PALM BEACH, Fla. — My takeaways from a very enjoyable and informative discussion with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at the league meetings today at The Breakers. Quite a departure from some previous years:
• The plan at left tackle: Certainly sounded like Vederian Lowe/Caeden Wallace are the top in-house options but expect the Patriots to address left tackle in the first couple of rounds of the draft. "I thnk the draft’s going to be a good option for us. There’s a lot of guys in the draft that we like at a lot of different levels. I’m confident between now and the time that the season starts, we’re going to have something that we believe in and a plan that’s going to help us."
Vrabel obviously likes Will Campbell and views him as a left tackle prospect. "Yeah, I think you have to. I don’t understand how you can watch him play in the SEC — which is the best conference in college football, against guys that are going to get drafted at that position — so I don’t think you have to project it, you can just actually watch and say there’s the snaps at left tackle, evaluate it, and see what you think.”
Does that mean they will take him at 4? Not necessarily. Vrabel kept emphasizing "there’s others throughout the draft as well."
• Vrabel is open to Travis Hunter being a two-way player but he will have a primary position "in order to improve."
• Sounds like the Patriots are optimistic on Diggs' timeline but Vrabel wouldn't get into specifics. "I think by all accounts, everything is on schedule, and we feel good about where his rehab is, and what he’s doing."
• Patriots are still opening to trading down: “I think we’d be open to everything. I think we’d be open to everything we felt like could help the football team. I think that’s what we have to do, whether that’s stick and pick a player or if somebody has an offer for us, I think we’d be willing to listen. But there’s a lot of options we have to consider that can help the team.”
• Vrabel sidestepped the David Andrews question again. "Thought it was best for our football team that we move on. We’re excited about the guys that we got up front. We were able to add Garrett Bradbury. Cole worked hard at center the last couple weeks of the season – which he did and played there. It’s pretty impressive considering he hasn’t spent much time there.”
Vrabel talked up Cole Strange at center - he'll try all three interior spots - but the team didn't sign Bradbury to his contract for him to lose to Strange.
• Sounds like Robert Spillane will be the middle linebacker with his "three down ability."
“A lot of a production. I love the person. Love what he’s about. A lot of production the last couple years. I think his ability to get his hands on the football in the passing game is something we valued. His ability to play three downs; he did that for Vegas and is something that’s critical. We haven’t passed out the helmets with the headgear, the head-system, coach to quarterback – yet. So I don’t know where that’s going to fall, but I would imagine that he’d be one of the players we would consider to be able to do that.”
• Sounds like Christian Barmore, who will be at voluntary workouts, is doing well and in the plans.
"He popped in the other day to see the doctors. And I knew Christian from when I saw him in Alabama. Haven't really had any interaction with him, and when he walked into the training room, all the trainers and just his energy and presence, so I know that he's feeling better. We'll continue to evaluate him. It's something very serious. We take the health of our players extremely serious, especially when you're talking about something like blood clots, and we're going to have a great plan for him. We're going to do right by him whatever is necessary. However we can get him to help us based on days of practice, based on everything that he needs. And we don't have that plan yet, but we're continuing to work through it."
• Vrabel seems pretty happy with the offseason so far. He was very relaxed and confident.
"Yes, I think that what we've done has been exciting. It's been fun to come to work. There's an energy in the building, which I am proud of. When I hear that from people around the building that maybe have been there, that makes me happy, that everybody is excited, and there's an energy about coming to work and ultimately trying to help the players."
• Clean slate for Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.
"I'm excited to get these guys back whenever they come back, and get going, like we're going to evaluate them going forward, not anything that happened. And if there's things that we can try to eliminate from last year, we've had those conversations and whatever their frustrations were, or whatever things that did or didn't happen, we're moving forward with what we see in them and the excitement that they have. And so the more excited they are about learning, we'll be just as excited about teaching them."
• I like the plan with the three, experienced offensive line coaches. Should help development. Patriots have a rare setup. The third guy is usually basically an intern. I asked him how that is going to work:
"That’s a good question. I was excited about adding the two guys that we added and keeping Kugler. Usually that third position is a quality control coach, but I’m excited about having three guys. Like you said, it’s a tough position to develop. So in the spring if we can have three guys that are working with four or five players in smaller groups, that can be really beneficial. And so having those guys and the trust. Then once you get to the season, I want to be very efficient with our time. I don’t want tired coaches or exhausted coaches. I want coaches who come in with energy. So to be able to divvy up those responsibilities of like pressure, the third down game, makings sure that we’ve got the run game and diagrams drawn, I think those guys are all going to be able to do that. And then we’ll divvy up the responsibility so everyone is efficient.
