scouts in terms of what may hold next year when you start looking at the Draft?
CHRIS PETTIT: Well, it's exciting. Any chance you have an opportunity to gain really good football players, but I think it's important. I think the number of players that will be in the class next year will be a lot, you know, due to COVID and players going back to school and a lot of the opt-outs. So the more picks we have with more players, more opportunity, really, is how we look at it. It's not going to change how we evaluate or scout. It's just now we have more picks with more players available.
Q. Curious what you would have thought if I told you on like Thursday morning that Azeez would be there at pick 50? Is that something you expected or were surprised by?
CHRIS PETTIT: I wouldn't say I was surprised or expected. I was wishful. I'd be wishful that was a possibility, along with the other players we had in the group there. But I'm really excited to have Azeez. To bring a pass rusher to our defense, another one, another young pass rusher that we can develop, I'm excited.
Q. Usually pass rushers seem to get pushed up in the Draft. Why do you think maybe this year it didn't happen?
CHRIS PETTIT: Well, you know, it's like you see it in drafts, the flows. All of a sudden there's a run on tackles. There's a run on corners. There's a run on wide-outs. You saw it last night the wave of pass rushers went at the end of the Draft and today, they started with a different position. It just comes in flows and you've just got to be patient, like I said, and stick to the board and the guy will be there. You've got to trust it.
Q. So much has been made of Dave not trading in all of his drafts that he's conducted. I wonder if there's been any razzing in the war room amongst you guys? We just had Joe on a minute ago and he was joking that maybe he had a concussion, Dave did. What do you make of all the activity the last couple days and has there been any ribbing inside the room?
CHRIS PETTIT: You could say that there's been a little ribbing. Trader Dave has brought some excitement to the room, so it's been fun. Trader Dave is hearing it from a lot of people throughout the league, so it's been fun. There's been a little ribbing. Like I said, it's not like we haven't tried. Dave said it; I'll say it. It worked out. It's exciting. It gave a little juice. It's been different. The room is different without all our people in it. We were limited to only ten people but there was enough ribbing with the ten people to keep it exciting.
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