Transcript: Assistant General Manager Brandon Brown

Assistant General Manager Brandon Brown

May 30, 2024

Q. How valuable was the experience, the high level starting experience from Nathan Rourke and bringing him in? What went into that whole process?

BRANDON BROWN: The main thing, the CFL experience obviously speaks for itself. I think for a guy, tracking him in Jacksonville last year and knowing that he can operate a team on a 90-man roster, whether it's as a backup, third string, fourth string, whatever he's called to do in the preseason, he had experience doing it.

I just think his book of business speaks for itself, hard worker. First day he was here, he's running extra gasers and sprints by himself, watching him through the office door. So happy Nathan's here.

Q. What was the experience for you like coming so close to the Chargers GM job? Can you tell us how you knew Jim Harbaugh? Because everybody wrote you had a good relationship with Jim Harbaugh, but no one knows why.

BRANDON BROWN: I think the nature of our relationship is not important. I'd say this. Whenever you're in the conversation for those jobs, you appreciate it because they're hard to come by. There are only 32 of them. One, I appreciate everyone that's helped groom me to get me to this point. The talks I've had with Joe (Schoen), Dabs (Brian Daboll), even John Mara through the whole process, it almost feels like you're being propped up and supported in a way that makes you feel really good.

But I think -- remember we had a joint practice with Detroit. During that time, Joe and I, we like to get over to schools. Joe, Tim (McDonnell), Dennis (Hickey), Ryan Cowden, myself, all went down to Michigan. You get time just to spend time with other coaches and talk ball. That's how a lot of the relationships develop. I'll kind of leave it at that, but that's really the breeding ground for a lot of relationships.

Q. What did you learn through the whole experience? Of like interviewing and having your name out there and talking with people within the organization.

BRANDON BROWN: I think the one thing is, I think the work is the best preparation that you can have. It's your foundation. I think whether you're talking about roster building, culture, player acquisition, the cap, all those things, when you go through the process, you realize what you've been exposed to, and it actually gives you confidence in doing your job on the day to day.

To me, going through the process lets you know that, hey, all the things that are entailed in doing the job, I've been exposed to, which has been really great. I told Joe, more than just being a friend, but being a co-worker, he's never shielded anything from me, which to me made itself evident through the process.

Q. How do you balance those conversations in your role, what you feel like is best for the Giants juxtaposed to what the coach feels like is best for the Giants?

BRANDON BROWN: I think the best thing is there's synergy between the coaching staff and the personnel department. The wins matter. When we win, everybody gets rewarded.

So we look at it from the lens of personnel, we may see something from a short term versus long term. Coaches may see it from a short term lens, and it's our job to educate and share open forum of, okay, if we do this in the short term, these are the long-term implications and vice versa.

I think it's, one, expanding the conversations and just being on the same page of, if we do this, this is the ripple effect.

Q. What was it like -- I know you guys look at all positions every year in the Draft, including quarterbacks, but this year there was a lot of looking at quarterbacks from everybody. To go through that process, knowing you had a pretty high pick, and then at the end of it, not coming out with a quarterback?

BRANDON BROWN: I would say, when it comes to the quarterback, we treat it like no other position where we're going to do our due diligence. It's negligent if we don't. We're going to go through the whole, call it kitchen sink approach of, whether it's private workouts, whether it’s live games, whether it’s talking to coaches, whether it's high school, college, positional, coordinators.

Whenever there's any type of crossover between our coaches that have worked with some of these other former, call it, quarterbacks coaches in the past, we're going to do it.

I think, when you're picking as high as we did, it's really important to don't leave any stone unturned because you never know how the draft takes you and you never want to get caught flat-footed. We prepare for every scenario, and that's what we did.

Q. What interested you in Drew Lock, and what are your impressions of him so far?

BRANDON BROWN: Obviously we saw Drew versus Seattle. A lot of us have seen Drew going back to his days in Missouri, in Denver. He's got some moxie and competes to him. I think just think with him, getting adjusted to our scheme -- obviously our offense is not simple. So he's got the whole, full gambit of knowing what's different from what he's been exposed to.

Just really happy to see him learn. Really it's going to be one of those things, it's going to be a learning process for him. It's not going to be overnight. We're happy to support him in every way we can as we go forward toward training camp.

Q. What led you to signing Elijah Riley?

BRANDON BROWN: I had prior experience with Elijah as an undrafted free agent back in Philly. There was some crossover. Ghoby (Michael Ghobrial) had him back with the Jets as well. And just our pro department, led by Chris Rossetti, they always keep on the forefront what's the best available on the street at different levels for different times of the year.

