New York Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, Head Coach Rex Ryan, VP College Scouting Joey Clinkscales, 4.22 Opening Statement… Mike Tannenbaum: We’re excited to get Kyle Wilson and once we sign him to a contract, I’ll tell you exactly how excited we are (laughing). We’re excited. (He is a) local guy from Piscataway, NJ, went out to Boise State (where he was a) two-time captain (who can) come in and be our punt returner as well. As I’ve said many times before, Rex (Ryan) has always asked for depth at the cornerback position, so between trading for Antonio Cromartie and now adding Kyle Wilson, we feel like we’ve done that. We still feel really good about Dwight Lowery. We feel like with that set of four cornerbacks, it gives us a better chance to compete against the passing attacks that we have to face each year in the AFC. We’re excited about Kyle. On whether Rex Ryan twisted his arm… Rex Ryan: No. I’ll tell you what. We sat looking at that board and I think I just said, ‘just hang in there, hang in there’, and that’s exactly what happened. Dennis Thurman had him ranked way up there. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want (people) to know how we slotted (our board). He was the 29th pick. That’s all we’ll say (laughing). But realistically what we need, the role that we have for him, he’ll be our starting nickel and our punt returner, or compete for the punt returning job, and hopefully contribute on special teams. But this is a guy that we drafted in the first round, and this is a guy that will play. That’s what Mike (Tannenbaum) and I talked about. We take him in the first round and he’s going to play and Kyle is definitely going to play for us. On the influence of the AFC Championship game on the selection… Ryan: Peyton (Manning) played true to form. He picked everybody apart, including New Orleans and they still lost the Super Bowl. Clearly, that was an issue. Certainly our goal is to win a Super Bowl, so we’re trying to put the best collection of players that we can together. I think what Mike’s done and the guys that are under Mike, the collection of players that we have we feel really good about right now. We felt good about it going into the draft. We feel better about it right now. On how tempting it was to take a pass rusher… Ryan: Not tempting at all. This guy was rated over those players. We felt great about this situation. This is a starter in our sub package. With the fact that we added Jason Taylor to our pass rush already, we feel pretty good about where we’re at defensively. We may end up number one in the league this year (smile). On if it would have been tempting to take a linebacker had Jason Taylor not been signed… Tannenbaum: When we were putting our strategy together, I would say that in this case the board and need aligned. Which is from our perspective, that’s the dream scenario where what you feel like what the most pressing need for your team and the best player when you pick align. I said a few days ago when we signed Jason, that would be more of a tie breaker, but in this case, the way the board fell, it was really an easy decision. It was a unanimous decision. The phone did ring a couple of times. We listened to a few things just to be thorough, but we were really excited that Kyle was there. We think, as Rex (Ryan) mentioned, in the sub package, the way teams plays now, the sub package could be five-six hundred plays. On Kyle Wilson… Joey Clinkscales: I think that you heard a lot. He played a lot of man-to-man at Boise State. He had a great Senior Bowl week. He’s an athletic corner that is also a punt returner. He’s physical. He’s a good tackler. There were a lot of characteristics that he had that we coveted it a lot. He’ll help in our sub packages and he is a great kid.
Considering how there's a supposed health problem with Kindle I'm really glad we took Wilson. For me it was between those two.
