Kevin Colbert And Mike Tomlin On Day 1 Of The 2009 NFL Draft

A few quotes from Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert and Head Coach Mike Tomlin after the conclusion of Saturday's action at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Click through for the rest.

Kevin Colbert: Thank you guys for sticking around. The action in the second round got fast and furious. Quite honestly, we were entertaining trying to go up. Really, we didn’t want to vacate the premises. We are extremely excited and happy to get a young man like Evander “Ziggy” Hood. I think that is the last time that you will hear him referred to as Evander. He goes by Ziggy; I think that is the name of his grandmother. He is a special guy – he really is. That was evident the first time that we met this kid. We liked him from a football standpoint when we saw him play in the fall. It was exciting to see him available when we were picking at (number) 32. He was just somebody that we felt good about from the first time that we scouted him until when we saw him at the Senior Bowl. When we met up with him at the Combine, everything kept adding up that this is a high-quality player and person. The nice thing is that he is a defensive lineman. He has a lot of versatility. We think that he can play defensive end; we think he can help at nose in our scheme; we think he can be a real good inside pass rusher in our sub (packages). I am probably over-stepping my bounds so I will let the coach expound on that. Again, he is a high-quality guy. He has already graduated. There are so many superlatives about this kid that we are excited to get him in here and get to work.

Coach Mike Tomlin: Ziggy Hood is a Steeler type of player – there are no holes in this guy. We felt good about the information that we acquired on this man after the Combine that he really wasn’t under consideration to come in here for a visit. He is a high character guy; he plays; he has a hot motor. He loves the game of football. He was described by many members of his team who went high today as their guy. He is a captain, leader and good football player. We are excited to add him to our fold. He is a guy that will fit in pretty quickly from a personality standpoint. What he is capable of doing on the football field will help us.

Why did you trade down?
Kevin Colbert: It was a chance to pick up some extra picks. It was a nice group of guys left and rather just taking one of those guys a think we will have a good chance at getting three. It was inviting. Like I said hopefully we’ll come out of it with three quality guys tomorrow.

Can you confirm the Hines Ward contract extension?
Kevin Colbert: No, we don’t have any signed contract so we won’t confirm anything at this point.