When you look at Elijah, he’s a West Point grad, Army kid, 31 test, really bright, has played in the nickel, has played safety, and has been a productive teamer. You see what he did with Pittsburgh last year when he had an opportunity as an elevation player. There's experience there as a guy who's still young. He's under 28, he's 26 years old. And he's local.

I just think you take all those factors and put them together, he had a good workout, and it's a platform for him where I think that he can give us a really good showing, and there's a comfort level there from the past people that have had a really crossover with him on different staffs.

Q. What's the Hard Knocks experience been like for you guys as a front office?

BRANDON BROWN: Put it this way, it's different at first, and then you go about your day to day. You forget sometimes that you're mic'd. You forget sometimes that the camera is there. I kind of put it this way, if you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing, you shouldn't have to think twice that the camera's on you.

So it becomes a place where privacy goes away a little bit, but if you're always doing the right thing, you don't got to worry about it.

Q. You didn't draft any offensive linemen, which I think surprised some people. Why did you come out of this draft without any O-line?

BRANDON BROWN: When you talk about forecasting and projecting, we do that across the board, whether it's in February going into free agency, going into the draft, you know what the landscape looks like. We knew there were going to be opportunities in free agency to bolster the O-line. You look at adding (Jon) Runyan and (Jermaine) Eluemunor, guys that have been healthy, available. There's some familiarity there, obviously Carm Bricillo being here, coming over from Vegas, having time with Jermaine.

Where we were in the Draft, the positions we took, we felt great about those guys being contributors for us this year. Knowing we addressed certain things via the Draft, the way things lined up just from resource allocation, we're really excited with what we came away with.

Q. This is your fourth consecutive year of spring ball in some iteration, right? How is that important to the football ecosystem, and how does that help you within the pro scouting department as a whole?

BRANDON BROWN: I think right now, when you get into the other leagues, it's ever evolving. Whether it's the talent base that's in the CFL versus a supplemental league, when you had the XFL, the USFL, you look at what's best at this time of year and how can it serve the 90-man roster.

Not every player is going to make a roster, but can this guy give us a good day's work on the 90-man? Can he be someone that can be on the practice squad? Can he push for a depth role? Everyone has their own ceiling, and it's our job to figure out where they fit when the need arises for us.

Q. You've been here from the beginning when you guys started building this. Joe came in and built this front office and the personnel department. When you move on to this process now, you've gone through three different drafts, and you're as involved as anyone, how do you balance the professional and the personal? What I mean is you guys didn't have the year you wanted last year. You have a lot of young players out here. You want to see them develop and get to that point. You also have personal aspirations as to you want to run your own thing right now. Is there a part of you that looks at the timing of this and says, you know what, being a part of this, I want to see this kind of get to where we thought it could be before you start building your own thing? Is there any part of that for you?

BRANDON BROWN: I'd say no different than when we talk to our players. When I say that, it means realize your personal goals through team achievement. That's the best way for things to come together where it's when you win, everybody gets rewarded. That's the nature of our business. And I think, when you look at where we are, we've turned over the roster where there's a lot of young pieces in our nucleus.

I think, when you look at those young pieces, they're at positions of impact, and I think this is an opportunity for all those guys to take another level and take a step in a way that you could say, okay, maybe year one, year two, it was starting to turn, and we're going through some growing pains.

But we expect there to be a jump in performance from guys that may not be household names, but we know that we feel good about as they're developing as young guys, like I said, at under 28 years old, which is to me always a sweet spot.

Q. Brandon, when a player like Darius Slayton stays away for a time due to his contract, are you involved in that process at all as assistant GM? And then how do you guys resolve situations like that so that it sends a positive and not a negative message to like the rest of the locker room and to that player as well?

BRANDON BROWN: Right now I don't think there's anything negative to Darius, the time here recently has been voluntary. He hasn't had to be here. One, glad that he's back. Two, gave him a big hug this morning and was like, having not seen him for the duration of the OTA process.

One, I'm glad Darius is back. When you look at the totality of the message it sends to the locker room, everyone knows there's a difference between the personal and the professional and not blending how you feel about the person. We all love Darius. There's sometimes disagreements between families, but you find a way to find common ground, which we did, and you move forward.

We're happy that he's here, and we're happy to keep moving forward with him. He's back like he never left.

Q. What do you think of the NFLPA's considerations to kind of change the off-season workout timing?

BRANDON BROWN: I think for you guys and us as well, the timing won't be great for families, but just like anything else in this league when the calendar changes, you adapt and adjust, and the new norm becomes what your schedule is.

So I just think, if it comes down to something that's not ideal right now, we'll adjust. Then you'll find, whether it's family time, whether it's vacation time, whether it's other things in terms of building out the roster, et cetera, we'll adjust, and we'll figure out that blueprint, and then we'll start following it.

