Chris Ballard press-availability after Day 2 of the draft

[stitches]

I didn't see this one posted here, so here we go:

 

Some highlights:

- we needed to add some explosive playmakers so this is where Pittman and Taylor come into the picture

- on question about readiness of those players to play right away - he said this is not the thing that was the forefront of their thinking - he said that more important was them being guys that love football and want to work, good teammates, they are special guys who will represent the organization

- on Pittman - both scouts and Frank loved him. This class of WRs was about flavor - Michael can win on all 3 levels, big, strong to the ball, competes, got better every year, the type of teammate we want

- unprompted about not trading back from 34 - we had a couple of offers, but we didn't get the offer to blow us away. He also mentioned Higgins going right before us. Maybe they were afraid they won't have a receiver of that type available at the pick they had to trade back to.

- Zoom call and everything logistics-wise went real smooth, no problems at all, gives props to the IT/technical staff

- on no QB - we are not going to force that, if we are not sure he can be our future, we won't go there

- Taylor is unique talent - every time a talent like this starts falling a bit, you have to go get him. Too unique a talent, nothing worse than looking at a guy and thinking "damn this guy is going to make us better, and the guy goes before your pick"

- shares the story about Marlon Mack saying "lets go, lets go win" to Reich after the Taylor pick

- on Blackmon - we didn't worry he will be there in the 3d, but we worried he won't be there in the 4th. That's why we picked him in the 3d. He probably won't be ready until late Aug-early Sept, which means he might not help us until Oct, but he's a rangy, fast, athletic safety that can play corner and he can play in the nickel. He has a lot of value in our defense, can play multiple spots. This was his first year playing S, and we even liked him playing at corner too.

- on selecting captains/leaders - you don't start leading in the league

- at 34 - 6-7 players were under consideration, Taylor was one of them... that's why they traded up from 44 too.

- there was no effort by the Colts to trade up in the first, he was eating popcorn and chilling since about pick 19...  

- you don't want to trade back when you have a specific player you've targeted on the board and you might lose him by the next pick. If there is a cluster of player that we like and it's going to get us an extra asset, then we can move back.

-on worries about OLine depth - we have Eldrenkamp and Clark that we like, we will see if we address it tomorrow and if not there is still a lot of time before the season.