Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens wrapped up the second night of the NFL Draft and they selected pass rusher Mike Green in the second round out of Marshall, and they also selected offensive tackle Emery Jones out of LSU in the third round. After the second night of the draft, we heard from general manager Eric Tacassa and head coach John Harbaugh.
Okay, guys, welcome and excited. We've added two very good football players today. Mike Green we think one of the premiere pass rushers in this draft. Marshall fits us with his playing style. Excited to get him at that point in the draft. And then also Emmy Jones, a younger player offensive tackle slash offensive guard from LSU.
Had a chance to.
See him at the Senior Bowl. Physical, aggressive, tough, minded, good length. I think he's a really really good, young, physical prospect who should you know, be a really good tackle at some point or transition to being a very good guard.
Questions Eric, Those people thought Mike Green. I think many people thought he was a top twenty type of prospect. Was he even in Concercat.
I know you had Maltachaie Stark saying he was both you know, the top player on your board at that point, but was Mike Green you know, kind of given consideration, possibly been the profil.
I mean, he's a talented player, you know, for sure. He's a guy that you know, we looked at very closely, spent a lot of time with Mike. Came to Baltimore, spent a full day with Mike here, interviewed him at the combine, and watched his tape. You know, uh, talented guy for us, you know, looking at Malachi, we just felt like his resume, what he did at Georgia, big games, you know, tremendous competition, the needs of our defense, what he brings, we thought he was the best pick.
Eric.
There were two sexual assault allegations regarding Mike Breed when he's younger.
I know we've denied them. There have been no charges.
Fans have already reached out instead this show's it doesn't really matter as long as you can play.
What do you say to those fans?
I would say that we investigated this situation very thoroughly. I think we have the best scouts in the NFL. We've got great scouts that go into Virginia. They go into Marshall. We've got people that work force investigating different incidents with players all the time, and we felt comfortable taking him. We think he's a talented player. We understand the severity of what these allegations were, of course, but
doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike. I personally spent an hour and a half with him in my office and I think the best is yet to come with them, and I'm glad we got them.
When you give in the allegations obviously, just talker at the moment. I know we separated in the teacher cases. Look at individually. When you have a situation like that, do you weigh does that play and have any way when you're considering when you can get a different guy?
Yeah, you know, I don't think that would be fair to either player. I mean that'd be like me asking you. You know, you're writing styles similar to Jamous and you both in the media, but you write differently, you know, so it's two different situations, I think, Brian, and it's you know, obviously, you know, allegations are severe. We take it seriously. We look at them individually, and we do as much homework as we can and you know, specifically
to Mike and Mike's case. I feel like we did a good job talking to as many people as possible. We talked to Mike at length. You know, we did our own kind of work behind the scenes, looking at all the different things, and we feel comfortable taking them. I know, you guys, when you're putting your draft all together, you you kind of separate things mixed off engines and character and off the field issue when it came.
To my I guess I mean you said you guys kind of diligently investigated it.
What made you get to the point to where you were comfortable taking the chance with him?
Yeah? I think you just answered your own question. I mean, we diligently investigated it. We got as much information as we could. We considered the facts, we considered the allegations, We considered what the reports actually were and what they actually weren't, and we made the decision based off of that.
Alright, what kind of feedback did you get from coaches and people in his circle regarding his character?
I would say positive, John, would you.
Learn about them when you met? Was that? I imagined you were part of that too? Yeah?
Well, actually it wasn't here the day we met with him. But uh, just echo what Eric said.
I mean.
It Eric could, I mean it was Eric, it was our scouts. I was in all the meetings, I heard all the reports. Uh, what Eric said was so interesting. It's not so much what they were and what they weren't is just as important. And the coaches and administrators and teammates at Marshall were fully supportive of everything he had done there, and the same at UVA. Wasn't any different in uv It was exactly the same from that standpoint. So it was it was I talk about due diligence.
It was exhaustive what these guys have done and and uh, and we made a decision based on what we felt was fair.
Is it still a tough decision when you're weighing that, when you're wearing those things, even when you go through those I.
Mean, I think every decision we'd make with the draft is tough because we have a finite amount of picks, and every pick is very valuable, and so you consider everything, you scrutinize everything, you know, it does become you know, our lives, you know, especially after the season ends, it's a race to the finish and so it is. It is a difficult decision. It's a difficult decision when I got on. It's a slow forty. It's a difficult decision
when a guy has allegations. It's a difficult decision when a guy has an injury that you think he can't overcome, but maybe he can't overcome. That all kind of gets factored in because in the end, you know, there is an element of risk mitigation with everything we do, and we want these guys to come in and be productive right away. And they have to be talented, they've got to be durable, and we have to have a lot of trust in them. So it is a difficult decision.
