Tom Heckert Guy Quotations

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

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

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.

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 guy to develop, that's when it potentially turns into a problem.

He's a talented guy. I think there's a few guys like that, that are probably not going to come in right away.

You can guess all you want, but you can't know for sure if one of the guys you want is going to be there at 14. It would be a bad feeling to see one of the last guys you really like being taken at No. 13. But, luckily, I think the way our board lines up right now, there should be a guy we want with that 14th pick.

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.

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

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 biggest thing is, if you're drafting for a need and that guy doesn't work out, then you have to go and do the same thing over again.

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.

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.

To me, that's not one of his issues. We all want the guy that's going to play 100 miles per hour every snap. I don't know how realistic that is. He's not by any stretch a dog or anything like that.