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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher and General Manager Les Snead – Press Conference – May 9, 2014
(On if DB Lamarcus Joyner teased Auburn graduate Snead about the BCS Championship game)
Snead: “Yeah, I probably started it just when he came in on the top 30, but he easily put the exclamation point on it. I told him they got lucky, a little curl route, got down in the red zone and threw it to that big, tall guy (WR Kelvin Benjamin). Other than that, they would’ve lost.”
(On what they liked so much about Joyner to trade up to ensure he was still on the board at the 41st pick)
Snead: “I think I could put a quote, Coach (Fisher) could tell you, when we talked about that player in the draft room, he was probably one of about three or four guys that would’ve been – and he might have been the favorite football player. He’s just a football player and Coach can elaborate on that from what a nickel, corner, former starting safety – a football player.”
Fisher: “He was clearly the guy that we identified last night, this morning before we started and we suspected that there was a team ahead of us that had interest in him, so we had to get above them. And as it was, they traded down after he left, so I think we were right. We didn’t want to lose him, and he’s just an outstanding player. He plays all over their defense. He plays outside, he plays in the slot, he plays high, he blitzes, so he’s a plug-in Day 1 nickelback. He’s very, very aggressive, tackles well. He’s got average ball skills. We’ll work on that. They kind of dinged him, I think, after we drafted him on his ball skills.”
Snead: “That’s just probably just catching, but he will touch some balls. He’ll go touch them but he just might not catch them.”
(On Joyner being a tough player for not being large in stature)
Fisher: “Those kinds of guys are rare. That’s why he’s a Ram, so we’re really excited about him.”
Snead: “You turn on the film, you notice him. He plays really big.”
(On where they’d like Joyner playing the nickel position)
Fisher: “It’s the inside guy. Typically the nickel is aligned on the slot or around the line of scrimmage, that kind of thing. He’s an outstanding blitzer. He has a really good sense for timing for making backs miss and finding creases, and he’s just very active.”
Snead: “I think the year before he started at free safety as well. You went to see him play and you just noticed his range. He plays faster than he timed and hits larger than he is.”
(On if they will consider Joyner at safety)
Fisher: “There’s a chance we’ll move him around in some packages, but he’s going to be down inside covering. He’s got really good cover skills inside.”
(On if it is easier to select certain players in the draft when they have as many picks as they do)
Snead: “It is because you get in a draft and there’s a few players that you really want to come away with and then some of those later picks, there’s going to be players you like there, but there’s still an element of development and all that. He was a guy that we really wanted, so, like we said, let’s go get the players we really want and then the chips will fall later.”
(On if they are considering Joyner as a kick returner)
Fisher: “We will, we’ll look at him there, but that was not part of his package. He does however, he’s very competitive and very productive in special teams. He’s one of those college starters that also wants to play team’s punt coverage, kickoff coverage and those things.”
Snead: “He’s going to be a favorite guy.”
(On if they could tell he was a team leader when they watched the tape)
Fisher: “All you have to do is spend about 15 minutes with him and you get a pretty good sense for his personality. He’s very engaging. He loves football.”
Snead: “I was- it was a long time ago now- 1993, (Florida State Head Coach) Jimbo Fisher was the quarterback coach when I was playing at Auburn. So, I’ve known Jimbo a lot of years. If you follow his twitter account or maybe Florida State’s you can tell the passion when he tweeted about the kid. He loves that he’s a team leader, team captain, the whole deal.”
(On if their needs have met the value of the picks)
Fisher: “It’s been, I don’t want to say easy, but it’s been good. The board’s good, the values there. We feel good about where we are and we also feel good about finishing strong tomorrow.”
(On RB Tre Mason and what he brings to the table)
Fisher: “Tre is a change-of-pace back. Obviously for us, very productive runner, good zone runner. Obviously, the numbers speak for themselves. He was a guy we just couldn’t pass up at that point.”
(On if they knew a lot about Mason)
Fisher: “We approached Tre Mason no different than any other player. We did our homework. Now, we didn’t do a visit. We didn’t need to do the visit, nor did we need to do the workout, but the scouts approached him as if it was anybody else, so we felt like we knew everything we needed to know about the kid.”
(On if he has talked to OL Greg Robinson about drafting Mason)
Fisher: “I have not talked to Greg about Tre, no.”
(On if Mason was that much higher than every other player on the draft board)
Fisher: “Yeah, that was the nature of the pick, and that’s where we are right now. We just couldn’t pass him up.”
