BB: Well we were certainly a lot more active at adding players to our team than we were yesterday. So that was good. We have a lot of new names to work with. I just feel like, overall, the two things we did in the draft was we added some quality and depth to our roster and also put ourselves in position next year with some strong picks in the first day of the draft. Overall, we feel good coming out of it. It wasn’t like it was a goal we had going into it. It’s just the way it turned out, and I think we’re okay with that.

The day started with the Randy Moss trade. It was a situation last night where we talked to the Raiders after the draft. We felt like if we were going to do a pick that was in today’s round that we would need to get that rolling last night and the wheels started spinning pretty fast. Mr. [Al] Davis gave us permission to speak with the player and his representatives so that happened last night. I talked with Randy and he came in this morning and we got that taken care of. His representatives and Scott [Pioli] worked out the negotiations. So we are happy to add him to our roster. I feel like he is a player that gives us a lot of quality, has a lot of experience, is a versatile player, and can do a lot of different things for us on the football field in the passing game. So that was that.

Then that threw us down to the lower part of the fourth round and we picked Kareem Brown. He’s played on the defensive line at [the University of] Miami at a couple of different positions. He had a little bit of flexibility down there and has been a good player in their system. [Clint] Oldenburg is a tackle. He actually came to Colorado State as a tight end and moved to tackle. He is a little more on the athletic side. And --let’s keep my notes here so I have them in order-- we picked up [Justin] Rogers, outside linebacker from SMU, a big physical kid who gives us, again, anytime you get depth on the defensive side of the ball, particularly in the latter rounds of the draft, that is hard to pass up. [Mike] Richardson is a corner who played for Charlie [Weis] and played in a very good defensive system there with their staff and does a lot of things. We saw him do a lot of things kind of similar to NFL teams in terms of coverages and techniques and things like that. Justise Hairston is a kid from Scott [Pioli’s] alma mater, so we have a little prejudice there toward the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils. That was an interesting connection, but, in any case, [he] started out at Rutgers [and was] very productive at his level. Obviously, it is a big jump from Central Connecticut to the National Football League, but he has been very productive at his level and shows a lot of skills in both running the ball and the opportunities he’s had as a pass receiver and running after the catch; a little bit limited there, but he’s still done a good job with that. Corey Hilliard is another big tackle [from] Oklahoma State. We saw him in the bowl games. [He’s a] big kid who’s pretty athletic as well. And Oscar Lua is an inside linebacker from USC. He actually ended up playing behind a couple of very good players, guys that I am sure will go very high in the draft next year out of USC, but he is a pretty good player in his own right. And then we finished up with Mike Elgin, who played for Iowa, played for Kirk [Ferentz]. Very good technique; fundamental player; athletic guy as well. So we had a number of picks here in the second day with compensatory picks and added some depth on both sides of the ball and we feel like we got a couple of good players from the University of Miami in our early picks, along with the two trades in this draft, [Wes] Welker and [Randy] Moss. And we got some picks for next year that put us in a pretty strong position whether we actually decide to exercise those or use them to acquire other players or whatever they are, but that’s good currency, so that’s where we’re at from today.

Q: When was the opportunity to go get Randy Moss first brought to your attention?

BB: I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s free agency. It’s the offseason. A lot of things get tossed around. But last night was the conversation really that, whatever got done I would say over 90 percent of it probably got done last night between midnight and whatever time the draft started this morning, 11 o’clock.

Q: How much did having to defend Moss on the field attract you to him?

BB: We’ve competed against him several times. He’s a very explosive player [and] dynamic receiver who has a lot of skills. His hand eye coordination, his catching skills, his speed, his ability to stretch the field, run after the catch, run intermediate routes. He has a good skill set. He’s a very smart guy, an experienced player, versatile, can play a number of positions, and has the experience and intelligence to handle the different techniques and responsibilities that go with that. So we’ll see how it all plays out, but I think he has a lot to offer. Hopefully we’ll be able to put him in positions where we can get production from either him or the rest of the offense if the coverage goes to him, which a lot of times I’m sure it will.

Q: Was it built personally before or did you get to know him a little bit better when you talked to him last night?

BB: Last night is the first time that I’ve actually talked with him directly.  I know a lot about the player, as I am sure he probably he does about me and our team through the people that have played with him and coached him and that he’s been associated with.  I think that he’s very highly respected by those people in terms of his competitiveness, his ability to play under pressure, his professionalism and competitiveness.

Q: Was Rob Ryan a nice cross-reference for you to have?  Did you talk to Rob?

BB: I didn’t talk to Rob about him.

Q: How did those conversations help convince you that he’ll buy into the team concept?

BB: Again, I think he’s a very competitive player and I think that he’s very experienced.  He knows what it takes to win.  He’s a winner and I'm glad he's on this team.  I don’t know how else to put it.  That’s the best way I could characterize it.

Q: What did it say about him that he was willing to renegotiate to come here?

BB: I think that Randy, in my conversations with him, and in the whole procedure with him, he’s been very enthusiastic about becoming a member of the New England Patriots and I think that the New England Patriots are very enthusiastic about having him as a member of this team.  I think it went well both ways and certainly he showed a lot of positive feedback and energy toward us.  Like I said, I’m glad he’s on our team.  We worked hard to get him.

Q: You have a lot of wide receivers right now.  Where does this leave the chances for the return of Troy Brown?

