GM Mickey Loomis on the Draft
April 30, 2008
WWL – AM870 ” FM105.3 | News ” Talk ” Sports | OnDemand@1350 – GM Mickey Loomis on the Draft
Opening Statement: Obviously
the draft’s not over, but it’s over for us. We don’t have a seventh
round pick. We traded that a little earlier today. I can say we’re
excited about the guys we got like every team. I think we’ve helped
ourselves especially on defense.
Q: It
seems like you guys went with a couple of risk/reward guys on day two
along with the luxury of being able to draft a kicker? Do you feel like
you had filled up so many needs on the roster you could do this?
A: Yes.
I think part of it, when you look at our roster; there are a lot of
positions that are going to be hard for a rookie to make our team. One
of the first things you look at is can a guy at this position make our
team? The thing is you look at the upside. Can you envision a
particular player developing into a starter? Obviously you don’t think
they’re ready now, otherwise they’d be drafted higher, but we had a
vision for the players that we took today that they can develop and
maybe help us down the road. I think that was a consideration for us.
Q: Do you look at the drafting of Taylor Mehlhaff as competition for Martin Gramatica?
A: We
like his kickoff availability. It’s competition. We’re trying to create
competition for Martin. Martin did a great job for us at the end of
last year. We’re excited about having him on our roster and this is
competition.
Q: Did you intend to draft a kicker or were you targeting him?
A: I
think for us, he was the only kicker we would have drafted as we got to
the latter part of the draft. If we didn’t draft him, we would have
gone the route of signing a free agent. At that particular position in
the sixth round, he was a guy that we felt like it was worth using the
pick for.
Q: Was it his kickoff abilities that attracted you?
A: I think it’s his ability as a kicker. He’s got a strong leg and that’s certainly part of it.
Q: When you looked at Carl Nicks, what was his big selling point?
A: I
think for him and for us we see a big upside. He’s a big powerful man
and he has a lot of upside. He needs work, he needs to develop and he
needs to be coached hard. That’s what we need to do. We see him as
having a big upside.
Q: Can he play guard or tackle?
A: I think we’ll make that decision where we put him once he gets here. He can definitely play either.
Q: Can you discuss the character concerns that hurt his draft stock?
A: We
spent a lot of time talking about that. Our conclusion was that there
wasn’t anything major in his background, a lot of small incidents and
we’re not overlooking them. Coach Payton talked to him on the phone
before we drafted him and confronted him, talked to him about our
concerns. He said the right things. Now he needs to take the right
action when he gets here.
Q: What made you give up the seventh round draft pick for DeMario Pressley
A: We
like him as a player clearly. We felt like he had an upside. To be
honest with you, we got a little nervous that he might go in the spot
before us. The team in front of us we thought had a need at that
position and in fact took a player at that position with their pick. We
just got a little nervous that he might go. The cost to move, a seventh
round pick, we didn’t feel was very heavy, so we made the move and got
the player we wanted to get. We may have been able to take him if we
stayed at where we were, but we had a conviction on this player, so I
think it was a good move for us.
Q: Have you gotten any angry calls from the Bengals over the last couple of days?
A: No,
we haven’t. That’s just the way it happens. I’ve been in that position
a number of times over the years where you get your eye on someone and
the team right in front of you or two teams in front of you takes him.
That’s just the way it happens in this league. It happens to all of us.
Q: Do you think they were targeting both Sedrick Ellis and DeMario Pressley?
A: I
don’t know if that was their player in either case. They got good
players where they picked. I’m just glad that nobody got in front of us
to take the guys that we had targeted.
Q: What kind of player can Pressley be and what position can he play?
A: I
think we see the potential for both. Ed (Orgeron) went and worked him
out last week and came back with a real strong report on him and his
athletic ability. Frankly we’re surprised that he was available to us
in the fifth round. I’m anxious to get him here and see what we have.
We’ll find a place for him.
Q: He
told us that he thought he was available this late because scouts were
concerned about some of his injuries. Is that accurate?
A: Yes,
I think he’s had a little bit of injury history. I wouldn’t say that we
were nervous. You’re always concerned about injuries. A lot of players
have had injuries and you’re interested in how they respond to the
injuries that they’ve had, but we feel comfortable with it.
Q: In the draft were you seeking two defensive tackles after getting two cornerbacks and two linebackers in free agency?
A: I
don’t think that was the case at all. When we look at our depth chart
before the draft, we really had one spot that we were trying to fill,
but it comes down to a case of if you feel strongly about a particular
player regardless of position and you feel like you are getting really
good value then you take a chance on that and again, I think with this
particular player, he has some versatility, so we may be able to use
him in different ways and maybe take advantage of him maybe at end.
Q: What is your target number of undrafted free agents you would like to sign?
A: It
would be in the neighborhood of ten in that vicinity, maybe a couple
more. We’re just going through that process right now in terms of who
those targets are going to be and obviously that changes as the seventh
round goes on and they get drafted. We’re limited a little bit this
year because of the roster change. We can have 80 players. We’ve had
about 86 or 87 in the past because of NFL Europe and the opportunity to
get exemptions. We’ll deal with that.
Q: Did you bring Taylor Mehlhaff into the facility as one of your allotted visits?
A: No, we didn’t, but we had someone go and work him out.
Q: Was he the only kicker you worked out?
A: No,
we worked out several kickers. We spent some time looking at the
kickers that were going to come out this year and ended up deciding
he’d be the best guy for us to come in and compete with Martin’
(Gramatica)
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