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Transcript - Jaguars General Manager Trent Baalke: April 30, 2021

(On S Andre Cisco's recovery) "Anytime there's an injury, you have no idea. We feel pretty good about it from a medical perspective. [We] did a lot of background work on it and know the guy that did the surgery real well, our medical staff does. We're very optimistic he's in position to come in and take over right away."

(On CB CJ Henderson and drafting another cornerback in Tyson Campbell) "You need more than two. You saw last year how quick these things can change. The game with as many four and five wides as you're seeing in today's game, you need guys that can cover. The whole goal was to do a good job of increasing our ability on the backend on the defense and I think we've done that."

(On what they saw of CB CJ Henderson's abilities in the eight games he played last season) "CJ [Henderson]'s a very talented young man, he just has to get healthy. When he does, I think you saw last year what he can do. Coming in as a rookie, his first game, [he] made some very good plays both against the run and the pass. He's a talented young guy. Now when you look across the board, you have six-foot, six-foot, six-foot plus across the board. That's what you're looking for: height, length and speed."

(On the evaluation process for OT Walker Little) "Obviously, when you're looking at tape from two years ago, you had one game to go by in '19 and he played really well against Northwestern. He's just a guy that's going to have to get in here and go to work in the weight room, on the field, technique, all those things that you lose when you're not out on the field. He's going to start from a little bit behind the eight ball. It's our job to get him up to speed as quickly as we can and [we're] very confident we can do that."

(On drafting players with injuries) "What we do is risk reward at a lot of different levels, whether sometimes it's character, sometimes it's injury, sometimes it's position changes. There's risk reward in what we do, and you have to vet it. You have to do the best job you can, which if you shy away from it, you lose a lot of options on draft day. We feel very good about Andre [Cisco] and his ability to get back and get back quickly. He looks very good. They shot some videos the other day and he looked extremely well moving around on the field. That's not game speed and we realize that, but I think he's in a good position to come in and get going early."

(On assessing the risk versus reward of a player with an injury) "I wish it was easy. I carry a big coin in my pocket and I flip it. You don't know. Again, every case is so much different, every injury. You look at one ACL and a guy comes back last year. A young man got injured in December, came back at the same position, came back and started 15 games this year for one of our conference opponents. So, it happens, and how quickly they come back, again, [is] independent of one another."

(On acquiring a tight end during the draft) "I don't know. I hate to even speculate on it. We're always looking. You're always looking at every avenue you can to improve the football team. You have the draft, you have trades, you have free agency, you have cut downs. There's a lot of different ways and we're monitoring every situation we can to see if we can improve the football team."

(On his assessment of who is still available at tight end) "We like where we're at. What do we have, five picks left I think, and there's still players on the board that we like at the tight end position and at other positions, so we'll figure it out. You can't fill every position with one pick. It's a process, so we just have to go through a process and let it materialize."

(On CB Tyson Campbell's speed standing out) "It does, and CJ [Henderson]'s speed jumps out to us, and [Shaquill] Griff[in]'s speed jumps out to us. Again, we have three six-foot or taller corners now that have a lot of versatility. Tyson [Campbell]'s played inside, he's played outside. His speed is noticeable on the field and you have to love that. He's a contact player. He loves to blitz and was a safety in high school, so he hasn't played the position a real long time. We just factored in a lot of upside, a young guy that has the character, that's going to fit into the culture we're trying to establish here."

(On a defensive player playing on the outside and inside) "I think it depends on the style that you're playing, and we feel that the scheme that we're playing and what we're trying to do and in the division we're playing in, that you can never have enough of them. [We] feel really good about his versatility. Unusual for a six foot plus corner to go inside, but if you watch the film, and we've spent a lot of time watching it, Coach [Urban Meyer] and I and the rest of the staff, personnel and coaching. We feel really good about his flexibility and versatility."

(On OT Walker Little's lack of recent game experience) "Again, [it's] risk reward. If he were to have played, where would he have been taken? I don't know, no one does know that. But he's going to come and he's going to get to work real quick and we'll get him in the program and get him on the field working, get him in the weight room working, and all of these guys [will do that]. Our sports performance, you've heard Coach [Urban Meyer] talk about it a lot, it's going to be the best of the best. These guys are going to get in here and we're going to do our best job to get them ready to play on Sunday."

(On S Andre Cisco being available at 65) "We were a little nervous, but again, I think the injury played into it a little bit. It always does, but how much? I don't know, I can't speak for the other 31 teams. When we value the board, we value it for us, regardless of what the media may be saying or where we hear other teams may be leaning. We value the board for us."

(On the balance between him and Head Coach Urban Meyer during the first two nights of the draft) "First of all, the collaboration has been excellent. I think we both work extremely hard at what we do with one goal in mind: to bring a winner to Duval. That's what we're trying to do and that's what we will do. But as far as the relationship, like I said, it couldn't be better at this stage and I don't see that changing at any point in the near future or the future. We enjoy the process. We've had a good time working through it. His understanding of what he's looking for from a culture perspective sets him apart. He really understands what he wants and how he wants this team to look. It's our job as personnel people, my job as the general manager to support that goal of creating the culture. The way you do that is you get the type of players in this building that fit that culture. You can't do it any other way. [We're] really looking forward to doing that again. We have five picks left, we'll bring five more in here that fit that culture and we'll go to work."

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