Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer
I think part of the draft is always about, number one, picking the best players for your football team and part of it is luck, that guys that you really like are still there. A lot of it was a little of both tonight, so far. First of all, the amount of work that our scouts, Rick (Spielman), George Paton and all of those guys have done has been tremendous on everybody in the draft. We did a whole bunch of work on obviously, Trae Waynes and to me, it’s extremely important that you have guys with great character, great leadership, great competitors and then obviously, the athletic ability that he has. That’s always been big to me and everybody says that I love corners, and I guess I do, but I love good football players more than I love corners. I felt like he could help us a whole lot in a lot of different ways. Everybody bases the Pro Bowl on how many interceptions you get and you may get six or eight interceptions a year, whereas, my whole mentality is how many times do you deny your guy the football? You have the chance to do that 40 times a ball game, maybe. So, I think that’s important for our corners that we have here with the Vikings.
Q: Do you anticipate Trae Waynes to compete for a starting job right away
A: I anticipate everybody to compete for a starting job.
Q: Trae Waynes came in at 186lbs. at the Combine. Do you think that he needs to gain weight?
A: No, I think it’s natural prototype for corners, 185 pounds that are starters in the league, so he’s got good height, good speed. I don’t worry about the 186lbs. I worry about if they can cover.
Q: Is there a player that Trae Waynes reminds you of?
A: I don’t like making comparisons to guys because it kind of pigeonholes them. He’s got length like Stephon Gilmore, he kind of reminds me a little bit of him. They’re different guys. I actually went to his work out, but that’s kind of a little bit of who he reminded me of.
Q: Xavier Rhodes faced a learning curve, drawing the line between being physical and getting penalties – do you think that’s something that Trae’s going to have to work through?
A: I think when all college corners when they come into the NFL, the rules are so different where you can put your hands on receivers. Trae has a little bit of grabby up the field, which we’ll have to correct. He does a good job in press, but there’s some things that I see on tape that I want to address with him. But he’s got the great size and the length, and he’s done a great job. Michigan State does a great job in teaching these corners anyways. They’ve done it for a long time.
Q: What did you learn about him on your trip to Michigan State?
A: It’s just seeing these guys with my own eyes. I go out here at practice and watch them and then I can kind of visualize in my mind what they would look like compared to the rest of the guys.
Q: What stood out to you as you looked through some of the top cornerbacks?
A: I think his overall game is the combination of everything. He’s got great speed, he’s 4.31, he’s 6-0 and it’s hard to find 6-0 corners nowadays. There’s a few in this draft this year, but to get big corners that can run and have good change of direction, they are hard to find.
Q: Do you look at the potential to pair Trae with Xavier Rhodes, having two tall corners going forward here in the future?
A: Not so much the tall part. I mean, obviously you want to get as big of guys as you can that can still play the positions. It was more about finding another good, solid corner as we go into the future, yes.
Q: What were your thoughts when the Bears made their selection at No. 7?
A: I was glad they didn’t take Waynes. Really.
Q: Does having Trae Waynes and his height make you feel better after the Bears selected Kevin White?
A: Yeah, it’s nice to be able to have height against height. You can probably write it down that we’re not going to take any 5’9 corners here. Rick (Spielman) and I have talked about that many times. I like big guys.
Q: At what point during the process did you think that Trae Waynes is a guy that you would like to have on the Vikings?
A: It’s been ongoing for quite a while. It’s not so much, “It’s this particular guy.” It’s this group of guys that we think would really fit. Chicago might have taken him, so you have to have three or four guys. I know for the last week, we’ve been kind of sweating it, that he might go before we get a chance to pick.
Q: I know you really covet smart, intelligent players in the secondary, especially. Was there anything specific you saw in Trae during this pre-draft process?
A: Well, we had him in for the Top 30 (visit). I sat him down and talked to him for quite a while. All of our coaches, George Edwards, talked to him about defense, schematics and learning. So did Jerry Gray. We have a process that we go through that each one of these guys that come in, come in and talk to us for quite a while. I sat and talked to him for a long time, as well.
Q: Does adding another talented cornerback like this allow you to do things more schematically that you weren’t able to do last year?
A: Yes. Depending on how fast this guy matures and how fast he gets into the NFL game and all of that stuff. When you don’t have to worry too much about the corners – these guys got them covered – you don’t have to give them much help, you don’t have to cheat the coverages; you can do numerous things that allow you to attack offenses. But when you have to help a guy or protect a guy, use some more of your guys than you really would like to, then it makes it more difficult, yes.
