Q. What do you think about the three guys that you got today?
JOE SCHOEN: We're fired up. It was a long wait. That was the toughest part, waiting so long to pick again. Bobby and J.C. are two guys that we had in on visits, and we were able to spend a considerable amount of time with those guys.
We talked about the D-tackle position a little bit last night, and we're happy to get him in here. Big body, long, strong, powerful. You know, JC, a guy that played left tackle there at Illinois. You know, some position flex for him, you know, tackle, guard. We see some versatility with him.
Then Jack Kelly, you know, another guy we spent time with down at the All-Star game. Ran really well. Super productive player. He was playing off the ball for BYU. At Weber State he played off the edge. He's got 30-plus career sacks. So a lot of versatility in him and also the ability to play special teams.
Clear vision for all three of them to compete for roster spots and excited to get all three of these guys.
Q. What do you make of your class as a whole?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I think we have a bunch of Giants, figuratively and literally. We have guys that we really like that are going to make a difference.
To Joe's point, clear vision is probably a good way to say it because we have a clear understanding of how each of these guys fits in. Even look at Jack at the end and compare him to Arvell in a sense, you know, the two book ends on the class, two linebackers. Jack will be more in the Mike mold, but he's also a guy that can rush the passer off the edge, if you saw him at Weber State before he transferred.
So we can move guys around and put him in different spots. He'll play special teams. So we have a clear vision for him as well. Also create competition in the linebacker room, which is strong.
Offensive line, defensive line. Defensive tackle, I'll be talking about that. It's still something we have to continue to address. We're not finished with that at all, but to be able to add in the draft a guy we really liked. We're a little surprised he was probably still there. He is a guy we had hoped would still be there.
We had a couple of guys, and he was still standing, but we love the way he plays. He plays the way we like to play. He plays square. He locks out. He sheds blocks. He's a fundamentally sound guy. So he'll be a part of it. Then we get a couple of vets going forward.
Q. You mentioned a bunch of Giants figuratively and literally. Even just including free agency, there's a clear difference in the roster, the look of the roster, right? You mentioned size. If seems like you want it to be bigger or more physical. How much of that is something was your priority and you knew this when you came here?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Definitely a priority. It's important. You can be a Giant in different kind of ways. You can be real fast, and that makes you a fast Giant, I guess. We want really good players. We want guys that fit how we want to play, and some of these guys, they really fit how we want to play.
The fact that they're bigger players, longer, heavy-handed type guys is important, because especially in this division, you've got to play that way. The interior offensive line has to be physical. Look at the defensive tackles in this league. Right down the road especially.
Offensive line, the same way. We want to be able to handle the offensive lines that we have to play against up front. Of course, we're stopping the run right out of the gates, right? They have to be big and strong to do that. You have to be athletic. You've got to be able to move. All those things are part of it too. It's a big part of it.
Q. Davis will start out where?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Swing guard and tackle. Swing guard and tackle. He can play both. We just had this conversation. That went a long way in determining where he would play.
Very talented, athletic, long-armed guy, can bend, can move his feet. He's big. He's got some growing to do as a player, some maturing to do as a player, but we had him in for a visit and talked about that at length.
Very determined guy. He's determined to kind of develop into his talent level. He's a very talented offensive lineman.
Q. You guys both alluded to not being done at defensive tackle. Where do you stand with D.J. Reader? He came in two weeks ago. How did that visit go, and where do you go from there?
JOE SCHOEN: We've been in contact with several agents of veteran defensive tackles. We'll keep those communications open and see what happens next week and maybe have a couple more visits with some vet guys. Certainly on our radar.
Q. How satisfied are you with how you helped your quarterback Jaxson with his strength?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I feel really good about it. I feel very strongly that we did. It was definitely a priority to do it, right? Protect him, first of all. It's hard to complete passes if you don't have time to throw. Then give him another weapon and try to get him as many weapons as we can.
To get Malachi was a big plus. You saw him here for the pictures and things like that. You say he's a good-looking athlete, right, and good person. Another very determined guy. I would say that was a major priority.
Q. Where are you with Odell? Where is that now?
JOHN HARBAUGH: We worked him out. He looked good. We've just got to continue conversations with him. I really like him.
Don and I are going to talk Tuesday night and kind of see where he is at, see where we're at, see what he's thinking, see what we're thinking now with the roster and the way it looks and see if it makes sense.
I think if we do anything, just being honest about it. You know, it has to make sense for the Giants. It has to make sense for him. He's in a different place in his career, for sure.
The thing I love about Odell is right now he's in such a good place in terms of, you know, his humility. He wants to be part of a team. He wants to contribute. He wants to help the young guys. That's what he's talking about doing.
He still thinks he has some juice, and he looked good in the workout. You still got to be able to play. He's not going to be the old Odell. It's going to be a different version, the 2.0 Odell I guess you would say.
We're not decided on that yet. He's not quite decided on that yet. We have to see where we're at next week.
Q. Four months ago you didn't really Joe or the staff or anybody. As you look back through free agency, draft, trades and everything, how do you feel like this operation has gone?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Thank you for asking that. I feel great about how it's gone. Starting from the ground up looking at the staff and the scouts and everything, it's a great group. It's a great group that Joe put together.
On the scouting side I feel like they're just thorough. They're excellent at what they do. I saw them work. I saw their reports. I saw them through the process the last three days, the communication. One of the best things that this scouting department does is communicate with the coaches. The coaches and the scouts are seamless.
We ended up on the same page. We didn't always agree, but we understood where we were coming from, and then we had -- probably the most important thing is to have a clear understanding of when you -- my dad always used to say in recruiting, it's not who don't, but it's who you get that matters.
