Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens wrapped
Speaker 1: up the second night of the NFL Draft and they
Speaker 1: selected pass rusher Mike Green in the second round out
Speaker 1: of Marshall, and they also selected offensive tackle Emery Jones
Speaker 1: out of LSU in the third round. After the second
Speaker 1: night of the draft, we heard from general manager Eric
Speaker 1: Tacassa and head coach John Harbaugh.
Speaker 2: Okay, guys, welcome and excited. We've added two very good
Speaker 2: football players today. Mike Green we think one of the
Speaker 2: premiere pass rushers in this draft. Marshall fits us with
Speaker 2: his playing style. Excited to get him at that point
Speaker 2: in the draft. And then also Emmy Jones, a younger
Speaker 2: player offensive tackle slash offensive guard from LSU.
Speaker 3: Had a chance to.
Speaker 2: See him at the Senior Bowl. Physical, aggressive, tough, minded,
Speaker 2: good length. I think he's a really really good, young,
Speaker 2: physical prospect who should you know, be a really good
Speaker 2: tackle at some point or transition to being a very
Speaker 2: good guard.
Speaker 3: Questions Eric, Those people thought Mike Green. I think many
Speaker 3: people thought he was a top twenty type of prospect.
Speaker 3: Was he even in Concercat.
Speaker 4: I know you had Maltachaie Stark saying he was both
Speaker 4: you know, the top player on your board at that point,
Speaker 4: but was Mike Green you know, kind of given consideration,
Speaker 4: possibly been the profil.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a talented player, you know, for sure.
Speaker 2: He's a guy that you know, we looked at very closely,
Speaker 2: spent a lot of time with Mike. Came to Baltimore,
Speaker 2: spent a full day with Mike here, interviewed him at
Speaker 2: the combine, and watched his tape. You know, uh, talented
Speaker 2: guy for us, you know, looking at Malachi, we just
Speaker 2: felt like his resume, what he did at Georgia, big games,
Speaker 2: you know, tremendous competition, the needs of our defense, what
Speaker 2: he brings, we thought he was the best pick.
Speaker 1: Eric.
Speaker 5: There were two sexual assault allegations regarding Mike Breed when
Speaker 5: he's younger.
Speaker 3: I know we've denied them. There have been no charges.
Speaker 4: Fans have already reached out instead this show's it doesn't
Speaker 4: really matter as long as you can play.
Speaker 3: What do you say to those fans?
Speaker 2: I would say that we investigated this situation very thoroughly.
Speaker 2: I think we have the best scouts in the NFL.
Speaker 2: We've got great scouts that go into Virginia. They go
Speaker 2: into Marshall. We've got people that work force investigating different
Speaker 2: incidents with players all the time, and we felt comfortable
Speaker 2: taking him. We think he's a talented player. We understand
Speaker 2: the severity of what these allegations were, of course, but
Speaker 2: doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike. I
Speaker 2: personally spent an hour and a half with him in
Speaker 2: my office and I think the best is yet to
Speaker 2: come with them, and I'm glad we got them.
Speaker 5: When you give in the allegations obviously, just talker at
Speaker 5: the moment. I know we separated in the teacher cases.
Speaker 5: Look at individually. When you have a situation like that,
Speaker 5: do you weigh does that play and have any way
Speaker 5: when you're considering when you can get a different guy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I don't think that would be fair
Speaker 2: to either player. I mean that'd be like me asking you.
Speaker 2: You know, you're writing styles similar to Jamous and you
Speaker 2: both in the media, but you write differently, you know,
Speaker 2: so it's two different situations, I think, Brian, and it's
Speaker 2: you know, obviously, you know, allegations are severe. We take
Speaker 2: it seriously. We look at them individually, and we do
Speaker 2: as much homework as we can and you know, specifically
Speaker 2: to Mike and Mike's case. I feel like we did
Speaker 2: a good job talking to as many people as possible.
Speaker 2: We talked to Mike at length. You know, we did
Speaker 2: our own kind of work behind the scenes, looking at
Speaker 2: all the different things, and we feel comfortable taking them.
Speaker 2: I know, you guys, when you're putting your draft all together,
Speaker 2: you you kind of separate things mixed off engines and
Speaker 2: character and off the field issue when it came.
Speaker 3: To my I guess I mean you said you guys
Speaker 3: kind of diligently investigated it.
Speaker 4: What made you get to the point to where you
Speaker 4: were comfortable taking the chance with him?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think you just answered your own question. I mean,
Speaker 2: we diligently investigated it. We got as much information as
Speaker 2: we could. We considered the facts, we considered the allegations,
Speaker 2: We considered what the reports actually were and what they
Speaker 2: actually weren't, and we made the decision based off of that.
