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Chris Grier – April 27, 2017 Download PDF version

Thursday, April 27, 2017

General Manager Chris Grier

(Opening statement) – “Good evening. Today we added Charles Harris from Missouri. He is a player that we had targeted. We love the pass rush that he can give us. It is a position that you can never have enough guys in the league, the way this game is played. We like the kid’s attitude, his competitiveness. I think from your conference call, you kind of figured out what kind of kid he is. This guy loves football. It is very important to him. When you talk to people around the program and do your work on him, you hear all of the same things. This guy is a gym rat. He loves football; it is very important to him. He is passionate. So being around the kid a little bit, we tried not to … We tried to stay away from him purposely. Again, I know everyone looks for how everyone is doing things and trying to figure out who is coming where and stuff. This is a player that we really, really liked, and are excited to have him.”

(How do you envision using him as a rookie?) – “He will be in the rotation. We envision him being in the top four and that is obviously why we picked him where we did. For us, his traits of quickness, speed and explosiveness off the edge, the ability to rush … He also rushes inside. I know he is 255 pounds. On third down, you will see him go inside because he has that explosive first step and quickness. He can be a disruptive player and so for us, it is important to keep adding depth to that position. You can never have enough rushers.”

(How comfortable are you guys with him as an edge-setter?) – “We are. Remember we talked in the pre-draft press conference we had, it was about things we are going to (do to) tweak the defense and doing things to help. So in the Wide 9, you can have players like this that can be good run-defenders. With his athletic ability and the stuff he can do – he is a tough kid. He can be better and he will be. We are very excited for his future.”

(He made a couple of references to the meeting you all had – I think it was at the combine – and how well it went. What do you remember from that meeting and what were your impressions?) – “The love for football oozes out of him. When you watch film, when you talk to the kid and ask questions as you try to get to know him as a person – to see if it matches with everything you are told as the schools and it does. He loves talking football and that is what he wants to do. For us, again, those are the traits we are looking for – those guys that love ball and it is the end-all, be-all for him, and that is truly what it is for this kid.”

(Who was the scout that first got to know him and how did that relationship go with him as a player? Because obviously you didn’t bring him in with a personal visit, how did you get to know him as a player?) – “Chris Buford, our area scout there, does a really good job. Chris is a very personable kid. He’s a younger scout, but he also … He played football at Baylor. He was a d-lineman at Baylor. This is a player that he really liked and as he dug into the background … He knew a lot of people in the program there that dealt with the kid from the high school level and college. As Chris got to know him and really started selling the kid – he really didn’t have to sell the kid because we watched the film and we liked a lot of stuff we saw on film – but Chris did a great job in presenting him to us.”

(How early did you think to yourself ‘that’s my guy?’) – “He was a player we had … We had two players targeted at 22 and he is one of the two.”

(So how early was that?) – “That was probably about a month ago.”

(A month ago? That is early, right?) – “Yes. That is how much we liked the player.”

(Was that other player off the board already at 22?) – “I am not going to say.”

(You said you stayed away from DE Charles Harris purposely. What was your intent?) – “Everyone is tracking visits and all this stuff. Last year, we selected a bunch of players that we had here in for ’30-visits.’ Teams track that stuff and I know it is your job to do that and that is fine. It’s just there are some players that we purposely try and stay away from once we are comfortable with the player, his character and what type of kid we are getting. We just do not feel the need to spend any more time with them.”

(Were you guys fielding a lot of calls or was it a fairly straightforward pick?) – “No. We had two calls for the pick. Two teams wanted to come up from behind us and move into the pick.”

(You just could not pass on DE Charles Harris?) – “No, and honestly we really did not talk much about what they were offering because this was a player that everybody in the building – from personnel to coaches – if you see the video of the room, everyone is going crazy.”

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