The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff is down in Mobile coaching one of the two teams during practice in preparation for the Senior Bowl on Sunday.
It's an opportunity for the Cowboys and Garrett to get a look at some of the top prospects heading into the 2016 NFL draft season. With that opportunity comes the responsibility to engage with both the players and the media.
Here are some high notes from Garrett's Q&A session Wednesday in Mobile:
Q: How tricky is it for Braxton Miller to switch from quarterback to receiver?
A: It can be challenging. There’s no question about it. You see the game differently. I don’t know that much about him. I haven’t studied him, but what I do know about him is that he’s an awfully good football player.
He demonstrated that at Ohio State and to me the strides he’s made in 48 hours has been significant. We’re coaching these guys hard and it’s good to see how well he’s responded to that coaching. Clearly a great athlete and a productive football player and someone that has a lot of upside.
Q: Is it easier hearing Tony Romo saying, ‘whatever is best for the team,’ in terms of the possibility of drafting a quarterback?
A: We don’t want to get into the draft process right now. We’re literally 48 hours into this evaluation of the 2016 draft class and our scouts have spent a lot of time with these guys up to this point and this is our first real exposure to them. Coaching this game gives you great exposure and all we can do right now is evaluate the players.
We want to coach them first and then evaluate them through our coaching. It’s been a fun couple of days for us and each of these guys have something to offer or they wouldn’t be here. We’re trying to do our best evaluation on each of them before we talk about who we may or may not take in the draft.
Q: How tough is it for the quarterbacks to get acclimated this quick?
A: That’s one of the challenges of the game for everybody. We’ve put a lot of offense and defense in the last couple of days and we asked those guys to learn quickly. We start with the huddle and show this is the way we get in the huddle and then 12 hours later we’re on the practice field running pass plays, running plays and play action.
We’re trying to put a system of football in during a short period of time and a big part of the evaluation is to see how they can learn. We give them a lot of information and can they take it to the field? Can they function with guys they haven’t been around very much? We want to challenge them in a lot of different ways and I think the guys have been mentally prepared for this opportunity.
Q: Is there any challenge with your staff evaluating the South team?
A: Typically we’d be at the south practice, but because we’re coaching our guys we’ve got a better view of our own guys and we’ll watch the tape of what they’re doing in the south practice to help with those evaluations. We’ll get to know those other guys as the draft process goes along. The challenge of this is you don’t get to see both sides, but you do get to see one side more in depth than you would otherwise.
Q: What do you think about the size from cornerbacks in the Senior Bowl?
A: That’s the way the league is going. There are so many big receivers who make plays outside and having size at the corner position is critical because you have to be able to match up with these guys. There’s certainly a place for a smaller guy, who is quick, but typically he’s an inside guy. Having some length at that position is important.