COLTS PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN and HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY– ON DRAFTING DB-KELVIN HAYDEN
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (General moments) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"With pick No. 60 in the second round we took Kelvin Hayden, cornerback from University of Illinois. He's another Big Ten player. He's 5-11, 198, runs a 4.52 forty and was a wide receiver up until this past spring practice and this past season. Illinois converted him to corner because they had a crying need for him at the position. He acquitted himself exceptionally well. He is a hard-charging, hard-hitting, physical run-support aggressive tackler. You won't know the difference between our first pick and our second pick when it comes to tackling. They both will flat knock you down. They are both very aggressive in run support. Because he's a former wide receiver, he has really good ball skills and he can track the ball in the air very well. I first saw him at Northwestern as he was coming off an injury. He played virtually the third quarter of the season with an injured shoulder and was actually tackling with the wrong shoulder most of the time. I came back and told Tony (Dungy) at the time I saw a guy he really was going to like. We went through the film and it was pretty obvious that he was a player we were very interested in. We had him targeted right at this pick and there he was."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (On Hayden being a project at cornerback) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"No. If you look at him on tape, you look at what you think is a polished corner. We talked to Mike Mallory, who is the defensive coordinator at the University of Illinois, and he told us that he was amazed at the transition that Kelvin made, having come over from the offensive side of the ball. If you watch tape of the game that he played, it looks like he's a veteran guy out there and they (Illinois) actually used him in match-up situations against Braylon Edwards. Hayden is a very accomplished corner. He might could use some polish on things like stance and things in that area, but he can play the position. He was an outstanding athlete in high school. He went to Joliet Junior College and then on to University of Illinois."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (On if Hayden will help special teams) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"Big time. Absolutely."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (General comments on drafting Kelvin Hayden) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"Kelvin is very comparable to a lot of the guys that I've had that have had success with in this system. He's a sharp guy that understands how the game's played. He's played on offense really most of his life, and has just been a one year defensive player. He has a tremendous amount of ability that I think we can still tap. He's a physical guy and he sees the whole field. I think he has a lot of skills that we will be able to utilize. He's going to make us more physical and that's something we set out to do this draft. We didn't know it was going to turn out this way to get two corners, but we're happy about it."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (On any downside of the secondary last year) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"Nothing really other than our health, and not being able to have our same lineup every game pretty much the whole year. Bob Sanders started out missing some games. Mike Doss got hurt in the first game. Nick Harper played and got hurt and then came back. Joseph Jefferson played a little bit. Donald Strickland really didn't play all year. Other than our health, we think we have a lot of guys who play the way we want them to play. These two guys just happen to the best players available and they happen to be corners."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (On giving up big plays last year) Saturday, April 23, 2005
"That's the whole defense and we have to tighten that up. I think that's going to be the buzz word for training camp and the off-season program and we think these guys can help us do that."