• On matching the Christian Elliss offer sheet:
It was a difficult decision, it was one that we ultimately decided that a young ascending player that has a skill set and speed and feel like he can do a lot of different things for us, his arrow was up, and we felt like we wanted to keep him on the roster, in order to do that we had to match the offer sheet and Christian is excited by all accounts to be back, we’re excited to have him, the more he played I think the better he got, was very good on third down and fourth down, and the more he played the better he got on first and second down
• Joint practices with Washington (home) and Minnesota (away).
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Here's a transcript of Vrabel from the entire Patriots beat:
WHAT’S THE PLAN AT LEFT TACKLE
The plan is to continue to evaluate our roster and see who’s there that we can continue to try to work there. We’re going to bring the players in on April 7. I think that Caedan [Wallace] is certainly going to get an opportunity there, as the roster’s currently constructed. And Vederian [Lowe]’s going to be coming back — he had a little procedure. I think the draft’s going to be a good option for us. There’s a lot of guys in the draft that we like at a lot of different levels. I’m confident between now and the time that the season starts, we’re going to have something that we believe in and a plan that’s going to help us.”
EXCITEMENT LEVEL ON STEFON DIGGS:
“Stefon brings an energy to him. It’s fun to coach players like that, guys that have a confidence to them, that understand the game of football, that have been around, that have developed. This isn’t like a first-round draft pick. Stefon went later in the draft and continued to improve. He’s done that and been productive each and every year. I love his energy. I love our conversation so far and am looking forward to getting him back there and helping him recover from the surgery.”
LT IN DRAFT, WILL CAMPBELL, ARMAND MEMBOU:
“I think they’re great young talented players that have great film. Will’s got a lot of snaps at left tackle. Membou’s played right. There’s a lot of guys that have played right and left and switched. Those are two good young players to talk about in that conversation. But there’s others throughout the draft as well.”
DO YOU VIEW CAMPBELL AS A TACKLE PROSPECT:
Yeah, I think you have to. I don’t understand how you can watch him play in the SEC — which is the best conference in college football, against guys that are going to get drafted at that position — so I don’t think you have to project it, you can just actually watch and say there’s the snaps at left tackle, evaluate it, and see what you think.”
OPEN TO TRADING BACK
I think we’d be open to everything. I think we’d be open to everything we felt like could help the football team. I think that’s what we have to do, whether that’s stick and pick a player or if somebody has an offer for us, I think we’d be willing to listen. But there’s a lot of options we have to consider that can help the team.”
Q: When we last spoke with you, you mentioned there being some uncertainty at the top (of draft order), do you have a clearer picture of how pics 1-thru-3 might go?
Vrabel: “No. Do you have any idea? You tell me who goes 1-2-3, and I’ll tell you who goes 4.”
Q: You spent time playing both ways in the NFL, but not to the degree of Travis Hunter has done in college. How difficult is it for him at NFL level, to play both ways? The same volume, the same production?
Vrabel: “I don’t know how anybody could say how hard it would be. We’ve never seen a player, necessarily do it. I think there’s some things he can improve on by probably concentrating on just one position. But never going to put any restrictions on Travis or any player. We try as much as they can handle. We’re going to continue to put more on their plate. If he were on our football team, and showed great skill at one position, and started to really do well in his conditioning, and it didn’t fall and didn’t drop (off), we would be open to playing everybody we had at more than one position. Anything that would help the football team, I’d be all in favor of.”
Q: Does he have to have a primary position?
Vrabel: “I think to improve, I think there has to be a primary focus, just to be able to get some of the details required that are going to be required at this league. We’ll see once everybody’s on our football team, where they end of playing, where they start out practicing.”
Q: There’s a report out about Diggs that he could be ready Week 1. As far as your evaluation of him, what’s a realistic timeline?
Vrabel: “I try to stay away from timelines and predictions. I know that he’s working hard to get back, which is exciting. I think by all accounts, everything is on schedule, and we feel good about where his rehab is, and what he’s doing. But, I think with any injury, I’m never going to put a timeline on it. I don’t think it’s fair to the player what one person’s MCL injury may be, is not the same as another player’s injury. Everybody recovers differently. As long as they’re working hard to get back with every injury, that’s all we can ask of him. I just don’t think it’s fair to put a timeline on it.”