Speaker 3: Alright, what kind of feedback did you get from coaches
Speaker 3: and people in his circle regarding his character?
Speaker 2: I would say positive, John, would you.
Speaker 3: Learn about them when you met? Was that? I imagined
Speaker 3: you were part of that too? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Well, actually it wasn't here the day we met with him.
Speaker 6: But uh, just echo what Eric said.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 6: It Eric could, I mean it was Eric, it was
Speaker 6: our scouts. I was in all the meetings, I heard
Speaker 6: all the reports. Uh, what Eric said was so interesting.
Speaker 6: It's not so much what they were and what they
Speaker 6: weren't is just as important. And the coaches and administrators
Speaker 6: and teammates at Marshall were fully supportive of everything he
Speaker 6: had done there, and the same at UVA. Wasn't any
Speaker 6: different in uv It was exactly the same from that standpoint.
Speaker 6: So it was it was I talk about due diligence.
Speaker 6: It was exhaustive what these guys have done and and uh,
Speaker 6: and we made a decision based on what we felt
Speaker 6: was fair.
Speaker 5: Is it still a tough decision when you're weighing that,
Speaker 5: when you're wearing those things, even when you go through
Speaker 5: those I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I think every decision we'd make with the draft
Speaker 2: is tough because we have a finite amount of picks,
Speaker 2: and every pick is very valuable, and so you consider everything,
Speaker 2: you scrutinize everything, you know, it does become you know,
Speaker 2: our lives, you know, especially after the season ends, it's
Speaker 2: a race to the finish and so it is. It
Speaker 2: is a difficult decision. It's a difficult decision when I
Speaker 2: got on. It's a slow forty. It's a difficult decision
Speaker 2: when a guy has allegations. It's a difficult decision when
Speaker 2: a guy has an injury that you think he can't overcome,
Speaker 2: but maybe he can't overcome. That all kind of gets
Speaker 2: factored in because in the end, you know, there is
Speaker 2: an element of risk mitigation with everything we do, and
Speaker 2: we want these guys to come in and be productive
Speaker 2: right away. And they have to be talented, they've got
Speaker 2: to be durable, and we have to have a lot
Speaker 2: of trust in them. So it is a difficult decision.
Speaker 3: They showed him on TV. He was very emotional. Can
Speaker 3: you share a little bit about the phone call? And
Speaker 3: obviously he was waiting along time most people would be
Speaker 3: long after.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I think it leave that, you know,
Speaker 2: conversation to us. I mean, you'll probably get a chance
Speaker 2: to see it or hear it, you know, But you know,
Speaker 2: I think he was with his family.
Speaker 3: I think he was relieved.
Speaker 2: Looks like he has a beautiful, wonderful family supporting him,
Speaker 2: and I think the very excited for this next chapter.
Speaker 3: You expect that made available to us.
Speaker 2: I would assume, so I'd view more of it. Chack Weston,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: In just looking at the tape of Green, what kind
Speaker 3: of just kind of jumped.
Speaker 6: Out of in watching that, right, the first thing that
Speaker 6: jumped out of me was his his motor. You know,
Speaker 6: he's a relentless player like he is. He talked about
Speaker 6: a guy that plays the way our fans like to
Speaker 6: watch football play. Uh, he plays like a guy that
Speaker 6: really cares. He is he comes off the ball, He's
Speaker 6: very physical, and he does not stop playing until the
Speaker 6: final echo of the whistle. He's physical, he's aggressive. He
Speaker 6: plays the kind of football that we like to play.
Speaker 6: And I think it's just the football iq. The football
Speaker 6: character is very high.
