Texans offensive coordinator Rick Dennison talked about the pair of third round picks in a Friday night press conference.
Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison Press Conference
(on why he isn't worried about DeVier Posey's character and how he envisions Brandon Brooks fitting in with the offensive line) "Well, starting with our wide receiver (Posey), he made a mistake. From the checkups that we all did, starting with (general manager) Rick (Smith) and myself, (wide receivers coach) Larry Kirksey, (head coach) Gary Kubiak, we all checked with whoever we could and felt pretty comfortable that it was a mistake he made. He worked hard and still went to practice the entire year even though he only played a few games. We felt that he made a mistake and he learned from that. From there, we went and looked at how he worked at the Indy combine. We looked at his junior year and junior and sophomore film. We thought we had a talent that was comparable to some of the guys that were taken a lot earlier. At that point, we thought it was a good choice for us. As for as Brandon Brooks, I've never coached a guy at that size, but we feel that he can do what we do. He moves around well. The East-West Shrine Game is where I first noticed him and he functioned and did very good for a guy that size. If you look at him, he doesn't look like he weighs that much. Most of his weight is in his lower body. He can still run under a five-flat forty, which is what we ask our guys to do. We really don't have, at least to my knowledge, we don't tell everyone you have to be under 300 (pounds). We let them run around and see how they look and with (head strength and conditioning coach) Cedric (Smith) and (offensive line coach) John (Benton). They figure out if you need to go a little faster, you've got to lose a little weight. If you have a little problem with push, then you gain a little weight. It's just something that you function in our system and we feel like he can do what we do."
(on how high he thinks Posey could've been drafted if he hadn't been suspended) "Oh it's hard to say, but when you look at the talent and he compares very well with some of the guys that went to Indy and you take the numbers that he had as a sophomore and junior and move that into his senior year, he'd be up with some of the other guys that were taken earlier. I don't know exactly where, but we thought it was a talent at that spot in the third round, that we were comfortable taking."
(on his speed and what else jumps out about Posey on tape) "He runs great routes and has good ball skills. He's very precise in everything and works hard. He works in the run game. He's a good sized guy. He fits with the rest of our guys. We're trying to supplement our wide receiver group and we think he does a good job with that."
(on whether the Midwest focus of the Texans' draft picks is by design or coincidence) "We'll take guys from wherever they come from. Obviously you just look for the best player wherever, and you look for good competition and obviously in the all-star games, which Posey was in the Senior Bowl and Brandon (Brooks) was in the East-West. We like looking at those tapes because you get to watch them practice and practice against very good players, so I don't think it's any one spot. It just happens that it happened that way."
(on Brandon Brooks' role on the offense) "No, he'll be inside. We'll start him inside and put him in with the rest of our guys and see how it works. We've lost Eric (Winston), we've lost Mike (Brisiel), so we have a couple of spots in there. We'll move around and see what happens. The best five will play."
(on Texans' decision to move back ten spots in the draft and if they felt Posey would still be there at the 68th pick) "There was a cluster of people that we felt really good about. Rather than go through our entire draft board, there was a cluster, and we felt like if we jumped up and got somebody at 2 or we felt like if we move back, got an extra pick, we could feel pretty comfortable with this group of people that were in the third round." (on his own thoughts from his personal conversations with Posey) "Basically, yes. It felt like he was honest, he was up front, and he told us what went on. We checked our resources, and everything seemed to pan out exactly how he explained it."
