New York Jets General Manager Mike Tannebaum and VP College Scouting, Joey Clinkscales spoke to the media after the Jets 1st round draft selection of Quintion Coples.<\/p>\n
Opening Statement\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n MIKE TANNENBAUM: We\u2019re excited to get Quinton (Coples) at the sixteenth pick. We did field some calls, but just really felt good about the value of getting Quinton.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to play on the defensive line along with Sione (Pouha), Mike DeVito, (Mo) Muhammad Wilkerson. I think it will be fun to watch Rex (Ryan) and Coach (Mike) Pettine see how they use him. We spent an extensive amount of time with Quinton as far as getting to know him. It started with the first interview in Mobile at the Senior Bowl and thought he had a really good week there. We spent more time with him at the combine. He came up for a pre-draft visit, and I\u2019m very confident in our process and the people that are involved with the process and everyone that touched, saw and evaluated Quinton as a person, came back that, \u2018this guy likes football.\u2019 At one point, it was a unique set of circumstances. At one point during a two-season period, Quinton had four different position coaches, with that said he still had very good productivity, 24 career sacks. We\u2019re excited to get him. I want to thank everyone again publicly for all their help through the process.<\/p>\n On why Coples was selected\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n JOEY CLINKSCALES: First of all, Quinton was a great pass-rusher. He was long, he\u2019s tall, he\u2019s got length, he\u2019s very athletic, and from the standpoint of grades, he was the highest rated player left on the board for us at that point.<\/p>\n On how Coples will fit into the defense\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n REX RYAN: Quinton\u2019s a guy, he\u2019s probably athletic enough to stand up and play linebacker and all that, but that\u2019s not why we brought him here. He\u2019s going to have his hand in the dirt. He reminds me of a similar type of player to Shaun Ellis, a Trevor Pryce-type. He\u2019s in that kind of mold, very athletic for an inside pass rusher and a 3-4 guy. I really think that\u2019s a fair comparison between those two.<\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: One thing I wanted to add is that he was a teammate of Mo Wilkerson\u2019s at Hargrave and the reason that\u2019s really important to me is this is a guy that was in the same locker room with him and any time we have those situations I always ask these guys, Kyle Wilson\u2019s guys from Boise State for example, that is critical to me. Do you want to work with this guy day-in and day-out? Mo was unbelievable. He said (Coples) is a great teammate and he\u2019s a better player than me. So those two things were very encouraging, but again our process was very thorough, we\u2019re excited that he\u2019s here, we\u2019re looking forward for him working with us.<\/p>\n On Coples\u2019 play as a senior\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n RYAN: I think that\u2019s a fair question. The guy did have seven sacks as an interior lineman, that\u2019s pretty good number\u2019s wise. But I think expectations going into the season, he might\u2019ve been behind Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, he\u2019s probably the highest rated player going into the season based on the previous season, with the 10 sacks. You don\u2019t see that from an interior lineman, a guy that\u2019s 6\u20196\u201d and 285 pounds. So, I think maybe did not meet those (expectations) as a player, but the thing that I know, being a defensive line coach for a number of years, is when he switched from the left side to the right side, and a lot of his time was spent as an inside tackle in a 4-3, then they move him to right side defensive end in a 4-3. Now, that takes some time and some adjustments. Everything you\u2019re used to working off, a right-handed stance\u2026now you\u2019re down to a left-handed stance. Some guys they can make that transition easy and sometimes you can\u2019t. I remember when I went to Baltimore the first thing I did was make Tony Siragusa right defensive tackle because he\u2019s a natural left-handed guy. When a guy\u2019s a natural right-handed guy, it\u2019s easy. There are some guys who can do it and some who can\u2019t do it so well. I feel that he\u2019s a guy, and I compared him before to Shaun (Ellis). I think Shaun was much better on the left side than he was the right, so when I got here, we never flipped Shaun, we left him on the left, and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do with this young man.<\/p>\n On promising Coples they would take him if he was there for the 16th<\/sup> pick\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: We made that promise to 16 players. (joking)<\/p>\n RYAN: Mike may not have been there when I made that promise, but I was going to work really hard to get him if he was there at 16 that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n On what Ryan was looking for by getting hands on with Coples at pro day\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n RYAN: What I tried to do was tire him out, but he wasn\u2019t winded. He went through all the defensive line drills and he was not winded so I wanted to push him. I wanted to see how this guy would compete through the drills and put him through drills he wasn\u2019t familiar with, which were linebacker drills. It\u2019s funny, I forget who was there with me but I said, \u2018I think I just made this young man a lot of money,\u2019 because when we were going through the drills, he can catch the football, he can run. There\u2019s no saying he couldn\u2019t play outside linebacker because he looked really athletic. He was really impressive in those drills, and I couldn\u2019t get him tired. There were several coaches there putting him through drills and it was impressive.<\/p>\n On how issues that occurred at UNC when Coples was a senior affected the Jets perception of him\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n CLINKSCALES: I think it was just a small point, because he was a kid that through everything that went on there he stayed above the fray. He never really got into any trouble. I think that there was an incident where there may have been something with a hotel and he had all the receipts. This kid stayed clean through all the transitions with all the coaches. He had two head coaches, four position coaches, numerous changes with players and people being suspended, but he stayed above the fray.