Speaker 5: Do you job, Do you look at him as kind
Speaker 5: of like an insistant impact quite a guy for the defense.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, He's the guy that's gonna come in here day
Speaker 6: one and he's gonna make a mark. You know, it's
Speaker 6: gonna be exciting look at a whole draft really kind
Speaker 6: of in total like that, these first two guys, defensive
Speaker 6: guys are gonna You're gonna notice him when we get
Speaker 6: after the first day. Malachy is gonna be he's gonna
Speaker 6: be flying around taking charge and uh and then Mike's
Speaker 6: gonna be flying around. You know, he won't be calling
Speaker 6: defenses back there, but he'll be coming off the edge
Speaker 6: and he's physical against the run. And and the other
Speaker 6: thing is it's important to these two guys. I mean
Speaker 6: both these two guys. Football really really matters to it,
Speaker 6: and they want to be successful. They want it to
Speaker 6: be in front of them. They want to make the
Speaker 6: most of their chances. They have going forward, an opportunity
Speaker 6: to do things the right way. They're both very determined
Speaker 6: to do that. And I know that they both they
Speaker 6: both express that. Mike really expressed that, you know, he really,
Speaker 6: he really wants to make the most of this opportunity
Speaker 6: and he's very grateful for the opportunity to say the
Speaker 6: same thing. About Emory, he felt the same way. You know,
Speaker 6: he's another guy that you know, he's got he's got
Speaker 6: big goals, big aspirations, and all these guys, it's just
Speaker 6: so meaningful when you get on the phone with them
Speaker 6: afterwards and you know they're all they're all they're all
Speaker 6: taking their journey, they're all fighting their fight. They're trying
Speaker 6: to overcome and they kind of make their dreams come true.
Speaker 6: And and these guys are very, very, very highly motivated
Speaker 6: group of guys.
Speaker 4: With Emory, do you see I mean, it seems like
Speaker 4: which he was primarily a right tackle, do you see
Speaker 4: him as a possibility of competing for that card spinal
Speaker 4: web side or do you see him more as.
Speaker 6: No, we see him as a possible swing guy. You know,
Speaker 6: he's kind of That's what I thought. The pick was
Speaker 6: so good that Eric made. He's got the chance to
Speaker 6: be a swing backup tackle for us right away. But
Speaker 6: he also has a chance to go in their guard
Speaker 6: and play. So we're gonna put him in their guard too.
Speaker 6: See how he does, and just get a feel for him,
Speaker 6: you know, once he starts practicing, just get a feel
Speaker 6: for where he can help us.
Speaker 3: And he can.
Speaker 6: We think he can play guard and tackle.
Speaker 3: He can work inside. Had the senior boat while you
Speaker 3: guys were there.
Speaker 2: He did, he took some reps inside. You know, I
Speaker 2: think I was just really impressed with his competitiveness in
Speaker 2: the practices. You know, a lot of times some players
Speaker 2: go down there and they sort of treat it as
Speaker 2: a fun week, you know, And with Emory, the one
Speaker 2: on ones. You know, this guy was fighting and battling
Speaker 2: and all the competitive periods, he really showed a lot
Speaker 2: of effort and tenacity, and it just seemed like watching him,
Speaker 2: you know Jonas say he was He's the kind of
Speaker 2: a A Ravens type of player, you know, just with
Speaker 2: his attitude and his demeanor, his explosion, his physicality. He's
Speaker 2: a guy that when we left, I just thought, you
Speaker 2: know what, this guy would have a chance being pretty
Speaker 2: good for us.
Speaker 6: Have you did you entertain at any point trade offers
Speaker 6: for Mark Andrews And can you definitively say you'll be
Speaker 6: on this team in the fall?
Speaker 2: Well, I would never say if I entertained any trade
Speaker 2: offers at this point. I would really expect Mark to
Speaker 2: be on this team. Great player, love him, competitive, tough playmaker.
Speaker 2: I would expect him be on the team.
Speaker 3: Without overall player. Did you was were.
Speaker 4: You pretty committed to stay where you were or was
Speaker 4: there thought at any point in the draft to maybe
Speaker 4: moving out if you had to fall something to.
Speaker 3: Pickular the god?
Speaker 2: You know, I sweated the third round pick a little
Speaker 2: bit just because you know, I think Emory was a
Speaker 2: guy that we really liked and picking at the end
Speaker 2: of the round, and I really didn't just trade up,
Speaker 2: you know, I just really I thought there was a
Speaker 2: chance that we get Emory down there. But it's a
Speaker 2: long day and you start to see Lineman go, and uh,
Speaker 2: I was just glad he was there. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think it was a good It was a good day.
Speaker 2: Excited about tomorrow, the opportunities that we have tomorrow with
Speaker 2: all the picks that we have in the fourth and
Speaker 2: fifth round, especially the sixth round. So I think we
Speaker 2: have in the in the board looks, you know, pretty good.
Speaker 2: We got wiped out, but because there's more players, you know,
Speaker 2: looking at the that last category, we caught five nines. Uh,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of names, which means that we should
Speaker 2: have a chance to get some good players in the
Speaker 2: sixth round.
Speaker 1: The Rays will wrap up the NFL Draft on Saturday.
Speaker 1: They have eight picks remaining. You're listening to the Ravens
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Speaker 1: to listening, We'll be back with you again tomorrow.