I think part of the draft is always about, number one, picking the best players for your football team and part of it is luck, that guys that you really like are still there. A lot of it was a little of both tonight, so far. First of all, the amount of work that our scouts, Rick (Spielman), George Paton and all of those guys have done has been tremendous on everybody in the draft. We did a whole bunch of work on obviously, Trae Waynes and to me, it’s extremely important that you have guys with great character, great leadership, great competitors and then obviously, the athletic ability that he has. That’s always been big to me and everybody says that I love corners, and I guess I do, but I love good football players more than I love corners. I felt like he could help us a whole lot in a lot of different ways. Everybody bases the Pro Bowl on how many interceptions you get and you may get six or eight interceptions a year, whereas, my whole mentality is how many times do you deny your guy the football? You have the chance to do that 40 times a ball game, maybe. So, I think that’s important for our corners that we have here with the Vikings.
Q: Do you anticipate Trae Waynes to compete for a starting job right away
A: I anticipate everybody to compete for a starting job.
Q: Trae Waynes came in at 186lbs. at the Combine. Do you think that he needs to gain weight?
A: No, I think it’s natural prototype for corners, 185 pounds that are starters in the league, so he’s got good height, good speed. I don’t worry about the 186lbs. I worry about if they can cover.
Q: Is there a player that Trae Waynes reminds you of?
A: I don’t like making comparisons to guys because it kind of pigeonholes them. He’s got length like Stephon Gilmore, he kind of reminds me a little bit of him. They’re different guys. I actually went to his work out, but that’s kind of a little bit of who he reminded me of.
Q: Xavier Rhodes faced a learning curve, drawing the line between being physical and getting penalties – do you think that’s something that Trae’s going to have to work through?
A: I think when all college corners when they come into the NFL, the rules are so different where you can put your hands on receivers. Trae has a little bit of grabby up the field, which we’ll have to correct. He does a good job in press, but there’s some things that I see on tape that I want to address with him. But he’s got the great size and the length, and he’s done a great job. Michigan State does a great job in teaching these corners anyways. They’ve done it for a long time.
Q: What did you learn about him on your trip to Michigan State?
A: It’s just seeing these guys with my own eyes. I go out here at practice and watch them and then I can kind of visualize in my mind what they would look like compared to the rest of the guys.
Q: What stood out to you as you looked through some of the top cornerbacks?
A: I think his overall game is the combination of everything. He’s got great speed, he’s 4.31, he’s 6-0 and it’s hard to find 6-0 corners nowadays. There’s a few in this draft this year, but to get big corners that can run and have good change of direction, they are hard to find.
Q: Do you look at the potential to pair Trae with Xavier Rhodes, having two tall corners going forward here in the future?
A: Not so much the tall part. I mean, obviously you want to get as big of guys as you can that can still play the positions. It was more about finding another good, solid corner as we go into the future, yes.
Q: What were your thoughts when the Bears made their selection at No. 7?
A: I was glad they didn’t take Waynes. Really.
Q: Does having Trae Waynes and his height make you feel better after the Bears selected Kevin White?
A: Yeah, it’s nice to be able to have height against height. You can probably write it down that we’re not going to take any 5’9 corners here. Rick (Spielman) and I have talked about that many times. I like big guys.
Q: At what point during the process did you think that Trae Waynes is a guy that you would like to have on the Vikings?
A: It’s been ongoing for quite a while. It’s not so much, “It’s this particular guy.” It’s this group of guys that we think would really fit. Chicago might have taken him, so you have to have three or four guys. I know for the last week, we’ve been kind of sweating it, that he might go before we get a chance to pick.
Q: I know you really covet smart, intelligent players in the secondary, especially. Was there anything specific you saw in Trae during this pre-draft process?
A: Well, we had him in for the Top 30 (visit). I sat him down and talked to him for quite a while. All of our coaches, George Edwards, talked to him about defense, schematics and learning. So did Jerry Gray. We have a process that we go through that each one of these guys that come in, come in and talk to us for quite a while. I sat and talked to him for a long time, as well.
Q: Does adding another talented cornerback like this allow you to do things more schematically that you weren’t able to do last year?
A: Yes. Depending on how fast this guy matures and how fast he gets into the NFL game and all of that stuff. When you don’t have to worry too much about the corners – these guys got them covered – you don’t have to give them much help, you don’t have to cheat the coverages; you can do numerous things that allow you to attack offenses. But when you have to help a guy or protect a guy, use some more of your guys than you really would like to, then it makes it more difficult, yes.
