LIONS HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ

Opening statement: "Zack Follett's going to have some competition for new favorite player - new cult hero - in Detroit with Tim Toone. If you guys have seen our wide receiver from Weber State, interesting guy. Has a lot of Big Sky honors as a football player, also ran track; kid has a bunch of records. He's a returner, he's a wide receiver, he's got really good speed, really good quickness, he's a smaller guy. White guy with dread locks. Just a guy that you enjoy watching as a football player. I hope the fans will see the same thing that we saw in him."

On if he looks at Toone as a punt returner: "That was one of the reasons that he ended up being drafted where we drafted him is his abilities as outside receiver, slot receiver and also punt returner. He's been very productive that way. He has, I think a 95-yarder or something like that, which gets his average up probably more than it really needs to be. But he brings good skills there because he's got really good quickness. I think that's one of the things he has a chance to do."

On what he wanted to get done on this final day: "I don't know that we really went in with any objectives. We have a lot of team needs and we still do, but if you try to fill every single need, maybe you end up watering down some. We kept taking value. I mean, Willie Young was a player that, when we drafted, was a lot higher on the board and really didn't go into the draft anticipating taking a defensive end, but he was there and it made sense at that point. He was sort of too good a player at that point to pass up. He brings some really good pass rush to the table.

"Anytime you can bring something that's - I don't want to say a dominant trait. Something you're really good at, particularly pass rush and affecting the passer, he's got really good length and things like that. I think we kept an open mind in the draft. We didn't say, 'hey, we want to come out with this number of corners and this number of safeties and this number of linebackers and things like that. You want to combine team need and value, but particularly in the second day of the draft you want to take guys with some traits that have something that helps them make the 53. Not just make the 53, but somebody who stays around here a long time."

On T Jason Fox and the importance of bringing in a developmental player on the offensive line: "Tackles are interesting, because to talk about a left tackle, you're talking about the first round. But to find somebody that has the possibility that maybe they can develop into a left tackle and to get that player in the fourth round, it's a little bit of a different thing. You have to explore all of those opportunities. There were some other guys we were interested in early in the draft that didn't come to fruition, but Jason's a guy that started a lot of games. He's got really good size, really good length. He's tough. He had a little bit of a setback with the knee injury. He may be a guy that we have to be patient with through this rookie mini-camp and maybe our May and June OTAs, but we don't anticipate having any trouble once we get to training camp with him. He's a guy that can play right or left tackle, he's long and really, really smart and fits a lot of the profile points that we're looking for."

On CB Amari Spievey and whether he can run with players at this level: "That's probably the one thing that he's going to have to prove, I guess. His strength is being a run support player. He's a tough, physical player. He's got good instincts in the pass game. He's made some really good interceptions, has really good ball skills. Didn't run a great time (but) didn't run an awful time. I mean, we had a lot of corners on the board who were 4.6, 4.65 guys that had productive college careers. You're talking about a guy that was low 4.5s. You're still talking about a fast guy, he's not speed-deficient. He didn't run the 4.4s and the 4.3s that some of the other guys were running, but I dare say not many of us could call him speed-deficient. He's never ran a super-fast time. It doesn't mean that he doesn't play fast.

"The things we liked about him: his toughness, his ability to defend the run. We liked the track record of Iowa corners. Iowa corners have come out and done well in the NFL. I think that was one of the things that gave us a little bit more comfort. Like I said, he has good ball skills and just because he didn't time well … I don't want to say didn't time well, but didn't have a super time, it's really not that much of a concern."

On if cornerbacks who don't have top speed have other compensating factors: "Forty time is interesting for corners. You want guys that can run really fast, but playing corner is about quickness and it's about top-end speed because generally you're not starting from a three-point stance or, like a wide receiver, in a two-point stance going straight ahead. You're starting in a shuffle, you're starting in a back pedal. You have to have the ability to flip your hips and then you have to have the ability to run long down the field. Those kind of things are probably a little more important than an actual 40 time. It probably all comes down to the tape also. You're looking for players that play fast on tape, not necessarily run a fast time. Players that play fast on tape without running a fast time. But, again, this guy - it seems like we're talking about this guy like he's a 4.65 guy. He's not. He's a low 4.5s guy. There's a big difference there."

On if he felt less urgency to 'load up' on defense because they got DT Ndamukong Suh: "No, again, it was a little bit like the second day. We just looked and where value met opportunity, we took advantage of it. We didn't run away from players that we had drafted high just because they played offense or defense or a particular position. You try to marry those two and you try to match those up in the draft room, but, again, we didn't go into the draft saying, 'Hey, we want to draft three defensive players or all defensive players' or anything else. It's sort of just the way it fell.

On whether they will consider the players acquired through traded draft picks during the offseason when evaluating this draft: "I don't know - I've been in draft rooms where we've traded high picks for players and we put their name on the draft board right there because it made us feel better because it didn't look so bare up there.

