JOE SCHOEN: All right, today obviously we started out with Skattebo, one of our favorite players in the draft, just the way he plays, the mentality he plays with, the toughness, the competitiveness, the grit.
Good hands out of the backfield, as well. Just a darned good football player, so we were excited to get him. Marcus Mbow, he's a guy that we were a little bit surprised that he was there when we picked. We really liked his film.
He's another guy at the Senior Bowl that we got to spend some time with. Really athletic player, had some position flexibility from tackle to guard. We think he can play both. Smart guy, finishes on film. You see him running down on the poles and stuff. Super athletic. Excited about him.
Thomas Fidone out of Nebraska, another Senior Bowl guy that we got to spend time with. I think a lot of these guys that we drafted were at the Senior Bowl. But an athletic kid that he had a couple injuries during his career. He had two ACLs, but high recruit out of high school that we spent a lot of time with at the workout, and there's some untapped potential there that we see in him, toughness as a blocker is a plus, as well.
Korie Black, six foot, 200. Ran 4.3. Press corner that late in the draft has some traits that you look for. He's also a tough kid, good tackler. Has special teams value, as well.
Excited about what we did today. Added some good football players with the right makeup and mentality that we're looking for, good additions to what we're able to do on Thursday and Friday.
With that, I'll open it up if you guys have any questions.
Q. You said you were surprised that Mbow was there. Everyone kind of was. Was there any red flags that popped up at that caused him to slide?
JOE SCHOEN: No, and we look at all the medical, and that information is shared so you have an idea of what other teams have on guys.
And no, it wasn't -- there were no real red flags from that standpoint. When you take these guys, sometimes you get texts from around the league from other personnel people or general managers if you took a guy they were going to take, and he's one that there were a lot of texts, just the value where we got him.
I'm not really sure what happened, but glad he was there. That happens sometimes in the fourth round.
We liked guys in the past and we've been able to get them in the fifth that maybe we had in the fourth.
Q. There's a lot of running backs in this draft, obviously. Seems like Skattebo was just kind of different from a lot of them for some reason. Can both of you say why he was one of your favorite players in the draft?
BRIAN DABOLL: Well, he plays with great contact balance. He's tough as nails. You can use him a variety of ways. Pass game, he can catch, he can run routes, he can throw the ball, as you've seen on one of those, and he's got very good vision and quick feet.
He's a 220-pound back who runs with power, toughness and has the type of personality that I think Joe did a great job of along with the scouts of bringing in guys that have a lot of toughness.
Even to get Mbow, credit Joe there again, we're sitting there talking about him or Skattebo with that first pick, and he's like, we'll go with Skattebo, and then Mbow was there however many picks later, so we got two guys that we were going to take -- if Skattebo left, we were going to take Mbow.
But toughness all the way through the draft was something that we have talked about, both mental and physical. I think Skattebo has got both. Not to mention the other guys, but I know the question was for Skat.
Q. You mentioned the toughness idea, and every guy we've talked to today it seems like that was one of the first things that popped out from Abdul to even Jaxson. Why was that a vision for this team now? I know you've had it in the past, but --
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, I think you always add that element to your team in both areas. Mentally the challenges that go with playing professional football and playing in New York, quite frankly, and toughness on the field. I think we did that in free agency and we did that in the draft.
Something that we covet. I thought we did a good job of acquiring players that demonstrate both of those things.
Q. Joe, I know you touched on the identity thing the last couple days. When you look at big picture this off-season, two free agents that you spent the most money on were both on the defensive side. Two of your first three picks were on the defensive side. Is that a planned thing? Is that just the way it worked out? Is that the identity you're trying to build here, build the front seven in particular?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, when you're going through it and you look at free agency, you only have the players that are available, so if there's not a No. 1 receiver that hits the market or Trey Smith is franchise by Kansas City and you're looking at a right guard, so you're at the mercy of what's available in free agency and we were trying to upgrade the talent, and I felt like we did.
And this was an opportunity in the draft where we didn't necessarily have to go with need, and there's been some of that in the past, right or wrong, as we finally built the depth and got the roster to where it is.
There was situations in this draft where three guys were on the same line and you were able to take the best football player.
It lined up that way, and again, I feel good about the guys that we added because of that. Was it a conscious effort? It was a conscious effort to bring in the right type of guys with the right mentality that we covet, and again, in free agency, there were some players that we went after on the offensive side of the ball, and for whatever reason weren't able to get them.
But we had an opportunity to get a really good corner and a safety in Chauncey as an outside backer with some inside rush in free agency, and that's the way it happened.
