Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
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HC Matt Rhule
Did he think he would not draft an offense player
No, we did not go in…We knew it was going to be defense heavy, but we didn't go in with that. I think there were two times where we had an offensive guy as the next guy up as we got within three or four picks, that offensive player went away so we went back to a defensive player. I think we thought we would draft one or two defensive players, but knowing we really truly thought we addressed the offense in free agency. Defensively knew we needed to do something similar to this. The way it played out, it played out, and we are good with it.
Defensive coordinator Phil Snow's reaction to getting seven new defensive players
We had a couple different video conferences so I had one with the staff and I was talking with them as they went. I think he was pleased with it obviously. It means he is going to be depending on some rookies in some positions, you know, so that's always a challenge, but I think we felt really good about the guys that we took. And I think that is one of the really good things about our staff is that (offensive coordinator) Joe Brady and the offensive side, even you know Evan Cooper's our corners coach, we waited until the fourth round to take a corner knowing that we had a need. Guys were all in understanding that this was a special draft where we had to, weren't not in a position to take the best player at a position, we had to take the best available player. I think Phil felt really good about it. All the guys we got we feel really good about their athleticism. When I say developmental I don't mean, hey they are not where they need to be, as I said last night, it just means these guys all have tremendous upside moving forward
Relationship with Bravvion Roy and what he brings to the team with regards to his versatility
When I first took the job, (general manager) Marty (Hurney) was out at the East‐West (Shrine Bowl game) and he called me and said, "Man, your kid is killing it out here," because Bravvion was playing in the East‐West game. Bravvion is such a big man and people don't realize how athletic he is and he did not get invited to the Combine. He got invited to an all‐star game, but not the Combine. Had he gone to the Combine you know at 330 you probably would have run 4.8 and jumped really high. He's just a really good athlete. I think as a result, canceled pro days, he never got a chance to show what he can do. But obviously we've all seen it, not just his play, but we've all seen his athleticism and I think that we felt really good about his versatility. He's also a tough guy. He played the Big‐12 Championship game, he had knee surgery the following Monday and then played in the bowl game which, you know, a lot of guys wont do. He's just a really powerful guy. I think he gives us versatility on the defensive front. Like I said you can't fix everything. You can't replace every position where you lost a guy, but you can have a strength. With the guys we have coming back and the guys we signed in Stephen Weatherly and last year the commitment to Brian Burns and (Marquis) Haynes and Efe Obada, who I'm really, really high on, signed Chris Smith, KK (Short) comes back, signed Zach Kerr. Now bringing these guys in we just want to have a really healthy room and a room where we can play a lot of guys and I think that is going to be one of keys to our success. Bravvion is a young player, but he fits the mold with Derrick (Brown). He's not as tall, but really big and really, really athletic.
Research to feel comfortable with picking Kenny Robinson
We talked to his high school coach. We talked to the Director of Football Operations at West Virginia under the previous staff. We talked to his XFL coaches and to me that was probably the biggest predictor of who he is. He's out on his own, He's playing pro football. How is he to coach? How is he to deal with? How is he to live with day in and day out? And they raved about him. He was the only XFL player, I believe, that was draft eligible. Most of them you could just sign. Really nice job by our scouts…[inaudible]…Evan Cooper is one of those guys who's always looking for more and more players. Along the same lines, (defensive pass game coordinator/secondary coach) Jason Simmons, he did all this research, watched all the games on him. He's just got unique ball skills. I'm sure if you were watching the draft like me you could see on ESPN. He's made plays, and he's made plays at the pro level now which is really cool. We talked to a lot of people and feel really good about him. I always draw a line, when people start being disrespectful to other people, when they hurt people that's one thing. Obviously what he did, I don't even know what he did, academic something or other. We all grow up, we get better, we age, we mature and it sounds like he's done that.
