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(GM Billy Devaney Opening Remarks)
“Obviously you know we took Sam (Bradford) but what I did want to say…what really on the surface should have been an obvious pick - and maybe to a lot of you it was, that we were taking a quarterback - those other two kids we were thinking about, (Ndamukong) Suh and (Gerald) McCoy, they made this whole process really difficult being the players and the type of people that they are. It really was a tough decision and it shouldn’t have been. Bradford should have been the obvious guy all along and we wrestled with it just because we think those two kids are really going to be special football players. I wanted to throw that out there first of all. Obviously we’re thrilled to have Bradford on board. The whole building (is excited). Believe it or not, I did talk to everybody at some point individually, defensive coaches, the same thing. They are thrilled about having Bradford in the building as our quarterback. That’s pretty much it.”
(Coach Spagnuolo Opening Remarks)
“We’re fired up. It’s just like Billy (Devaney) said, this is a special guy. We thought that throughout the whole process. It just grew and grew. We made the final decision when we had to and are looking forward to moving on from here. He’s got all the things you look for in a quarterback. We’re happy that way.”
(On what they saw in Bradford to make them comfortable with this pick)
Spagnuolo: “Well there are a lot of different things. I let the experts who know quarterbacking and the technique and whatnot handle that, but I did observe real closely the interaction between coaches - I’m talking about Sam with coaches - and the mental part of it and how he acted around his teammates. All that stuff’s important to me, anything that said ‘team’ or said ‘leader’. I got to know just in sitting with him that he’s a thinker. He’s a listener. He’s got a calmness about him. I thought all those qualities were pretty good in a quarterback. “
(On when they decided that Bradford was the choice)
Devaney: “It was probably a couple of days ago. I wanted to get the input from everybody. I kind of had an idea, but it just made me feel that much better when I got the input from the scouts and the coaches, what their true feelings were also, and that just solidified my belief that this was the perfect fit for us.”
(On what separated Bradford from the other quarterbacks)
Devaney: “I don’t know. Those guys are going to be really good. I’d just rather talk about Bradford and the positives of him. Believe me, if it wound up for some reason that we didn’t keep this pick, and it was one of those other guys, we think they’re going to be great pros also.”
(On they key elements from the coaching staff to ensure Bradford will have a successful career)
Spagnuolo: “Obviously we’ll jump right into that phase now. We’re going to let Sam enjoy this moment and get here tomorrow and let you guys visit with him, but shortly after that we have the mini-camp coming up. This will be a step-by-step process. There are a lot of different ways that it’s been done. It’s been well documented. Myself and (Offensive Coordinator) Pat Shurmur have been around a certain way. I thought what Andy (Reid) did in Philadelphia was terrific with Donovan (McNabb) and that worked out pretty good. Other quarterbacks in the league have done it differently and have been very successful, so we’ll find out what’s best for Sam and what’s best for this team, and we’ll try and steer it in that direction.”
(On whether or not Bradford will play right away)
Spagnuolo: “There’s no preconceived notion or game plan with Sam right now, or with the quarterback situation. I think we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we can go either way. I feel real comfortable with some guys we have on this football team. I’ve said this before, it’s not about the one guy. This team will never be about one guy. That’s certainly a very important position, and that particular position has to play well, but we’ll do what’s best for him and what’s best for the team.”
(On how far along they are on contract negotiations with Bradford)
Devaney: “Probably not very far, but we said all along that it wasn’t going to be an issue and it wasn’t.”
(On the importance of Bradford’s pro day in determining their pick)
Spagnuolo: “From the health standpoint, I know was important to me and I know it was important to Billy. But just again that was part of the evaluation process we were talking about. The way he interacted with his teammates... I spent a lot of time with him that day. I got a chance to bump into his high school football coach who was terrific and found out even more information. That just happened by chance. It was an information gathering and it worked out really well.”
(On if their approach for the second round of the draft)
Devaney: “We’re still at the point where you have to go best player. The second round’s going to be a great round. We just have to figure out at that point if you keep the pick. If it’s an option, we’ll see whether to trade to pick, who’s left, how far and how deep we want to go back or whether we want to trade up into the first round. That’s always an option. Everything’s on the table at this point.”
(On Bradford’s ability to read defenses)
Devaney: “Like anybody, there’s going to be a learning curve. I think at the end of the day that’s going to be on of his assets. The guy is extremely intelligent. The more work he gets here and gets exposed to that, that’s going to be one of the real pluses about Bradford. I think he’s going to be great at that part of the game.”
