Friday, April 24, 2020
(Opening statement on Laviska Shenault Jr.) “He’s a junior that came out early from Colorado. He had a very productive 2018 season; this season his production was a little bit further down. He dealt with a shoulder injury early on, came back, played through it, and then he dealt with a core muscle injury through the year as well.”
(On official numbers from the combine) “Yeah, the official numbers from the combine, he was just over 6 feet tall, he was 227 pounds and he ran the 4.5 [40-yard dash], but that was with the core injury as well.”
(On what stood out about Laviska Shenault Jr.) “Well I think we did basically two years’ work on him and like I mentioned earlier he had some statistics that weren’t as high this year, but really if this kid would have been draft-eligible last year and come out he probably would have been a top 10, top 15 pick. We had a lot of high grades on him from what would have been his sophomore year and we still had high grades on him on this year. Taking in the consideration of injuries, I think that’s why he was here in the second round. But he’s big, he’s athletic, he’s fast, he’s a very physical player and he did a lot of different things in the Colorado offensive lineup.”
(On talking with Colorado head coach Mel Tucker about Laviska Shenault Jr.) “I did not personally, but I know other people on staff did.”
(On Shenault’s 44 broken tackles and the type of physical specimen he is once he gets the ball in his hands) “Well, I saw him play live in his first game back this year against Oregon and so you see him in person and he looks like a linebacker. And he’s really good with his RAC, his run after catch, not only with burst and explosive speed, but he’s a strong kid that can break tackles, so he blends a lot of things together.”
(On Shenault’s letter written to NFL GMs about being a combination of Julio Jones, Jarvis Landry, and Larry Fitzgerald) “Yeah, I mean I do not want to compare him to those guys right out of the gate, but I mean he’s big like Julio (Jones), he’s fast like Julio when you watch him on film. Who’s the other guy Fitzgerald and who? Jarvis (Landry), yeah, well Jarvis wasn’t the fastest guy, but he had really good run after catch as well so I think you can kind of blend some of those things in with him, yeah.”
(On agreeing that he can see Laviska Shenault Jr. turning into one of those guys) “Yeah, hopefully. Definitely, that’s why we took him.”
(On the intangible that has not been said about him) “Well, intangibly? Well he’s got good football intelligence, he had to learn multiple alignments. He’s a hard-working kid. You know he was recruited to other ‘bigger schools.’ Went to Colorado, kind of wanted to set himself apart, try something new. Everybody that spoke to people at Colorado really liked the kid. He lost his father a few years back, tragically, and is very much involved with his mother and the rest of his family.”
(On what the Jacksonville Jaguars see in him playing from multiple spots and scoring from multiple spots) “Yeah, that’s the hope. I think we can line him up from different areas, either inside or outside at receiver, maybe even use him out of the backfield. I know a few of his touchdowns he scored in his career were like on reverses or jet sweeps. Mark had asked me, you see his run after catch with just the ball in his hands, you can see what he can do with the ball.”
