Raiders' Ziegler Goes In-Depth on NFL Draft
HENDERSON, Nev.--Moments ago, Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler sat down with invited media to discuss the upcoming NFL Draft.
Since arriving in the desert, Ziegler has continually been forthright and honest, and today was no exception. Certainly, he can't, and neither was I expecting him to reveal team secrets, but in all my years of covering the NFL, he was as frank and straightforward as I have seen.
This is the first draft for Ziegler sitting at the helm of an NFL franchise. He has the immense experience that propelled him to this job, but his first as the man in charge. We will learn a lot about him during the NFL Draft.
You can watch the entire press conference, or read the transcript below.
General Manager Dave Ziegler
Opening Statement: “Before we get started, and I'll really dedicate I'd say most of the time today for questions that you all have. So, we'll work through that. But the first thing I do want to say is we're just really excited for the city of Las Vegas to be hosting this event. I think the city of Las Vegas is built for big time events, whether it's the Super Bowl, whether it's the Pro Bowl, whether it's the draft, NCAA Tournament, we'll take them all. I think Vegas is a city built for that. And so, we're just excited to have the draft here. It's good for the city. It's good for the community. And we're hopeful to have many more of these type events going forward, whether it's the draft or whether it's something else. So, it's an exciting time for Las Vegas and for the community. Before we get going, I'd be remiss not to just recognize all the hard work of our staff here. The one thing about the draft is this is a long, tedious process. Our guys are currently working on next year's draft right now, our area scouts. So that process starts here in the spring, and they'll continue to work on that process all the way up until next year around this time. And I would say this, there's a lot of people involved in it. But, first recognizing our college scouts, our area scouts. Those guys are the ones that are on the road all year, away from their families, living out of hotels, traveling from school to school, digging on information. Like those are the guys that are on the ground floor, and they do a lot of the work and do a lot of things to set the table. And they don't get a lot of recognition for it, but our group has worked extremely hard. It's been great getting to know our group and developing relationships with some of the guys here. And so, they deserve a ton of credit. Our pro staff, you don't often think of the pro staff and the college staff, but our pro staff is also involved in some of the college scouting as we get prepared for the draft. They're involved in studying the other teams and team needs and things of that nature, and our pro staffs done a great job working through that process with us here in the spring. Our scouting assistants who get no recognition, but in terms of the 30 visits, getting guys to the airport, shuffling guys back, working with travel plans. They are entry level guys that put in a lot of work. They're trying to build their scouting resume and they've been fantastic for us here throughout the spring also. Our video department, our operations department, our dining staff, player development, like these are all spokes in the wheel that help this process get it to a point where we feel comfortable with it, whether it's hosting players and the meals that are prepared for when we're hosting players on 30 visits and things of that nature. To our operations staff helping out with just the coordination of the local pro day, of 30 visits, of coaches travel, all of [Coach] Josh's [McDaniels] travel, my travel, all of those different types of things. So, there's so many people in the organization that don't get the recognition that they deserve but are integral parts in kind of this process. So, want to make sure that all those people are recognized, and their work is appreciated. It's good work and it's been helpful to this process. So, that's what I have, I'll open it up to you and get your questions answered here.”
Q: We're getting back to normal in a lot of ways post-COVID. Did you get that sense with the 30 visits and being able to have more interaction with the players this year as opposed to maybe the last couple of years? And how much better off is that for you guys being able to have that element back in play?
Ziegler: “Yea, I think the process this year felt I'd say back to normal of what it had been in the past because the player access was there, the face-to-face communication was there, the one-on-one communication was there. So, I think that provides a lot more value than the Zoom calls, and all that's beneficial too, but I think we all know being able just to sit down and sit across from somebody and get to know them. It's just more personal. And with it being more personal, you get a better feel for the player and the person. And so, I think it's been a lot more valuable because of that one-on-one access and the one-on-one communication that we are able to have this year that we weren't able to have in the past. And then there was also more opportunities to see the players. There was more all-star game access, right? More pro days. You could go out and do private workouts and meet people one-on-one in an athletic setting. And so, yeah, it was a lot better process and I think it was helpful to be able to have that access this year compared to the last couple of years.”
Q: Once you were hired here, how did you kind of approach resetting your evaluation process to cater more towards what the Raiders need?
