Read the full transcript from GM Jon Eric Sullivan's media availability on April 24, 2026.
(What do you think of ILB Jacob Rodriguez as this building block on defense, a future leader?) – "I can't say enough good things about Jacob (Rodriguez), and I think more importantly, the people that have been around him for the time that they have at Texas Tech and the things they say about him not only as a football player and the intangibles, but the type of person he is – the tape speaks for itself, he's all over the field. He makes plays everywhere. His instincts are second to none. He can play in space, on third downs and he's going to help this football team. But he's a leader. He's a green dot guy. He'll call the defense in time, and I think he'll fit really well in the room with (Jordyn) Brooks and 'T. Dot' (Tyrel Dodson) and he'd be a great addition to the Miami Dolphins."
(Talk about the competition. You've talked about you want competition, and you do return two starters, as you just said and now LB Jacob Rodriguez. So you embrace that competition.) – "Iron sharpens iron, you know what I mean? And anybody in this building that is afraid of competition or doesn't welcome it or embrace it shouldn't be here. That's where we are. It's pretty simple."
(I want to go back to your comments about getting bigger and more physical on this team. You spent the first round on T Kadyn Proctor and CB Chris Johnson, two big players for their position. WR Chris Bell is a 220-pound receiver. We go back to the big receiver earlier in WR Caleb Douglas. Just want to get an update on how you feel you've done to address getting a bigger, physical football team.) – "I think we've done well and we've been intentional, making sure that who we've added regardless of the position have met the measurable requirements. But we want to make sure we're adding good football players that have the measurables. That's first and foremost, they've got to be able to play. But yeah, I've told you from the jump, it's important to me that this team looks a certain way and moves a certain way. I believe it's a big man's game. That's not to say that there's not really good players in the league that are on the smaller side. We know that there's a lot of them, but yeah, we want to build this team big, physical at all positions and have a size advantage."
(Were you surprised that WR Chris Bell was still available at the end of the third?) – "I wasn't sure. You never know when a guy's coming off an injury. I'll say we were really excited to add him. I think most would tell you if he wouldn't have gotten injured, he's probably not sitting there anywhere close to where we got him. It was one of those deals where it sounds like he's healing up great. I won't put a date on it. We would expect him to help us this year, but it's a long-term investment. We felt like the talent is very high. The upside is very high, and it's again, a long-term investment with kind of looking down the road. We think we got a really good one."
(Kind of getting back to the question about competition. You take two wide receivers in the same round. Obviously those guys are going to be competing from Day 1. Just what do you hope that relationship and that competition kind of yields in the long run?) – "I think any time you talk about competition, whether it's on the field or in the workplace, it brings out the best in all of us. It drives the individual to excellence, but I think when you're going through that, especially as rookies together, obviously you're competing. You're wanting to be the best, but I think there's also a mutual respect and a bond that happens with young players as they go through the rigors of the NFL, especially within their first year and they do it together. It's a brotherhood. You hear players all the time talk about family, brotherhood. I would foresee that developing between those two. They're both good kids and they're both competitors, but I think they'll have a mutual respect for each other and appreciation for each other, and I would think in time they'll be rooting for each other to do well."
(What was that visit like to Texas Tech because clearly you came away a little impressed?) – "You know what, to be honest with you, most of those guys – I didn't go through Texas Tech this year. I saw them play at Arizona State live. I didn't go to Lubbock, but I did see them play live at Arizona State, then obviously throughout the Combine and everything else. They had a good team. They've done a great job out there stocking the cupboard and getting players that can make a difference for them on Saturday and it's a testament to that program. They've done a nice job. But you know those guys when you go to watch them play, when I saw them play at Arizona State, they're making plays. Whether you're talking about (David) Bailey, (Jacob) Rodriguez, these receivers, the quarterback; I mean, it was a good football team, and the playmakers made plays and it jumped out to you. You could definitely see what you needed to see in terms of when you go scout a game live, you walk away going, 'It's pretty impressive.'"
