April 26, 2025 • 6 mins
The Patriots Unfiltered crew checks in with the Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Ryan Cowden to discuss day two of the NFL Draft.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan count and vice president of player Personnel for the
New England Patriots. Hey, Ryan, thanks for joining us. I
know it's been a long night for you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh that's okay. It's great. Appreciate you having me. It's
good to see you guys. And hello, I guess that
some of you haven't actually met in person yet with
everything going on.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, so it's Mike do So, Evan Lazar, Paul Parolo, myself,
Fred Kersh. I'll just start it out. When the when
this night started out, did you know you were gonna
go all offense?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think I think that the great thing about the
draft is you can always have a plan, but ultimately
the draft creates situations where you have to react. I
don't think you ever go in saying, man, we're gonna
we're gonna hammer this out on one side of the
ball or the other.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The key is following your board, trusting the board, and
leading yourself to the picks based off where you've evaluated players.
You never think I'm gonna go heavy on this side,
so it just sometimes works out.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Just turned out that way, yep.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, Ryan, want to ask you just about this running
back group. We've been talking to them all spring, everyone
talked about how there's going to be good players from
you know, top of the draft with genty all the
way into tomorrow. How did you guys land on Henderson
and make him your guy out of that big, you know,
impressive group.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sure it is an impressive group. And you know, I
think with Trevion. Trevion has been in a really explosive
player his whole career at Ohio State. I know there's
been times in his career where he's worked in tandem
with other backs, but I think one of the things
that jumps out is his ability to flip the field,
his ability to create explosives. You know, I think this
year he took a really a huge step in his
(01:33):
pass protection. You'll find some evidence of him on tape
not afraid to deliver a blow to play square. And
I think over his career he's grown as a player.
He's gone through some adversity in his life. He's dealt
with some stuff on the field, off the field just
that's hard calloused him. And I think this year he
was just a guy that he's a real matchup problem.
(01:55):
And I think when he's on the field, defensive have
to account for him.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Right the next pick, you guys, was Kyle Williams the
wide receiver. What specifically attracted you guys to him? What
about his skill set did you guys like?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So, I think when you take a look at Kyle
like there's an explosive, dynamic playmaker element to his game.
I think if you look over the last two years,
you know, he played with cam Ward last year after
transferring over from UNLV to Washington State and played with
Cam last year. I think Cam probably heavily tried to
recruit him to go to Miami as well, but you know,
(02:29):
Kyle stayed and this year he had a great year.
I think he ended up somewhere around close to twelve
hundred yards and fourteen touchdowns. And I think when you
watch what he does in the way he runs routes
and there's a suddenness to his game. And I think
as receivers one of the biggest things their job to
do is is we always say a couple of things right,
ones get open and the others catch it. And I
(02:51):
think Kyle, when you look at the get open face,
Kyle has some unique skills physically to really create windows
for the quarterback to him.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Do you see a little versatility there in terms of
his alignment. Can you go inside outside baby a little bit?
Or do you like him just as a slot?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know, I think actually probably Kyle. You know, I
don't ever want to try to pigeonhole guys. I think
the biggest thing is playing receiver. And I know that
sounds like a very generic idea, but I think when
you say he's an inside guy, he's an outside guy. Well,
formations dictate a lot of different things, and sometimes outside guys,
you know, you go inside for a matchup or then
you get into saying what do you want certain plays
(03:30):
to look like? What are you going to ask from
those roles? I think Kyle does not His physical skills shit,
don't limit him to either inside, outside any of that
stuff in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
So, Ryan, what can you tell us about Jared Wilson?
