Q&A: Dimitroff, Quinn on selecting Neal

Quinn: "The strong safety position is a critical one for us and one that's really valuable. You have to have the run and hip factor of playing a linebacker because we play our safety so close to the line of scrimmage. He's in the box or down near the line, and he also has to have the coverage skills to play safety, play on the tight ends and play man-to-man and be a real factor on third down. So having that, you can call it a hybrid, but when you play a safety who is down in the box, he has to be that physical player and that style. Certainly for our team tonight, we added a terrific competitor and a great hitter, and we're just getting started on this process. We couldn't be more pumped to kick it off with Keanu tonight I'll kick it back over to T.D. before we open it up to questions."

On how much did the fact that you knew the kid coming out of high school play into drafting him:

Quinn: "Really it was the tape and the physical style that he played with. So all these guys we reach and dig into their background to find so much about them, and everywhere we looked it just showed up in terms of the character and the toughness of what he stands for both as a player and as a man. So that certainly helped that we knew him so well, and we couldn't be more pumped up to have him here."

On how many phone calls he got trying to trade down for that pick:

Dimitroff: "With regard to calls. We did a lot of calling around. A lot of us in the middle of the draft, there were no specific calls for this pick. There is a lot of action, there was a lot of calling action, but nothing concrete with anyone. But I know it happened at the early part of the draft, but in the middle and back, I don't see anything happening, and I haven't been tracking it over the last few minutes, but there was a lot of interest, but no movement."

On whether a pick like this tells everybody that you think that position really is the anchor for this defense:

Quinn: "I think it's one of them, and the ability to play so well on third down, and then we play a lot of three deep and man-to-man. So our strong safety position is one that's unique for our system. So sometimes a system or safety where it might not have the same value on a specific club, but the way we like to play down near the line of scrimmage at safety, it's a real critical one. So when you play this much three-deep zone, you better have some guys who can close and hit, and he certainly demonstrates that. Then, added to the fact when you're playing safety, we play some good tight ends, not just in our division, but around the league. It's an area that we didn't play as well as we'd liked to last year covering the tight end. So that's going to be a real factor as well."

On the drills they had him do:

Quinn: "Yeah, that's a great question. I think the important thing is all of the positions have some unique stuff that when you go to a workout you want to do it. That way you stay specific with the workout from this player, to this player, to this player at their own position. Of course, offensive line and defensive back are different drills, but there are really specific ones for the DBs out there, and you'd love to see the guy playing in the zone defense. He played in the middle of the field a lot at Florida. So it's not the same scheme that we employ here. So we wanted to make sure the ball skills, the movement and stuff at the workout you can ask them to have the exact movements he's going to have. I knew the hitter was there. You could see that on the tape. You just pop the tape on and it comes alive. It's an important part of the process, and I'm glad that we were able to go around the country and make visits and take these trips. It was really valuable."

On whether he sees Kam Chancellor in him:

Quinn: "I won't say – that's a hard guy to compare to live up to that standard, but I can tell you on the field this is an aggressive player. I love that style. I know that's what makes zone defense come to life. Guys who are going to catch the ball down in the zone, they better get hit and come there with some bad intentions. On tape, he brings that, so that's why I said, we're just kind of getting started on this process. We've kind of kicked it off through the off-season, so it was nice to get the next phase of this thing underway and add to our club."

On whether he actually made any calls thinking that you could get this player further back:

Dimitroff: "I wasn't focused on necessarily getting him, and we weren't focused on trying to get him later. We were just trying to figure out what may be there as far as opportunity, and I think at that point you have to see how things are playing out. And the way things played out, if you had an open mind to see what was happening with all the trades and all the movements and some of the other issues that came up with some other players and when people started going at certain spots, it made us believe we needed to jump on this right away. You hear all the rumors about the people behind us who are interested in the players you're looking for and sometimes it's very concrete. I think that's the important part of being able to have good enough relationships in the league to be able to talk to other teams and kind of get an idea of where people were and where people are projected. I think our pro department, I have to give them kudos. They're a really good department now. They're really focused on needs of other teams and they hit it on the money as far as what we thought the needs were coming into the draft."

On whether this is the guy they wanted:

Quinn: "Certainly."

Dimitroff: "Yes, yes."

Quinn: "We certainly have respected his game for a long time, and it was somebody that we had a really clear vision of how to feature him here. And I think that's part of coaching to say and that's why our connection with Thomas and myself has become so clear from the talent evaluation part and me how we featured the player. That's why this partnership with he and I works well, where it's easy to articulate how we could feature the player and to understand the evaluation, where to select him, and that's why our partnership is so strong."