Q: Stefon described the visit as a get-to-know-you process. What did you learn about him in the day, day and a half you spent with him?
Vrabel: “All the things we’ve talked about before. His presence, the energy, his knowledge of the game, his ability to talk through things, and talk through his rehab and his plan, and how he prepares for the game. The relationship with the quarterback, and all of the things we’ve worked through over the course of a couple days. It was an easy visit. The conversations were easy. Nothing was forced. So looking forward to moving forward with him on our roster.”
On No. 4, will you draft for need or is it all about taking best available?
“I just think you have to be careful. Hopefully those two things can come together and align when you’re drafting. But we certainly want to add premium players at the top of the draft and throughout the draft. That’s our goal.”
You let some leaders from last year go. What do you envision the leadership to look like?
“I think there’s going to be opportunities for everybody at whatever they’ve been in the league eight or nine years or they’ve been in the league one or two years. There will be some rookies. There will be plenty of opportunities for guys to lead and create a new identity for us and this football team moving forward.”
With David Andrews, considering the scheme, why not give him the opportunity to see if he could play?
“We felt like that was the best decision for us. Thank David for his contributions and what he’s done. Thought it was best for our football team that we move on. We’re excited about the guys that we got up front. We were able to add Garrett Bradbury. Cole worked hard at center the last couple weeks of the season – which he did and played there. It’s pretty impressive considering he hasn’t spent much time there.”
Will you keep Cole Strange at center?
“I think he’ll work on the interior three, but I think give him an opportunity to compete at center and build off of what he did at the end of last year.”
On letting go of Andrews, Bentley, Jones, and Wise – were they individual football decisions or did you feel like you needed a culture reset?
“No. I think they were all individual decisions. The captaincy is not a four-year term. It’s not an eight-year term. It’s a year-to-year term. Every player has to prove themselves each and every day to the football team. Again, there are some veteran players who have done a lot of great things. It was just individual decisions. Some of those other players went and moved on to another football team. Some, we had decisions that we made. So that’s all part of the roster construction.”
On Caedan Wallace
"You know, offensive linemen really can't play special teams, right? They're not a contributor. You know, a tight end, you've got a running back, you've got a linebacker, some of these young players, they can get their feet wet. They can develop on special teams, gain the confidence going out and doing those things on special teams. And Caedan, they were trying to do that from the XL tight end, and he was doing a nice job. He was playing physical, doing a nice job, and then got injured, and by all accounts, worked extremely hard through that process to, one, get back, but also to train while he was out. So (I'm) looking forward to working with him, and again, we're only going to evaluate what we see going forward. We don't care how you got here. We just care what you do when you're here. So whatever they are coming in there when we see them, we'll evaluate them, we'll work with them, and we'll try to have a role or a vision for 'em."
Any thought to let Wallace just stay at left tackle?
"Sure. That's something to consider. We're going to consider everything once we get everybody in the building and figure out what's best for the player and what's best for the team."
What do you think of Tyler Warren?
"I think that we would love to add as many good football players or have that play style. And you certainly watch Tyler and his play style and his demeanor, and having met with him at the combine, I think he's a wonderful prospect. I'm all for playing and acquiring as many tight ends as we can possibly get. So, sign me up. Bring me as many good tight ends as you have out there, Tom E. (Curran), and we'll find 'em something to do."
What went into the decision to release Ja'Whaun Bentley?
"These are difficult decisions, Doug (Kyed), (with) players that have been here for a while and made great contributions to the football team before I was here. And so I know that the Kraft family and the organization appreciate everything that they did. But these are decisions that we don't take lightly. These are tough personnel decisions that we have to make. Once we come to that conclusion, we be as honest and direct with the player that we can, thank them, and that's what we did with Ja'Whaun."
Where do you see Layden Robinson playing?
"I do think for some of these interior offensive linemen, it's critical that there is a level of versatility that they can play multiple sides. It's just tough to be so specialized, and we'll give him an opportunity to compete. But I do think for some of the interior players — and again, you're going to have to evaluate who the swing tackle is — and some of those guys during the game that can cross-train and can be at the left side and the right side. And Layton was able to get some quality snaps last year, had some good snaps on tape, had some snaps that he'd like to have back that he can improve on. But there has to be some versatility inside once you start getting into the games."