"I think that free agency was a little bit different this year. There wasn't as many players available in free agency and you still have needs and you still need to acquire players. There were a lot more trades this year in trying to get some of those players; we had the ammunition to do it and we did and we got players that are still young that have experience in the league that fit what we want. I think if we were drafting at those spots and we got those kinds of things, if we got players that had experience in the NFL and fit what we wanted and those kinds of things, we would be very happy with them. You can look at it any way you want to. To me, it's a little bit more of an extension of free agency than it is draft. You're talking about players that are experienced NFL players that come in which reduces a lot of risk that is associated with college players."

On whether the team has any more or less interest in free agent CB Adam Jones: "We were concentrating on the draft today. We were able to draft a corner yesterday and we're still feeling out free agents and stuff - we were concentrating on the draft."

On whether Jones is still a consideration even though they drafted a corner: "We'll see where it all shakes out. We'll look at some of these guys in rookie mini-camp and stuff like that."

On whether there is any interest in free agent LB Keith Bullock: "You're talking about a guy coming off an ACL - we have three guys already coming off of ACLs, and we know where they are, so it's probably not at the point where we would be doing anything right there."

On whether the team could add another veteran linebacker: "Sure - there are players that we will add between now and the beginning of the season. Whether it's a waiver claim or whether it's one of these free agents that we're trying to recruit right now. Somebody could come out of our rookie mini-camp or maybe a trade at the end of training camp. There's going to be somebody that's going to come between now and the first game that's going to help us win a game this year. I honestly believe that. Martin (Mayhew) does a really good job of working all of those different possibilities and the waiver wire. Our college scouts worked their butts off to not only draft players, but to find free agents that have a chance to stick on our 53 (man roster). There's still a lot of opportunity. This isn't going to be the final pool that we'll draw that 53 from when we open at Chicago."

On how he feels about the talent level now versus where it was January 4: "Better - for sure. We were very aggressive in what we were doing; not from a depth standpoint, not from a 'trying to get a lot of players' standpoint, but from pinpointing particular players, not only in free agency, but in the draft. It started with free agency of saying, 'Hey, let's just target a couple of guys and go after them hard.' It went over a little bit into the trade market and getting guys like Corey (Williams), Chris (Houston) and Rob (Sims). It then went into this draft; picking high and not moving away from that pick. There were a million different possibilities that come up, but we stood and took Ndamukong Suh at No. 2 and then had a chance to get a guy like Jahvid Best and didn't want to take a chance that he wouldn't be there at 34, which whether he was or not, I don't know. But you feel a lot better about him when you have him than if you had just missed him. So I think that all plays together. We looked and said, 'Hey, let's get guys that fit exactly what we want to do, let's have a role defined for them and let's try to fix those positions rather than just 'band-aiding' them and having to do it again next year or any other time. I feel good about what we've done there. We still have a long way to go, but if you look at some of the talent that we've put in place over the last two years, going to Matt Stafford, Brandon Pettigrew, Louis Delmas and DeAndre Levy; we can even go to some of the other draft picks that played roles last year that have a chance to do a little bit more for us going into this year's free agent class, going to this year's draft, and I think you're seeing significant gains. Not just in depth or the bottom of the 53 and things like that - I don't want to underestimate that, depth is very important and the bottom of the roster is very important. But those have been things that we've been working waiver wire hard for, trying to develop players for. You don't have very many opportunities to get blue chip players and I think we came out of this draft with a couple; we came out of last draft with a few. You start doing that and you consistently hit on those players, you're going to have a really nice corps of playmakers and then the other guys fit around them."

On whether they have more of an identity now: "I think you can start to see weapons that we can employ, particularly offensively. You can dictate a little offensively if you have players whose skills fit in a very specific thing; you can find packages and fit them in. Defensively, you need multidimensional players. We can't dictate whether an offense is going to run or pass. So you need players that can do both. If you have a corner that can't tackle, the offensive coordinator is going to find them; if you have a linebacker that can't cover, the offensive coordinator is going to find them; a safety that can't cover, they're going to find him. So you need players that have a lot of different skills because you can't dictate whether it's going to be a run or a pass. On offense you can; you can use pieces for matchup and alignments and things like that. I think we're a lot further along now, particularly with Matt (Stafford) being in his second year and being able to get some playmakers the ball gives you a lot better feeling for that. That's one of the things we'll work hard on in OTAs and in training camp. Having weapons isn't enough; we've got to go do it on the field. That will be our job in training camp, to develop that personality and trying to find the best way to use the guys that we have."

LIONS GM MARTIN MAYHEW

On the guys that were selected today: "Ok, the guys that we took today, it's kind of all runs together. We started with (Jason) Fox: four-year starter, big, strong guy. We had two objectives this offseason that we talked about a lot. One was to get bigger, the other was to get faster. He's a big, strong guy. He's been a consistent starter, consistent production. He got nicked up this year, it was the first year, he had been pretty durable until this year and got a knee injury. He had surgery on that in December, but he should be fine by training camp and he has a history of durability, so we're not really concerned about that. He's a very solid player, very intelligent and he's got size. He's big, smart and tough and he jumped off the bottom, we said the same thing because that's kind of what we talk about offensive linemen. We like guys that are be, smart and tough and Jason Fox is that.

