Reese's Read

Jerry Reese met with the media following the draft and here's what he had to say about his second day of draft picks.

Overview on selections in fourth, fifth and sixth rounds:

Bryan Kehl is a linebacker from BYU. We liked him. He is a big athlete, can run, very, very smart, good in coverage. He played in a 3-4 defense as an outside backer. So we think he can play SAM or WILL for us. They are kind of interchangeable in our defense, to be honest with you. So those are things we liked about him. We moved up to get him because there were so many positive things about him. We had some extra picks in the sixth round so we moved up a few spots to pick him. But there is a lot of positive stuff about him – a clean guy. We think he will be a good football player for us; play on all of the special teams right away. We like him that way.

The next man is Jonathan Goff, linebacker from Vanderbilt. We think he is a middle linebacker; very productive; very smart. He can play on all of the special teams. That is a common theme with us - - got to play on all of the special teams; a young kid to bring into the fold, start developing some as a backup middle linebacker. He is smart. All of the things that we like about football players, those last two guys. So that was two good picks for us to give us some depth at linebacker and create some competition at some of those positions as well.

We took Andre Woodson, the quarterback from Kentucky. For years we have talked about bringing in a young quarterback; drafting a young quarterback, and developing the quarterback in our system. Let him grow up here. This guy has got a strong skill set. We like a lot of things about him. He is very productive playing for Kentucky. He has a lot of production over his years there as a quarterback for Kentucky. He has a skill set. He has the arm to make all of the throws. He is a pretty good athlete for that position. So there are a lot of positive things about him down there in the draft room. So we are going to bring him along and see if he can challenge for some of our quarterback position – our backup quarterback spots.

Our last pick was Robert Henderson, a defensive end from Southern Mississippi. He is kind of a size-speed defensive end. He is 278 pounds. I think he is about 6-3. A developmental kind of a kid -- ran real fast. So he has some things to develop that we like about him. He is a big, thick guy with some athletic ability. We think he can develop into something for us in a year or so.

Q: Why did Woodson last this long?

A: Why did Tom Brady? It is different things for different quarterbacks. You never know. This is the draft and things happen in the draft. A lot of guys get overlooked. How many guys were free agents who were really good players. Why did they get passed over so many times?

Q: Were you tempted to go for him earlier?

A: No. We thought that was a good spot for him. ……. We have talked for years about bringing in a young quarterback and developing him.

Q: Will you take five quarterbacks to camp?

A: I doubt that we bring five quarterbacks to training camp. So the competition will start quickly.

Q: Woodson went into the season very highly rated and then seemed to tail off.

A: Very highly rated.

Q: Heisman candidate and all of that. By the end of the year he fell off. Yet he had a productive season.

A: He had 40 touchdowns and 11 interceptions and threw for 3700 yards. That is pretty good production I think. But it is just fickle in college football. If you fall off a little bit, they don’t like you as much. He got out of the Heisman race I guess but he was still very productive I thought. Over the last couple of years he has thrown for I think 71 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. So he has been incredibly productive. I don’t know how strong his supporting cast has been, too, in Kentucky.

Q: Five of seven picks are defense. Are you surprised?

A: Again I am not surprised about anything in the draft. We are conscious of what our need is. But we are trying to find players first. That is first and foremost. We are trying to find good football players. And in the draft we look for value and need. I think most of these players give us both value and need; most of these players we picked.

Q: Due to fact that your roster is pretty set, was there less pressure in this draft?

A: I think there is pressure because you always want to improve. You don’t want to just lackadaisically say, “We really don’t need this, or we don’t need that. We are Super Bowl champs.” You just want to improve your team every chance you get. A draft is a great opportunity to improve your team. And obviously it is depth for us; a lot of it is depth for us. But we expect these guys to come in and compete and try to get in the mix.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to address in the draft that you weren’t able to?

A: You always want good players. It is hard picking down at the bottom. It is a great thing to be picking down at the bottom but it is just painful to sit there and see so many good players come off the board right before your eyes. And some guys you have targeted and you see them go a couple of picks before you pick. So it is hard to do that, but it is a good problem to have. So you sometimes you have to wait and see what falls to you. We did have a chance to move up to get the linebacker from BYU. And so we did move up to get him. But you just try to let it unfold in front of you and do what you can at the time; do what is right for you team at the time.

Q: Did you consider moving up in any other rounds?

A: We always consider moving up – up and back. We always get phone calls to move up; we get phone calls to move back. And so we always consider it. Every round there is consideration to go up or down. But that was the best situation for us during this draft to get that done with the linebacker.

Q: Are you surprised you only drafted one lineman?

A: Am I surprised? No, I’m not surprised. When you draft them and you have the big people with the talent, you have to draft them in the second, third and fourth round even if some people would consider it maybe a reach at that point. So you see some guys that ….big body ….. it’s a big man’s game. You have to have some big people to play. So you see some guys get picked a little bit early; the bigger guys because you have to have big bodies to play. But again we didn’t show up hungry any today and we just kind of let things fall to us and try to pick the best player.

Q: Is the roster limit going to stay the same? No exceptions?

A: No. We are not going to have the exceptions.

Q: Eighty is the number? You may not have to sign many free agents.

A: Eighty is the number. We may not have to sign many free agents.