Mike, you mentioned sort of half-joking, give me as many tight ends as I can get. April 7 is coming up; will be implementing a new offense with Josh [McDaniels]. Do you have a better vision of what that offense will look like with additions you’d had in free agency and the roster that’s mostly been put together?
I think we’re so far from game-planning right now. I think we just put in the base stuff and put in what we believe in, as far as the way that we want to play and the style and things that I believe in – playing with good technique and all the details of the play. So we’re not going to overload guys. We’ve got time. We really want to make sure that we’re starting this thing off the right way, and don’t assume that they know anything about our system or our style. But it will always be multiple, just like it was. There’s going to be opportunities for having 2 backs in the backfield, for multiple tight ends on the field. 3 wide receivers. Talking about the run game; I think being able to have some multiplicity and not getting married to one particular style, is important. We always want to be able to create some conflict with the defense and have multiple ways to do that – whether that’s going on the ball, whether that’s being able to shift and motion. Again, once we see what our players can handle, I think that’s the level to which we take the offense. How quickly we do it is based on them.”
Is the plan to go with [Robert] Spillane at ‘mike’ linebacker as a ‘green dot’ guy? What do you like about him in this role?
“A lot of a production. I love the person. Love what he’s about. A lot of production the last couple years. I think his ability to get his hands on the football in the passing game is something we valued. His ability to play three downs; he did that for Vegas and is something that’s critical. We haven’t passed out the helmets with the headgear, the head-system, coach to quarterback – yet. So I don’t know where that’s going to fall, but I would imagine that he’d be one of the players we would consider to be able to do that.”
This might be kind of a dumb question, but going back to the offense…
“Like the rest of these questions!”
How does passing game coordinator work with OC?
That system has been pretty fluid with Thomas and Todd Downing and Josh. Those guys have worked together well with Ashton Grant. It’s good to have some outside eyes on the system and the scheme. As Josh’s offense has evolved, it can add on from the bottom. What Thomas can do with Todd is get things cleaned up and put it in more of a bucket, and be more of a coach that’s learning it, how they would be able to teach it. That’s something we always want to look at – how would we teach this to the players, what’s the best way to get this across to the players? So having a fresh set of eyes with Thomas and Ashton and Tony Dews allows them to say, ‘Hey Josh, let’s clean up this’ or ‘This is how we did it with the Rams or this is how we did it with the Jets, or ‘this is how we did it other places.’ Then they go through this process and we sit in there and look and say we can call this family over here this, and we’ve got all our in breakers here, and all our three-man concepts, or whatever it may be. It’s allowed for it to get cleaned up a little bit. And having those communications where maybe Josh took it for granted, these new coaches I think are thinking this could hit the players’ brain a little bit better this way or here’s how I’d like to coach it and they’ve been able to clean it up.
How important is it build the core of young players in this year's draft?
It's tough, buddy. It catches up with you. It catches up with you. If you don't draft well, it catches up with you. You got to chase in free agency, and you got to be perfect. And so the draft is critical, right? To be able to find players that fit a role, and you develop them, and you decide to retain them and build through the draft because you know the person and the player can really excel in your program and what you believe in. So you got to draft well. If not, it catches up with you.
Can't be one guy a year.
No. But I mean, you have to have the volume of that draft. Or if you're going to go up for players, you've got to be convicted on them because of the capital that it's going to cost you to go up and get them.
Should tush push be banned?
What I think we should not do and be careful of is there's a lot of different plays that you have to defend that the offense does well, and that particular play you have to defend it. It's also tough to defend Lamar Jackson when he runs the ball. So I'm all in favor of getting rid of those plays that are tough to defend, but, you know, we just try to focus on what the rules are and try to use them to our advantage.
Where do things stand with Christian Barmore in terms of his availability?
Well, he's, by all accounts, I think, going to participate in the voluntary offseason program. Voluntarily be there. This is my my point to see how many times I can say the word voluntarily in a 30-second hit, but I write a letter voluntarily to the players and making sure that they voluntarily read it and voluntarily show up. No. He came in with an (NGI?). He popped in the other day to see the doctors. And I knew Christian from when I saw him in Alabama. Haven't really had any interaction with him, and when he walked into the training room, all the trainers and just his energy and presence, so I know that he's feeling better. We'll continue to evaluate him. It's something very serious. We take the health of our players extremely serious, especially when you're talking about something like blood clots, and we're going to have a great plan for him. We're going to do right by him whatever is necessary. However we can get him to help us based on days of practice, based on everything that he needs. And we don't have that plan yet, but we're continuing to work through it.
