ALAMEDA--Here's some quotes from the conference call with Darrius Heyward-Bey.
On going ahead more touted receivers:
Going ahead of those guys, it's an honor just to be the first guy taken. But being able to play in the pro-style offense at Maryland and taking that to the NFL, I'll take that. And I don't know why I moved ahead of those guys, but definitely the Raiders saw something in me.
On his stats that aren't exactly impressive:
People will look at that, but looking back to the games that we had at Maryland and my years playing, you look back at the Cal game, I had a chance to show people what I'm capable of doing. At Maryland what we do is, we run the ball to set up the pass. I'm the type of receiver, I catch, block, hustle and just work hard. So college you didn't see those numbers, but definitely at the next level you're gonna see a little bit more.
(Heyward-Bey had two catches for 59 yards with a 27-yard touchdown against Cal).
Heyward-Bey talking about his favorite team growing up:
My favorite team growing up, being in the DC-Baltimore area I always looked at the Ravens when they got here in the past decade. But always in the back of my mind, I was saying this to someone earlier, the Oakland Raiders was always the team, especially in this area, you always kept it to yourself but that was the team you loved. You loved that Silver and Black. You go out there and get that jersey. Everybody has that Oakland Raiders jersey. Definitely being in the DC area, the local teams but the Raiders were beyond none when compared to everything else.
Here are some more numbers on Heyward-Bey for you to play with:
*He ran the 40 in 4.23 seconds in 2006. His 4.30 at the combine was the fastest among receivers.
*His career highs in receptions (51), games (13) and yards (786) came in 2007. Heyward-Bey's stats for last season (42 catches, 609 yards, 14.5 ypc) were career lows.
His 38.5-inch vertical leap was fifth among receivers at the combine. Heyward-Bey is definitely a good athlete as he was a top performer in all the tests at the combine.
*Most of the draft analysts are ripping the Raiders for taking Heyward-Bey so high. The knocks on him are that he's not a good route runner (Cable says he's the best of the available WRs) and his hands.
--Jason Jones
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