Ziegler: “Yea, well, I would say first and foremost, there was a bit of a transition of coming here and just on how we're going to look at players here versus the lens and the scouting philosophy that we have now. And so, there's an adjustment because part of that adjustment is teaching the philosophy, right? So, you're not usually getting into this time of year and when you've been out of place for a long time there's not that educational teaching component that needs to take place. Now, we still have to do a lot more of that throughout post draft. You only have so much time you can dedicate to teaching and everything. So, there was an element of our scouts being assimilated into our scouting philosophy. I would say in terms of like the focus and those types of things, we ended up just really taking, you always do, but we took I'd say a wide lens view of the draft board. Forget the hierarchy of needs and this might be higher here than there. We just said let's go through the whole thing because there's going to be a heavy learning component of talking the same language, how we look at different positions and things like that. So, to answer your question more specifically, probably a broader focus just because we're learning a lot of things rather than say, ‘Hey, we know where we want to go, like these three areas are our top three priorities. Let's dig into there first.’ And I think when you've been at a place for a long time and you have that feel for your roster and you have the feel for your scouts, you might have a focused approach, but this was part of a bigger picture. I'd say a professional development aspect to this approach this year than it's maybe different than what it would have been in New England.”
Q: Another NFL executive mentioned many teams not having a first-round pick and that it may not be as deep of a draft at the top, but he says it's a super deep draft and lots of good players. Do you share that analysis of this draft?
Ziegler: "Yea, I think every draft is different. There are always different narratives and some of them are always the same. You know, each year, like these players don't exist or so on and so forth. But I would answer that question and say I do feel like there's good depth in this draft. Some positions are deeper than others. At the top of the board and the top of the talent on the board, I don't know. I think there's good players in this draft that you could draft in the first round, you can draft in the second round, you could draft in third round, whatever. But I’d say at the end of the day, I think the depth of this draft is strong.”
Q: What are some of the criteria that you look for when you're evaluating players?
Ziegler: "What's the criteria that we look for when we're evaluating players? I would say for us a lot of it starts with the person and we've talked about this kind of at different points. But I would say people that love football, you want people that are passionate about their jobs, right? We all want to work with those types of people. We all want to hire those types of people that are passionate about their work. So, I think it starts there. Good people, good character traits, people that are willing to work with others, people that are selfless, people that are team oriented. Like those are really important things for us. Football intelligence is an important aspect for us. And I think kind of on its core people that love football, people that are good teammates, people that have good football intelligence. Those all calculate into low maintenance individuals, and I think the more low maintenance individuals that you have where you're not expending energy in those different areas, and you can focus just on getting better and winning, I think those are really some of the core criteria for us when we start to talk about a player on whether that player is going to be a fit for the Raiders or not. Forget about the talent and all those types of things. I think those areas have to make sense first and then you graduate on to the skill set and the value and all those different types of things.
Q: How much is versatility important to you?
Ziegler: "Versatility is something that's highly important. The more you can do, the more positions you can play, it just improves your depth. There's going to be injuries along the way during the season. So, if you have a player who can fill in at multiple spots, that's extra value. And so, I think the more that you can do, the more we're going to allow you to do, and the more that we can allow you to do just the more value you have for the club.”
Q: What have you seen from Davante Adams in a very short period in terms of assimilating himself in the building?
Ziegler: "Davante is a worker, and he comes in with a purpose every day to get better. And so, he's just a dialed in person. For him, this is something that he loves to do, but this is a business for him and it's a job that he takes very seriously. And he comes in with that approach. I mean this guy comes in with an approach to win the day and to get better individually. And it's an approach that I think is really good for our young players to see. This guy is highly accomplished. He's been very productive in his career. There's a reason for all those things and you kind of see that in his approach day to day.”
Q: When you don't pick until the third round, do you look to fill a need with that pick? Or are you a believer in best athlete available on your board?
Ziegler: “Yea, well, I wouldn't necessarily say best athlete available, but I would say the best player available. And again, that best player available, going back to the traits that I talked about, it's going to start there. But to answer your question, we want the best available players regardless of position. That's how we want to continue to build the team. I think if you're drafting good football players, you're making good choices. And so, I know a lot of people have talked about it when you kind of overextend just to draft a need, you can often pass over good football players that can help your team. And I think that can be a slippery slope if that's kind of the way you approach it.”
Q: Fairly or unfairly, this organization's taken some heat in the draft in recent years. Is there some competitive spirit for you going into the draft to turn around kind of the reputation the Raider have had in the draft?
