On the Russell Okung trade and where that leaves Greg Little: That seems like so long ago — but I actually got an email one night after a report came out and [the Chargers] proposed a trade with Russell for Trai. Obviously, the opportunity to get a left tackle that had played at Russell’s level and we had [offensive line coach] Pat Meyer, who was with him last year and very familiar with him.

Listen, Trai has been a great player for us but the ability to get an experienced left tackle, somebody that can really help bring Greg along – we think Greg is very talented and has a chance to be a very good player and maybe have some position flexibility. One of the goals this offseason, and we have plenty of them, is to try to improve the depth of our offensive line and we thought that being able to get a left tackle with the ability that Russell Okung has – it was very hard to trade Trai, but we thought it was a decision that we wanted to do in the big-picture plan of our offensive line. So we have all the confidence in the world in Greg [Little] and it gives him time to come in and get with a guy that’s played in this league at a high level for a long time and develop and grow. 

I got an email from them that threw that scenario out and we contacted them and it worked out.

On Teddy Bridgewater: I think he’s a very talented quarterback. I’ve always liked him – he’s got great feet in the pocket, he’s got good vision, he’s got a quick release, he’s got good accuracy and I think everybody that you talk to talked about his leadership skills. And he’s got familiarity with Joe Brady’s system, since Joe was down there in New Orleans with him. He’s certainly a guy who has overcome adversity himself and really if you look at it, he’s won consistently everywhere he’s been, so we thought he would be a good fit for us.

On the roster as it stands currently: Obviously, I think you can see we’ve put a lot of currency into the offensive side and we’ve obviously added depth at receiver; I think we added depth and competition on the offensive line and we changed quarterbacks. When you look at the defensive side of the ball, I think that’s where we probably haven’t added as much as we have on offense, so if you were to say what area you look at the most [in the draft], it would be defense rather than offense at this point. 

On Christian McCaffrey’s leadership role: From the end of last year, I think Christian has really started to take that leadership role very seriously and he’s only going to grow in that area. 

The plan for Christian McCaffrey going forward and where he fits in, priority-wise: “I’ve never talked about contracts, but obviously, we’ve had internal discussions. Everybody knows what we think of Christian as a player. Other than that, I really can’t say anymore.”

 

Josh Klein on Twitter
Josh Klein
Editor-In-Chief at The Riot Report
Josh Klein is Editor-In-Chief of The Riot Report. His favorite Panther of all time is Chad Cota and he once AIM chatted with Kevin Greene. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshkleinrules.