Jeff Ireland Talks Miami Dolphins 2012 Draft Pick Jonathan Martin

Earlier tonight, I posted a series of Tweets from Omar Kelly with some of the quotes from Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland's media availability following the pick of Jonathan Martin, offensive tackle, Stanford, in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Now, the team has provided a transcript of that media availability:

(On what he likes about OT Jonathan Martin) - "Big, long arms, a left tackle and athletic. A very good kid...high character guy. He's a three year starter at Stanford who came out (of college) early so he's young, 22 years old. There's not a lot of things not to like about the kid. The only thing is that he is a little bit of a projection from left tackle to right tackle, he has played an unbalanced line on the right hand side. In this scheme, we won't be as much of a power scheme as we have been in the past, so his athletic ability; natural knee bender, quickness and ability to play in space transfers to this scheme a lot better than any other scheme. Getting out in the zone scheme and running and cutting off the backside or cutting off the front side is going to fit this young man's abilities and skill set very well."

(On whether they valued a Tackle over a Wide Receiver or Pass Rusher) - "We really stuck with our board. We had Jonathan at a really good place on our board and we certainly didn't want to reach for another pass rusher since there has been some pass rushers that had gone off the board pretty quickly. We felt like this was a position of need for us and married to our board so we stuck with it."

(On whether the style of offense Stanford ran will help Martin's transition to the pro game) - "This a really smart young man here. He's a really high test scorer and you know terminology is going to be a bit different, but they ran a pretty complex pro style scheme there (Stanford), so the complexity of the terminology will not be an issue for him learning a new offense. It was a high tempo offense in some cases, and he's used to playing with a very demanding quarterback position with Andrew (Luck), and they trusted him to protect Andrew for three years. We're very happy with the pick."

(On Jake Long's fit in the new blocking scheme) - "Jake Long can transfer to any scheme, any offense and any team in the National Football League in my opinion. The guy is a tremendous athlete. He's quick, he's strong, so he can do it."

(On the pressure of passing on a need position (pass rusher) to stick with the best player available on the Dolphins draft board) - "Well I mean protecting the quarterback is pretty darn important too. There was one thing that was pretty evident when we started interviewing candidates not only Joe in particular, but interviewing candidates for the head coaching position, hey made it very clear to me that we better get some protection or our quarterback is going to get hurt. So that hit me in the face during that process, but protecting the quarterback and keeping him upright and giving him the ability to throw down the field is important."

(On Martin's number of bench press reps at the combine being a concern) - "No because he has really long arms. His arms are somewhere between 34-34 ½ inches long. He needs to get stronger there is no doubt about that, I would say that about any prospect coming out but I'm not worried about that. He plays strong and there are some things in his game that aren't perfect, but that's what our coaches are here for and they're going to get that going pretty good."