(On any pre-draft offers prior to picking Bradford)
Devaney: “There wasn’t any offer on the table at any point. We’ve had discussions. I’m going to be honest, Cleveland called about 15 minutes before we were on the clock and just kind of said, ‘Anything changed?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’”
(On if Cleveland ever made an offer)
Devaney: “Zero. No. We never got to that point.”
(On if there was any dissension on Bradford among the staff)
Devaney: “No. Not just the pro scouts, our whole scouting staff, college scouts, coaches also. Everybody has put so much time and effort into this. It was the right thing to do. I believe in that, having everyone involved in it and having an opinion. Everybody was on board with this.”
(On Bradford’s build and work ethic)
Devaney: “Everybody sees the accuracy, the size. Honestly, this guy will be one of our hardest workers. We’ve got some great workers here already. He’s going to be in that group. He’s got stuff to learn like everybody. Like we said, there’s going to be a learning curve. This guy will work. We talk about it often with players, you talk about their ceiling. I believe this guy has got a great ceiling, and whatever that ceiling is, he’s going achieve it. Through hard work, he’s going to do whatever he has to do to achieve that level. Is it greatness, is it pretty good? We’re about to find out, but whatever it is, he’ll achieve that ceiling.”
(On how exciting this day is for the Rams)
Devaney: “I hope it is. Oh boy, do I hope it is!”
(On picking an offensive player instead of defensive)
Spagnuolo: “I never weighed it because we’re just going to always do what’s best for this football team and what’s best for the organization. That’s what you do. We did the right thing today; we’ll do the right thing tomorrow, and the next day. Then we’ll get into those mini camps and get to doing football, we hope to do the right thing then, too.”
(On if Coach Spagnuolo made a deal with Devaney that the next pick has to be a defensive player)
Spagnuolo: “I tried that but I couldn’t get that to go over.”
(On Bradford’s physical tools)
Devaney: “We don’t see any negatives. Rare size, 6’5 is outstanding. (His) accuracy is off the charts. The thing where I screwed up early on, he’s a much better athlete when you see him, especially when you see him live. The more tape you watch, you see him escaping and running away from people. He’s a much better athlete than I gave him credit for early on in this process. He’s extremely intelligent. Character, I think he’s a classy kid. All those things. I happen to think he’s the whole package.”
(On what they like about Bradford’s personality)
Spagnuolo: “I told him what I was talking about a little earlier, when we sat upstairs a week ago for the visit. He’s one of those people I would tag as… he listens first before he reacts. He does not appear to be a knee-jerk reactor or off the cuff, and I think you need a little of that as a quarterback. You’ve got to have a lot of poise or a lot of poise. I see that in him. Now, how much can you tell from somebody you sat with one hour in Oklahoma, 15 minutes in Indianapolis, and another half-hour here? I think we’ve got a pretty good read on this guy and I think everything is very positive.”
(On what the Rams thought of Bradford last offseason)
Spagnuolo: “Last year we thought he was pretty good, too.”
Devaney: “…and we really didn’t study him last year…”
Spagnuolo: “…because we knew early he wasn’t coming out, but you heard the rumors about him being a good football player.”
(On how they passed the day)
Spagnuolo: “It was a long day, a lot like playing a Monday night football game. You have to sit around the hotel all day.”
Devaney: “We had work. There were free agents we were working on and we did some more tape work. I mean, we got some things accomplished today. But you’re right, it’s been a long day. It’s just kind of starting, too.”
\
(On the how the team dealt with media rumors leading up to the draft)
Devaney: “It’s amazing how some of this crud starts. It’s wild. What was the one when we got back from the owner’s meeting (referring to the Donovan McNabb trade rumors)? That it was done, that the offer on the table with O.J. (Atogwe). You’re right, something like that every other day it was one of those. I don’t know. Don’t have the first pick next year, that’s how you deal with it.”
(Devaney on the seventh round swap of picks with Washington)
“They felt so jilted by the trade that they thought just to make it a little more even…’Would you at least do that in the seventh (round)?’ We said yeah to get the deal done. We didn’t like it, but we did it to go ahead and get the deal done.”
(On whether getting Bradford softens the blow of a 1-15 season)
Spagnuolo: “That’s an interesting point. I guess I should feel that way, yeah. I mean, it’s hard to go through that. That’s done and it’s over. Even when we talk as a team when the players are in here, we don’t talk about that. We move on and learn from it. One of the pieces added to that is a quarterback in the first pick of the 2010 draft. We’ll look at that as a positive.”
In DeSpags I trust. Welcome to The Rams, Sam.