What went into selecting Troy Pride Jr. and if he was someone high on the draft board
I'm going to be really direct with you. I think when people always say "best player available," I think it's within reason. We don't just want to collect talent. We want to build a team. What you won't do, and I think what people mean when they say best player available, is we're not going to reach for somebody. We're not going to say hey we need a corner, but we're going to draft a round later and I think that's why we didn't take one in the third. We saw the opportunity to go up and get (Jeremy) Chinn and said hey its not a corner, but it's really the best player available. As we got into the fourth we felt really good about Troy and here's a guy that he's from right down the road. He's a track athlete. Which means usually when you're a track athlete you're a little bit of a perfectionist technique‐wise. You're into training. I had a great video conference with him the one day and my wife was actually cooking on the other side where I was doing the video conference and afterwards she said "who was that? That's a professional." Just a really, really mature guy and he's played a lot of football. So in a year where there is no off‐season program, no OTAs as of right now, I think he has the maturity to come in and help us in training camp.
Thoughts on making history by drafting all defensive players
It's unique. But you know every situation's unique. I think the biggest thing and one of the reasons why I'm excited about being here, I'm excited about working with (Panthers owner) David Tepper and excited about working with Marty is, I think so many people make bad decisions because they are so worried of how things are going to be viewed. They are so worried about how people are going to view them. I think we just went out here and said listen let's go take the best guys, let's try to fix, I don't want to say fix, but reinvigorate the offense with some guys you know because we lost some guys in free agency and lets go get an infusion of unique talent on defense. It worked out that way. The offensive guys, I kept teasing Joe Brady and those guys like are we even paying you guys for today? Are you guys even doing anything? But you know, it's a unique situation. There's been so much sort of turnover this year. But I think the great thing is I think you have this young cohort of defensive guys that are going to grow together and fill the system over the next couple of years.
Thoughts on players' commitment to training during quarantine even in unique ways
I think for all of us, no matter what job we do, this is a tremendous opportunity for us all to work on ourselves. If we can be great at what we do under these conditions, then we really should be even greater when we go back and have all the luxuries and the necessities and things as we move forward. I love guys that are grateful. I love guys that don't make excuses and don't let other people make excuses for them. If you have to train and get ready to go be a pro football player or if you are one the guys on our team right now and you are training for the season, figure it out and find a way. That's what all great people do. I think we got a bunch of guys that are really committed to football and love the game. Some people love being a football player, some people love playing football. When I watch these guys play, when I met with these guys, when you see them overcoming the obstacles that coronavirus that has brought to this process you say hey these guys love football and they are committed to it. I think once they get in with us they'll do even better.
On the importance of undrafted free agent signings
The undrafted free agent process to me is unbelievably important. You're going to find starters for every team. You are going to find guys who are going to help your team. As we went through the free agent process this year and we're talking about who we're going to pay millions and millions of dollars to, a lot of those guys, not just us but other places, started in the NFL as undrafted free agents. I think over half of the players in the NFL were undrafted free agents. I believe that's true. I don't look at it as first round player versus eight round player, seventh round player. I look at it as players. Everyone gets here differently and it's about what you do when you get here. That's really why Marty is not on the phone because he's still negotiating contracts and making this process work. This is really important to us, it's important to the fabric of our team. Just a couple years ago Robby Anderson who's a significant free agent for us this year, he was an undrafted free agent calling me saying, "Hey, should I go to this team or should I go to that team." Here he is three years later signing a great deal. Someone that we sign tonight will be a starter in this league and help us win.
Philosophy on playing rookies and if it is similar to playing college freshman
I think with the situation this year for us, in terms of where our roster is, the guys we have coming back, we are going to have to depend on rookies. Even if you don't depend on them early, typically with injuries you're going to depend on them late. Obviously I'd love to go out there with all veterans, guys who have been through it for a long time that are battle tested. But that isn't always the case. I always look at it like my job's to make sure that whoever we have is prepared and ready to go. This year especially with the circumstances we're under right now, our veterans are going to have to do a great job of making sure these guys understand what it means to truly be a pro. We want to have standards of our professionalism that our young guys walk into. I think we were very meticulous on who we drafted to make sure they had that standard. I hope that comes across even as you talk to the guys, that these guys understand what it means to be a pro and they're going to find a way to make it happen.
