Coach Scott Linehan’s thoughts:

“It’s close because they are both great players. From the very beginning that was really the hardest part. It’s kind of like you pick one of your children or something. But at the end of the day, Chris is really what the doctor ordered for not only our defense or football team, but for an organization because of his ability level, which is pretty darn good and what he can do for a team in the defensive line in the pass-rush part of things and being an every-down player. But just what he will be able to do and bring to the team as far as all that other stuff. He inherited all those things from his father and now that I have had a chance to visit with his mother, its apparent to me that she brought some pretty great qualities to him as well. This is really what we were looking for. In the end, yeah it is tough because it would have been nice to have drafted both of them but it really was not a big deal to be honest with you. I don’t want to use the over-used term ‘no brainer’ but I guess I am going to have to here. He just fits us. You are going to get a chance to meet this guy. I guess I call him a kid, he seems a lot younger to me. I must be getting up there in age. You are just going to find out all the things we’re telling you about him. It’s just going to be a great fit for us and great for the city. I can’t wait for this next season. I am a little geeked up right now but what is going to be really fun for me and for you all is to get a chance meet this individual. You know a lot about his profile, just wait until you get to meet him and I think you all will understand what we are talking about here. But he is a great fit for us. He is going to start on the right side for us at right end. Obviously James (Hall) played for us there and played very well for us and is back but you always need a wave there anyway. This is the kind of guy that the motor never stops and he hates that term by the way, the ‘high motor’ thing. I think he thinks it is a shot on his ability and he has got a lot of ability too.

“I think the only thing that really threw a wrench in what would happen if Jake Long was still in the mix, in a lot of ways probably three or four days ago when he was still on the board. There was still some talk about Glen (Dorsey) and even Vernon (Gholston) and there is a lot of really great things about them and they are exceptional players and can really help another team now, but to me it was kind of academic and you really can’t show your hand there. You don’t want to get too excited about a player then I think it gets a little obvious. I guess you just use your common sense and you break down what we need is what he brings as far as a football player, but it goes deeper than that. This kid just brings energy and life to the building. When he walks in, it’s not because he is Howie Long’s son, it’s because he is Chris Long in the way he plays, the way he acts and the way he carries himself. The players will love him. He is a humble kid, he was brought up the right way and he understands that he has a long way to go now and it’s a little bit like being a freshman again, but he has no problems stepping out there being an impact type guy and he does it with a lot of other things and it was basically done at that point in my mind.”

On his run-stopping ability: “I think he is a very good run defender, in fact you can evaluate him very well there because he plays inside in that 3-4 basically as a 5-technique End in their 3-4, so you get to see him do that. He has great hands, very similar to what Adam Carriker had as an end as far as his hands, his usage to shed blocks. He is not as big as Adam was. For Adam it was a natural move inside because of his size and all those things, but he held his own.”

On keeping Carriker at DT: “Adam made great strides there. I think I would like Adam to play more in the three-technique alignment and that is a natural position, but he played very well for us at nose. He started 16 games for us at nose guard last year and we made lot of improvement from the year before in our run defense and Will Witherspoon’s play improved from the year before that had a big, big impact on that. We drafted Adam to play there and that’s why it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to all of a sudden now move him back out, although we could and it did gives us versatility and it did come up, but Adam, that is a natural position for him and I like playing guys at positions that they play and that’s really where we are at.”