Rams Head Coach Scott Linehan & Executive Vice President of Play= er Personnel Billy Devaney

Rams Head Coach S= cott Linehan & Executive Vice President of Player Pers= onnel Billy Devaney

Press Conference<= /span>

April 26, 2008

(On Draft selection = DE Chris Long)

Billy Delaney: ̶= 0;For those who haven’t heard, the Rams selected Chris Long, a defensive end from Virginia with the second pick. When we got down to it, Scott (L= inehan) and I talked last night one last time just to, more or less, solidify our opinion and our conviction about this player. You know all of the players t= hat we had discussed but we can say now this guy, going back to the Combine, wa= s a focal point. We interviewed Chris when we were back in Indianapolis, talked to Jay Zygmunt. Scott and myself = went back to Charlottesville for his pro day and his work out. While we were back there, we met with Howie (Long) that morning, had coffee and talked abou= t the Ram organization and about St.= Louis and how great a fit we thought this would be for Chris. Then we brought Chr= is in last week with the other candidates and it just became apparent the more time that we spent with Chris Long, independent of the physical skills. Our coaches were involved, our scouts were involved and that was kind of the ea= sy part. We knew he was going to be a great fit but the more time we spent with the person we just saw what he brings to the organization. The energy, he f= it the work ethic, it just adds to what we have here already. We think he is g= oing to be a great addition for a long time to come. I can’t tell you how = excited we are to have a guy of his playing ability and his work ethic and character.”

(On Long’s abilities to play)

BD: “We really= like his ability to rush the passer. He played a lot of inside, almost defensive tackle type, at Virginia and he played really good there. I think the way we plan to utilize him out= in space more, he’ll be able to show just wha= t kind of athlete he is, how good he is coming off the ball and what a good pass-rusher that he is. He will be good against the run. We look at him as a three-down player. There is no doubt in our mind he is a first, second and third down player and we really expect big things of him as a pass rusher.”

(On deciding between= Long and Glenn Dorsey)

Scott Linehan: “It’s close because they are both great players. From the very beginning that was really the hardest part. It’s kind of like you pick one of your children or something. But at the end of the day, Chris is real= ly what the doctor ordered for not only our defense or football team, but for = an organization because of his ability level, which is pretty darn good and wh= at he can do for a team in the defensive line in the pass-rush part of things = and being an every-down player. But just what he will be able to do and bring to the team as far as all that other stuff. He inherited all those things from= his father and now that I have had a chance to visit with his mother, its appar= ent to me that she brought some pretty great qualities to him as well. This is really what we were looking for. In the end, yeah it is tough because it wo= uld have been nice to have drafted both of them but it really was not a big dea= l to be honest with you. I don’t want to use the over-used term ‘no = brainer’ but I guess I am going to have to here= . He just fits us. You are going to get a chance to meet this guy. I guess I call him a kid, he seems a lot younger to me. I must be getting up there in age.= You are just going to find out all the things we’re telling you about him. It’s just going to be a great fit for us and great for the city. I can’t wait for this next season. I am a little g= eeked up right now but what is going to be really fun for me and for you all is to get a chance meet this individual. You know a lot about his profile, just w= ait until you get to meet him and I think you all will understand what we are talking about here. But he is a great fit for us. He is going to start on t= he right side for us at right end. Obviously James (Hall) played for us there = and played very well for us and is back but you always nee= d a wave there anyway. This is the kind of guy that the motor never stops and he hates that term by the way, the ‘high motor’ thing. I think he thinks it is a shot on his ability and he has got a lot of ability too. We = will kind of end it there. But just know that it was an omen. When we all went d= own to Charlottesville= , Jay and I were both pretty under the weather. We got down there and it was about 25-30 degrees. We couldn’t get our antibiotics so Billy had to bring them down on the other plane. We stood out in abo= ut 35 degree windshield weather to watch Chris do a 3-4 workout day, when he was working out with the Dolphins. But I met with H= owie, met with Chris and I leaned over to both of those guys and I said ‘th= is is an omen. We are going to the end of the earth for this fellow, this has to be our pick.’ We are really excited and can’t wait = to get started.”

(On Jay Zygmunt catching pneumonia)

SL: “Well I to= ld Jay that if you’re ever going to catch pneumonia, it’s going to be today and then he went back and went to the doctor and they said he had pneumonia so, hopefully it won’t happen again. But it was a heck of a day, getting a chance to sit down with Howie (L= ong). And then we met with Chris (Long) several times, I guess combines, you know= at his pro day, we brought him in on the top-30 visit, you know it’s one= of those guys that after that it’s kind of seems like you’ve known= him all your life, it’s just the kind of kid he is. But it’s going = to be a lot of fun for you to get to know him as well.”

