COLTS PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN AND HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY – ON DRAFTING RB-JOSEPH ADDAI
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PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (General Comments) Saturday, April 29, 2006
"As you now know, we have chosen a running back in the first round and the suspense is over. We took Joseph Addai from LSU, whom we feel has all the attributes necessary to succeed at this level. He runs the fastest of all the backs in the draft at 4.43, 5-11, 214 lbs, so he is exactly the same size as Edgerrin. He has many of the same attributes. I'm not trying to make him Edgerrin. As I said to you on Thursday, that's far too heavy a burden for any back to carry. He is a very good blocker, very good receiver and a very hard-running, speedy, shifty back. I think the fans are going to like what they see. We're very happy to get him. We thought that the backs would go off (draft board) pretty much the way it broke. We thought we might have some opportunities to move up but that didn't materialize. Actually, we're glad we stayed where we were. We decided late last night that Joseph was the guy we wanted anyway. We're very glad that he came to us."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on the thoughts of moving up last night) Saturday, April 29, 2006
"We were trying to get ahead of the running back run, which came exactly where we expected it would. As it turned out, that didn't materialize. It was very difficult to make deals. There were very few opportunities to move up. Someone asked me the other day how accurate was our board? Too accurate. They came off exactly as we thought they would. There are no names left up for the first round. We're happy to get him."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on not trading down) Saturday, April 29, 2006
"There was no need to sit and wait for a trade down. We decided this morning that Joseph was the guy we wanted. We hoped that he would get to us. When he did, there was no need to wait and make the pick and go."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on the knee injury) Saturday, April 29, 2006
"He has one. He had a scope, which took out a piece of cartilage. The injury occurred when he was a senior in high school. The scope took place following spring practice of his sophomore year. I spoke to Dr. (Tom) Klootwyk this morning just to be sure that everything was okay and Dr. Klootwyk's remark was 'the knee is absolutely fine.' There is no evidence of arthritis or anything of that nature. He's only had the one and that was 5 years ago."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on the report he had an ACL injury) Saturday, April 29, 2006