They showed him on TV. He was very emotional. Can you share a little bit about the phone call? And obviously he was waiting along time most people would be long after.
Uh, you know, I think it leave that, you know, conversation to us. I mean, you'll probably get a chance to see it or hear it, you know, But you know, I think he was with his family.
I think he was relieved.
Looks like he has a beautiful, wonderful family supporting him, and I think the very excited for this next chapter.
You expect that made available to us.
I would assume, so I'd view more of it. Chack Weston, I think.
In just looking at the tape of Green, what kind of just kind of jumped.
Out of in watching that, right, the first thing that jumped out of me was his his motor. You know, he's a relentless player like he is. He talked about a guy that plays the way our fans like to watch football play. Uh, he plays like a guy that really cares. He is he comes off the ball, He's very physical, and he does not stop playing until the final echo of the whistle. He's physical, he's aggressive. He plays the kind of football that we like to play.
And I think it's just the football iq. The football character is very high.
Do you job, Do you look at him as kind of like an insistant impact quite a guy for the defense.
Sure.
Absolutely, He's the guy that's gonna come in here day one and he's gonna make a mark. You know, it's gonna be exciting look at a whole draft really kind of in total like that, these first two guys, defensive guys are gonna You're gonna notice him when we get after the first day. Malachy is gonna be he's gonna be flying around taking charge and uh and then Mike's gonna be flying around. You know, he won't be calling defenses back there, but he'll be coming off the edge
and he's physical against the run. And and the other thing is it's important to these two guys. I mean both these two guys. Football really really matters to it, and they want to be successful. They want it to be in front of them. They want to make the most of their chances. They have going forward, an opportunity to do things the right way. They're both very determined to do that. And I know that they both they
both express that. Mike really expressed that, you know, he really, he really wants to make the most of this opportunity and he's very grateful for the opportunity to say the same thing. About Emory, he felt the same way. You know, he's another guy that you know, he's got he's got big goals, big aspirations, and all these guys, it's just so meaningful when you get on the phone with them afterwards and you know they're all they're all they're all
taking their journey, they're all fighting their fight. They're trying to overcome and they kind of make their dreams come true. And and these guys are very, very, very highly motivated group of guys.
With Emory, do you see I mean, it seems like which he was primarily a right tackle, do you see him as a possibility of competing for that card spinal web side or do you see him more as.
No, we see him as a possible swing guy. You know, he's kind of That's what I thought. The pick was so good that Eric made. He's got the chance to be a swing backup tackle for us right away. But he also has a chance to go in their guard and play. So we're gonna put him in their guard too. See how he does, and just get a feel for him, you know, once he starts practicing, just get a feel for where he can help us.
And he can.
We think he can play guard and tackle.
He can work inside. Had the senior boat while you guys were there.
He did, he took some reps inside. You know, I think I was just really impressed with his competitiveness in the practices. You know, a lot of times some players go down there and they sort of treat it as a fun week, you know, And with Emory, the one
on ones. You know, this guy was fighting and battling and all the competitive periods, he really showed a lot of effort and tenacity, and it just seemed like watching him, you know Jonas say he was He's the kind of a A Ravens type of player, you know, just with his attitude and his demeanor, his explosion, his physicality. He's a guy that when we left, I just thought, you know what, this guy would have a chance being pretty good for us.
Have you did you entertain at any point trade offers for Mark Andrews And can you definitively say you'll be on this team in the fall?
Well, I would never say if I entertained any trade offers at this point. I would really expect Mark to be on this team. Great player, love him, competitive, tough playmaker. I would expect him be on the team.
Without overall player. Did you was were.
You pretty committed to stay where you were or was there thought at any point in the draft to maybe moving out if you had to fall something to.
Pickular the god?
You know, I sweated the third round pick a little bit just because you know, I think Emory was a guy that we really liked and picking at the end of the round, and I really didn't just trade up, you know, I just really I thought there was a chance that we get Emory down there. But it's a long day and you start to see Lineman go, and uh, I was just glad he was there. But you know, I think it was a good It was a good day.
Excited about tomorrow, the opportunities that we have tomorrow with all the picks that we have in the fourth and fifth round, especially the sixth round. So I think we have in the in the board looks, you know, pretty good. We got wiped out, but because there's more players, you know, looking at the that last category, we caught five nines. Uh, there's a lot of names, which means that we should have a chance to get some good players in the sixth round.
The Rays will wrap up the NFL Draft on Saturday. They have eight picks remaining. You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. Also, head over to the Lounge podcast feed and subscribe there. Thanks to listening, We'll be back with you again tomorrow.