Houston Texans
  • 8 months ago
The head coach and gm meet the media following the draft
Transcript
00:00How exciting was it for you to get that wealth of talent that you got today this last day?
00:05There were a lot of good players still available for you all.
00:07That's the most exciting thing to me about coaching is developing guys, seeing where they are.
00:13You select guys who have traits that you like, traits that you think will translate to helping us.
00:19And then as coaches, we have to help them, right, those next few steps to get them to maximize their talent and play to their capability.
00:28Right. So that's what I'm most excited about. When you see the growth of a player from where he is, once you get him to work, the things you can help him.
00:36Right. Grow it as a player. That's where that's why I like coaching.
00:40And that's why I enjoy coaching is seeing a development. Nobody is a finished product once we get them.
00:45But these guys, all the guys we selected have first off their makeup.
00:51They're all really great people. Right. And that's one thing we pride ourselves on is adding great people to our locker room.
00:57And then you get to the player that we had really good players with great traits.
01:02And we are excited to work with all of them.
01:05What's some of the feedback out of Columbus in terms of work ethic, toughness, any stories about Cade Stover, things you guys heard?
01:13Yeah, whatever it is, it's elite. I mean, this guy is as tough and hard nosed a player that they had in the program.
01:21Just kind of going back to the question and D'Amico's answer about developing players,
01:25I'd say Cade's a good example of a player who has only played tight end for two years.
01:29So he's certainly not a finished product, but he has the mindset and the work ethic to improve.
01:34I mean, how he was raised. I mean, this guy is everything you want in a football player.
01:39And then more. I mean, he probably played hurt this year.
01:42I mean, I think he had an MCL or had an issue where, quite frankly, it would have limited some other players,
01:47but he just braced it up and he just kept playing football.
01:49So, I mean, I don't want to speak for D'Amico, but I think we feel the same way.
01:53This is probably one of our favorite football players in the entire draft, regardless of position, because of his mentality,
01:59because of his mindset. And he still is developing as a player.
02:03I mean, two years ago, he was playing defensive end in the Rose Bowl against Utah.
02:07Now he's played tight end for two years and here he is getting picked in the bottom of the fourth round.
02:12And his position is, we think, tight end. That's why we drafted him.
02:16But, I mean, blue collars, they come from a makeup, traits, toughness, mentality.
02:22I mean, this is an elite guy.
02:25We'll take a few more.
02:27There was a moment where the cameras, I think it was the Texas cameras, kind of caught y'all celebrating.
02:34If it's okay.
02:36Which pick? I don't know. We celebrate after a bunch of them.
02:39One in particular where you left D'Amico up.
02:42I think it was Bullock.
02:43Yeah.
02:44What about that was so exciting? What about that particular moment?
02:50I think it's all exciting, man.
02:52The draft is just such an exciting process.
02:55And you go through and you study so many guys, right?
02:59And you have a select number of guys that you like and guys that you want to work with,
03:04but you never really know how it's going to shape out.
03:06Because nine times out of ten, like the other teams, like the same players.
03:12So for us to get guys that we truly have kind of highlighted to start the process,
03:20guys who've always kind of stuck out in that process,
03:23and for us to get guys like that, like Stover, like Bullock, Lassiter,
03:28it's exciting when you know the guy that you're adding to your team.
03:33You know the competitor that he is.
03:35You know what type of football player he is.
03:37It's exciting.
03:38So all of our picks, we celebrate.
03:40I don't think it was just one.
03:41We celebrate after all of them.
03:43Oh, and like D'Amico said, we have fun.
03:46And we've talked about this.
03:47I mean the beauty of it, I mean my respect for him is massive,
03:50but we see football through the same lens.
03:53And we're looking at a lot of the same things in players.
03:56We may have a variance of opinion, but we talk through everything.
03:59And this was a player that we had earmarked, quite frankly.
04:02We had talked about him maybe at 59 if we had the opportunity to pick him.
04:06And then I think we maneuvered and we had to move up a few spots.
04:09That's where we traded up.
04:10We gave 123 to move up a few slots.
04:12And we were able to get the player that we wanted
04:15because it's a player we had identified.
04:17And not that you're doing this for the reason you're doing it,
04:20but the number of teams that kind of reached out to us after the pick,
04:24I mean there was a few teams that were basically saying
04:27they were getting ready to write the guy's name down.
04:29So it doesn't mean that we're right or wrong.
04:31It just means that to D'Amico's point, these are players,
04:34they're certain players that you say if we have an opportunity to add him to the team,
04:37let's figure out a way to do it.
04:39Let's be responsible and not be egregious with it.
04:41And I would say in Bullock's case, I mean that was a situation.
04:44I mean I don't know who was more excited, D'Amico or Steven Hay, but it was pretty close.
04:47So again, we enjoy what we do.
04:49Like we put so much time and effort into it, and like we show that emotion.
04:55I mean you've seen him chase his officials down the sideline.
04:57So he's faster than me, so I can't keep up.