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MW: I’d like to welcome everyone back here. A few announcements that I’d like to make before we open things up. First off, I guess we should announce that we’ve re-signed our HC Eddie Morris. Also we’ve traded our rights to our 2nd rnd pick this year and our 2nd rnd pick next season for QB Scott Nelson. This is a huge risk for our franchise. We like to see it as a large risk, large reward scenario. We view Nelson as a guy similar in a lot of ways to Chris Chaplin. His contract is workable, and we hope to sign an extension with him in the next few weeks. That being said, this takes us out of the QB market. Our goal is to work on getting players to build around Nelson.
I’ll open this up for questions
Reporter#1: With all the negativity around coach Morris, why was he resigned? All signs showed that the team was set to sign Vancouver’s new HC Zach Brown. What happened with this?
MW: When we sat back and looked at the situation, we felt that Morris did all he could with what he was given. We got on a roll at the end of the season, and felt he basically earned himself a new contract at that point. I’m not going to lie and say that we weren’t interested in Zach Brown. We thought we had a deal worked out with him to come in here and help out our team. He would have brought a great offensive and defensive philosophy. He interviewed very well, and would have been a terrific person for our organization. We had a verbal agreement on a contract, pending a final meeting between Brown and owner Tony Soprano. Brown must have had some second thoughts about the position after speaking with Soprano. I know that Mr.Soprano has lofty expectations and I think that scared off Brown, no pun intended.
Tony is pissed and so am I. I wouldn’t want to be in Zach Brown’s shoes for fear that they might turn to cement.
Reporter#2: Why did you choose Nelson? This is a guy who’s played in 6 games in 2 years and has had 2 significant injuries. This seems like a bad move to me
MW: I realize that I may get criticized for this move. I just felt like I needed to make a move. Don’t forget that we had an “injury prone” QB in Chaplin, and he played the whole season. Coach Morris has the best training staff in the league, and if anyone can keep him healthy, it’s Morris. As far as other alternatives, we really gave ourselves 3 options. We inquired to a number of teams to try and get a feel of what our market was. It really came down to Nelson, Columbia’s Jaime Morris, or stick with Doyle McClure. We don’t feel that Doyle is the best option for our team right now as a full time starter. This left Nelson and Morris. It was really a coin flip. Morris provided a proven 3000yd passer with a QB rtg. of over 80. Morris was the safe bet, and Nelson was the gamble. I don’t know if I made the right decision or not. When I went to bed last night I thought Morris, when I woke up this morning, I thought Nelson. I’m not afraid to take a chance. I feel that we’ll be able to find it easier to work out an extension with Nelson. I just hope Nelson makes me look smart.
I’ll open this up for questions
Reporter#1: With all the negativity around coach Morris, why was he resigned? All signs showed that the team was set to sign Vancouver’s new HC Zach Brown. What happened with this?
MW: When we sat back and looked at the situation, we felt that Morris did all he could with what he was given. We got on a roll at the end of the season, and felt he basically earned himself a new contract at that point. I’m not going to lie and say that we weren’t interested in Zach Brown. We thought we had a deal worked out with him to come in here and help out our team. He would have brought a great offensive and defensive philosophy. He interviewed very well, and would have been a terrific person for our organization. We had a verbal agreement on a contract, pending a final meeting between Brown and owner Tony Soprano. Brown must have had some second thoughts about the position after speaking with Soprano. I know that Mr.Soprano has lofty expectations and I think that scared off Brown, no pun intended.
Tony is pissed and so am I. I wouldn’t want to be in Zach Brown’s shoes for fear that they might turn to cement.
Reporter#2: Why did you choose Nelson? This is a guy who’s played in 6 games in 2 years and has had 2 significant injuries. This seems like a bad move to me
MW: I realize that I may get criticized for this move. I just felt like I needed to make a move. Don’t forget that we had an “injury prone” QB in Chaplin, and he played the whole season. Coach Morris has the best training staff in the league, and if anyone can keep him healthy, it’s Morris. As far as other alternatives, we really gave ourselves 3 options. We inquired to a number of teams to try and get a feel of what our market was. It really came down to Nelson, Columbia’s Jaime Morris, or stick with Doyle McClure. We don’t feel that Doyle is the best option for our team right now as a full time starter. This left Nelson and Morris. It was really a coin flip. Morris provided a proven 3000yd passer with a QB rtg. of over 80. Morris was the safe bet, and Nelson was the gamble. I don’t know if I made the right decision or not. When I went to bed last night I thought Morris, when I woke up this morning, I thought Nelson. I’m not afraid to take a chance. I feel that we’ll be able to find it easier to work out an extension with Nelson. I just hope Nelson makes me look smart.