We wrapped up today with five more picks. First, I want to thank everybody in the organization for the past few days here. It's really more than three days. It's an entire year, especially with our scouts, all the time that they put in on the road away from their families. They are really the lifeblood here scouting these players. To all the people in the building, in our department, personnel department, the coaches that put so much time and energy into evaluating these guys, and communication I thought was really good between the personnel department and the coaching. Then just our entire support staff, our medical, we bring these guys in on 30 visits, there's a lot of different touchpoints with everybody in the building. Strength coaches, trainers, dietitians. Ev (Evert Geerlings) sits down with them, too. He'll give us his evaluation. There's so much time that's put into it for these three days, but I really appreciate all the work that they have given us here.
(on how quickly he pictures Pat Coogan and Fernando Carmona Jr. getting in the mix at offensive line and competing to start)
Yeah, I mean, listen, these guys have played a lot of football, both of them. They really do fit the definition of how we say, like, the tough, smart, dependable. They epitomize it, those two guys. Like I said, they've had a snaps here in college football. Physically where they're at right now, the size, I think they can come right in here and compete.
(on how their experience can benefit them in getting ready to compete right away)
I think there's a maturation to it, especially with the O-linemen. They've played so much, and they've been around probably a lot of different coaches, both guys. Fernando (Carmona Jr.) was at San Jose State and went to Arkansas. Then Pat (Coogan) was at Notre Dame and then finished his season for the National Champs (Indiana). Yeah, so they've played a lot of football, so I think that does help.
(on a brief summary of all five picks)
Yeah, I'll take Fernando (Carmona Jr.) first. Like I just said, the intangibles part with these guys. They're gritty. We have these alpha tags for leadership for these offensive linemen. Both him and Pat (Coogan) both have that. Fernando played left tackle at San Jose State, played some tackle in '24 at Arkansas and then played guard. Also has the capability of playing center, too. Just hasn't done it much in a game but done it in practice before. With Pat, you know, Pat obviously played center at Indiana this past year. I've never seen a guy get an MVP as an offensive lineman in the Rose Bowl. It just speaks to the type of player he was there for them, the leadership, and Pat has also played some guard at Notre Dame as well. With Nick (Singleton), I mean, Nick was a highly productive running back at Penn State. Played a lot of snaps there, too. He basically started there four years. It's funny, I remember turning on the film—I forget who I was watching at Penn State, a couple of years ago. It might have been two, three years ago, and I see this No. 10. He runs really angry, and he's fast, and he can catch the ball. There was a guy we had in Kansas City, (Isiah) Pacheco, he kind of reminded me of him a little bit. So, I feel like I've been watching him a long time. And then with Jaren (Kanak), he was really interesting because you talk about an athlete. I mean, the guy was a linebacker for three years and hadn't even played tight end and picked it up. He's played H-back, he's moved around, has played full back a little bit. Really athletic, really good special teams player. So, he's going to I think contribute there right away on teams. Jackie (Marshall), the first time you saw him, I kind of watched a little bit of him last year. He's played five-technique. He's played three-technique, so I think he's versatile. He's explosive on contact. He's twitchy. We see him here, he can probably play a little big end, but probably inside as a DT for us. Coach Aaron Whitecotton actually had him at the East-West and coached him in that game, and our scouts got to visit with him there. Then Aaron actually was at his pro day and worked him out too. We've had a lot of different touchpoints with him.
(on balancing lacking athleticism with the intangibles on the offensive line)
Sometimes with these guys—that's a good question because the toughness part always shows up. That's the intangibles part. They're usually strong, they're tough, they're smart. Sometimes they're so smart, sometimes they know some of their limitations as well, they're so technically sound. So when you have some of these guys playing next to each other, they're kind of the same way. They make up sometimes for whatever limitations they might have with their toughness and their technique and fundamentals.
(on where he envisions Jackson Slater playing right now)
Right now, obviously with the new staff, he's playing both. He's going back and forth between guard and center. He's played probably more guard primarily right now, but he also has some center snaps. Those guys will be interchangeable here throughout OTAs and training camp, too.
(on Nick Singleton's injury and if he adds something to the running back room that wasn't there)
You know, I think he's a bigger back. He's probably a little — you know, he's a little bigger than Tony (Pollard). The speed, he actually catches the ball really well out of the back field too. As far as the injury, yeah, he should be — I don't want to put a timetable, but when he comes in here, we'll take a look. He'll be participating here in the spring.
(on if they will need to cut some players to have a bigger undrafted class)
Those are the things we're working on here throughout the week, tonight and really throughout the week, because technically all these guys — I know you might hear some stuff on Twitter and all that stuff. None of these guys can really be signed until they walk in the building.
(on if he expects to have a regular-sized undrafted class)
We'll see how it shakes out, yeah.
(on when the rookies will be in the building)
They'll be back --— today is (Saturday) — the end of the week, yeah.
(on if they took steps with this draft class to fill holes on the roster)
I do. I think that's the goal. Obviously, you want to take the best player, but you're trying to marry up value with need as a part of that without reaching for the need, and that's why I always say just take the best player, let's not just reach for a guy just because we need. But I do think we did fill some needs, yeah.
(on if they are targeting undrafted players to fill holes they missed in the draft or to add value to the current draft class)
Yeah, I think it's an extension of really the draft class. I wish we could have 20 picks sometimes.
(on what it says that they did not draft a defensive back)
Yeah, I mean, obviously we added (Cor'Dale) Flott and Alontae (Taylor) too to come in here and start and then having Marcus (Harris) back and signed Tony (Adams) as well. When the draft is over, we're still working here on trying to improve the roster. It's never going to stop. Whether it's waiver claims, try-outs, it doesn't stop. We're going to continue at every position to keep working, try to get the best 53 here by the start of the season.
(on the tributes to coach Dave McGinnis around the league during the Draft)
I thought it was a great tribute to him and to how many people—he really had an impact on in the league. You know, the more you find out—he knew everybody throughout the league, it seems like. I thought it was really special to see us wear these shirts here today and some of the pins that everybody was wearing throughout the draft. It was a great tribute to him.