(What are you guys excited about for TE Will Kacmarek and how is it to evaluate him with such a small receiving profile element for the years that he was at Ohio State?) – "It's a good question. Will (Kacmarek), he's going to be one of those guys. He's an unsung hero. You know, he's a grimy, dirty, bite your face off type of dude. He's going to be a difference maker for us in the run game which allows your offense to do so many different things. It just opens up so many doors for the offensive coordinator, the way they call the game. And he's elite – I think he's elite as a blocker. When you watch the league and see tight ends block, I think this guy, Day 1, is on the upper echelon of that and will only get better. That doesn't make the stat sheet, that typically doesn't make the highlights on ESPN, but that's OK. He's another culture guy who he does everything the right way. He handles his business in the building. His teammates are going to follow him, and he brings a physicality and a toughness to his craft that I think is unmatched. He is a subtly good wide receiver. Now I'm not going to tell you that he's going to be running away from people and doing all those things, but he's very capable underneath mid zone. He can stretch the seam. He runs good enough to get down the seam. He's a big body. He's got nice hands. So he's not a guy that can't help you in the passing game, I just think his superpower is the in-line blocking."
(Is part of your vision with him is to line him up at fullback from time to time?) – "I think (Offensive Coordinator) Bobby (Slowik) is really good with those guys. Yeah, I would imagine he'll put his hand in the dirt in-line, and he'll line up as an H and a fullback and probably do some stuff on the move. He'll embrace all that and he's good at it. So yeah, I would imagine we'll do a lot of that stuff with him."
(Can you share a little bit more about LB Jacob Rodriguez? You know, some of the things that you liked about him were in conversations and looking for information on him, his personality?) – "Outgoing, a leader, sets the example. He leads through his actions, so when he does speak, he carries weight with his teammates. His work ethic, his energy, his practice habits, those are the things that are all second to none when you talk to the people who are around him every day. Very, very intelligent football player, can call the defense. He's the guy you want running the show. Then again, his ability to communicate not only with the coaching staff, but with his teammates, they follow him. He's a voice. He has a very good way about him, and then his actions meet his words, his words meet his actions. So he's easy to follow because he's going to do what he said he's going to do, and then most importantly, on Saturday, now Sunday, he shows up in a big way. It's one thing to do a bunch of talking, but when you talk and you don't perform, that's empty after a while. This guy just shows up every time he steps on the field in a big way. He's very productive, and I think that's easy to follow when you're his teammate. But yeah, they love him at the school. I can't say enough good things. He's a very good person and he's got great intangibles when it comes to his craft."
(I'm sure it's nice to fire up one of your best players with your picks. How much did you appreciate Jordyn Brooks showing up when you drafted him?) – "'JB' (Jordyn Brooks) is the best. He was fired up. I mean two Texas Tech guys in a row, who would have thought? But yeah, he's a big fan of the Red Raider Nation as you would imagine, and it was cool to have him in the draft room. He was gassed up and he got us fired up. He'll obviously be a nice bridge for those guys coming through the door to help them get comfortable here in South Florida."
(What made WR Caleb Douglas stand out?) – "Good question. He's got a long, rangy body. He's got some very raw athleticism. I think what you'll see for a tall, long-limbed receiver, long legs, long arms, he can really drop his weight. He's got great flexibility. He's got good athleticism and ball skills to adjust the ball in the air. He's got to get stronger. If you were going to try to knock him on something, he's got to get stronger, be able to get off press and some of the contested balls, but if you just said, hey, what's one thing that jumps out? I thought you could really see it at his pro day and his workout, he's pretty sudden and flexible to be able to drop his weight and snap down getting in and out of breaks for a long limb athlete."
(Did you come close to making a trade up or down at any point tonight?) – "Took some calls, but no, it never got close. Never got close. You're always having conversations throughout the process, but we didn't really get close tonight."
(Have there been some guys that you would have liked to get that unfortunately went right before you? I'm just wondering how much luck or…) – "It happens. (laughter) It happens, but it happens every year. You start looking at the board – this is a really fun process, obviously, as I've stated probably more times than you care to hear. There's a lot of work that goes into it. The hard part is you just sit there and you're watching these. When you have those big gaps in between picks, you're just watching all these guys come off the board and you're like, 'Ah, ugh,' cringing, but it's part of it. But yeah, it happened and it happened tonight. But having said that, I'm thrilled with how things turned out. You can't fall in love with players. You're not going to get everybody you want and oftentimes when you maybe want one guy and – we're always looking at guys that we have equal value. For whatever reason maybe you go this way and he gets picked and you pivot back to this one, and then all of a sudden, it's a blessing in disguise. We're never varying, I'm never going from here to here to fill a need. That doesn't happen. We follow the board. But if you've got, like I told you last night, you've got two guys of equal value and then the need part comes into play and all of a sudden somebody gets picked. 'Ah,' it happens."