Ziegler: “Yea, I mean I think the competitive spirit part. You're judged on the personnel side by the players that you draft and how well they produce and the types of players that they turn into for the organization. And so, there's a competitive aspect of wanting to draft players. You want every single draft pick and every single player that you sign, you want that player to produce and overproduce in an ideal situation. And so, there's a competitive aspect to that. Yeah, we want to have a great draft. Sure, you want to be known as a team that drafts well and that develops talent and all those types of things. Whatever round that is, we want to make sure that we're able to do that.”
Q: In terms of being aggressive, whether it's moving up or moving down, do you feel like if the situation arises there's deals to be made out there?
Ziegler: “Yea, I think those opportunities always exist. You can look at some of the statistics of teams that are more willing to trade. Some teams are more willing to trade up, some teams are more willing to trade back. There are some teams, you look at their draft history, they're not willing to trade at all. And so, we go through all that data, one, to understand what some of the trends are of certain regimes. But we also work through those conversations and if there's a deal to be made that's going to benefit the Raiders, whether it's moving up in the draft, whether it's moving back in the draft., those are always things that we're going to be open to and entertain if we ultimately think it's going to be a good decision for us to add a good football player.”
Q: Any chance of a last-minute trade before the draft?
Ziegler: “Always a chance. Yeah, always a chance for a trade.”
Q: Is it kind of becoming alarming for general managers and top brass at different franchises when players who are under contract are demanding or not showing up for this or that?
Ziegler: “I don't know if I would use the word alarming. I think maybe now you have more of a voice to express those things because of social media and things of that nature. The NFL is covered 365 days a year now. The NFL, I know once upon a time you covered it for the football season and then there wasn't much to write about in the off-season. And the NFL as a business has grown and as an entertainment industry has grown. And so, I think there's more opportunities. It's followed more, so there's more opportunities for people to express their opinion. I think those opinions maybe were always there. There wasn't an avenue to always express those things. What other teams have going on and what those environments are and what those situations are, I'm not really familiar with. So, I'm just focused on what we have going on here with the Raiders. We're really excited about what's been going on here the last couple of weeks as players have been in the building and just the players willingness to work. And the players that have been here have been getting better and that's what we're excited about.”
Q: Hunter Renfrow is a guy that's probably played his way into a second contract or a pay raise. How are things going along those lines? And it appears like he's somebody that you guys want to be able to keep here and be a focal point of this operation?
Ziegler: “A very talented player. I've been asked about him in the past and he's just he's a gritty guy, knows how to get open, knows how to win on third down, has some return experience, is good after the catch. So, yes, Hunter is a good football player and has a good a lot of good elements that allow him to be successful on Sundays, which is important. And he's a young player. So, like I've said before, when we talked about, I think it was Derek [Carr] at the owners meeting, relative to contracts and things like that, we're always going to keep those things in house and keep those discussions private. Hunter's going to be no different in that regard, but we're excited that he's on the team. We love good receivers and, you know, he's one of them.”
Q: When it comes to the evaluation process, how much collaboration is there between the coaching staff and the player personnel staff?
Ziegler: “Yea, we do collab in terms of the coaching staff and the scouting staff throughout the draft process. I think it's important to understand the coaches’ views on players, just as it's important to understand the scouts’ views on players. I think one of the most important parts of that process is not just all the agreement that goes on but is when you have some guys that you see, I'd say significantly different. To me, those are the exciting opportunities, not only for growth as a staff, scouting staff and as a coaching staff, but those are the opportunities where you know you have some work to do to get the player right. So, I think those are those are really good learning opportunities for us. But we want to make sure that we have open dialog with our coaches. We really work hand in hand with our coaching staff throughout the draft process. I mean there's a time of year where their players are in the building, so they're working on meeting with the players, they're working on scheme, they're working on installs throughout the spring, so they can't be as heavily involved as the scouting staff is. That's our job to do it. But in terms of getting them involved at different parts of the process, that's something that we do and something that we think is valuable.”
Q: How important is it in your evaluation of a player to be able to assimilate information in the classroom?
Ziegler: “Yea, it's extremely valuable. It's one of the most important aspects, I think, of playing football and in any system. Like we talked about versatility, if you want to be a versatile team, having intelligent players that can learn your system and I'd say can process information quickly, learn new information quickly, it's highly valuable to any system, but it's highly valuable to a system that wants to be adaptable and flexible and be able to change and morph and things like that. And so, this is like the first days of school, right? Building those foundational pieces so guys can continue to learn and stack those blocks on top of each other.”
Q: Just a follow up on the collaboration. Have you and Josh McDaniels been together so long that you found that you both kind of naturally gravitate towards the same type of personnel?