And you know, with Garrett Bradbury obviously on the roster already,
how do you kind of envision that center position looking
right now?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So it falls into Jared. Jared a young player, you know,
stepped in this year his first year to start in
the SEC, had a good year obviously. You know, everybody
can point to some of the testing athletically, what's in
his body, what he's capable of, And I think he's
a player that it's just kind of scratching the surface.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Speaking to the guys on our team, you know, we
have a bunch of guys or a handful of guys
that you know will compete at that center position, and
I think Jared falls into that mix. I think anytime
you're you're trying to do this in the draft, you're
all you're always trying to create competition. And I think
if we don't do that, then it's a flow on
our part to create as much competition as possible across
the board. And I think we just see that there's
(04:32):
a lot of upside to Jared's game. We have some
veteran guys that you know, we just envisioned those guys competing,
and as you guys know, with coach ray Wood, I
really think the way it should be, competition across the
board is what's going to bring out the best of
all of us, and I think he'll just add to
that room.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Does he have it? Do you think he has any
flexibility to play some guard or do you guys see
him as a center only prospect?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
He has some experience playing guard. I think again that's
one of those kind of similar to the receiver part.
Anytime we you know, try to take offensive lineman, you
would love the versatility, right, You don't want as many
guys being stuck into one spot, whether that's how it
factors into your game day stuff, how you can manipulate
stuff in practice, how you can work through injuries. Jared
(05:15):
has experience playing guard, obviously started this year playing center.
So I think we would look at both those things
and wind up doing ultimately what's best for the to
get the best five and his rotation. How do we
see fit?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right, Well, we'll let you get back to work.
I know you've got to restack the board, get ready
for tomorrow. Tomorrow's all defense, right, I'm only well.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, you want to just counter that by saying defense, right?
You know it is, though, Tomorrow's exciting, you know what.
I think everybody does get caught up into, you know,
the first round, and rightfully so, and then tonight and
I think, you know, fortunate for me, I think this
is my twenty sixth draft, and I think the fun
part is tomorrow. And not only is it with the
(05:56):
draft selections, it's it's what happens after the draft. There's
an organic art discounting that happens after the draft, and
there's there's there's a lot of work for our staff.
I've been impressed with with the College staff, the pro
staff over my couple of months here, the time they
put in and and just really excited to see them
kind of go to work tomorrow through the post draft
and that's where you can make a difference and I'm
(06:17):
excited to be able to do that tomorrow with this group.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, Ryan, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Have a great night, Okay,
Ryan count and vice president of player Personnel for the
New England Patriots. Hey, Ryan, thanks for joining us. I
know it's been a long night for you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh that's okay. It's great. Appreciate you having me. It's
good to see you guys. And hello, I guess that
some of you haven't actually met in person yet with
everything going on.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, so it's Mike do So, Evan Lazar, Paul Parolo, myself,
Fred Kersh. I'll just start it out. When the when
this night started out, did you know you were gonna
go all offense?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think I think that the great thing about the
draft is you can always have a plan, but ultimately
the draft creates situations where you have to react. I
don't think you ever go in saying, man, we're gonna
we're gonna hammer this out on one side of the
ball or the other.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The key is following your board, trusting the board, and
leading yourself to the picks based off where you've evaluated players.
You never think I'm gonna go heavy on this side,
so it just sometimes works out.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Just turned out that way, yep.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, Ryan, want to ask you just about this running
back group. We've been talking to them all spring, everyone
talked about how there's going to be good players from
you know, top of the draft with genty all the
way into tomorrow. How did you guys land on Henderson
and make him your guy out of that big, you know,
impressive group.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sure it is an impressive group. And you know, I
think with Trevion. Trevion has been in a really explosive
player his whole career at Ohio State. I know there's
been times in his career where he's worked in tandem
with other backs, but I think one of the things
that jumps out is his ability to flip the field,
his ability to create explosives. You know, I think this
year he took a really a huge step in his
(01:33):
pass protection. You'll find some evidence of him on tape
not afraid to deliver a blow to play square. And
I think over his career he's grown as a player.
He's gone through some adversity in his life. He's dealt
with some stuff on the field, off the field just
that's hard calloused him. And I think this year he
was just a guy that he's a real matchup problem.
(01:55):
And I think when he's on the field, defensive have
to account for him.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Right the next pick, you guys, was Kyle Williams the
wide receiver. What specifically attracted you guys to him? What
about his skill set did you guys like?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So, I think when you take a look at Kyle
like there's an explosive, dynamic playmaker element to his game.