BB: I think I spoke on that a couple of weeks ago.  It hasn’t changed for me.  I would expect Troy to be…

Q: With Randy…

BB: No, I would expect them to have different roles on the team.

Q: Do you feel like you had good character background on Randy?

BB: As I said, I talked to a lot of people that were all close to him, both teammates and coaches, people that were on his team, they have a lot of respect for him.  I had a lot of respect for him competing against him and that all lined up pretty consistently.

Q: The process you went through to get him, was it at all similar to the Corey Dillon trade?

BB: No, it happened a lot quicker than that.  It was a player from another organization that I personally didn’t know very well, so you rely on other people that you know and also how you feel like he fits into your system and whether he’d be productive as a player within your system and that type of thing.  I think Randy is different than Corey or anybody else.  We’re all different.  I wouldn’t want to characterize him as, ‘This is just a replication of another situation, another player or another person,’ because I really don’t feel that way.

Q: Just in terms of player who is coming here with a reputation that maybe necessarily wouldn’t fit into the Patriot mold.

BB: Well, again, I don’t know who you talked to about that because that’s not the way I think he’s coming here.  I think that Randy is coming here as a player that is competitive, wants to win, can produce and help our football team.  To me, that’s what he’s coming here as.  So, we’ll see what happens.

Q: Will he take part in the off-season conditioning program here?

BB: Well, we’re pretty far along on that, but he’ll definitely be here for the camps and the things that we’re doing as his schedule permits.  Obviously, he has a schedule in the offseason that, up until 24 hours ago, didn’t include us or anything that we were doing, so there are a couple of things that he already has commitments on, so it won’t quite line up, but he’ll definitely do what he needs to do, put in the work and the time to get caught up as much as possible in the offseason and we’ve already started on that process today.  It’s underway.  We have a long way to go, but we’ll gain ground on it before we go to training camp, that’s for sure.

Q: His production last year was down from year’s past.  When you evaluated him, what did you attribute that to?

BB: I evaluated Randy in terms of what he is as a player and I told you what I thought of him.  That’s what I think of him.

Q: What kind of pressure does he put on defenses?

BB: He’s a hard guy to defend.  As I said, he attacks all three levels of the field – short, intermediate, deep and can run after the catch and he’s a smart receiver that has been defended a lot of different ways and he knows how to compete and how to deal with them.  He’s a very experienced guy that’s versatile and can do different things, so he’s not just locked into one spot or one type of route or one level of the field.  Anytime a player puts multiple pressure points on a defense it’s hard, it’s stress.

Q: You said you talked to him yesterday to just kind of check him out because you didn’t know him real well.  Was that all in the course of last night to this morning?  Was it like cramming?

BB: No.  No.  I’d say it’s been over the course of a couple of years.

Q: You mentioned his excitement to come here.  Were you struck by that?

BB: Struck?  I don’t know.  It was two in the morning.  I don’t know if that was a good time to be struck.  I could hear it in his voice he was enthusiastic about it.  That’s great.  At that point, really, more than anything, we were just trying to get things done.  I think it was good to have a conversation with him and all of that, but I mean more importantly at that time I think we were fighting the clock trying to get a lot of things done where we would even be able to execute the trade and get it done by 11 o’clock, or whatever time the Raiders picked this morning, 11:30, whenever that was.  Today between picks, we had a little bit more time to sit down and talk.  He asked questions.  I asked questions.  We had a good conversation.  I talked about our team and so forth and what was expected and all of that.  There was a lot more conversation today than what there was last night, let’s put it that way.

Q: Do you consult with players on your team before you make a deal like this?

BB: Through the course of the year, you talk to a lot of players on the team about a lot of things.  I talk to our players pretty much every day that they’re here.  We talked about that last week, talking about the players who played with some of the players who came out in this draft over the weekend.  There are always conversations like that that go on.  It wasn’t any big specific one, especially with somebody like that who hadn’t played with him.  To be honest with you, I probably learned as much about Randy Moss from Doug Gabriel as I’ve learned from anybody.

Q: Did you feel like his desire to come here was a big factor in you going ahead and pulling this off?

BB: I think we were pretty much heading in that direction.  I think it certainly didn’t hurt.  I’m glad that he wants to be here.  Had it been the opposite of that, that might have been different.  It never was.  I just kind of took it as it came, but it came very positively.

Q: What, if anything, could you do to make sure that he still has his speed?

BB: [Pause]  You got me on that one. [Laughter]  You want me to run out there and time him on the 40?  I told you what I thought of the guy as a player and that’s what I think of him as a player.  We’ll put him out there this year and we’ll see how he plays along with all the rest of the receivers as well as the rest of the players.  We’ll see how everybody plays and put a team together and try to put the most competitive team that we can out on the field.  That’s what we’re going to do this year.  That’s what we did last year and the year before.  That’s the way it will be.  Whatever a guy’s speed is, whatever his strength is, whatever his quickness is, whatever his technique is, then we’ll evaluate that when we get out there and start playing, whether we drafted him, traded for him or whether they played here last year or not.  It’s a new season for all of us and we all want to go out there and do the best we can and that’s the way it is for everybody.

Q: There was a report out there that you were somehow able to get a 40 time on him of 4.29.

BB: You should know better than anybody not to believe what’s in the papers.  [Laughter]