Stories: Calm Through the Storm | Day 2 Draft Picks | Rice, Flacco Wrap Day 1 | Flacco Feeling Fine | Ravens Get Their ManTranscripts: Draft Wrap-Up Presser | Flacco Introductory Presser | Flacco Conference CallBlogs: The Big Board | The Byrne Identity | Insight to the Limelight GENERAL MANAGER OZZIE NEWSOME & DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE SCOUTING ERIC DECOSTA
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** Ozzie Newsome
On LB Tavares Gooden: "To start the day off, as we finished with you guys last night, we talked about stacking our board to get ourselves prepared for this morning, and we did. When we came back, we had some calls from some other teams about moving up to our pick, but we had targeted a couple of players and one of them was Tavares Gooden from Miami. The only thing I told him was that he couldn't have No. 52 when he got here, because it belongs to someone else. But anytime you get a player from the Miami Hurricanes, you know you get someone who loves the game, who runs to the football, and knows and understands how to play the game. It gives us depth, but it helps us on special teams right away."
On S Tom Zbikowski: "The second guy, [Tom] Zbikowski – same type of player. [He is] physical, fast and can run to the football. We talked about getting bigger and faster in this draft, and both of those players have a lot of it. Zbikowski can also be a backup returner for us, so those were some areas where we got hit pretty hard last year, and we ended up taking guys off our practice squad, taking guys off the street. We feel like we've added some really good depth. Over the course of the next three or four years, [we selected] guys that could become starters for us."
Eric DeCosta
On T Oniel Cousins:"We were happy to draft Oniel Cousins from UTEP. Oniel's an outstanding athlete, a right tackle, primarily, and a great prospect. We think he's got a lot of upside and should develop over time. He probably needs to get a little stronger, but the tools are there. He's got great feet, he's a great kid. He's a worker. He's got the right temperament. He's a nasty player, and we think he'll compete right away at the right tackle spot. We feel good about him."
On WR Marcus Smith: "Marcus Smith is a receiver that I watched last week, actually, on tape and had the chance to watch him quite a bit this year. He's an inside guy, primarily a slot receiver. He's got good size; he's almost 6-2. [He's a] tough guy, blocks really well, catches the ball in traffic and is very physical. We felt like we wanted to bring a physical receiver and a bigger guy in here to compete for balls inside the numbers. He's been a great special teams guy, been a core special teams guy and an outstanding gunner at New Mexico. I think he can compete and add a lot of value to the team and should be a great [special] teams guy for us."
On T David Hale: "The last pick was one of our 'Red Star' guys this year that you guys know about, that we've talked about over the years. David Hale is a right tackle who can play tackle and also guard. [He's a] very, very physical, mean, tough, nasty guy, in the same mold as a guy like [current Ravens G/T] Marshal Yanda and [former Ravens T] Tony Pashos. He's that type of player – a very, very physical, in-the-trenches type guy. I think he projects very well inside and also at right tackle, and we feel very good about David."
Ozzie Newsome
On former Raiders CB Fabian Washington:"We had been talking about Fabian Washington, even before they made the trade for DeAngelo Hall. Fabian was a guy who, I think, was in Mark Clayton's draft [2005], that he was part of our trade-back. If Mark would've gotten picked that year, then we already had some trades set up to move back, and Fabian would've been one of the players that we would've targeted. I think the thing that helps us… There are two things: You add a Frank Walker and you add a Fabian Washington, who's under contract for two more years, so we know what that number looks like, and we have the guy that coached him with the Raiders, [Ravens secondary coach] Chuck Pagano. He was very excited. The thing is, guys know about our defense and their play is elevated when they come to Baltimore. They realize they have to take their play to another level, and that's the way Fabian thought and talked about on the phone. He will be here in the next 24-48 hours. The condition of the trade is that he has to report and pass the physical, and once he does that, the trade is complete. That allows us to have a veteran player, a player that's started games in the National Football League. It brings more depth to our secondary, an area where, in the draft, we didn't feel like there was any other player that was comparable to Fabian."