(On Mason’s wrist injury)
Fisher: “He’s fine. He’s not going to have any problems. He may have to do something after the season, but it was not a concern of ours, nor was it a concern of the doctors.”
(On what he means by change-of-pace back)
Fisher: “Change of pace, it’s more out of the backfield. It’s releasing out of the backfield, creating one-on-one’s on linebackers, defensive backs and winning, those kinds of things. Plus, he’s a quick hitter, he’s good in space, screens, those kinds of things.”
(On the notion that running backs have become devalued in the draft)
Fisher: “Well I think over time the game’s changed a little bit and you have shot-gun quarterbacks and you have those types of things, so we’re not able to evaluate runners in the ‘I’ and the zones and those kinds of things. So I think you’re seeing people become a little more patient with respect to that. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not valuable. We’ve had two runners. You’ve got (RB Jeremy) Hill at LSU that you saw do those things that we’re going to ask of him here and you saw (RB Carlos) Hyde that you rarely saw do those things. So I think that’s contributing to it, but everybody needs backs on their roster.”
Snead: “It’s a good question to see how it’s evolving that way, but like Jeff said, people are finding runners and they’re producing. But I think you’ve seen a trend where you get runners anywhere from the second (round) to our guy in the fifth (round) last year. The year before Washington’s guy in the sixth (round) that are very productive, so it’s an interesting trend. I don’t know if I can exactly say why.”
(On the current trend around the league where running backs share time)
Snead: “It seems to be teams have a one-two punch or even more. But in our offense, I know we valued the running backs high this year on the board because we liked Zac (Stacy) and Benny (Cunningham) and Isaiah (Pead)…we could have pulled off (LSU RB Jeremy) Hill or (Ohio State RB Carlos) Hyde earlier but we went the other way. We value them probably a little more than others. It just seems to be in our room, but that’s Coach Fish’s paradigm of running the football.”
(On if there is plenty of talent still out there)
Snead: “I think you’re going to get to an element, you’re getting to the stage where, ‘Hey, there are some guys that you have to develop’. We’re going to look at our roster – who fills a role? Whatever role that is and if it helps us become a more successful team that’s what you kind of try to do. You get some talented guys and guys that are going to fill roles and guys that got a special teams dot on them – that means they have a good chance of dressing out in the 46(-man roster) for special teams. You’ll have fun with the last picks.”
(On if DB Lamarcus Joyner teased Auburn graduate Snead about the BCS Championship game)
Snead: “Yeah, I probably started it just when he came in on the top 30, but he easily put the exclamation point on it. I told him they got lucky, a little curl route, got down in the red zone and threw it to that big, tall guy (WR Kelvin Benjamin). Other than that, they would’ve lost.”
(On what they liked so much about Joyner to trade up to ensure he was still on the board at the 41st pick)
Snead: “I think I could put a quote, Coach (Fisher) could tell you, when we talked about that player in the draft room, he was probably one of about three or four guys that would’ve been – and he might have been the favorite football player. He’s just a football player and Coach can elaborate on that from what a nickel, corner, former starting safety – a football player.”
Fisher: “He was clearly the guy that we identified last night, this morning before we started and we suspected that there was a team ahead of us that had interest in him, so we had to get above them. And as it was, they traded down after he left, so I think we were right. We didn’t want to lose him, and he’s just an outstanding player. He plays all over their defense. He plays outside, he plays in the slot, he plays high, he blitzes, so he’s a plug-in Day 1 nickelback. He’s very, very aggressive, tackles well. He’s got average ball skills. We’ll work on that. They kind of dinged him, I think, after we drafted him on his ball skills.”
Snead: “That’s just probably just catching, but he will touch some balls. He’ll go touch them but he just might not catch them.”
(On Joyner being a tough player for not being large in stature)
Fisher: “Those kinds of guys are rare. That’s why he’s a Ram, so we’re really excited about him.”
Snead: “You turn on the film, you notice him. He plays really big.”
(On where they’d like Joyner playing the nickel position)
Fisher: “It’s the inside guy. Typically the nickel is aligned on the slot or around the line of scrimmage, that kind of thing. He’s an outstanding blitzer. He has a really good sense for timing for making backs miss and finding creases, and he’s just very active.”
Snead: “I think the year before he started at free safety as well. You went to see him play and you just noticed his range. He plays faster than he timed and hits larger than he is.”
(On if they will consider Joyner at safety)
Fisher: “There’s a chance we’ll move him around in some packages, but he’s going to be down inside covering. He’s got really good cover skills inside.”