Q. What could you share about the draft process for Tyler Nubin? It seemed like he had a different avenue than maybe most of the guys really throughout this tenure for you guys in three years. You didn't have him for a visit here, so you guys did a lot of stuff out there. I know you were central in that.

BRANDON BROWN: I would say with Tyler, one, can't talk about him without mentioning Hannah Burnett, our area scout. She's done a helluva job for two straight years on Tyler because we didn't know if he was a guy that would be available last year. If you look at his book of business, the high level FBI, his football instincts, the ability to take the ball away, the character.

Hannah did such a great job on the character as well as our other area scouts, the national scouts, that we felt great where we didn't have to have extra touch points with Tyler. Then you look back to his testing numbers. Maybe some people said they wish he would have ran faster. When he came here for his physical, I gave him a big hug, and I was like, you know what, I feel like I got my favorite food on discount because the tape speaks for itself.

So I'm glad he's here. When you meet him, he has one of those personalities where he can become like the alphas of alphas, and he's a young man with a grown mindset. Happy he's here. The process was painless with him. Luckily he had a book of business that was large for two years of doing a lot of work on him.

That's why those extra touch points you talk about weren't necessary.

Q. Kind of the same question, Brandon, on Malik Nabers. What were your exposures with him? Obviously there were a lot of top receivers. So how were you able to -- or what was important for you guys to decide that Nabers was the guy and not maybe somebody else in the receiver class?

BRANDON BROWN: So Malik -- or Lik, I like to call him -- he's just got a rare competitiveness and edge to him, something that I haven't been around. I kind of say he's got moxie, dog. The cool kids call it aura these days, where he wants to be at his best versus the best on the biggest platform, and he's going to let you know about it.

I think you go back to the process with him, Joe and I saw Malik play against Florida State two years in a row, first game of the season. Then you go back to Scott Hamel doing a lot of work in the area. Our national scouts doing work in the area.

Tim McDonnell, being -- from my exposure, having the best connects at LSU in terms of getting all the coach feedback and background that's necessary to feel good about a player's aptitude in terms of learning what he is every day, not just in the off-season getting prepared for the draft.

Then probably a guy who does a thankless job or unseen job, Jessie Armstead. Jessie was heavily involved with Malik, still is, where we try to kind of treat him like little brother where we've talked everything to Malik about what he likes off the field, his day to day. We talk about building video game consoles and him being into fashion, all the things that you don't get unless you have multiple touch points with a person and there's a comfort level.

So to me, Malik as a player, the ceiling is what he makes of it, and we know what he is every day. He raises the competitive stamina and outlook in this group. It's a young receiver group, and he's a guy that comes in, and everybody knows rent is due every day. That's what you want out of a guy you take in the first round.

Q. It's obviously all projection, but then when they come out here, they're out on the field with other professionals. What have you seen from him or noticed from him out on the field here?

BRANDON BROWN: It's a small sample size right now. Obviously the hot takes in T-shirts and shorts, not having live one-on-one periods, there's only so much you can take from it. But what I do say, he's a guy who's moved around a lot positionally, and our offense is not easy to grasp. He's done it seamless. Like it's been like a glove fit for him where he's learning different roles on the fly, and he's making it look like it's second nature to him.

So he's a give-me-more guy. He's handling it. Joe, Daboll, (Mike) Kafka, Mike Groh, they've all poured into Malik, and I'd say I've worked with Mike Groh for a number of years, I don't think he's given me a larger hug than when we drafted Malik. Everybody's happy.

Q. Do the exploding wide receiver extension free agent contracts make it more important nowadays to hit on wide receivers in the Draft? Is that a position that you almost need to be cost controlled because it's $30 million if you need a number one receiver somewhere else?

BRANDON BROWN: Yeah, you see where the wave is going. We've talked over the years about projecting the market. You see where the forecast is, and you don't want to be on the wrong ends of deals. I think, when you look at how young our receiver corps is, it's an advantageous position to be in. Just the production and the opportunity and the skill set all allows for you to be cost controlled, like you're mentioning.

The thing is you want to be cost controlled for multiple years, young guys that are durable. I think the way that we've built it, almost like a basketball team, there's complementary parts. You have a point guard, a shooting guard, a small forward. It's kind of like how you build your frontcourt and backcourt. There aren't duplicative roles right now. You’ve got a lot of guys that can do different things, but they are specialists in something the other guy really doesn't excel at.

I love the way we put it together, between the synergy with the coaching staff where they've been very clear with the vision and allowed us to really complement them and expose them to the landscape of what's out there, whether it's the Draft, whether it's free agency. That's where we put the plan together and where we're at right now.