“Obviously you know we took Sam (Bradford) but what I did want to say…what really on the surface should have been an obvious pick - and maybe to a lot of you it was, that we were taking a quarterback - those other two kids we were thinking about, (Ndamukong) Suh and (Gerald) McCoy, they made this whole process really difficult being the players and the type of people that they are. It really was a tough decision and it shouldn’t have been. Bradford should have been the obvious guy all along and we wrestled with it just because we think those two kids are really going to be special football players. I wanted to throw that out there first of all. Obviously we’re thrilled to have Bradford on board. The whole building (is excited). Believe it or not, I did talk to everybody at some point individually, defensive coaches, the same thing. They are thrilled about having Bradford in the building as our quarterback. That’s pretty much it.”
(Coach Spagnuolo Opening Remarks)
“We’re fired up. It’s just like Billy (Devaney) said, this is a special guy. We thought that throughout the whole process. It just grew and grew. We made the final decision when we had to and are looking forward to moving on from here. He’s got all the things you look for in a quarterback. We’re happy that way.”
(On what they saw in Bradford to make them comfortable with this pick)
Spagnuolo: “Well there are a lot of different things. I let the experts who know quarterbacking and the technique and whatnot handle that, but I did observe real closely the interaction between coaches - I’m talking about Sam with coaches - and the mental part of it and how he acted around his teammates. All that stuff’s important to me, anything that said ‘team’ or said ‘leader’. I got to know just in sitting with him that he’s a thinker. He’s a listener. He’s got a calmness about him. I thought all those qualities were pretty good in a quarterback. “
(On when they decided that Bradford was the choice)
Devaney: “It was probably a couple of days ago. I wanted to get the input from everybody. I kind of had an idea, but it just made me feel that much better when I got the input from the scouts and the coaches, what their true feelings were also, and that just solidified my belief that this was the perfect fit for us.”
(On what separated Bradford from the other quarterbacks)
Devaney: “I don’t know. Those guys are going to be really good. I’d just rather talk about Bradford and the positives of him. Believe me, if it wound up for some reason that we didn’t keep this pick, and it was one of those other guys, we think they’re going to be great pros also.”
(On they key elements from the coaching staff to ensure Bradford will have a successful career)
Spagnuolo: “Obviously we’ll jump right into that phase now. We’re going to let Sam enjoy this moment and get here tomorrow and let you guys visit with him, but shortly after that we have the mini-camp coming up. This will be a step-by-step process. There are a lot of different ways that it’s been done. It’s been well documented. Myself and (Offensive Coordinator) Pat Shurmur have been around a certain way. I thought what Andy (Reid) did in Philadelphia was terrific with Donovan (McNabb) and that worked out pretty good. Other quarterbacks in the league have done it differently and have been very successful, so we’ll find out what’s best for Sam and what’s best for this team, and we’ll try and steer it in that direction.”
(On whether or not Bradford will play right away)
Spagnuolo: “There’s no preconceived notion or game plan with Sam right now, or with the quarterback situation. I think we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we can go either way. I feel real comfortable with some guys we have on this football team. I’ve said this before, it’s not about the one guy. This team will never be about one guy. That’s certainly a very important position, and that particular position has to play well, but we’ll do what’s best for him and what’s best for the team.”
(On how far along they are on contract negotiations with Bradford)
Devaney: “Probably not very far, but we said all along that it wasn’t going to be an issue and it wasn’t.”
(On the importance of Bradford’s pro day in determining their pick)
Spagnuolo: “From the health standpoint, I know was important to me and I know it was important to Billy. But just again that was part of the evaluation process we were talking about. The way he interacted with his teammates... I spent a lot of time with him that day. I got a chance to bump into his high school football coach who was terrific and found out even more information. That just happened by chance. It was an information gathering and it worked out really well.”
(On if their approach for the second round of the draft)
Devaney: “We’re still at the point where you have to go best player. The second round’s going to be a great round. We just have to figure out at that point if you keep the pick. If it’s an option, we’ll see whether to trade to pick, who’s left, how far and how deep we want to go back or whether we want to trade up into the first round. That’s always an option. Everything’s on the table at this point.”
(On Bradford’s ability to read defenses)
Devaney: “Like anybody, there’s going to be a learning curve. I think at the end of the day that’s going to be on of his assets. The guy is extremely intelligent. The more work he gets here and gets exposed to that, that’s going to be one of the real pluses about Bradford. I think he’s going to be great at that part of the game.”