Do you have a clear vision for what they're going to do? Do you like them as a player? Can you find a place for them and get them ready to play?
I think we did that. Communication is a big part of that. Happy with that.
Joe and I have been working together every single day, I mean, hours on end, whether it's planning or organizing or just talking about players or watching tape again over and over again on these guys. I feel like it's gone very well.
I think if you look at the draft and you want to talk about results, we'll talk about results down the road. We have to find out. We'll see. It's like all these draft classes. You don't know until we get out there and start playing.
On the surface right now I feel great about it. I don't feel we could have done any better. I think we made the most of the draft, made the most of the resources we had. I'm really happy with the way it went. I hope Joe feels the same.
Q. Does bringing an overall philosophy to team-building, to a draft help clarify what direction you want to go in when certain picks come up? Like say you want to be bigger, we want to be this kind of team, when you are looking at the grades, does that help clarify kind of where you go and what tie-breakers happen when picks come in?
JOHN HARBAUGH: That's a fair point. I think it happens through the process. To your point, no one said, hey, this is the philosophy, so to speak. That happens in the conversations.
You start talking about players, you start talking about your roster, you know, back and forth conversation, you try to paint a picture. It's back and forth, okay? What do you see? What are we looking for? What are you seeing in this player? How does he fit? How doesn't he fit? Every player brings something different to the table, and you want to have the type of guys that fit how you want to play, but you want to play the way your guys play too.
I think it's part of the process. I don't think you're dictating anything really. You're just dialoguing about it, and you come to an understanding through that communication. Right? Make sense?
Q. How do you guys approach now the draft after the draft, the idea of the undrafted guys? Where are you at roster-wise? How do you handle what comes next as far as that goes?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah, we've been working on it for weeks. Again, talking about the communication with the coaching staff and our scouts, we've been well ahead of this. A lot of it is relationship-based for some of these kids. We're sending coaches out, working kids out privately, going to pro days, meeting with them at All-Star games.
It's all part of the process from first round to seventh round and priority free agent. The recruiting process has been ongoing throughout their meeting now, and then as soon as the draft is over, then we have a really good plan in place. We have targeted players.
Again, the coaches, the analysts, our scouts, coach and I, Don, the entire scouting staff has been working on a plan for free agency over the last couple of weeks. You know, we're ready to go.
Q. Do you have a fixed number as far as how many guys you can bring in, or is it flexible?
JOE SCHOEN: Yeah. I'd say, yeah.
JOHN HARBAUGH: That's a great question. We've had that conversation.
JOE SCHOEN: That's a lot today.
JOHN HARBAUGH: It's a fixed, flexible number.
JOE SCHOEN: Fixed, flexible number is a good way to put it.
JOHN HARBAUGH: We have a number, but it depends who you can get. If you are talking about philosophy, I will just kind of say this. We're always trying to make the roster better. There's guys, but then there's always the ability to turn your roster, and you are always going to be looking to improve it.
It just depends. You are going to have the best 90 that you can possibly get, and then you'll have the best 53 that you can possibly get. Then you'll have the best 16 on the practice squad that you can possibly get, and you always got to be working it.
Q. What was your opinion on Malik Nabers' opinions on your first round?
JOHN HARBAUGH: That's a good question. We had a great conversation. Malik came in the next morning and sat up there, and we were talking about it. You know, he made himself clear. He even said, if you go back and you watch it, I appreciate kind of where he's coming from.
You're in a podcast and talking ball, and he's, just, like how are think going to use the guy, how is he going to play? Don't get me wrong. He said, don't get me wrong. I think maybe we got him wrong out there a little bit, because that's what we do in our world.
We look at one thing and say, well, he must be mad about it. It's like he said, I was curious about how you were going to use him. I showed him how we're going to use him. He is fired up about it.
I appreciate it. You know, one thing that you'll kind of probably see as we go here, we don't get too worried about stuff. You know, as long as a person's heart is in the right place, as long as the person really cares, a player, a coach, or anybody, you really want what's best for everybody, you're coming from -- he has a good heart and a good place, you know, say what you think. Put it out there. We talk all the time about confronting everything that has to do with our football.
So Malik wants to know how we're going to use our first round pick, I want to show him. I want to explain it to him. The fact that he says it publicly, who cares? I know fans are probably thinking the same thing. It was the same question that everybody is going to have, and we knew that, because we knew how kind of Arvell was perceived.
So I know we've got a great vision for him, and I think we saw him -- he's a player that fits our structure, our defense very uniquely, and maybe that's hard for people to see, but you'll see it soon enough.
Malik was fired up and happy. He was the first guy that met him coming in the building when they got in here. He couldn't wait to get out there to make sure they knew, that Arvell knew, that his family knew where he was at with it.
Q. When you say you showed him, did you put up tape and show him?
JOHN HARBAUGH: No, I explained it to him. It would have been a good idea. That would have been fun, but he could understand it. He knows ball.
Q. Was it important for you that the guys came through yesterday and the idea of, you know, (inaudible) said he met Jaxson, and you saw the video. He was with Jaxson. Abdul was here and saw Reece. How important was that? Was that organic, or did you guys kind of put it out there and say, it would be good for you guys to come through when these guys are coming through?
JOE SCHOEN: We have a great young nucleus of guys that love ball. They showed up on their own. A lot of those guys showed up on their own and were excited to meet the new prospects and welcome to the organization. It was really cool to see those guys come through and meet their new teammates and welcome with open arms.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports