Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni

Howie Roseman: This was on my mind last night, but obviously the way that the draft went and the press conference and the energy I was having, I didn’t feel like it was the right time. But, [Head] Coach [Nick Sirianni] and I, on behalf of the entire Eagles organization, want to send our thoughts and prayers to the family of [Director of College Scouting] Matt Terpening of the Indianapolis Colts, whose wife unexpectedly passed away last week. The whole NFL world is feeling for him. We have a lot of connections to him in this building and for us, it’s been something that’s been on our hearts and minds all week. So just wanted to start by sharing our thoughts for him and his family.

Q. What did you like about S Andrew Mukuba? (Dave Zangaro)

Howie Roseman: It’s really hard to find cover safeties and guys who have the ability to come down and play over the slot, play in the middle of the field, have natural instincts, play the ball. He was a slot corner at Clemson before he transferred to Texas. He’s an Austin kid. He’s got ball skills. He plays with mentality and this guy, he plays an Eagles brand of football. I think for us, the value fit the need right there. We felt like throughout this process, this guy just did everything, checked all the boxes, and that was really what we’re looking for from that position.

Q. When you say need, do you mean safety or slot? (Jeff McLane)

Howie Roseman: Well, I think he could do both those things, but he’s going to start in the safety room, and I think that at the end of the day, we’re looking to add competition to that position. But we really stayed true to our board at that point. We had a couple of guys there that we liked. We considered moving back, but we really liked Andrew and his play temperament and his play style and the tools that he has in his body and the mentality that he’ll bring to Philly.

Q. He’s definitely on the smaller side. I guess obviously you can make him bigger, but how does he offset that and why did you guys feel comfortable about the lack of size? (Jeff McLane)

Howie Roseman: I just think at the end of the day, you watch the tape, you see the tools that he has in his body, you know the person and he’s got a nose for the ball, and he’s got a feel for making big time plays in big time moments. That’s really the skillset we’re looking for from the safety position– guys who have the versatility to play down, who can play in the middle of the field, obviously who can play shell coverage. So, all these things are things that he can do really well, and we feel like this is a guy that really we had targeted there when we opened up this morning.

Q. The way he plays, such a physical guy at that size. How much do you take into account– I mean, is there ever a concern, he’s just so physical at his size that in the NFL playing against bigger, stronger, faster guys, injuries could be a concern? (Reuben Frank)

Howie Roseman: I think that’s a concern with every player that you’re drafting. Obviously, it’s a physical game and injuries happen, but the guy’s been durable and he’s a heck of a player. I think our fans are going to love his play style. I know that that’s what jumps off the tape to us. I know even after we’re doing it Coach– and of course Coach in his way, he was already looking at things he can help him improve on, and he had watched him a bunch of times before, but he’s like, ‘Look at this play, look at this play.’ And it’s just, he’s that kind of player who is a really fun watch and a really good player.

Q. Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman mentioned competition at safety. How do you feel about that competition right now after adding S Andrew Mukuba? (Bob Brookover)

Nick Sirianni: I liked the room before we even got into the draft tonight, just the pieces that we have in that room. And obviously, Andrew adds to that. Really, really excited about that room and the competition that we’re going to get there.

Q. What kind of plays were standing out that S Andrew Mukuba– (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: This guy just can run and hit and he has a knack to take the football away. You can tell the football is constantly on his mind, whether it’s in coverage or coming after a tackle and being the second man in on a tackle and getting a strip attempt. It’s constantly on his mind. I just love tough players and it just oozes off the tape how physical he plays, how tough he plays, how he plays with relentless effort and throws his body around. I love that about him. I’m really excited.

Howie Roseman: He loves the top players, I like the athletic players. Together, we match perfectly.