(On what at the end = of the day separated Long from Dorsey and if there were medical concerns with Dors= ey)

BD: “No, worki= ng backwards, there wasn’t anything that made us shy away from Dorsey, b= ut I think we were pretty obvious over the last couple of months that we kind of= had four candidates at the top, Jake Long being included in that, and when he w= as eliminated by going to Miami, we still felt like we had three top candidates and to say that we really had one guy up there that we rated first, as our highest rated player. We had these guys clumped together and our decision o= ver the past couple weeks was just to try to separate them and try to figure out what guy fits best for the Rams. Chris Long was right up there as was Gholston, with Dorsey and absolutely nothing caused u= s to shy away from Dorsey.”

(On tweaking the boa= rd Thursday)

BD: “The only = thing I can say is that everybody tweaks their board right up until the end and that’s from top to bottom. We had some late medical information on pe= ople and we took some people off of our board who were possible mid-round picks.= We found out some character information late in the process and you kind of mo= ve guys around, so to say that you set your board a week before the draft, you know there is fine tuning right up to the very end. And did we do that? Absolutely, and so did 31 other teams.”

(On the amount of po= ssible trade activity for the pick)

BD: “I donR= 17;t know if you would say much, but yeah, there were some teams talking to us a= bout possibly moving up. I don’t know how sincere it was, but there were a couple of teams that seemed like they would have been semi-serious I guess,= but it would have, like we have been saying all along, it’s going to take something extraordinary to get us off of Chris Long and that never happened.”

(On when they settle= d on Chris Long)

SL: “I’m= going to answer that. In my mind a long time ago and I think Billy would agree. I think the only thing that really threw a wrench in what would happen if Jake Long was still in the mix, in a lot of ways probably three or four days ago when he was still on the board. There was still some talk about Glen (Dorse= y) and even Vernon (Gholston) and there is a lot of really great things about them and they are exceptional players and can rea= lly help another team now, but to me it was kind of academic and you really can’t show your hand there. You don’t want to get too excited a= bout a player then I think it gets a little obvious. I guess you just use your common sense and you break down what we need is what he brings as far as a football player, but it goes deeper than that. This kid just brings energy = and life to the building. When he walks in, it’s not because he is Howie Long’s son, it’s because he is Chris Long in the way he plays, the way he acts and the way he carries himself. The players will love him. He is a humble kid, = he was brought up the right way and he understands that he has a long way to go now and it’s a little bit like being a freshman again, but he has no problems stepping out there being an impact type guy and he does it with a = lot of other things and it was basically done at that point in my mind.”<= /span>

(On Long as a run de= fender)

SL: “I think h= e is a very good run defender, in fact you can evaluate him very well there becaus= e he plays inside in that 3-4 basically as a 5-technique End in their 3-4, so you get to see him do that. He has great hands, very similar to what Adam Carriker had as an End as = far as his hands, his usage to shed blocks. He is not as big as Adam was. For Adam= it was a natural move inside because of his size and all those things, but he = held his own. I mean they move him over and put him on the kid from Pittsburgh because they knew he was the= ir best run-blocker, Otah, and they move him aroun= d. A lot of times you move guys that can’t play the run away from those gu= ys in games and they put him right on him and those are the kinds of things th= at I notice personally and so he does a very very go= od job there. That’s why we feel very confident about his every down ability= . He really turns it on when he gets in the two-minute and third down situations. For him to be able to go and get out in that wide-end alignment, he gets do= wn there in that little Jason Taylor stance and comes off the edge, that’= ;s probably where you will really get excited. I love stopping the run and I t= hink we got some really good run players and we really improved there and this g= uy really adds to that third down dimension that we were looking for.”

(On Carriker staying in the middle)

SL: “Oh yeah. = Adam made great strides there. I think I would like Adam to play more in the three-technique alignment and that is a natural position, but he played very well for us at nose. He started 16 games for us at nose guard last year and= we made lot of improvement from the year before in our run defense and Will Witherspoon’s play improved from the year before that had a big, big impact on that. We drafted Adam to play there and that’s why it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to all of a sudden now move him back out, although we could and it did gives us versatility and it did come up, = but Adam, that is a natural position for him and I like playing guys at positio= ns that they play and that’s really where we are at.”<= /o:p>

(On when Long was to= ld)

SL: “We told h= im about 20 minutes ago, I don’t know how long ago now, but we did not tell him before. There’s a lot of stuff out there, but we actually had a hard = time getting a hold of him. His connection was bad and his cell phone wasn’= ;t working and we told (assistant director of football media) Artis (Twyman) to get him from the Commissioner and I shouldn’t have done that. I hope he doesn’t tell him who that w= as. I told Artis, ‘Get him’ and I hope = that the Commissioner doesn’t give me a letter of reprimand, hopefully he won’t.”