GM Charley Casserly
(opening statement) "What we said all along is we were going to take the best player available in every round. He was the top rated guy on our board and he was clearly a productive back at
. As far as fitting in, you can never have too many good football players at a position. It gives you quality depth and quality competition. When you are near this part of the draft you just take the best player available."
* Casserly:* (on Morency) "He has real good instincts, quickness, change of direction, vision
and he really runs hard. He can play every down and he just gives us more depth
and flexibility. The easiest thing to do would be to take a player and say he
is going to fit into a spot, but that is how you make mistakes in a draft. You
would rather have depth."
Head Coach Dom Capers
* *
(on Vernand Morency's positives) "He has been a very productive back in college. He has a similar running style to Domanick Davis. He is a strong runner and he has the ability if there is clutter in the hole
to slide, side and side and get back north and south. Also, I think he's a fairly
physical guy for his size. He is a little older and he had the minor league baseball experience, but we
think he's a good athlete and we think that he will compliment our running game."
Capers:(on the running back situation) "It's hard to say how it ends up, but I do think
it gives us another competitive situation. It gives us another young runner and I do believe you need more than one runner;
you need two or three runners. We've seen that here based on injuries. There were a number of games last year that we went into the game with just two
running backs. Domanick going down and Jonathan Wells being there and us not having a running
back to put in, would have forced us to put in a fullback. Tony had a hard time with injuries last year and that's what happened many times. We got into a couple of games where Domanick had injury problems and Jonathan
went in and did a good job. If something would've happened to Jonathan, we didn't have an alternative. I will feel more comfortable going into the game with three running backs and
having various roles with those running backs."
Capers:(on why the Texans drafted Vernand Morency)"We liked him and we were looking at him. Our scouting staff looked at him throughout the season, and he caught their eye because of the amount of productivity he had in the Big 12 conference. He had a lot of respect from the people he played against. We like his running style because he has good vision, running instincts, and has the strength to run through tackles. It will be interesting to see him fit in the mix and compete with our other running backs."* *