<\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: To Joey\u2019s point, he had all of his receipts, because I think at one point he was looked into in an incident, but to his credit he had all the documentation he needed to keep his eligibility.<\/p>\n On why Coples was brought in late for a visit\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: I wish I could tell you there was some smart reason for that.\u00a0 Sometimes the way that works with these agents when they\u2019re trying to juggle all of these spots and there is a deadline for when you can do it.\u00a0 I think that was more of a logistics thing than planning.<\/p>\n On concerns about Coples work ethic and passion for the game\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n CLINKSCALES: I think that the thing you have to do is sit down and talk to the kid and find out where his heart is.\u00a0 Again, coach worked him out and he found out how athletic the kid was and you can see some of that stuff on tape.\u00a0 You dig as deep as you can. Obviously, Muhammad was with him at Hargrave, and you find out as much background work as you can and you find out his level of play through the years.\u00a0\u00a0 We were comfortable with that.<\/p>\n On how Coples can become the pass rusher on defense that the Jets need\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n RYAN: It is a lot harder to rush a passer from a 3-4 inside.\u00a0 Muhammad had a good season and he only had three sacks if you look at that.\u00a0 But some guys cause production.\u00a0 I think Quinton and Muhammad both cause production. They\u2019re just those types of guys.\u00a0 But they can get production themselves.\u00a0 I think Mo is really going to ascend this year, I truly believe that.\u00a0 He reminds me of a young Richard Seymour and Seymour would get five sacks a year.\u00a0 It\u2019s tougher down there but we look at it as we were at our best when we had Shaun Ellis moving inside to rush the passer.\u00a0 We picked up Trevor Pryice and he did a good job.\u00a0 He only had one sack but how much production did he cause?\u00a0 I think those are things you look for.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited with the outside guy we have Aaron Maybin.\u00a0 The old saying is that the defensive tackle\u2019s job is to push the quarterback back and the outside guy\u2019s job is to push the quarterback forward.\u00a0 I think with this addition, we can push that quarterback back a little bit.<\/p>\n On whether Coples\u2019 capable of becoming a double-digit sack performer\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: Not to put expectations out there, but to Rex\u2019s point, we talked a lot about this in our meetings and sat down with Coach Ryan and Coach Pettine.\u00a0 I go back to what Coach Ryan was saying about causing production.\u00a0 It\u2019s about team defense and keeping the opponent off the board.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to label Quinton a bad pick if he doesn\u2019t have 10 sacks.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be an important part of a good defense.<\/p>\n On having faith in Ryan to motivate Coples\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s faith. I would say it\u2019s about the culture that we\u2019ve built here.\u00a0 Going into the fourth year from the stand point that \u201cPlaying like a Jet,\u201d means something and it\u2019s not just one person, be it Rex or Karl Dunbar or Mike Pettine.\u00a0 It\u2019s all the players and all of the coaches and the standards that we collectively set for ourselves.\u00a0 We think we\u2019re adding a good player and a good person to our program.\u00a0 It\u2019s not faith on any one thing.\u00a0 Rex is the leader, has set the tone obviously, but it means a lot more than just one person for what we\u2019re trying to build here.<\/p>\n On movement in the draft\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: There was movement in our draft room too.\u00a0 We were walking around quite a bit. (joking) That\u2019s our job to monitor activity, up, down, wherever.\u00a0 We just felt really good that when we got to 16, (if) Quinton was there (we would select him).\u00a0 Since there is a really strict rookie pool, I can tell you how excited we were.\u00a0 The trade scenario wasn\u2019t really there, once Coples got to 16 we felt really good about it.<\/p>\n On making an effort to trade up\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n TANNENBAUM: I think part of my job is to monitor activity so I\u2019m not going to say I didn\u2019t make any calls per se.\u00a0 Unless something unusual was available, up or down, we felt comfortable with the pick and the fact that Quinton was there.\u00a0 But you do have to be prepared for all scenarios.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not just me, it\u2019s Joey, its Terry, its Scott Cohen, it\u2019s a bunch of people.\u00a0 Our job is to monitor things, plus or minus three or four picks.<\/p>\n On whether or not this transition will be easier than it was for Vernon Gholston\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n RYAN: First off, it\u2019s two totally different situations – Vernon having to go from his hand in the dirt to standing up, a total different position.\u00a0 This young man, what he does, which is put his hand in the dirt and rush the passer.\u00a0 He\u2019s very athletic for a big man.\u00a0 He\u2019s 6-6 prototypical pass rush size.\u00a0 He\u2019s athletic, he can run, he ran a 4.7 at the combine.\u00a0 It\u2019s unusual to get a guy that is this athletic and he has production.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just Vernon Gohlston that failed at that if you want to say that.\u00a0 But I thought Vernon was improving and I\u2019m actually on record as saying that.\u00a0 But not having the numbers that people expected, that\u2019s a longer transition and it takes a while.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t have that issue here.\u00a0 This young man is staying with his hand in the dirt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New York Jets General Manager Mike Tannebaum and VP College Scouting, Joey Clinkscales spoke to the media after the Jets 1st round draft selection of Quintion Coples. Opening Statement\u2026 MIKE TANNENBAUM: We\u2019re excited to get Quinton (Coples) at the sixteenth pick. We did field some calls, but just really felt good about the value of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,213],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nfl-draft","7":"category-jet-news"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-39x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12124,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123\/revisions\/12124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}