Q: How has the meshing gone so far between your coaching group and the people that you're familiar with, and Elliot Wolf and the vision for a player. You have Diggs in, everybody talks to him and he leaves. How does the conversation go afterwards?
MV: I mean, those are all conversations about all the players. I don't know if it's necessarily that. We're constantly talking about, you know, what we feel like is best for, you know, the team. And I think when you go through ... it's more so during the college evaluation that there's the coaching report and what the personnel side would be, the evaluation. And I love having been a head coach, that I can see when these things... One group's gonna have the guy here, the other one ... And I'm like, 'Oh, we're heading towards that. Well, you know, he doesn't do this.' There was a player in last year's draft that was like a really good pass protector, but he really didn't do much in the run game. And I'm thinking to myself, 'Oh, we're heading for one of these: The scouts love this guy, and the coaches can't stand him.' And sure enough, in Cleveland, it happened sitting through the personnel meeting. So those are going to happen.
Who won?
MV: We didn't take that player, the Browns didn't take the players, so it didn't matter, but it was just to continually to have a vision. I think for the coaches, the best thing is to have a vision like, 'This is what this player is going to do for us. This is how we're going to use 'em.' And then the personnel side says, 'Okay, here are the traits, here's the skillset. This is what the measurables are.' And you want to, always want to try to combine that. And so it's my job, I think, to coordinate both sides.
What sucks is that that can send set itself up for, told you, so see, the guy turns into Ladd McConkey
MV: Well, we never want to do that, but I think that that's human nature. We want to try to eliminate those things from our program, the 'I told you so's.' You can put it on me. I'm a big boy, trust me. We're going to have a lot of things that go well, which will be good to the players and the assistant coaches, and they'll have some things that won't go so well, and you can put those on me. I can handle it.
Opening press conference, said you wanted to win the division, host playoff games ... based on what you've done so far, do you feel you're closer?
MV: We won March. We won March. Amazing. Which is something that's comical, right? We're never just trying to win March. We want to just try to be ready when the season goes and it's a long process. Don't interrupt me. Karen, I'm still talking. What's the question?
Yes, I think that what we've done has been exciting. It's been fun to come to work. There's an energy in the building, which I am proud of. When I hear that from people around the building that maybe have been there, that makes me happy, that everybody is excited, and there's an energy about coming to work and ultimately trying to help the players.
Based on your evaluations and conversations about last year's roster, what was your impression of what went wrong with Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, and how does that inform your approach moving forward?
MV: Yeah, I didn't do a whole lot of investigating about what went wrong. I'm trying to focus on what's going to go right. And so I know that Ja'Lynn's is working hard. He's excited about being a new dad. He's working hard to rehab that shoulder, focusing on and again, he said this, not me, but this is something I'll always say, is he's focused on what he can do as opposed to what he can't do. So he's lifted hard. He's lifting his lower body hard. He wants to get stronger and where he can make gains right now, about strength is in his lower body, because he's rehabbing his shoulder. So that's exciting to me. You know, Javon I've been communicating with and again I'm excited to get these guys back whenever they come back, and get going, like we're going to evaluate them going forward, not anything that happened. And if there's things that we can try to eliminate from last year, we've had those conversations and whatever their frustrations were, or whatever things that did or didn't happen, we're moving forward with what we see in them and the excitement that they have. And so the more excited they are about learning, we'll be just as excited about teaching them.
Mike on the young receivers we talked about, and also the offense right with Josh. You know that offense? You saw it for years with Tommy. It's been difficult for receivers, young receivers, to be able to pick it up with the site adjustments and some of the other stuff. So how close is this offense that Josh is going to run, going to be to what he ran when Brady was there? Or will you make changes?
There'll be changes. There has to be changes, right? You know, there has to be we have to start somewhere. And you know, to say that Drake is going to be, you know, similar to somebody else in this system after five or six years, I don't think that that's fair to say. So, you know, we're going to start with a foundation, and those are the most important things in building and making sure that the receivers, we're not just going to go past something because it says it on a schedule, like if it takes us an extra day, then it takes us an extra day, if it takes us an extra week to get the first couple installs in, then that's what it's going to take. We're not just going to gloss over things we believe strongly in teaching and helping those players and figuring out how they learn best and making sure that we're doing everything we can to give them a chance to help themselves.
