Chiefs GM Scott Pioli Talks Senior Bowl
Earlier we brought you some quotes from Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli on Tyson Jackson. Pioli gave those quotes on the NFL Network in an interview about the Senior Bowl.
Pioli sat down with Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff to chat with the NFL Network guys about the what he is looking for from the pro prospects this week.
“I think the most important part is actually seeing these players show up and the ones that do show up is how they perform, what they do, what they chose to do, what they don’t choose to do because there’s a lot of people who are given this opportunity and it’s clear that the players are showing up here really care about competing and love football and they’re actually trying to put themselves on the radar,” said Pioli.
This statement pretty much follows the Pioli company line of looking for team first guys who are more interested in helping the team and playing football than becoming superstars and collecting individual accolades.
Dimitroff and Pioli come from the same roots and the Falcons GM also chimed in on what his organization is looking for.
“I hate to steal Scott’s line here but we are system specific in our scouting, there’s no question about it,” said Dimitroff. “We’re a 4-3 team for instance on defense. We’re looking for a certain type of player and we make sure that we focus on the type of players that are gonna fit our system. We obviously evaluate everyone and we compare ‘em again but we really need to make sure that we’re picking for our system and that’s very, very important for us.”
“Just to follow up on that,” added Pioli, “we have two very different systems as far as X’s and O’s on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball but I think something that we share, along with the Patriots and along with a couple of other teams is the type of guy that we’re looking for, from a makeup standpoint, maturity, just their overall passion for the game. Guys who really care about football and want to be football players.”
Again, really no surprises here. These guys are all about getting high character guys into their organizations.
It is always interesting to hear Pioli speak because he so rarely does interviews. Getting a better handle on how Pioli goes about his business should help us as we try to predict what his moves are going to be in April’s draft.
Based off what we know so far I think you can bet on the following:
-The system comes first
If the player isn’t suited to play KC’s style of football, he’ll be passed over regardless of his talent level. Pioli doesn’t want to try to fit square pegs into round holes.
-Character is key
The Chiefs drafted a ton of former team captains last year. If you are picking between a couple of players at a certain position for the Chiefs, like say, receiver, put your money on the Deion Branch before the Terrel Owens.
-Expect the unexpected
Other than Eric Berry I was completely befuddled by Pioli’s picks in last year’s draft. He surprised me when he took McCluster first in the second round (though I did predict he’d take McCluster with the second pick in the 2nd round), I shocked when he took Arenas, Asamoah and especially Moeaki.
This year I am hoping to have a better handle on Pioli’s style. What do you think Addicts? What surprise moves will Pioli make in this year’s draft?