Ziegler: “I think typically we see players the same. Like if we end up watching players separately, we're going to come back, and I would say the vast majority those players we'll see the same. There's going to be some one-offs here and there where we just see it differently and then those are the guys that we end up sitting down and working through a little bit more throughout the process to try to find some common ground and learn why we saw those players differently. But for the most part, yeah, I think we see a lot of things the same when it comes to evaluating players. We've talked about our scouting system before, but we look at players in the role that they're going to fill. And so, we often times see those players and what the role is the same.”
Q: Do you personally take more pride in being able to land on those productive players in the mid to late rounds?
Ziegler: “Sure. I think when you find players in the mid rounds that ultimately develop into core contributors for your team, there's a level of pride in finding those guys because like you said, there's always the kind of the players that have risen to the top for one reason or another. Not that all those players pan out. We know that they don't. There is a level of pride in finding those players in the mid rounds that can contribute for your team.”
Q: We talked about sort of the difficulty in assessing college offensive linemen and then transitioning them to the NFL based on the style of play and things like that. But where you guys are in the draft, do you feel like there is depth at that position to be able to bring in guys that can contribute right away or challenge for starting jobs right away?
Ziegler: “I mean, we're working through that process now. I think, like you said, the offensive line is a developmental position. I think it's hard to say that there's this level of depth in the draft, that these players are going to come in and start for you and contribute right away in the middle rounds of the draft.
I think there's a lot of transitions that take place in general. If you look at just a guy that's coming from college football to pro football, the amount of life transitions that take place, the amount of professional transitions that take place are extraordinary. And the offensive line, as we talked about at the owners' meeting, there's even more transitions than some of the other positions. So, I think we're excited about some of the players that are in the draft, that are at the offensive line that may not be first and second round guys. And so, we recognize that. At the end of the day, we'll see. Yeah, there's players that we like, but we'll see how it goes.”
Q: Can you talk about the opportunity for making moves after the draft in terms of the offensive line?
Ziegler: “Well, the first part I'd say after the draft will be post draft free agency. Right. And so, we dedicate a lot of time to that. You dedicate as much time to that as you do to the guys that are draft-able. And teams have proven you can find guys there that can contribute and that can develop into starting level players, or key backups for you, so we'll work that angle and dig through those positions. And as I've mentioned before, there's still a lot of other opportunity, whether it's guys that are still out there and free agency as we continue to work through the spring. Whether it ends up guys have become available in the preseason process, guys that become available through trades. Whatever it is, we'll always look at all those different avenues to add players. And I think the offensive line, because it is speaking specifically to that, because it is a developmental position and there are a lot of these transitions that I talked about, I think it's important to continue to mine those areas and acquire players at that position that you can work with and develop and see how it shakes out.”
Q: You talked about Champ Kelly at your introduction and talked highly about him. How much has it helped to be able to lean on him as well in this situation leading up to the draft?
Ziegler: “Yea, Champ has been exceptional for us up to this point. He'll continue to be. He's taken on, I’d say, a lot of different hats through this process. Obviously, his title is assistant GM. He's worked heavily on the college side here since we since we brought him on board and has kind of been a leader in that regard too. I could kind of go on and on about all the different areas that he's helped organize and he's helped kind of facilitate. But he's been extremely valuable. He's someone that I can rely on. Again, I'd say we've been trained the same way, so we see how we want to run the college process similar. We see players in a similar light, so he's been extremely valuable for us and has just been someone that I've been able to lean on that takes a lot of pressure off of me of having to feel like you have to have your hands in everything and kind of control each and every process. I can lean on him to control those things and to make sure they're executed in the way that we believe they should be.”
Q: With all the player movement that we've seen this off-season, how do you expect that to impact the draft?
Ziegler: “Well, we'll see. I guess it will be exciting to see as a fan any of those draft day trades where a player is swapped and there's a bunch of picks traded. That's exciting as a fan of football to see those things. And it's an unpredictable deal, right? I think there's been a lot of players that have moved here over the last couple of years. If you look at the last two years that members of the media, people in football probably wouldn't have expected those players to be traded, and they have been. And so, we'll see. It'll be an exciting week here leading up to the draft.”
Q: How different is this experience for you and what kind of pressures do you have on you right now? Is it more of trying to really land that pick in the third round with the team as the new front office?
