New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - NewOrleansSaints.com Sean Payton recaps the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft

New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Local Media Availability
Thursday, April 30, 2015

Opening Statement: “I will just kind of go through both of these players. Starting off with Andrus Peat, he was a player for us that obviously had a high grade. We feel like not only is he a good young athlete, but his upside, we feel, is tremendous, good size, great makeup, good character. He has versatility to play either tackle position. It was kind of interesting in the early part of that first round, first off, where the second quarterback Marcus (Mariota) went and then kind of hanging in there. (Brandon) Scherff got taken a little earlier than a lot projected and so you wait at New York (Giants), (they) selected another tackle. We played around with possibly moving up, we were fortunate that he (Andrus Peat) was available at 13. He is a player that we are real familiar with. David Shaw and I worked together back in Philadelphia. We’ve had this player on an interview at the combine. We’ve had him here on a trip. For us, clearly, we felt like it was our highest rater player on the board at that time. Later in the draft then, obviously as the selections continued to unfold, it becomes a little bit trickier if you will. Stephone Anthony is another player that we have done a ton of research on. There are a handful of linebackers, really, that we felt that could play inside and potentially outside, all of which we feel like are real good players. But we like the makeup, his size, his flexibility, position flexibility, I think he can play either inside position. I think he is probably most suited to play Mike, so he has that body type. Again, a leader of their team and an outstanding season, great defense, right at the top of the country in defense, and a lot of prospects on that defense. Through the process we watched a ton of Clemson film. When you are watching them you are looking at, obviously, a number of different players. I am kind of excited here at the conclusion of the first round. We get started again tomorrow, I think an hour earlier, with another pick high in that second round. Any questions?”

What did David Shaw tell you about Andrus Peat?

“You are going through the various mocks and you see two or three guys as if we are going to be candidates at that pick if we are not moving forward or moving back. If we were going to move forward it was going to be a couple picks, but we really value the selections we have and we didn’t want to give away too much to go all the way up, and quite honestly that opportunity didn’t exist. I called David and it was starting with Andrus (Peat). He’s young and his film is outstanding. He is big. He is very athletic. His father and I are the same age. His father went to Champagne Central High School which is in the middle of the state of Illinois. The first time I met his dad we were seniors being recruited by Northern Illinois. His dad played guard in the league for a long time. I just remember seeing his dad on that college visit. I can remember it was 1981 like it was yesterday. His dad had one of those letterman jackets on with five varsity letters all over it and I only had played my senior year. I hadn’t gotten my letter yet so I had stuff my mom gave me to make up really my letterman’s coat. His dad went on to have a great career at Northern, he was drafted, played a long time. This guy has all the things you look for. He is smart. He is big. He is very athletic. He is built much differently than his father, his stature. He has long arms, and more than anything it is confirmation of calling David and talking more about (him) and within five minutes I knew from the phone call that David saw him the same way we did, but I wanted to hear him tell me that. He has a tremendous makeup to be real good in this league. And then it was to talk about a few other players from Stanford, and then with the relationship I have with David, to talk about players in the Pac-12 he saw at other schools that are on our board, how he saw them as a coach. He has experience in that league. He and I shared an office in Philadelphia. He is a real bright coach and I think he does a great job just doing some draft analysis, but that was an important call.”

Did you go into the draft saying you need an inside linebacker early?

“Inside linebacker was another position we felt we wanted to draft. It’s really a position we haven’t drafted, I think there have been one or two true inside linebackers in the last 10 years. All of the things fit with Stephone. Again we got really familiar with him in the process. We loved the make-up. He’s sharp. He’s the leader of their defense. When you talk to Brent Veneble, who is the head coach there, or anyone back there, his name comes up in five seconds. Then the production on the film was good. Then when you look at the combine numbers, when you look at his size. Some of those things separated him in a group that we felt was really good. There are a handful of guys that are going to get drafted early tomorrow with how we had them stacked. I think that’s going to happen. We’ll see a few more of those inside linebackers taken within the first 10 or 15 picks.”

Did you have Peat ranked above La’el Collins?

“Yes, from the beginning. Just the flexibility. We had a really good grade on Collins. Teams are projecting him at tackle and guard and our projection with him is as a guard. I think he’s a very dominant player, physical. We just saw a different type of player in Peat.”

Read more: Sean Payton recaps the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft