Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman and Head Coach Joe Judge discuss the Giants' selection of UConn offensive tackle Matt Peart in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

Dave Gettleman: The Peart kid that we took at the bottom of three is long, he's big. He's a 315-pound kid that's skinny. We interviewed him a number of times, he's a great kid. He's athletic and he's long and we think he has a lot of upside for a young kid. He's a guy that the coaching staff really wanted to work with.

Joe Judge: I second what Dave said. It's rare to describe someone as 315 pounds and skinny, but that's what he is. He's an athletic guy, he has a lot of length to him. We feel good about his character and his work ethic. He's excited to come on in here and work hard and we can't wait to get him on the field. 

Q: Why did you guys decide to pick another tackle instead of going with a center? I know you guys have been talking about center?

Gettleman: It's about value. He was too good of a value to pass by. We had him rated well above the rest of the other centers on our board. 

Q: What kind of a ceiling does this kid have?

Gettleman: I think he has a sizeable ceiling. He's young, he's really got a lot of talent. We really like the upside on him.

Q: Joe, you talked to us the other day about projecting how players will be two or three years down the road. Is this one of those players for you?

Judge: I think they are all one of those players for me. He definitely has a lot of upside. I don't want to say he is developmental, he is developing, and they all are. He's got tremendous work ethic, he's got a great attitude. I think we are going to see a lot better football in the future than we've seen from him already. That's what makes us really excited to work with these guys that we're bringing in. 

Q: Is it too early in his development to know if he is a more natural left or right tackle?

Judge: I think his athleticism is going to lend him to being a swing tackle early on in his career and work on both sides. We don't want to limit any of our guys to just play on one side. We have to cross train everybody. If you play on the left side, you have to be able to play on the right side as well. That's going to go ahead and lend to what we need based on roster situation and game plans.

Q: Are you still looking for a center?

Gettleman: We are just going to work the board.

Q: What was it like having this long gap between picks? I know you did it last year. What was the feeling when the Jets were on the clock at 68?

Gettleman: I mean, it's a long time between picks. We're at 36 and then it's 99, so you've got 54 picks, multiply it times five minutes, it's a long time, you know? We made the decision last year on that, on the third round pick, and we're fine. 

Q: This is a guy who did not play football in high school, but he never missed a snap in college. Do you see some of that rawness of a guy who came to the game late that interests you that you can work with in a guy like this?

Judge: I always like having athletic players who you don't feel like are tapped out. I said earlier, he's developing – meaning, this guy has got a skill set, he's still learning. I think we've got the right line coach to go ahead and work with him between (Offensive Line Coach) Marc (Colombo) and (Assistant Offensive Line Coach) Ben (Wilkerson). This guy's got tremendous upside. His athleticism, his physical build and then just his character and work ethic. You put those things together and these are guys you really want to work with. 

Q: You had a long wait tonight, but you have a pretty quick turnaround tomorrow getting ready. How do you guys handle this? Do you try to get together tonight and map out what's on the board for tomorrow and what plans you're going to do, or do you wait until tomorrow to get together? Do you have a couple of guys that you are kind of eyeing already for that fourth round pick?

Gettleman: We'll talk a little bit tonight and, really and truly, it'll be interesting to see if we get calls because we're picking so early tomorrow. We'll have a conference, we'll get together tomorrow morning well in advance to give us a chance to really talk and figure out what we want to do. So, we'll spend time tonight and tomorrow.

Q: You told us earlier that you weren't going to dip into next year for picks to move up, but if there was somebody on your board you might be tempted to do something. Was there anyone on your board at a certain spot that you were tempted to move up or were you content to stay at 99?

Gettleman: No, we were fine because, again, I wasn't going to dip into next year and that's what we would've had to have done. So, we were fine. We're fine. We just got a really good value with Matt Peart. He's a solid prospect and we got a really good value.