Mike, Joe Milton, just curious your thoughts on him, and if there's any sense from conversations with other teams that you might have an asset there that could have value to any potential discussions?
Yeah, I think Joe's did everything that they asked him to do last year. Sounds like in conversations that he worked extremely hard, and that's tough when you're a quarterback. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to be the starter, everybody and that's great to have that attitude. And he was ready for his opportunity there late in the season, which I commend him on, just like I would any player that sat there and went through a long season, a difficult season, and then got the opportunity, went out, won a football game, played well, helped his team win. And then where that leads to, we'll see as the draft approaches, or where Joe is on April 7 to start our off season program. But you have to give Joe credit for being ready to go, going from the third quarterback to being able to win that football game and stay ready and stay hungry.
How’s it been coming back here?
It’s exciting. I thought that there would be some new faces, but unfortunately it’s a lot of the same faces. Some new ones. But it feels good to be back. Excited to come to work and looking forward to this team getting going.
How’s it work with three O-line coaches?
That’s a good question. I was excited about adding the two guys that we added and keeping Kugler. Usually that third position is a quality control coach, but I’m excited about having three guys. Like you said, it’s a tough position to develop. So in the spring if we can have three guys that are working with four or five players in smaller groups, that can be really beneficial. And so having those guys and the trust. Then once you get to the season, I want to be very efficient with our time. I don’t want tired coaches or exhausted coaches. I want coaches who come in with energy. So to be able to divvy up those responsibilities of like pressure, the third down game, makings sure that we’ve got the run game and diagrams drawn, I think those guys are all going to be able to do that. And then we’ll divvy up the responsibility so everyone is efficient.
Happy they beat Buffalo in week 18?
Yeah I mean it’s a difficult season, you want to compete and fight and those players out there were doing everything that they could to win a football game, and I think that’s the mentality, that’s the environment you want to create, to say that there’s any other reason I think that that’s not what you want to create, somebody has the first pick, somebody’s gonna have the second, the third, but those players man, put yourself in their position, to get that opportunitiy to go out there and play and to compete and put tape out there, that’s important, that’s important for their career, that’s important to instill that in a football team, and I don’t think yiou can have it any other way, so I’m proud of all those guys that did that, they fought and they won a football game
Matching Christian elliss
it was a difficult decision, it was one that we ultimately decided that a young ascending player that has a skill set and speed and feel like he can do a lot of different things for us, his arrow was up, and we felt like we wanted to keep him on the roster, in order to do that we had to match the offer sheet and Christian is excited by all accounts to be back, we’re excited to have him, the more he played I think the better he got, was very good on third down and fourth down, and the more he played the better he got on first and second down
joint practices?
Still waiting for the nfl but have had conversations with Minnesota, Washington I think would like to come up, we’d love to go to Minnesota if the nfl gives us those opportunities …
Why Minnesota?
Cheese curds, we practice with them a few years ago in Tennessee, it’s a nice setup, they got a beautiful facility, there’s a hotel close by to walk to the field, and we enjoyed working with kevin and b-flo and their team
Most important things to do leading up to the draft for you personally?
Just have enough exposure with those players in the first few rounds, that we see the top 100-150 players that I got to have enough exposure, our scouting department has done a fantastic job, our personnel department with eliot and ryan and cam Williams, matt groh, everybody getting down and going different places and bringing guys in on 30 visits and making suggestions like hey what do you think about this guy coming in, let’s get some more information on this guy, so I’ve loved where the process has been, we’ve worked well through the free agency process of being able to have a plan, being able to pivot off of that, move quickly, be decisive, those were some things we were really excited about, and I think the balance for me is just making sure I’m doing everything I can with our current players but also making sure that I’m staying up on the guys that we may add to our football team
Running back in the draft?
I think so, having a good young runner, something that’s potentially something we would like to do, I think the guys coming back, rhamondre and gibby I think obviously were a good 1-2 punch, people there talk about rhamondre and putting the ball on the ground and he knows that, we’ll help him there and also we’re gonna make sure the other 10 players know their job is to protect the guy with the ball as well, there were some opportunities on there for me to teach that second guy in, the guy you don’t see is the one that’s making the fumble or causing the fumble, so it’s a great opportunity for me to show those other players that their guy the one coming in there to knock the ball loose, is that gonna all be on the running back? No it’s gonna be on the guy that’s letting his guy get in there and make the hit so those are great opportunities for me and we’ll love to add good young players on offense and skill players