"Will Young: pass rushing defensive end (from) NC State. The guy has some production as a pass rusher, probably needs to get a little bit stronger, but his game is to be getting after the quarterback and he's a good guy to work with."

On the seventh round trade to Philadelphia: "There was a few guys there that we talked about a lot, our other seventh round pick was involved in the Atlanta trade, so we may or may not have that. The idea of getting another sixth round pick for next year really appealed to us, so we did that."

On WR Tim Toone: "He's a fast guy, returner and exciting guy to watch. Shawn Jefferson really liked him. Our scout on the west coast, Cary Conklin, really liked him. Our scouts did a great job. I can't say enough about the job those guys have done. Toone is from a small school, he's a punt returner, and Cary did a lot of work on him and brought him to Shawn. Shawn looked at him and really liked him, so we drafted him."

On the entire draft: "It was long, it was really long. We enjoyed it. It's fun because you start that process and you know when you start you're going to be a better football team on Sunday and that's what's really exciting about it, we're a better football team today then we were when that draft started. It was a long process, but we all had a lot of fun doing it."

On adding bigger and faster players to the roster: "Right, right, exactly, it's been that way the whole offseason - Chris Houston has speed, Jonathan Wade has speed, Nate Burleson has speed - we added those guys for that reason, Rob Sims, Corey Williams, those things we felt we had to work on. We weren't big enough last year and we weren't fast enough."

On whether he adds in Houston and Williams into this draft because they used draft picks to get them: "Sure, sure and we talked about that. When we're sitting there on the clock and we don't have a pick in the fifth round and we don't have a pick in the sixth round and we talked about hey, we don't have those picks because we acquired starters with those picks already."

On whether he feels they got good value for each of the picks: "That was our goal, that always our goal going into the draft. To me it's about value, it's about getting value. That's what we try to do. Like I said about the previous draft, we'll see in a couple of years how fruitful this draft was."

On if he feels like he got players in the later rounds that the Lions had rated higher: "That was my intent. That was our intent as an organization was to have success in the draft. But I think it's just hard to measure right now. I don't have a bad feeling about it. And, like I said, it was a lot of fun. I think we're a better football team now than we were Wednesday, but the proof is in the pudding. We have to see how it all plays out."

On if he still has work to do: "Sure. That's important. We started our draft meetings talking about that. We don't expect our draft to solve all our problems and we don't expect the draft to be for opening day. There's a lot of work to be done still on our roster."

On if a player can play at cornerback without 'great speed': "Absolutely. I don't think, if you're talking about Amari, I don't think that he's slow. I mean, you watch him play, he's not slow at all - ran a 4.51 at the combine. A lot of guys have a lot of speed that can't play the position. There are some guys who aren't as fast who can play because they have great instinct. He's a very physical guy to the line of scrimmage with his hands on his jams. He can play football and he's not slow."

On if CB Adam Jones is still 'in play' after the draft: "You know, we're still kind of evaluating everything now. I wouldn't say he's in play or not. Nothing's really changed from the time we talked at the league meetings. At that time, I said the next step in the process with (Adam Jones) would be to sit down and talk with him. We don't have that scheduled; we haven't planned anything about that. We'll see how it goes."

On if not bringing players in for pre-draft visits was strategic: "There were quite a few guys that we had a comfort level with earlier, whether it was through the East-West game, meeting with them or meeting with them at the combine. Guys we brought in for visits, we brought in to find out more about - we felt we needed to have more information about them. Guys we didn't bring in, we feel comfortable with."

On if he hoped to load up on more defensive players: "I've said before, without regard to position or what side of the ball that players play, we want to take the best player. We talked about every pick, offensive and defensive players and whoever we felt was the best player was the best player we took."

On if that will always be the case: "Yes."

On if that will always be the case even when the roster gets better: "I think you're going to have more success taking the best player. I think over a period of time, you take the best player every time, you're going to have successful drafts than you are trying to fill holes and reaching for needs and things like that. That will always be the case as long as I'm here."

On how much of the ability to purely run turned him on the RB Jahvid Best: "He has a very unique running style. All those backs were a little bit different; he's very fast and Spiller's very fast, but they have different styles. We just liked him as a back. His speed is a great factor for him and it helps him to be a very productive player, but his skill set, his vision, his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield - all those things come into play and he was the right back for us."

On if it's fair to say that the offense is more developed than the defense: "I don't know. I mean, I like what we've done - been able to do - over the last few weeks offensively a lot. Adding a guy like Tony Scheffler and Jahvid Best; having a young developmental tackle now. But Ndamukong Suh, he's a good player and he helps other players around him to better. So he's going to make our defense better. Just his presence alone will make that defense a much better unit I think."

On how he envisions the defensive line rotation: "That's up to the coaches."