Skillset priorities at the cornerback position
We wanted to find guys that were 5‐11, 6‐foot, 6‐foot‐1 to match up with the big receivers that we'll face. We wanted to find guys with elite speed. That might go without saying, but some people look for other things. We wanted elite speed because if you have that we can develop you. We wanted guys that had quickness. So size, speed, quickness ratio and that they love football. We're not taking a first‐round corner or second‐round corner, we're taking guys a bit little later in the draft but these guys have talents that mean they can be starters in the league. We're going to do our best to develop them, but we feel really good about them. These are guys that we kind of picked early and said hey that's someone that can maybe make this happen. I think it was a real benefit that we went to the Senior Bowl. We really had a chance to see a lot of these guys at all the positions. To see them up close not knowing that pro days and all that would be canceled at some point.
How long guys like that have been on radar especially Stan Thomas‐Oliver
The defensive coaches probably longer than me. When you're the head coach at the Combine you're sitting through four or five hours of interviews every night then four or five hours of workouts. He (Stan Thomas‐Oliver) ran a fast time early and Evan Cooper who is my corners coach, been with my a long time, kind of in college was always my personnel guy, he said to me, "That kid's got size, he's got speed, he's got quickness, he has all the skills and he's somebody that we can develop." It put him on our radar early. Troy (Pride, Jr.) was someone that the scouts brought to us. Again, a track guy, and both these guys are really really fast. Troy ran 4.42 and probably could've ran 4.32. I'd say the Combine was when I first dove into them. I saw Troy at the Senior Bowl. But our scouts have done a great job of getting these guys' names to us early on.
Rhule's college experience helping with the draft process
I don't know if it helped a ton. It was kind of cool for me today. I sat there, and obviously my job and my priority today was watching the Carolina Panthers and navigating our process, but watching four Baylor kids get drafted was really cool for me. Kent Johnston, who's our director of wellness, his son got drafted to the L.A. Rams in the seventh round. That was fun. I watched four Temple players that I recruited and coached for a year get drafted. So eight of my former players I got a chance to see that. Saw a bunch of our free agents, like six or seven of our kids at Baylor all signed as free agents. You realize, coming from college, what programs, what skill sets, what characteristics carry over. I've seen a lot of my players in college go off to the NFL and have success or not, and I think that really helped me in the evaluation process. Saying, hey this can be developed. I've seen my guys develop this and develop that. And then I think the background. We were able to pick up the phone and call a lot of people that we know, coaches that we've known a long time and say hey, tell me about this guy, tell me about that guy. I don't ever want our coaches to think that the fifth, sixth, seventh‐round, the free agency is a throwaway. It's not a throwaway. It's a great opportunity to build our roster. We worked really hard as a coaching staff finding those guys. I think you'll see some of these undrafted free agents, we recruited in high school. We know them, we know who they are, and I hopefully felt good about that.
Positions that need to be built a little bit more
On the offensive line, we feel really good about our nucleus, but we need some depth in undrafted free agency. Marty always says we don't play until September. We've got a lot of time and he's always working on the roster so we'll keep trying to improve that. I think that's one area. I want to be great on special teams. (Special teams coordinator) Chase (Blackburn) said something to me the other day like "18 games in the last two years were eight points or less, one score or less," so to me how do you correct that? One way you can do that early on is special teams. That's not just the punter and the kicker, who we have great ones, it's all the guys covering and all those things. We've been out in the undrafted free agent process trying to find guys who we think can help us on special teams, who can help us in those areas. We've done a nice job in the draft and free agency. We're just always going to be looking for depth. That'll be part of that process.
Virtual offseason and workouts
We are not doing virtual workouts. It just wasn't right for us. The guys have a workout plan. They're on their own for that. We're not watching them virtually. We are doing the virtual meetings and I thought it was excellent. At first you think it's going to be really weird, but the one thing were finding out is that you can get everyone's focus and have great interaction. The coaches are working really hard to make sure these presentations they do are really professional. I've been really pleased with it. I've been pleased with the feedback from players and coaches. As we get more and more used to it, until we finally get back in the building, hopefully we'll continue to improve as coaches teaching virtually.