(On the 13th pick)
“First of all, obviously we just picked Adam Carriker out of Nebraska. I tried to keep it somewhat of a secret that he was the guy that I was hoping would be there and that came true. There was a chance that a couple people ahead of us had him pretty high I’m sure, and they always do, but it was obviously a player that we spent a lot of time evaluating. We went out and worked him out, myself and Jim Haslett. Tony Softli went with me as well. We spent time with him, brought him in here on our top 30 visit, spent some more time and watched maybe one of the best individual workouts I’ve ever seen a 6’6”, 300-pound man do. The fact that he’s from eastern Washington didn’t hurt. He’s from my area of the country and that doesn’t factor in much, but I might have a little bit of a soft spot for him. The great thing about Adam is that he fits a lot of categories and for us he’s going to automatically play defensive tackle. A lot of the time he played base in a defense where he played on the tackle which is why a lot of people looked at him in the 3-4, but he showed us that he has the ability to carry the weight and have the size and power to play the interior. The best thing that he does is play the run. He’s best with his hands and is one of those guys who is a coach’s dream, a very disruptive player and understands that a lot of the time that the role of a defensive tackle is to eat up blockers so that the linebackers can run free. I’m really, really excited about this pick and in a crunch he could probably play every position along the defensive line, but obviously we are going to place him there at defensive tackle to start off.”

(On Adam Carriker playing inside)
“He played end but he also played inside on third downs quite a bit and inside on short yardage where the slide down from end into a 3-technique and his ability to play that position on a tackle next to a tight end is the evaluation we are looking at because he will be doing the same thing technique-wise for us playing off the blocks and double teams and things like that. He has leverage and power and the ability to bend. He’s 6’6”, 300 pounds and ran a 4.7 (second) 40 (yard dash) at his workout. You can look at the growth potential. Right now he looks pretty good at 300 or 305 pounds. At some point when as grows into that position he may be able to carry, I don’t know about a substantial more weight, but he easily could with the frame he has and become even bigger if we needed him.”

(On his potential to succeed in the NFL)
“His measurable are number one but we spent I’d say five hours with the defensive coordinator who I have a little bit of a background with, we actually have a coach on our staff who worked with him at Wisconsin who’s now at Nebraska. I know there are some pretty good players that have come out of there, but the best player he’s ever coached is the first thing that came out of his mouth and if you guys need somebody who is going to help your defensive front that starts with being a great run defender and this is what he does best and can play anywhere on the line. He basically talked about films to look at, things to help us evaluate that, so there is no doubt. We even asked if he could play inside at the nose as if it was a stretch and they said it may be the best position for him one day. You kind of need to think out of the box a little bit. One of the best nose guards I’ve ever been around was Keith Traylor, who is a little bit older now, but he was college linebacker who grew into the position and the best thing he did was play the run. I’m not saying that it’s the same evaluation but you certainly know that that’s what he will be able to do for us.”

(On if DE/DT Adam Carriker is comfortable playing DT)
“He didn’t even blink.  In fact, in the crunch he may even play some nose tackle for us.  The though it is, there are all kinds of things you can do (with Carriker).  He said, ‘Coach, I’ll play wherever you want me to play.  I’ll give you my best every week.’”

(On Carriker’s versatility)
“That’s the thing we talked about.  Being able to discuss this as a staff and a defense and say, ‘If we have the chance to draft this guy, how are we going to play him in the interior, and how can he still continue to play in some packages because he’s played it?’ But it was fairly easy, once we got in those discussions that we felt very comfortable with him being able to fit into our defensive scheme right away.”

(On possibly trading up in the first round of the draft)
“First of all, the interest was somewhat of a groundswell, but I’m really not sure because there wasn’t the discussion between clubs.  Basically, you can’t comment or discuss trades until there’s been permission granted and really there was nothing there.  All the way up until our pick, there was never any discussion between the people that would have to be discussing that to make it a reality.  So, it became a non-issue at the end.”

(On the possibility of the Rams making some trades during the draft)
“I don’t know.  I can’t tell you that.  I don’t foresee any.  There were scenarios that could’ve happened and we went through them all.  Some of them were long shots and some of them were realistic and we went through every one of those.  I think there was one just after our pick.  I had been phoned that there was a trade and somebody moved into the 14th spot.  This is about when you expect that.  Had something unforeseen happened, I’m sure there would’ve been a possibility of that happening with us, but there was no way we were going to pass on the player that we wanted, at this spot, if he was there.”

(On possibly being out of the hunt for a veteran DT)
“It does not take us out of the running.  It puts us in a different position, maybe.  It puts a different light on it.  We just drafted a defensive tackle, we believe.  Certainly, it fulfills a need from the rookie pool coming in, and if something happens we’re always looking at improving the team.”

(On if Carriker will see immediate playing time)
“No question.  That’s what he’s been doing.  He’s been playing at a high level his whole career there.  The fact that the defensive coordinator at Nebraska is someone I had a background with and their secondary coach is a guy that I worked with.  Spending that time and listening to them and explain what they think this player can do for you helps.  Both of those gentlemen said that this is maybe the best kid that they’ve been around and he also has great ability, and both of them compared him to one of the best players they’ve ever been around.”

(On if they expected DT Adam Carriker to be available at Pick 13)
“He was obviously the number one player remaining.  There were some pretty good players that went ahead, as always.  We thought it was going to be 50/50 whether he was going to be there because there were two teams that showed considerable interest as well and it’s hard to say what’s going to happened.  A couple of scenarios were that he wasn’t going to be there and we were going to have to go another route, which we would’ve done.  I know last night and this morning, my thoughts were, ‘In a perfect world, if nothing happens, this is a player that’s going to be picked by the Rams.’  I was very happy that this was able to work out.”