Chiefs GM Scott Pioli On NFL Network Talking 2011 Senior Bowl

Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and the rest of the personnel staff made their way to Mobile, Alabama this week to take in the 2011 Senior Bowl and the next crop of players to make their way through the 2011 NFL draft. The Chiefs GM appeared on NFL Network on Monday along with Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff and talked about the importance of the Senior Bowl and what exactly they get out of it.

(Note: Here's video of the interview)

"I think the most important part is seeing these players actually showing up," Pioli said. "And then the ones that do show up is how they perform, what they choose to do, what they don't choose to do, because there's a lot of people given this opportunity. It's clear that the players that are showing up here really care about competing, love football and they're trying to put themselves on the radar."

Guys that love football is a common trait of all the Chiefs draft picks, especially the 2010 selections. If there was one single description of the player Pioli is looking for, that'd be it.

"I think something that we share along with the Patriots and a couple of other teams," Pioli said, "is the type of guy we're looking for from a makeup standpoint -- maturity, their overall genuine passion for the game, guys who really care about football and want to be football players."

He also suggested the Senior Bowl, which is one of the first postseason events, allows you to see the players early on in the process before coaches and/or agents "coach them up" so to speak.

"This is our first opportunity to see these guys in an uncomfortable setting," he said. "They're out of their element of being on campus, they're not around their regular coaches, their agents have only been able to do a little bit of coaching at this point in time. So it's really a good opportunity to see them in an uncomfortable environment and see how they react in that environment and what they're going to do."

I like the part about seeing players in an uncomfortable setting. When they're not coached up to answer questions a certain way or do a cookie cutter drill, you start to figure out who they really are. Good stuff from the Chiefs GM.