ALAMEDA - Here's some quotes from Tom Cable on the Raiders' choice of Maryland WR Darrius Heyward-Bey:
On Heyward-Bey only having 13 receiving touchdowns in three season compared to 41 by Michael Crabtree in two seasons:
Different systems. If you put the spread system at this level, it doesn't really exist. Those numbers would be dramatically different. I think the one great comparison that I did that really showed this was the right guy for me, if I put him in that same system, he might have been over 50 touchdowns. He's that talented.
On passing on Virginia tackle Eugene Monroe:
There's a reason we have Mario Henderson here and Khalif Barnes, Erik Pears, Cornell Green. That may be something we do later in the draft, we'll see how the day unfolds and obviously tomorrow, but the biggest need on this football team is to get someone to score points and obviously when you look at wh at I just said, his ability to do that and make everyone better around him, we've got to score points to win football games.
On concerns about Heyward-Bey's inconsistency catching the ball:
There was some talk about that early, that they were inconsistent. But as we did a breakdown over the last two years, much greater consistency that way. He did a great job at his workout. His workout was phenomenal, just phenomenal. He caught everything at the front end of it, did a great job of being able to react and adjust his body to some tough catches and really kind of sold you on it. Because you started to see some of those things that scouts mentioned earlier, that he could do those awkward things.
If Heyward-Bey was the top-receiver in the draft:
He's the only guy that came out of a true pro-style system. Everyone else was in a spread system. So, his learning curve is much, much shorter than those other guys. Then you got that size, that speed and his ability to go get it. The thing that jumps out at you, this is the one guy at the combine who, at the 30-yard mark, actually changed gears. And there was a whole other warp speed, if you will.
--Jason Jones
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