I think if you look over the last two years,
you know, he played with cam Ward last year after
transferring over from UNLV to Washington State and played with
Cam last year. I think Cam probably heavily tried to
recruit him to go to Miami as well, but you know,
(02:29):
Kyle stayed and this year he had a great year.
I think he ended up somewhere around close to twelve
hundred yards and fourteen touchdowns. And I think when you
watch what he does in the way he runs routes
and there's a suddenness to his game. And I think
as receivers one of the biggest things their job to
do is is we always say a couple of things right,
ones get open and the others catch it. And I
(02:51):
think Kyle, when you look at the get open face,
Kyle has some unique skills physically to really create windows
for the quarterback to him.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Do you see a little versatility there in terms of
his alignment. Can you go inside outside baby a little bit?
Or do you like him just as a slot?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know, I think actually probably Kyle. You know, I
don't ever want to try to pigeonhole guys. I think
the biggest thing is playing receiver. And I know that
sounds like a very generic idea, but I think when
you say he's an inside guy, he's an outside guy. Well,
formations dictate a lot of different things, and sometimes outside guys,
you know, you go inside for a matchup or then
you get into saying what do you want certain plays
(03:30):
to look like? What are you going to ask from
those roles? I think Kyle does not His physical skills shit,
don't limit him to either inside, outside any of that
stuff in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
So, Ryan, what can you tell us about Jared Wilson?
And you know, with Garrett Bradbury obviously on the roster already,
how do you kind of envision that center position looking
right now?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So it falls into Jared. Jared a young player, you know,
stepped in this year his first year to start in
the SEC, had a good year obviously. You know, everybody
can point to some of the testing athletically, what's in
his body, what he's capable of, And I think he's
a player that it's just kind of scratching the surface.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Speaking to the guys on our team, you know, we
have a bunch of guys or a handful of guys
that you know will compete at that center position, and
I think Jared falls into that mix. I think anytime
you're you're trying to do this in the draft, you're
all you're always trying to create competition. And I think
if we don't do that, then it's a flow on
our part to create as much competition as possible across
the board. And I think we just see that there's
(04:32):
a lot of upside to Jared's game. We have some
veteran guys that you know, we just envisioned those guys competing,
and as you guys know, with coach ray Wood, I
really think the way it should be, competition across the
board is what's going to bring out the best of
all of us, and I think he'll just add to
that room.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Does he have it? Do you think he has any
flexibility to play some guard or do you guys see
him as a center only prospect?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
He has some experience playing guard. I think again that's
one of those kind of similar to the receiver part.
Anytime we you know, try to take offensive lineman, you
would love the versatility, right, You don't want as many
guys being stuck into one spot, whether that's how it
factors into your game day stuff, how you can manipulate
stuff in practice, how you can work through injuries. Jared
(05:15):
has experience playing guard, obviously started this year playing center.
So I think we would look at both those things
and wind up doing ultimately what's best for the to
get the best five and his rotation. How do we
see fit?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right, Well, we'll let you get back to work.
I know you've got to restack the board, get ready
for tomorrow. Tomorrow's all defense, right, I'm only well.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, you want to just counter that by saying defense, right?
You know it is, though, Tomorrow's exciting, you know what.
I think everybody does get caught up into, you know,
the first round, and rightfully so, and then tonight and
I think, you know, fortunate for me, I think this
is my twenty sixth draft, and I think the fun
part is tomorrow. And not only is it with the
(05:56):
draft selections, it's it's what happens after the draft. There's
an organic art discounting that happens after the draft, and
there's there's there's a lot of work for our staff.
I've been impressed with with the College staff, the pro
staff over my couple of months here, the time they
put in and and just really excited to see them
kind of go to work tomorrow through the post draft
and that's where you can make a difference and I'm
(06:17):
excited to be able to do that tomorrow with this group.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, Ryan, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Have a great night, Okay,
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