Ziegler: “There's an element of that I would say. The new pressures I think center around running the entire organization in terms of on the scouting and personnel side. And I would say there's that pressure and I would say the pressure of developing your philosophy, developing your scouts, getting everybody trained and ingrained on how you want to approach not just the draft, but I'd say everything. The draft, scouting in general, our grading scale, when we work out players, how we want to handle player workouts. There's all these individual things that you want to make perfect right now that you can't make perfect right now because you have other things that become a higher priority. So, I'm always thinking about the here and the now and what we have to do now to be as well-prepared as we can be for the draft. But then you also are always kind of thinking about these things that are on the peripheral about how we're going to develop scouts, all the things that we want to accomplish from May to June, how we want to organize the preseason process? We have to get our advanced scouting reports in order. So, there's all these things that you want to check off your list that you can't check off your list. And so, I think there's a level of stress, not bad stress, just good stress of wanting to like attack all these other things but focus on the here and now. But, yeah, there's pressure on wanting to hit on all your draft picks and build a team and hit on every single guy you hit in college free agency and have 15 guys that are contributing for you. That's not realistic, but that's the pressure that you put on yourself. Like that's what you want to accomplish. And we embrace that pressure. We enjoy it. It's part of the allure, I think, of this profession for a lot of people that get into it as the youth thrive and you want that pressure because it's exciting.”
Q: What’s kind of your message to Raider Nation about the draft being here in Las Vegas?
Ziegler: “Yea, I think, one, just to embrace and enjoy it. It's a special thing to be able to host a draft and go down there and experience all the all the things that the NFL has set up for fans to experience and to actually go see the draft. I actually attended the draft in New York City. That might have been in 2006, 2007. I waited out in line outside of Music City Radio Hall at like 5:30 in the morning to get into the draft as a fan. It was the year that Randy Moss got traded I think on the second day. That's when the draft was Saturday and Sunday. And I sat in there and listened to the draft and had that experience myself as a fan before I got into this business. I think it's a cool experience. If you love football, the NFL draft is an exciting thing. It's exciting thing for your teams, but for the people in Vegas, I’d just encourage them to go down there and experience it. We should take pride in hosting these events here in Vegas. And like I mentioned, Vegas is a city to host big events. Big events should be in Vegas because that's the type of city that Vegas is. So, I hope they show up and they enjoy it. As of today, they will have to wait a little bit until when we pick, if that's how it all works out. But they should be ready for an exciting weekend.”
Q: We've heard everybody from picks 1-6 is trying to get out of the top of the draft. Are you hearing conversations about that? Secondly, there was all this talk about Derek Carr’s new contract and the team trying to build an out after one year. What was your kind of feeling of getting that done?
Ziegler: “So, the first question, I would say just kind of working through that process of I'd say getting a pulse of where things are at with the league. To answer your question specifically, no. I haven't really heard that there is this 1-6 movement that everyone's trying to back out and trade back or any of those types of things. So, we'll see how that materializes. That's not something that I would say that we're in tune to or there has been like specific discussions on that. In terms of the contract extension with Derek, we we're very excited to get that done. That's why we got it done. He obviously was in the last year of his contract, and could have played on that last year, but we felt it was important to get Derek extended, make him a part of the Raiders future here going forward. And so, how the contract was built and all those different types of things, people can look into all those things and create different story lines and different headings to look into. At the end of the day, we're excited that he's here now. We're excited that he's here going forward. The extension was longer than one year, and it was longer than one year for a reason. So, we hope he's really successful this year and throughout the contract. Again, Derek is a person that is another guy that embodies I think a lot of the things that we've talked about throughout the process since I've been hired. Someone that's highly passionate about football, someone that's team oriented, someone that has a high football IQ. And those are the guys that you want to have on your team. And in that position, it's even more important. So, just really excited that we were able to come to an agreement and that we have him here going forward.”
Q: What's been Mark Davis's direction to you and to Josh McDaniels? His direction or advice as you approach the draft?
Ziegler: “Well, I think the one thing that is a real positive about Mark is, Mark lets you do your job. Mark's very passionate about the Raiders and Mark wants to win football games, which is another very attractive trait of Mark as an owner of a football team. Those are the types of owners that you want to have. I wouldn't say there's a directive from Mark. Mark, just like us, we want to add good football players that represent the Raiders well on the field, but also represent the Raiders off the field. And I know that's an important aspect. That's something that Mark has preached to us and something that's important to Mark and something that's important to us. And I think that's really the directive. If there's a directive, which he hasn't specifically sat us down and said, this is the directive, but Mark wants players that are going to help us win football games and are going to be good people in the community and are going to be good representatives of the Raiders brand. And so that's our focus going forward.”
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