Got to meet and talk to a few members of the flight crew while we waited for the doors to open.
Bob Wischusen was the emcee for the evening.
Marty Lyons and Wesley Walker were in attendance.
Woody was there and said some stuff, nothing too interesting.
Neil Glat talked about the Jets rewards points bullshit that nobody cares about.
Bowles gave a short talk, and Maccagnan gave a longer presentation on our 2015 draft class and the thought that went into picks 1-4.
-They did not expect Williams to be there at 6 but they still scouted him as much as they did Winston, Mariota, Fowler, Cooper, and White. It sounded like Washington was the least predictable team picking ahead of them but they were aware that they liked Scherff.
-Acknowledged Devin Smith's lack of route running experience at Ohio St. but said they were encouraged by what he showed in that area during Senior Bowl practices. Says they expect him to develop into a good player but there will be a natural adjustment period.
-Mauldin's year as a linebacker should give him an advantage over some other players converting from DE to OLB in the NFL. They expect him to be a starter quality player. He was one of the players they were considering with their original 3rd round pick so they were happy to land him after trading down. Pointed out how picks 70 and 104 turned into Mauldin, Petty, and Harrison after moving around.
-Liked Petty's physical attributes, skill set and intangibles. Later in Q&A acknowledged the intrinsic risk in taking a QB from a variation of the spread offense with predetermined reads but any QB coming from college to the NFL has to make a significant transition.
Listening to Duff talk about the draft and his philosophy was probably the most interesting part of the evening.
Highlights from Q&A:
Re: What are the plans for the remaining cap space?
Duff: We have some set aside for Mo (!!!) and Snacks, and we need to leave some for IR and possible in-season moves.
Re: a question about Mariota and Petty being system QBs and how they were evaluated.
Duff: [joking] I'm not sure I should comment about players on other teams.
Re: How to instill accountability in the players
Bowles: Every player, from the biggest star to the practice squad, will be called out in front of the team for making mental errors in practice.
Re: a 12 year old asking what they think of Mr. Brady
Bob: I was always more of a Florence Henderson fan.
Other stuff:
-An old man insisted that Dennis Byrd, Matt Snell, Emerson Boozer, [unintelligible], and the fans (00) need to be added to the Ring of Honor. Would not step down from the mic and continued rambling for a while until he was done.
-An old woman scolded the team for having too many penalties last year and asked Bowles what he was going to do about it.
