The San Francisco 49ers welcomed a new addition to the fold on Thursday evening selecting Oregon defensive lineman Arik Armstead with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Armstead spoke with the media via conference call and then Trent Baalke and Jim Tomsula had press conferences. I'll have Baalke and Armstead press conferences a little later today but I wanted to start with Tomsula's transcript given his defensive line background.
Tomsula got into some of the nuance of the defensive line which is something we did not get from Jim Harbaugh about quarterbacks and something we definitely don't get from Trent Baalke. Whatever happens to the team this season I do think we'll get a little more insight from Tomsula in his weekly press conferences.
Tomsula talked about the term 4 technique and the specifics of how that position operates. He said Armstead was able to get the necessary bending in for a guy who stands 6'7. He went into some detail about leverage and angles and pivot points. It is an interesting discussion for those of us who don't know a lot about some of the technique for a defensive lineman.
Many people view Armstead as a raw prospect and part of that is because he does not have a ton of exclusively football playing time under his belt. He played football his full career at Oregon but early on he also played basketball. He played football exclusively this past year but his focus was not 100 percent on football prior to that. Tomsula talked about how he has developing to do but is able to focus fully on it now. Give the full transcript a read.
As an old defensive line coach at heart how exciting is it for you to get a defensive lineman that has a lot of high ceiling so to speak in terms of your first round pick It's exciting. He's a really good young man and obviously a defensive lineman. I can't say that we started the whole process how many months ago thinking about a defensive lineman. But DL Arik Armstead was there. Arik's a I think you'll be very impressed with Arik.
You said recently that this is the deepest group of defensive lineman that you've had in the eight years you've been here. You've coached a lot of these guys for several years. Why is this the right pick Well like general manager Trent Baalke talks about all the time he's not picking for need and things like that at the beginning of the draft. He's getting the board set and everybody collectively and then the board gets set and he's sitting there looking at the board and he's working off of the board. But to your remark of the defensive line it is the deepest. Where we're strong we just got stronger in my belief. Also as we're all talking and I'm listening to you talk to Trent we're not in a situation where Arik has to come in and plug. So this is a place where we can bring a guy in that hasn't had those years in the weight room. That was playing basketball who's still young in what he's doing. And traditionally here when you come in it takes some training. So we have that in that room where he's added. It's not the stress of a guy coming in and having to fill a hole.
When you mentioned four technique is that specific to the right end in what you're doing or is that both ends No that's both ends. You see us sliding and move in there. So the guys can play. And when we say four technique those guys do kick down they'll play some edges on the guard it's just that position. People call it a defensive end. But that gets a little dicey because well a 4 3 D end looks a whole lot different than that guy. So we talk about it being a four technique.
Can you see Armstead being an edge rusher at some point I really haven't looked at him as an edge rusher I haven't. Where I've looked at him is that four in base. And when you do watch the tape you do see a guy that's that tall where his hips are down and he does get push from the pocket in a nickel defense. Now is it consistent as you want and things like that right now No it's not but you see it. You've got enough reps of seeing it that he can do that. And then with the weight room that just makes it better.
When you guys brought in DL Lawrence Okoye 6 6 you talked about how hard it can be for a defensive lineman to be that tall. Here you've got a 6 7 6 8 guy. What kind of challenge is that and what benefits does it have A couple of things. The reason you don't see them I believe and I'm going on opinion here but the reason you don't see them is guys that tall usually can't bend to the level that we need. That is one thing that is very unique in Lawrence Okoye he can bend. It's also very unique with Arik that he can bend. So now you think just the math the leverage angles and then you get that bend and now you're up underneath somebody and those arms are long and now you've got that extension. So you've got all those angles and pivot points that I talk about and the explosion that can come through that. I think when you can get all of that working together you can get something going on. And then obviously when you talk about pass rush and things like that you're 6 7 and you can get your hands that high you've got something going on.
