David Dunn Quotes

Every team in the league is always looking to upgrade its talent.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

We draft mostly high school kids and we have one of the finest, if not the finest, player development programs and coaching staffs and we teach our players the right way to play. We also have a game plan in scouting, and there are certain types of players that we look for.

When you're a general manager, you don't get to see every single player, so you have to rely on your scouts.

I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can't invent him if he doesn't exist.

Any time you get a chance to acquire a really good football player, I'm all about that.

Sometimes it takes a few years to land that special player.

Whether it's drafting or player development, the ultimate is putting a team together.

Choosing players in any sport is an imperfect science.

My job, when it comes to free agency, trades, is not to pick players, but support the personnel department and the coaching staff. We have to have the financial resources to make things happen and that's my job.

So I'm going to tell you, it's going to be a good year. There are good players all over this country, and it is our job as a scouting department to find them, draft them, sign them, develop them, and help us to continue to win championships. So it's going to be a good year.

Now, would we like to have that super quarterback? Absolutely. And if we have the opportunity to get that person or develop that person, that's what we'll do.

You go to the draft board and think, 'Here's a nose tackle. Who needs a nose tackle?' Well, eight teams in front of you need a nose tackle, and there's two nose tackles. It's something you have to figure out where you can get the players to play in your system.

Smart drafting is a wonderful thing. A smart free-agent signing is a wonderful thing. Smart trades are a wonderful thing, and that's a function of management.

General managers - I like to talk about the 'golden gut': general managers that not only can have a sense for the players that are going to perform beyond what people expect and get team chemistry right, but they also have to be able to make trades.

A winning model would mean trying to get the best possible players that you can, at whatever age they are; it doesn't matter.

It's hard to change a roster around. You've got to hit your draft picks right, you've gotta hit free agency right, and a team's got to fit together.

If it wasn't for Paul Brown, I probably wouldn't have a job because he basically evolved scouting.

You have expectations always when you buy players. Mostly, you have positive expectations.

Once you identify positional needs, then I think, then, what you do is, you be very selective on how you go about acquiring those players. You have to look at the resources available on how to acquire those players, and then, if you can, go acquire those assets that can best help this team get over the hump.

For a club to come and get you, they are going to use you at some stage.

Like any year, any year with any team, you're always going to look to the draft to help strengthen your roster and free agency.

Every place you can find an edge, you should - the free agent market, the undrafted market, the D-League, international players, Americans playing overseas, international players playing in America, the second round. You should be looking for all those opportunities, finding whatever edge you can.

You always attempt to better yourself by getting good football players.

It's never easy to find players in the market who are exactly what you need at that time.