[SBXVII]

Mike Shanahan on the OL and Draft picks.....

On the characteristics he’s looking for when evaluating the offensive line:

“Good offensive lineman. We’re looking for a balance. You want guys that can obviously do the job in the running game, and they have the ability to pass protect as well. These guys have been working extremely hard for the last month and I was impressed with a lot of our offensive linemen the last couple days.”





On if Denver Broncos left tackle Ryan Clady is his standard for draft offensive linemen:

“Everybody would love a Ryan Clady. They don’t happen very often. In fact I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a couple guys, Gary Zimmerman and Ryan Clady, and at the same time you win a lot of football games you don’t usually get a guy like that unless you’re very fortunate. We’re going to always try to get the best players that we could possibly get, and hopefully we can add to our football team.”



On his draft philosophy with regards to trading picks:

“I think if you look at my past, I love draft choices, so this is a little bit unusual for me going in without a third or a sixth rounder, and making the decision to acquire someone like Donovan [McNabb]. In the past I haven’t done that very many times. Every once in a while you’ll throw a draft choice here or there, which you feel gives your football team a chance to get better, but at the same time you know those draft choices are very important and I guarantee you we won’t give them away very quickly unless we think it’s the best thing for the football team.”