Chiefs draft picks 2013: Andy Reid explains why Eric Fisher was the best player available

With the first pick...

"With the first pick we picked Eric Fisher. Big offensive lineman from Central Michigan. What you're getting is a very athletic player. A great kid. Smart kid, engineering major. He can play any position along the line and loves to play the game. From a coaching standpoint and from John Dorsey's standpoint as the GM, we thought he'd be a real nice fit for our football team and for the city of Kansas City. With that, we made the pick.

Reactions to the No. 1 pick

"We waited a while because we were having a hard time getting ahold of him. For whatever reason, the phone was dying there, as he mentioned during his interview that it cut out a couple of times. That was the reason for waiting. We didn't have any trade offers or anything like that.

"We're very happy with Eric. Dorse had targeted him and we felt very strong about him. Dorse just came out of his room yesterday -- he's been on lockdown for about two weeks -- and he felt very strong about this kid as a person and as a football player."

Joeckel vs. Fisher

"Both of them are fine football players. I wasn't there for the second pick but Luke, I believe he went with the second pick. You're looking at two fine players. I'm not going to sit here and compare him -- obviously we felt strong about Eric. We liked his athletic ability and just his overall make-up. We just thought it'd be a good fit. So that's what we did."

Playing in the MAC

"I know Dorse mentioned this to you, and I know I mentioned it in this process, you want to come out with who you felt was the best player. And that's what we did. We made the evaluation, we visited him, watched the workouts and his games. Eric had the opportunity to play against Iowa and Michigan State which are large schools. I don't want to slight the conference because the MAC has a good conference, they are Division I football. You had the Senior Bowl and whatever he was presented, he played well against. We went off of that. Our evaluation of him as a person and what we thought was best for this football team."

Where will he play on the line?

"I don't know that yet. That doesn't bother me, where he plays, because he's a good football player. I'm going to take the five best players and line them up. Position doesn't really matter to me. It never has. We took Shawn Andrews one year with our No. 1 pick and we took him as a left tackle, he could play any position. We ended up playing him at guard bceause we had a couple of veteran tackles there. I don't really care. He eventually mnoved out to tackle. That doesn't bother me. You need them all."

When did you decide Fisher was your guy?

"I'd probably tell you it was heading that was a couple weeks back. You want to make sure any time in this to make sure you cover everything but it was kind of heading in that direction a couple of weeks ago."

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Was there one thing that made you pick him?

"We wanted to make sure we did everything and looked at all the tape. I'm speaking for Dorsey because he set this up, this was his deal. We wanted to make sure we hit all the tape and had an opportunity to visit with him and the Combine and the Senior Bowl. Then we went out and visited all of them, Luke included. Had a chance to visit them and work them out again and we just came to that conclusion. Was there one thing? I can't pinpoint one thing other than that he's a very good athlete. We just felt overall that he was the better player. Again, i don't want to slight the other kid."

What was the visit with him like?

More draft coverage

The rundown on Fisher
Scouting report from our MAC blog
Andy Reid in a Hawaiian shirt at the Chiefs war room
NFL Draft schedule

"When you have a chance to meet him tomorrow you'll see that he is focused. You just get that sense that he's with you. That's what we felt when we worked him out. It was no nonsense, let's get to work. there were a couple of things going into that from a coaching standpoint. None of these kids are perfect. Very few players are perfect.

"You want to go and you want to see if he can handle your coaching. What are your problems and let's see if we can't fix a couple here and adjust to that. Even though it's not live, you present that to him and see how he handles it. He handled it well. He handled the parts of the offense that we gave him very well. He's not lacking for gigabytes. You're not going to run out there. He has enough of that where he can hang with you. We felt good about it."

Fisher's future with the Chiefs

"You can't win without offensive linemen. And you can't win without defensive lineman. That's the way the game works. You have to be strong in those positions. I'm partial to those positions, having played on the offensive side of the ball. I understand the mporatnce of that. Nobody understands that more than Dorse does. Dorse is a defensive end that moved to linebacker but he understands that.

"We're fortunate to have a draft where there are a number of offensive linemen that are first round caliber guys. There are going to be a few of them going in this round. That's unique but that's what we need here. We've got a nucleus now and we need to add to that and we were able to do that."

Where was Fisher on the big board before the Combine?

"He was right up there. The board moves but he was up there pretty high."