I always find the stories that come out following the NFL draft very interesting. Sometimes you hear about trades that almost went down or sometimes you hear about why a team decided not to select a player.
You also hear a little more about "the process" and what went into picking a player. For the Kansas City Chiefs, we've learned a little more about what went into selecting QB Ricky Stanzi.
After the draft, Pioli had this to say regarding Stanzi:
One of the big things we noticed about Ricky, I was up there this year and I saw the kid's work ethic first hand, in terms of film study. I'm not sure how many classes he had but the day that I was in there, he didn't know I was in there, but he happened to be in there over three hours doing film study on his own.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz talked with Steven St. John and Nate Bukaty on 810 WHB's Border Patrol this morning and noted Pioli's visit to the Iowa campus.
Scott's pretty thorough and he's come through here pretty much every fall. He does a good job. He sees a lot of things and I don't know what he's looking at. As you might imagine he spends a lot of time down in the film room and what have you. He bumped into Ricky several times during his stay here. I think that made an impression on Scott. He did ask me if that's Ricky's typical behavior and it really is.
It's not much interesting nonetheless. It sounds like that visit did good things for Stanzi in the Chiefs mind. Ferentz talked about Pioli's diligence in doing his homework -- "Typically, if he selects someone, he's done his homework" -- and said Pioli does a "great job of looking beyond and seeing a lot of things in prospects."
Check out the full audio at 810WHB.com. There's a good part in there talking about Stanzi and TE Tony Moeaki being good friends (and a nice mention from SSJ on Stanzi, A Real American).