*Saturday, April 26, 2008 *
PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN (General Comments on drafting G-Mike Pollak)
"As you now know we selected with the 59th pick Mike Pollak, offensive guard from Arizona State. He is a big, strong, powerful, wide-based, yet still athletic player. He was described to me by Dennis Erickson as their best football player. He's a leader, smart guy, good athlete. He was a baseball pitcher in his younger days. He's a guy that we feel has a chance to come in and make an immediate contribution for us. It's been a long day, but we're really happy that we got the player that we wanted. We ended up with three players on the board that we could have taken. Mike was our first choice and we're happy we got him."
PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN (on the Colts needs)
"We felt like the Colts needs line intersected with the talent line. We lost Jake (Scott) in free agency, so this give us a player who can step in and if not start, certainly be a quality backup for us. Just like we did with Tony (Ugoh) last year, we'll give him every opportunity to get his feet wet in training camp. He's a player who as Tony (Dungy) said is right out of the mold of all the other players that we've had success with on the offensive line. It's high for us with an offensive linemen. We haven't taken a player this high since Brandon Burlsworth. In this draft, he merited that choice."
PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN (on if he could go to center at some point)
"He could play center if he had to. We don't see that as an issue. He's going to go to guard and we'll see how he does at guard. That's where he's going to start and hopefully play a good bit. This is not an issue of replacing Jeff (Saturday). It was an issue of replacing Jake (Scott) on the squad. He's a fellow who can play at a very high level to replace a guy we lost in free agency."
PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN (on remembering what he saw about Mike Pollak)
"They were home against UCLA this past year. Tom Telesco and I were at the game. We talked to Dennis Erickson before the game and asked him about all the prospects. We have a high regard for Dennis and he volunteered, 'This is my top guy.' He talked about his intangible qualities. When we saw him play in the ball game, we both came away saying, 'Boy, that may be our guy.'"
PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN (on if the shorter day affected things)
"Not at all. In fact we were discussing as it got close to our pick that one of the things that we saw with the shortening of the day was that everybody made their picks so quickly that television was lagging behind. We had to go to the computer and to the talker in New York to find out what was happening. That was an interesting situation. This draft was cut and dry and went according to form top to bottom the first two rounds. It all got done very well and very quickly and ahead of schedule."
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PRESIDENT-BILL POLIAN
