posted April 29, 2006 - print me!
neworleansprofootball.com

Q: Can you talk about the selection of Roman Harper and the amount of safeties you now have on your roster?

A: "Roman is a player that as we evaluated this class and began to stack our picks and look at the board, he is a guy that we had rated very high. (He is) a guy that has been a three-year starter and captain at Alabama. He has got all of the things we have been looking for again in the type of player we are looking at so regardless of the amount of numbers we have at certain positions. We didn't enter today's draft looking for a running back either. We are excited about this player. He brings to us a long history of playing and playing well and along with this player we acquire a center from Cleveland in Jeff Faine. It kind of unfolded a little bit like we had wanted to. We had sighted the center Jeff Faine for a handful of days now in hopes that something might be able to work out during this draft and of course it did. We are just again trying to improve ourselves step-by-step by position."

Q: Do you have any safeties on your roster that can also play cornerback as well?

A: "That is hard to say, we are not projecting safeties that play corner. Again, as you get into this and you begin looking at the players and how we have these players graded. It is not like free agency where we just going out looking for certain positions, that is not the approach. Here is a good football player that we like a lot. We have done a lot of homework on these guys and this guy is exactly what we are looking for in regards to the type of football player. A guy that is sharp, a guy that has a great background and comes from a certainly storied program in Alabama so this one was easy and obviously we are excited about it."

Q: Roman is a guy who is labeled as really smart but may not fun as well as others?

A: "I am not aware of his label. This guy is pretty intelligent. This guy is captain at his team at Alabama and he looks pretty fast on film. I am not aware of any label."

Q: Can you talk about Jeff Faine and what you like about him?

A: "Here is a guy who has started in this league and was a first round draft pick and brings toughness. He is a very intelligent player and certainly will help us in regards to losing LeCharles Bentley. Again step-by-step we are able to begin to upgrade this roster and that is our job this time in the offseason."

Q: Can you talk about his health?

A: "He has a physical coming in and all of that will obviously be covered by us. We have a plan if fact he doesn't pass the physical we have got conditions and parameters set up with Cleveland so we have covered all of that. We are excited to have him, two players, and two real good players."

Q: How did Harper's versatility and ability to play both safety positions play into his selection?

A: "Depending on the scheme you are in on defense you going to ask both of these safeties, the strong and the free, to be down, to be back and both of them in coverage so he has versatility. He helps and can contribute and compete for special teams snaps. All of those things play a factor in it."

Q: Do you see him competing for a starting role?

A: "I see these new guys coming in and if you ask anyone of them we are going to go by what we see and we have a lot of time between now and our first game and we will see. I think when these players come in I think they all see themselves as guys competing for starting positions. We have no name tags on starters and we will see what happens."

Q: Would you have considered taking Daniel Bullocks if he was available?

A: "Daniel Bullocks is a fantastic player and obviously we have his brother here (Josh) and we brought Danny in for a visit and the way it worked out. It worked out good for us and I don't want to begin to give you our rankings or our stacking but I think it is a great opportunity for Danny we have done a lot of homework on Daniel Bullocks, the coach at Nebraska I know really well and I worked with Bill Callahan and we have done our homework on the other player so we are excited."

Q: What does Harper bring in coverage?

A: "He brings versatility and you see him obviously comfortable in the slot position. The one thing you are looking for in the safety position is guys who can tackle well and has good anticipation and those are the things we saw on film with this player. We saw a guy who brought a lot of other characteristics and all of the things that we keep harping on and you hear myself and our staff talk about, the character, toughness and being smart, these are the type of people that I think you ultimately win with."

Home  Back