Dimitroff: "We had the handful of players that's we talked about in the pre-draft presser, and he was at the top of that list, no question about it."

On whether he was he a fast climber for you guys in this draft process:

Quinn: "Not for us, he wasn't. That's why I think different people value the safety spot differently. He was certainly somebody that we always had held in high regard on our board."

On how this helps the pass rush:

Quinn: "It helps because we got better on third down, and that helps your pass rush a bunch too. Like I said, we struggled at times in certain areas of our coverage, and we're not done yet. We're still working, and we've still got a couple days to add to our club. We like the additions that we made in the off-season, and we like the fact that he's all downs and we knew how to feature him covering tight ends. And we do play zone, which we play a lot on third down as well, he is a factor."

On who he would cover:

Quinn: "Yeah, on the tight ends. Tight ends and backs at strong safety, that's primarily where we feature them and when we play those type of downs, we play really tight, aggressive coverage. You've got to know the matchups that you have at tight end. So you have to have a guy that has some length, whether it's arm length or jumping ability, that length to be able to defend when guys are running option routes, and he has the ability to do that. That was a big part of our evaluation when we talked about safeties."

Dimitroff: "We felt at 215-plus pounds the way that he moves and his ability to flip his hips and his break on the ball was good. It was a really important factor as well because again, versatility is important. You can't just be a guy who is in the box and not being able to spend any time in coverage. Obviously it was important for him to be adept in that area."

On how your secondary is shaping up with this addition:

Quinn: "We're pleased about the competitors that we have. We've got some terrific guys who love to battle, love to compete. We couldn't be more pleased with the work ethic they've shown so far. So how fast we acclimate him into the system, that's an important part of it."

On whether they were concerned about injuries with other players:

Dimitroff: "We're always concerned about injuries with other players. So I mean, that's something we're always looking at, as you know, there are other parts to it. It's not just skill. There are other elements that we're looking at for every player we bring in here, and that's important for us to make sure we're as clean as we can be and it's not always going to be exactly what you want. Because like I said earlier, there are a lot of players that are playing a lot of hard football, SEC, all over the country who have wear and tear on their body."

On whether they shied away from guys if they had significant injuries:

Dimitroff: "I think that's not what necessarily had us picking this player. We were focused on this player from the very beginning. I understand where your question's going, but our focus was on Keanu, and that's where it's been. The other things that were going on and what might have had other people dropping for some reason or another, that wasn't a factor with us in this draft."

On what his college coaches said about his personality on and off the field:

Quinn: "Competitor, and you've got yourself a warrior mindset, leader. So those are the things that you want in a teammate. So for Thomas and I, as the coach and GM, that's the type of guy you want in the locker room. So those are the things that we knew pretty strongly about him."

On what stood out about him:

Quinn: "He can obviously jump. He's an explosive guy. I mean, he can run for a guy carrying that weight. He moves well. Not only the drills in the combine, but as Vaughn McClure was mentioning, the drills in the workout were very impressive for us to see how he moved around, his body control. That's a big thing for that position. So that was impressive. He's a really nice athlete."

On the challenges his position coaches will face in getting a guy ready to play at the strong safety spot:

Quinn: "Really, just the experience at the position, learning the details of the job. That's our job to help bring that out of him, and help develop him as fast as we can and take him as far as we can. That's our job for all of the guys. We say we're a developmental staff and that's our job to take every guy here as far as we can, and Keanu's no different than that. When we get him in here starting next weekend, that process begins, fully underway with the start of camp and get rocking. The competitor that he is, that much we know, and he will work at it. When you have that kind of balance when a guy's really trying to go for it and here the coaches are trying to help develop, usually good things happen."

On whether it’s safe to say if you get off the field on third down more often, you actually picked a guy who can pick you up a couple of wins:

Quinn: "The third down is a real factor. And the amount of zone defense that we play, you know, that's a high number as well. So whether you're a flat defender or hook defender, you better be able to be a rock solid tackler where the leaky yards don't go from a six-yard gain to a nine-yard gain, or from a 2nd-and-7 to a first down. All of those hidden yardage and third downs that got converted, all that stuff's a factor. Like we said earlier, we're just getting rolling on this. We've got some other guys to add to the group, but we're pumped about this pick tonight."

On whether he has that potential to be a starter and could fill that role coming right in:

Quinn: "We do. Coming into the pick and the ability and faith that we have in it and the process to go through, we certainly can't wait to have him come in here and compete and be a huge part of our team."