Q. Do you look at it now when you see what you do have on paper, the way it worked out, and say, okay, we need that to be sort of the strength of our team?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, it'll all come together. Yeah, on paper. Until we go out and do it, it doesn't matter. It's just on paper now. That's where this time of year Dabs is doing a great job and the coaches and the players themselves. They need to come together and develop their own identity and the type of team they want to be.
That'll start once the rookies get in here. The vets are already in here, so until we go out and do it, it's just on paper. I'm excited to see how this team comes together. I like the players that we have. I like the makeup of the players. I'm confident in the coaching staff, and I'm excited for the 2025 season.
Q. How much better do you think the roster is today than when you ended the 2024 season?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, same thing I just said. It doesn't matter what I think until we go out and do it. Do I like the guys? Yeah, heck yeah. I like the makeup. I think they're wired the right way, the right DNA. I think we have the right people in this building.
Again, it's up to us and the team to really start to gel and develop who we want to be and what we want to be about and the leadership step up through this off-season, understand what the standard is, and when we hit the grass in August, what's the standard going to be, and we need to hold everybody to the standard.
They're going to develop their own identity as players and coaches to what this team wants to be. Again, on paper, I like some of the pieces that we have, but it's up to them to go out and do it, and I have confidence in them that we will.
Q. When you're looking to evaluate toughness, you can look at tape maybe and see it physically. How do you measure it mentally in these guys when you're scouting them?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, we've got an experienced staff with a lot of good connections at colleges, so you're asking everybody that's coached them, the strength coaches, academics, whoever it may be. You're doing a lot of research on -- hey, at the All-Star games, we've had coaches coach All-Star games, that's a huge advantage for us, whether it's Senior Bowl, East-West.
You never miss an opportunity to have a touchpoint with a player or do your research on coaches that may have coached them. Dabs has a Rolodex of basically any player at any school he's got a guy. We'll be in meetings and, I can call the guy right now.
Again, you try to talk to as many people that have been meeting rooms and in games, or when you sprain an ankle in a game and you come out, a guy that's been on that staff and seen how a player reacts.
Or when it's August and it's tough and you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel during the dog days, but these sources have seen these players fight through it and show the grit and toughness to overcome that, that's what you're looking for.
Again, hats off to my college staff. They do a great job with the research in the off-season and the information that they gather on these players that allow these players to be on the board and in position for us to draft them.
Q. You made the announcement on Kayvon's fifth year option. What's the decision on Evan's?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, we're not going to exercise Evan's fifth-year option.
Q. Now that you're through the draft, what position is he primarily going to be working at?
BRIAN DABOLL: We haven't been on the practice field yet. We have an idea of what we're going to do, but he'll be flexible. He'll do anything he can do to help the team.
Q. The Purdue lineman, do you see him as a tackle --
JOE SCHOEN: We'll go with Skat and then Mbow is good. No, he did a good job playing tackle. He's athletic. He can bend. I think he's got, like Joe talked about, some position flexibility to move inside if we need him to.
We'll start him out at tackle is the plan, but I think once you get to those type of down the line linemen if you recall, the position flexibility as you know is important, but we'll start him out at tackle.
Q. In regards to -- you now have four quarterbacks, a rookie who you're going to try and develop who's a first-round pick and two other quarterbacks who are going to need to learn the system. How do you plan on going about making sure that they get enough reps and how do you --
JOE SCHOEN: Sure, fair question. We'll have a plan for that and we're working through that. We kind of did that a little bit at Buffalo with Josh in terms of the initial plan of how we wanted to approach it and the reps that we needed to take and the things we wanted to see him do.
Jaxson will get a fair amount of reps with the threes and maybe you'll see him in there sprinkle him in when he doesn't even know he's supposed to go in there just to see how he reacts being in a different atmosphere. He won't know when or why. And then continue to work with the two older guys.
Again, it's a little bit unique because you've got two quarterbacks that are just learning our system, so they've only had four meetings. So by the time Jax gets here, he's not going to be too far behind, where sometimes you've got guys that have been in there for three, four, five years, and it's good with Tommy in there because he has pretty good familiarity for what we need to do.
They have good chemistry in there right now with Shane and Kaf in there when they're talking about things, and they give their input from the experiences that they've had and Tommy gets input of this is how we've done it, and it's been good. We'll add Jax to the mix and we'll have a plan to work with him each and every day.
Q. You're not a big snaps -- reps for your quarterbacks during the regular season. Do you have to adjust that when you have a rookie quarterback to make sure that you find a way if he's not playing to get him --
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we'll talk about that when the time comes. We'll focus on Phase I and Phase II and Phase III and then training camp. There's some time for that, but we'll have a plan. We'll have a plan for not just him, for all the young guys coming in. But that will be an important plan for Jax. I look forward to executing that plan with him.
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