2011 draft class

[Anonymous]

Based on what you've seen this spring so far--and granted it's early so we won't hold you to it--what would you say right now about the 2nd year improvement and development of Quinn, Kendricks, Pettis, and Salas?

And if you had a do-over, would you have kept any of the lower round picks from that draft (including players like Williams and Hines)? (In short, do you regret the team having cut them last year.)

 

[kdemoff]

The old adage is that a players' biggest development is between the first and second year, and I think all of our picks from last year have shown great improvement. Quinn was dominant in the OTA's which was a great sign. Pettis and Salas both showed really good hands and ability and I expect that will continue through training camp. Pettis was noticeably improved and became a good target for Sam. Kendricks is well suited for the F role in Coach Schottenheimer's offense and it showed. They should all make strong contributions this year.

To be honest, I regret cutting any young player from last year given the way the year played out. The more young players we would have had the more we could have played them at the end of last season and found out if they had any ability. Did we make some mistakes last year? Absolutely, but we all made them together. It will be very frustrating to see a young player develop on another team that we had identified in the draft as a player who could improve our team, especially a player like Williams when we could use more young competition at OLB.