Tom Heckert Quotes (24 Quotes)

Last year's draft could be really, really good. The guys that did play last year proved they can play. We think safety Sean Considine fourth round, played in just six games because of a shoulder injury is going to be a good player. And we still think Matt

We think a lot of these guys from the last three drafts can play. Now, whether it happens or not, only time will tell. Until they play, it is what it is. After 2 years, you'd better know whether a guy can play or not. If he's not playing by his third year, then you're probably dreaming about him being a player for you and you've got to find somebody else.

To me, thats not one of his issues. We all want the guy thats going to play 100 mph. every snap. I dont know how realistic that is. Youd love to get it and hes not, by any stretch of the imagination. But for us, thats not an issue.

They're all just small guys. I think you'd better be able to adapt to it on your team, or you're not going to be able to get good players. The days of the 250-pound linebacker, those are gone, because people want guys who can run... . Everybody wants the 280-pound guy that can rush the passer, but that guy doesn't exist. So you don't have much choice.

We put a value on everybody, and we look at a player's ability and what players are going to be doing down the road. The system we use - sooner or later, somebody is going to get their feelings hurt.

He wanted somebody with strong convictions. I think that's one of the reasons he hired me. He thought I would have strong convictions on guys and tell him. Now, we don't agree on everybody. But we come up with a mutual decision on whether we like a guy or don't like a guy.

We had Justice in here and he explained everything. We talked to him.

The way college football has been going, most of our strong-side linebackers are projected as defensive ends in the draft. Those guys are going to go a lot earlier than they have in the past. We see them as linebackers, but by the same token, they're not a wash at defensive end.

The top 32 guys we have on our board, I'd guess that about 28 of them will be taken. There might be 15 of them that don't turn out that good. You hope that you're not on that side of it.

With two in the second, we're getting lots of calls. We've talked to just about everyone in the league, and it seems as if more people are asking us if we want to move up rather than the other way around.

He's going to be a really good football player. I don't think the bench press is going to hurt his draft stock. He's a guy you haven't heard a ton about, but I think he's really good. He's a great competitor, he makes plays, and he's smart.

I think the size thing is a little bit overrated in running backs. Everybody says, 'Well, we need a big back.' Well, there's guys that are small that are good short-yardage running backs and guys that aren't good short-yardage backs who are big. The only thing you're concerned about with the weight is From an injury standpoint, can the guy take a pounding for 16 games or more That's what you're really concerned about.

The chances of you hitting on a big-time player would be Vince Young.

If you have a bad draft, I don't think it sets you back a whole lot. If it's a quarterback or a top-10 pick, then it's going to put you back a little bit. I think probably what happens is that if you don't admit your mistakes and you keep waiting for a gu

We had a lot of contributors, and that helps the whole process. Some guys just never get a chance to play and sometimes they leave before they get a chance to develop.

We got some good players out of that draft... but I really don't know what else we can take out of that draft. It's not like we did anything differently than we'll do this year or we did last year.

The second day of training camp, these guys might have to come in and play.

This is a pretty good group of linebackers, actually. One of the first groups in a while where there are guys with size.

Obviously, we've been very effective on both sides of the ball, ... I think the scheme is a big part of that. We lost quarterback Donovan McNabb to an injury two years ago and we didn't let that affect us. When I was in Miami, if something like that happened, there would have been panic. It's not like that at all here. No matter who it is, we plug guys in and go.

There's a lot of disappointment. It was a collective thing. Shoot, the personnel department might have been the worst part of it.

Obviously, we wish all of these guys turned out to be really good players. Some do, some don't.

I think Matt McCoy is going to be a heck of a football player. I really do. Right now, it's just wait and see until we answer that question.

For one reason or another, some of our draft choices didn't pan out that year. But some of these other free-agent guys did. In some cases, we kept the free agents over the draft choices. We could have kept the draft picks just to save face. But we really

You can't miss on Bush. He's everything you want.