(Was there a conscious decision to get two wide receivers on this night or just the way it worked?) – "What I would say to that is we didn't vary from the board; we stuck to the value, but we felt like we had to get some pass catchers in there. We felt like that was important. Again, the value of the pass catchers where we had those ranked was equal to the other guys that we had on the board that we were considering. But yeah, I would say we were intentional about making sure we got some pass catchers."
(I know you say that you follow the board. You haven't selected an edge rusher. Is that a concern or how would...?) – "Yeah, I mean, sure, but I had to remind myself one hundred times over again, you can't fix it all in one weekend. It just is not going to happen and you got to follow the board and you got to take the best player available. You just got to know that it could go a lot of different ways. You could remake two rooms and I'm just talking, not in specifics here, but like, let's say we redid the wide receiver room and you redo the edge room, but like, you don't address the secondary and you don't address the interior offensive line, you don't address tight end or you drop one in every room. I mean, it can go one hundred different ways. Yeah, I wish we had a chance to address the edge. I like the guys we got on the roster, but it just didn't happen, it didn't fall that way, but that's okay. I have faith in Chop (Robinson) and the rest of that crew and you know, we'll see. We got some more picks tomorrow, see how it goes, but yeah, you're never going to be able to do it all."
(Along those lines, do you kind of look player addition as a continuum that you do have the cuts in August. You do have a trade deadline. You do have in-season acquisitions. Do you look at the draft as it or do you kind of think we can always add later?) – "It's 365-day-a-year job, player acquisition. We're going to use the cut down day. We're going to use practice squad steals. We're going to keep churning this thing all the way through to infuse competition and to find players. That's how you do it. So no, this is not even close to the end."
(13 rookie class would be I think the most here since 1997. Are you comfortable with that or are you very open to trimming that down to 10 or 11 or something?) – "I'm comfortable with that, but I'm just going to kind of when we get beyond the draft, I'm going to look at the roster in totality and just try to keep the best 90. You know what I mean? I'm open to either way. I don't feel like I can't keep that many rookies, we'll just keep the best players."
(I'm sorry, I guess I meant like for tomorrow, are you looking to maybe package two for one or trade or trade for one grade better next year kind of thing?) – "Potentially. If we feel like there's a player there that we covet, I'm okay maybe using some of those picks to go up to get maybe a better quality player. Yeah, I'm open to that.
(Just like there's an issue with colleges producing in-line blocking tight ends, there seems to be an issue with defensive ends that could actually set the edge. How difficult was that in the evaluation process for this class?) – "I will say this, that's a great point, and what I will say is, is the ones that do it and do it well, stick out like a sore thumb. It's easy to see guys that are willing to put their face on you and kind of do the dirty work because it's become to some degree, those guys that can get to the quarterback, they don't they don't want to do that. They don't want to do that stuff. It's not difficult to evaluate. What's difficult to evaluate sometimes is the flexibility and then the power to anchor down and hold the point. You got to be able to see that, but the willingness and the eagerness to come off the ball and put your face on somebody and do that stuff, that jumps out to you because there's a lot of those guys want to slide around the edges or they just relent. They're waiting for third down and go get after the quarterback."
(I know your pops was a great wide receivers coach. In light of you taking two wide receivers in the third round, I'm curious what were one or two things that he kind of imparted to you about wide receiver evaluation?) – "That's a great question. I am my father's son for sure when it comes to what I value in receiver, but I've learned over the years that good wide receivers come in a lot of different shapes, sizes, packages. I have always been privy to the Justin Jeffersons of the world. I'll just give you an example of somebody who's sudden and flexible and can drop their weight and snap in and out of cuts, you know what I mean, with a dynamic quality to them. But then you have the Mike Evans of the world that are big, linear, climb the ladder guys, elite ball skills and ability to play above the rim, so to speak. Early on in my career, I was not drawn to that. I was drawn to the flexible, fast, twitchy. Having said that, that's what he likes. He likes the elite route runners. That's what I grew up hearing and watching and I kind of had to learn over the course of my career that, hey, you got to be open to that other stuff because there's really good players that do it a different way. It looks different, but it's equally as productive."
