The NFL’s owner meetings were held earlier today, giving the league’s various reporters an opportunity to talk to owners and general managers. We’ve compiled notable quotes regarding some of the offseason’s biggest moves, which you can find below…
Lions GM Martin Mayhew on his team’s outlook following Ndamukong Suh‘s departure (via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press):
“I think anytime you lose a quality player like that, especially in the short term, that is to your detriment. I think in the long term, I think we’re going to be glad we don’t have that contract on our books. But in the short term, that’s an issue.”
“There’s a lot of different ways to give somebody $100 million, so a lot of times the structure comes into play, too, and all those things matter. But I know we have some quality players on our team that we probably couldn’t keep if we had that deal on our books.”
“I couldn’t say we misjudged anything about (the situation). I think every step throughout the process I think we made a rational, thoughtful decision to move forward and then I think it got to a point where economically in terms of building a sustainable quality football team it didn’t make sense. And at that point, we decided that we weren’t going to continue to offer more.”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft on his team’s negotiations with former cornerback Darrelle Revis, and the teams intention to keep Chandler Jones, Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins (via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com):
“We thought we made a very competitive offer. I speak as a fan of the New England Patriots, we wanted to keep him. We wanted him in our system, and we have certain disciplines. We had hoped it worked out. It didn’t. We just don’t think about short-term decisions. For example, next year we have three very good young defensive players coming up and we have to factor that.”
“We just don’t look at this year; we look out at the next few years. We’ve done OK doing that. As a fan, in March and April, I hate to lose [Revis]. But our real focus is what goes on in the fall and winter. I put my faith and respect with Bill [Belichick]. We have a lot of discussions and he’s done pretty good the last 15 years. The fan in me argues all the time with him but he has a pretty good record.”
Colts owner Jim Irsay on his team’s decision to move on from veteran wideout Reggie Wayne (via Stephen Holder of The Indianapolis Star):
“Him and I had a very long talk, face-to-face, man-to-man. It was really hard.
“I told Reggie I just thought that we felt that it was time…It was very difficult because I have so much respect for what he’s done for the Colts and for the game itself. He truly is a Hall of Fame caliber player.”
“I just think that we always look at making sure we can put the best possible team on the field. It’s professional football. It’s very competitive and it has to do with winning and losing. So you can’t let affection or emotion cloud your decisions when you’re building your roster. And that’s what I mean. It always comes down to what’s the best direction for the franchise to go. And that’s the way decisions get made.”
Seahawks general manager John Schneider on his team’s reported pursuit of defensive end Greg Hardy (via Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times):
“I think you’ve heard me say before that we try to pride ourselves on being in every deal as much as we possibly can so that we know at the end of the day that when we put our heads on the pillow that we knew we were doing what was best for the organization and we decided no, we decided no and if we are going to stay in it we will stay in it. But I would never, it bugs me when certain deals go down, maybe a trade or something like that that I wasn’t in on or made aware of because you want to at least take a swing or decide if you want to be able to take a swing. So we always talk about with Trent (Kirchner) and Matt Thomas and Dan Morgan and all the guys in our pro department, that we are going to knock every door down and try to be in as many different deals as we possibly can. You cant be in everything but we will at least be able to walk away from it and know that we made a sound decision for the organization.’’