Anything stick out to you when he made his visit here He said you guys didn't talk a whole lot about football. Was it was more of a kind of get to know you type thing A big thing for me I don't know that I talk a whole lot of football with anybody when they come in in my entire football career. I'm more or less trying to find out about the guy. I'm trying to see if you and I can look in each other's eyes and communicate. I'm not everybody's cup of tea and everybody's not my cup of tea. So you always have that connection. The one great thing about coaching is when you can feel the connection with a guy you've got to build the trust. It all starts with that conversation. And then find out a little bit about the guy. He is a good guy.
You mentioned that it's a plus that he doesn't have to come in right away and be a star from day one. But what makes you think he will be a star down the road What is it about this guy as a D line guy that you love Again we talk about the bend. When you talk about all of the measurable you talk about the bend you talk about the athleticism you talk about you see enough plays that he's got some power and push and explosion. So when you look at his body it's all there. You time and test it's all there. Now you meet the guy and it's intriguing. It's a nice guy a good guy. And he's a competitive guy. You can see that. You can get that out of the conversation. He's inconsistent in tape and he's young so we've got to grow it up and he's got to grow it up. It's all of us working together and the development of football.
You have so many defensive linemen on the roster. Is there any plan to do more platooning to kind of send guys in and out of the game more so than in previous seasons You obviously would like to play guys more in those roles and keep people fresh for when you get into the two minute drill and you get to the end of the game and you get a win. You always want to do that. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Yeah that's a goal that we're always that's why there's never been a depth chart put in the defensive line room. Everybody that's up we want to play.
You're a defensive line coach your first first round pick is a defensive lineman. Did you have influence on this Were you in there saying get me this guy Today No. What we did what I've learned here in this process which has been different I've sat through the D line meetings had a taste of how that room works a taste of the evaluation process. I've always felt great about the work that I do that I'm asked to do as a position coach in evaluating in my meetings evaluating interviews and all that kind of stuff and getting it in. And then when you go into the big room with the general manager and the scouts. We all sit around and talk about the defensive line in the process. I've watched it go through position by position by position. So then that board gets built. So like Trent said there were I don't know exactly but five or six guys that were there. When that pick comes there's five or six guys that are lined up there. When we did the defensive line board yeah this was a guy that was clearly somebody that you wanted high on the defensive line board. He works it vertically so when you looked at the whole board there were five or six people at that spot.
Trent talked about from his experience it's very rare it's hard to find these guys that do what Arik does. Can you just in Lehman's layman's terms explain what his job description is The quick generic answer is stop the run and hit the quarterback. But for what we do there's a lot of technique. There's a lot of technique that we could sit for an hour and talk about. But it's the technique. It's the vision progressions. It's the angles and the leverages. We ask more out of our defensive lineman here in terms of seeing more and adjusting to things. We always laugh when you play secondary when you talk about the skillset you see things you see them happen then you run and then you hit. When you play linebacker you see them a little quicker things are happening a little faster but you see them you run and you strike. When you play defensive line you strike see and run all at the same time. So that's why that position again offensive line that's why those positions it's very intimate. It's that far away. If I get into your personal space if you're standing next to somebody and get into their personal space you see how comfortable it's a weird place to be. It just all happens so fast. And then what we ask to do and where the eyes go and the vision and the leveraging we ask a lot of them.
LB Philip Wheeler Is he an inside or outside If I've got to peg it right now inside is where you've got him coming in right now. But we'll put him in both of those positions and check it out. But inside if I were to tell you right now. Don't hold me to it. I don't want to make it like that's it but he's a good football player.
I asked Trent I'll ask you the new look uniforms your thoughts Well I told the O line and D line you'll look thin. I'm always talking to the equipment guy. When you go white think marshmallow. When you go red you're thinking tomato when you're putting it on a guy that's 5 11 I'm a little heavy right now. So the black uniforms are slimming. The guys are excited about it. Look we all get it. That's where it's rolling.
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