Andy Reid Draft Day Q&A

Andy Reid Opening Remarks: “With our first pick we took [DT] Mike Patterson, a defensive tackle from USC [University of South Carolina]. We feel very good about him as a football player. He’s a very active defensive tackle, a good pass rusher. Obviously he was an All-American this past year and he’s done a fine job at

USC. With our second pick we took [WR] Reggie Brown, a wide receiver from Georgia. He’s a big kid, strong. He was the only wide receiver that actually bench-pressed at the combine and he showed off his strength a little bit there. He’s a good run-after-the-catch receiver. We look forward to adding him to the offense.”

On what impressed them about Mike Patterson:
Tom Heckert:
“I think his overall athletic ability and quickness. This guy is a special guy, he’s a move guy. The knock on him was his height, but he makes up for it because he’s so quick. I think his height kind of helps him a little bit with his leverage. The guy plays a million miles an hour, he just makes a lot of plays behind the line of scrimmage and that’s kind of what enticed us.”

On the fact that they had the ability to move up in the draft and they didn’t:
AR: “We had that flexibility to do that. We chose not to. We thought if we just hung right there that we would get some good football players. We’re very fortunate to have five first day picks. We wanted to try and keep those and we thought we could.”

On whether they tried to move up in the draft:
AR: “We inquired. There was a point where we pulled off, but we did inquire early and weren’t able to make the trades. People weren’t willing to move for what we were offering, so we felt very comfortable right where we were.”

On whether they see Patterson playing a lot this season:
AR: “I do. I’ve always talked about being able to throw fastballs at the offense. I think we can do that with his addition. He’ll work into the rotation and I think he’ll do a heck of a job.”

On whether Patterson and Brown both being 4-year players in college had any influence on the Eagles selecting them:
TH: “Yes. It obviously helps. You get to see the guy play a lot more football. Some of the juniors, they’re either a 2-year guy, or sometimes a 1-year guy that’s been really productive. These guys have been productive for a long time at major competition schools. We were high on both of them. That obviously helped our evaluation process.”

On whether the contract issues the Eagles have with veterans at the DT and WR positions had any influence on why the Eagles drafted players at those positions:
AR: “No.”

On how much the success of the programs Patterson and Brown played for at the college level played into the Eagles draft evaluation process:
AR: “I think it’s very important. If you can go in there and be a starter for X number of years there, I think that’s a plus. There is very good competition that these guys are playing against every week and normally the transition to the NFL isn’t quite as great as it would be from a small school.”

On whether there are any disadvantages with Patterson’s height at the defensive tackle position:
AR: “I think that you need to look at arm length along with height. Mike has got long arms, so that helps him and it turns it into a leverage factor in his favor. He’s utilized that throughout his career.”

On where they see Brown playing:
AR: “At wide receiver.”

On whether they see Brown moving up the wide receiver depth chart:
AR: “We’ll see. He has to come in here and work his way in. We’ll see how he does.”

On why they went for a receiver with such a high pick:
AR: “Time will tell. We thought it was a position that we could add to and we thought he was the best player on the board at the time. It gives [QB] Donovan [McNabb] another weapon to use out there.”

On why they chose Patterson, despite the fact that he scored a 9 on his Wonderlic test:
TH: “We’re not going to get into that stuff. Mike’s a smart enough guy. That is not going to be an issue with Mike.”
AR: “Mike’s four hours short of graduating from college, one class.”

On whether school requirements will prevent Patterson or Brown from participating in the mini-camps in May or June:
AR: “We’re checking on USC right now. There’s a question on that. They’ll both be here next weekend.”

On whether Brown can play at all three WR positions:
AR: “Reggie is very intelligent and throughout his career he’s played all of the positions. I think he can be good at inside slot because of body size. I think you’re going to see a real quick football player, a guy that can really change directions fast. That gives him an opportunity to play inside and out.”

On what motive there was to take a WR with their second pick:
AR: “There really wasn’t. What we tried to do was to take the best football player we possibly could. People can read into it all they want to read into it, but that’s what we tried to do. We stayed very disciplined with it. Tom and [asst. director of player personnel] Jason [Licht] had the players ranked up there a certain way and we felt very good about these two young men being there.”

On whether there is a deal in the works for Buffalo Bills RB Travis Henry:
AR: “We’re still messing around with it.”

On whether they personally worked out Brown:
TH: “No we did not personally. He worked out at the combine and our coaching staff was out there.”

On whether there was anything that excited them about the workout:
TH: “It was the same stuff that we saw on tape that excited us about him.”