(On any pre-draft offers prior to picking Bradford)
Devaney: “There wasn’t any offer on the table at any point. We’ve had discussions. I’m going to be honest, Cleveland called about 15 minutes before we were on the clock and just kind of said, ‘Anything changed?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’”
(On if Cleveland ever made an offer)
Devaney: “Zero. No. We never got to that point.”
(On if there was any dissension on Bradford among the staff)
Devaney: “No. Not just the pro scouts, our whole scouting staff, college scouts, coaches also. Everybody has put so much time and effort into this. It was the right thing to do. I believe in that, having everyone involved in it and having an opinion. Everybody was on board with this.”
(On Bradford’s build and work ethic)
Devaney: “Everybody sees the accuracy, the size. Honestly, this guy will be one of our hardest workers. We’ve got some great workers here already. He’s going to be in that group. He’s got stuff to learn like everybody. Like we said, there’s going to be a learning curve. This guy will work. We talk about it often with players, you talk about their ceiling. I believe this guy has got a great ceiling, and whatever that ceiling is, he’s going achieve it. Through hard work, he’s going to do whatever he has to do to achieve that level. Is it greatness, is it pretty good? We’re about to find out, but whatever it is, he’ll achieve that ceiling.”
(On how exciting this day is for the Rams)
Devaney: “I hope it is. Oh boy, do I hope it is!”
(On picking an offensive player instead of defensive)
Spagnuolo: “I never weighed it because we’re just going to always do what’s best for this football team and what’s best for the organization. That’s what you do. We did the right thing today; we’ll do the right thing tomorrow, and the next day. Then we’ll get into those mini camps and get to doing football, we hope to do the right thing then, too.”
(On if Coach Spagnuolo made a deal with Devaney that the next pick has to be a defensive player)
Spagnuolo: “I tried that but I couldn’t get that to go over.”
(On Bradford’s physical tools)
Devaney: “We don’t see any negatives. Rare size, 6’5 is outstanding. (His) accuracy is off the charts. The thing where I screwed up early on, he’s a much better athlete when you see him, especially when you see him live. The more tape you watch, you see him escaping and running away from people. He’s a much better athlete than I gave him credit for early on in this process. He’s extremely intelligent. Character, I think he’s a classy kid. All those things. I happen to think he’s the whole package.”
(On what they like about Bradford’s personality)
Spagnuolo: “I told him what I was talking about a little earlier, when we sat upstairs a week ago for the visit. He’s one of those people I would tag as… he listens first before he reacts. He does not appear to be a knee-jerk reactor or off the cuff, and I think you need a little of that as a quarterback. You’ve got to have a lot of poise or a lot of poise. I see that in him. Now, how much can you tell from somebody you sat with one hour in Oklahoma, 15 minutes in Indianapolis, and another half-hour here? I think we’ve got a pretty good read on this guy and I think everything is very positive.”
(On what the Rams thought of Bradford last offseason)
Spagnuolo: “Last year we thought he was pretty good, too.”
Devaney: “…and we really didn’t study him last year…”
Spagnuolo: “…because we knew early he wasn’t coming out, but you heard the rumors about him being a good football player.”
(On how they passed the day)
Spagnuolo: “It was a long day, a lot like playing a Monday night football game. You have to sit around the hotel all day.”
Devaney: “We had work. There were free agents we were working on and we did some more tape work. I mean, we got some things accomplished today. But you’re right, it’s been a long day. It’s just kind of starting, too.”
\
(On the how the team dealt with media rumors leading up to the draft)
Devaney: “It’s amazing how some of this crud starts. It’s wild. What was the one when we got back from the owner’s meeting (referring to the Donovan McNabb trade rumors)? That it was done, that the offer on the table with O.J. (Atogwe). You’re right, something like that every other day it was one of those. I don’t know. Don’t have the first pick next year, that’s how you deal with it.”
(Devaney on the seventh round swap of picks with Washington)
“They felt so jilted by the trade that they thought just to make it a little more even…’Would you at least do that in the seventh (round)?’ We said yeah to get the deal done. We didn’t like it, but we did it to go ahead and get the deal done.”
(On whether getting Bradford softens the blow of a 1-15 season)
Spagnuolo: “That’s an interesting point. I guess I should feel that way, yeah. I mean, it’s hard to go through that. That’s done and it’s over. Even when we talk as a team when the players are in here, we don’t talk about that. We move on and learn from it. One of the pieces added to that is a quarterback in the first pick of the 2010 draft. We’ll look at that as a positive.”
In DeSpags I trust. Welcome to The Rams, Sam.
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