(On if it is easier to select certain players in the draft when they have as many picks as they do)
Snead: “It is because you get in a draft and there’s a few players that you really want to come away with and then some of those later picks, there’s going to be players you like there, but there’s still an element of development and all that. He was a guy that we really wanted, so, like we said, let’s go get the players we really want and then the chips will fall later.”
(On if they are considering Joyner as a kick returner)
Fisher: “We will, we’ll look at him there, but that was not part of his package. He does however, he’s very competitive and very productive in special teams. He’s one of those college starters that also wants to play team’s punt coverage, kickoff coverage and those things.”
Snead: “He’s going to be a favorite guy.”
(On if they could tell he was a team leader when they watched the tape)
Fisher: “All you have to do is spend about 15 minutes with him and you get a pretty good sense for his personality. He’s very engaging. He loves football.”
Snead: “I was- it was a long time ago now- 1993, (Florida State Head Coach) Jimbo Fisher was the quarterback coach when I was playing at Auburn. So, I’ve known Jimbo a lot of years. If you follow his twitter account or maybe Florida State’s you can tell the passion when he tweeted about the kid. He loves that he’s a team leader, team captain, the whole deal.”
(On if their needs have met the value of the picks)
Fisher: “It’s been, I don’t want to say easy, but it’s been good. The board’s good, the values there. We feel good about where we are and we also feel good about finishing strong tomorrow.”
(On RB Tre Mason and what he brings to the table)
Fisher: “Tre is a change-of-pace back. Obviously for us, very productive runner, good zone runner. Obviously, the numbers speak for themselves. He was a guy we just couldn’t pass up at that point.”
(On if they knew a lot about Mason)
Fisher: “We approached Tre Mason no different than any other player. We did our homework. Now, we didn’t do a visit. We didn’t need to do the visit, nor did we need to do the workout, but the scouts approached him as if it was anybody else, so we felt like we knew everything we needed to know about the kid.”
(On if he has talked to OL Greg Robinson about drafting Mason)
Fisher: “I have not talked to Greg about Tre, no.”
(On if Mason was that much higher than every other player on the draft board)
Fisher: “Yeah, that was the nature of the pick, and that’s where we are right now. We just couldn’t pass him up.”
(On Mason’s wrist injury)
Fisher: “He’s fine. He’s not going to have any problems. He may have to do something after the season, but it was not a concern of ours, nor was it a concern of the doctors.”
(On what he means by change-of-pace back)
Fisher: “Change of pace, it’s more out of the backfield. It’s releasing out of the backfield, creating one-on-one’s on linebackers, defensive backs and winning, those kinds of things. Plus, he’s a quick hitter, he’s good in space, screens, those kinds of things.”
(On the notion that running backs have become devalued in the draft)
Fisher: “Well I think over time the game’s changed a little bit and you have shot-gun quarterbacks and you have those types of things, so we’re not able to evaluate runners in the ‘I’ and the zones and those kinds of things. So I think you’re seeing people become a little more patient with respect to that. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not valuable. We’ve had two runners. You’ve got (RB Jeremy) Hill at LSU that you saw do those things that we’re going to ask of him here and you saw (RB Carlos) Hyde that you rarely saw do those things. So I think that’s contributing to it, but everybody needs backs on their roster.”
Snead: “It’s a good question to see how it’s evolving that way, but like Jeff said, people are finding runners and they’re producing. But I think you’ve seen a trend where you get runners anywhere from the second (round) to our guy in the fifth (round) last year. The year before Washington’s guy in the sixth (round) that are very productive, so it’s an interesting trend. I don’t know if I can exactly say why.”
(On the current trend around the league where running backs share time)
Snead: “It seems to be teams have a one-two punch or even more. But in our offense, I know we valued the running backs high this year on the board because we liked Zac (Stacy) and Benny (Cunningham) and Isaiah (Pead)…we could have pulled off (LSU RB Jeremy) Hill or (Ohio State RB Carlos) Hyde earlier but we went the other way. We value them probably a little more than others. It just seems to be in our room, but that’s Coach Fish’s paradigm of running the football.”
(On if there is plenty of talent still out there)
Snead: “I think you’re going to get to an element, you’re getting to the stage where, ‘Hey, there are some guys that you have to develop’. We’re going to look at our roster – who fills a role? Whatever role that is and if it helps us become a more successful team that’s what you kind of try to do. You get some talented guys and guys that are going to fill roles and guys that got a special teams dot on them – that means they have a good chance of dressing out in the 46(-man roster) for special teams. You’ll have fun with the last picks.”