Q. In the third round, you traded down twice to get out. What was the thought process behind that? (John McMullen)

Howie Roseman: When we were picking where we were in the third round, we were really watching the board looking for opportunities to move up to kind of watch him where it was and where we felt like there was an opportunity maybe to get someone who was a little bit higher on our board. And then the opportunity where there was a kind of sweet spot on our board. As we got closer to our pick, we had a couple of opportunities there that we felt like kind of maximized where we were on our board and getting the pick next year, I think we’re going to be at 12 or 13 picks next year, and a lot of them in the first five rounds.

I think obviously that’s exciting. Not saying that we don’t have things that we don’t want to improve on this football team right now, because we do, but we then felt like again the move down tomorrow gave us an opportunity in the fourth round here to kind of sleep on it and really get our board set and ready for tomorrow. Having six picks tomorrow, a great opportunity to improve our football team on the third day. It’s a really fun day for us and we just felt like it made sense to make those two moves with where the board was at.

Q. Was S Andrew Mukuba on your radar at all at Clemson? He talked about how much changing schools helped him. Did you see that? (Reuben Frank)

Howie Roseman: Our scouts do an amazing job. This draft will end and it’s not like they go home and walk their dog for three months. They’re watching guys in preparation for next year because when we report to training camp, they know I’m going to say, ‘Who am I watching?’

And so they do a great job of summer scouting, and for me, I’ve got an opportunity in training camp because I’m here, there’s not preseason film for the first few weeks. We have practice, you watch practice and we’re here supporting the staff till we can. And so it’s a great opportunity to really get a head start on college guys before things kick into full swing. And what are you doing? You’re watching the last year because they’re not going to change so much athletically, playing personality, playing style.

So I guess long-winded answer is yes, watching him at Clemson is where he first gets on the radar and then you see him at Texas and in this league, there’s no such thing anymore as box safety. I mean you have to be able to play in space. We talked about it last night, it is a space game and the guys are just too fast and too explosive in this league when you get to the second and third level. So yeah, he was on our radar.

Q. On changing schools, he talked about his self-awareness about his own development. How vital is that as he is stepping into a room where there is competition for him to get on the field? (Brooks Kubena)

Howie Roseman: Yeah, I think that’s a great question for Coach. When you have players who are self-aware and that just means they want to be coached, they want to get better.

Q. You mentioned possibly trading back from the second round, but you’ve had success in the past trading up in the second round, especially with day one targets. This year, were you too far back to do that or is there not that type of player? How would you describe that? (Zach Berman)

Howie Roseman: It’s a great question. We always start day two with a list. Obviously, when you’re going into day one and you’re picking 32, there is a scenario where you’re moving back into the second round and we’ve had that before and so that list starts your day two.

We had a couple players. It’s interesting, and Coach and I were talking about it first thing when we were talking this morning and he’s like, ‘Where do you think these players go?’ And I go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the whole league sees it a lot of the same [way]. That’s why you saw we got to the eighth pick in the second round last year to get [DB] Coop [Cooper DeJean]. For where we are, it’s like the trades there, they’re so substantial.

A lot of times it’s hard if your ammunition is in future drafts because people want to improve their teams right now. And so it was something that we considered. It was something we looked into. It got to the point in the second round where it didn’t really make sense for us and the prices that were going, but certainly it was something that we considered and there were certain players that we were willing to be aggressive for in the second round.

Q. You guys mentioned obviously that it’s a changing league and you’ve got to have versatility and everything. What kind of made you guys come to that realization that you needed to have as many versatile players as possible? (Martin Frank)

Howie Roseman: Well, I think that was a little misunderstood. I wasn’t saying we need to have as many versatile players. I was saying we need to have as many explosive, fast players that we can have. I don’t think that’s like a headline or anything like, ‘GM wants fast physical, explosive players.’

I think that it’s just, to me, these guys are so fast in this league and they’re such explosive players, and explosiveness comes in different ways. It doesn’t come in just speed. It comes in power, it comes in change of direction. And so, at the end of the day, there’s nowhere that you can be slow on defense. And certainly, that’s our goal to keep adding players who fit that description.