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Harris on Groves

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The following is a transcript from James Harris' press conference following the second round selection of Quentin Groves.

(on drafting two defensive ends on the first day) "We are happy. (Quentin) Groves is a 4.5 pass rush guy who has over 26 sacks in his career. In a school like Auburn, he is tied for the career sack lead. He had 36 pressures. He is also able to affect the quarterback. We are happy to get him in the second round. He had an injury that probably enhanced him being there in the second round."

(on the need to move up in the second round) "He was a guy in our board that we felt could go in any of the next picks, so we felt it was in our best interest to go up and get him and be aggressive."

(on comparing Groves to Derrick Harvey) "They are two different types of players. Derrick Harvey is more of a left end, an every-down end. They both can rush the passer. Groves' strength is his ability to get to the passer. He has the ability to and has played some linebacker. He has the ability to do some things."

(on the bookends for the future) "We are excited to have those two players to be able to go after the quarterback and to add them to the players that we have."

(on their impact for the 2008 season pass rush) "We feel that will help us certainly against those teams (like Indianapolis and New England), but any quarterback in this league, when you allow them to hold the ball too long, they are going to take advantage."

(coming into the draft the consensus in the first round was Phillip Merling or Quentin Groves. You got Derrick Harvey and Groves. You must be happy?) "We are excited. Going in we were certainly looking for help at the defensive end position – obviously didn't know if we would be able to go up and get Harvey. We knew that Groves would be a factor because of his pass rush ability and we had always considered that we may take two even before draft. But we weren't sure how that would fall."

(did you think Groves would fall this far?) "No, we realized he played with an injury this year and that's probably why he did slide."

(what was his injury?) "He had a toe/foot injury."

(did you know he has some personal issues?) "We did and we did our homework on him and we are pretty satisfied to come in here and be good in the locker room and in the community."

(what has he been involved in?) "He was involved in something when he was 10 years old and he had an incident that has been cleared up and we are satisfied with it with him."

(on the possibility of the Steelers taking him since he is more of a 3-4 end) "We knew that he was a guy that could go to teams that ran a 3-4 defense. We knew that the Steelers were one of the teams that could have taken him. We also traded up because we were concerned that he was one of the players that was rated high on almost everybody's board at this point."

(on what immediate impact do these two ends do for the team this season) "In Harvey we add an every-down end that has a quick first step. He has some pass rush history with 11 sacks as a junior, this year because Florida lost so many linemen, he was getting doubled a lot. This year his sack total went down and he still had 8 ½ sacks. He can affect the quarterback and Groves is a 4.5 guy, who is at Auburn. With Auburn being in the SEC, he has played against a lot of good teams, and is tied as the school's all-time sack leader."

(can these two players put the Jaguars over the top?) "We feel we have improved our team. That is what we are trying to do."

(were you looking at moving up for Groves or Calais Campbell?) "I won't speak to Calais (Campbell), but we did want to go up for Groves."

(on possibly adding more picks) "We are going to go now and look at that. If there is a player there that we feel can really help us by going up or being creative that's what we are going to do."

(on possibly having a four-man draft) "When you look at it at the end of the day, the players that we got were both top value players at a need position versus some players at the back end that would have been special teams contributors or may not have made the team."

(on what was given up) "We gave up a fifth (this year) and a seventh next year. We still have two fifths (this year)."

(on how that computed on the chart) "We didn't even worry about the chart. We wanted the player. The table gets a lot of credit and sometimes what kills a trade is when you try to stick to the table. Most of the time if it's a player that you really want, then you really have to go beyond the chart to the value of the player to you."

(is this the strangest draft you have ever seen?) "There are more trades than I have ever seen. I don't even know what that number is, but it seems to be an unusual amount of trades."

(on being content with the Jaguars current secondary) "We think we have some versatility in the secondary. We would have liked to have added some help there, but with Brian Williams' ability to play safety and having (Gerald) Sensabaugh coming back, we have some versatility. We would have liked to add some help but we like the two players that we added."

(do the Jaguars now have any needs?) "We always feel that we have some needs. We always want to continue to add competition. Competition is what makes you better. We will go in and start looking at that now at this back end in what players we can bring in to compete to help us."

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