Brian Galliford wasn't just my right-hand man during the SBNation Mock Draft, he's also one smart fella when it comes to the Buffalo (Toronto) Bills.

Here is the transcript from our recent talk.

We're hoping to soon add interviews with the 49ers and Denver Broncos.

Clearly, entering the off-season we felt we needed to get bigger and deeper on the defensive side of the football.  We felt that our run defense was scrappy last season, but ultimately, it let us down in too many big situations.  So we brought in guys like Marcus Stroud, Spencer Johnson and Kawika Mitchell to add some beef and versatility to our front seven.  We targeted corner and receiver early in the draft because we were thin at those positions.  We liked the talent we had at both positions, but we needed depth and competition, and we really feel like James and Leodis McKelvin not only add to both of those aspects, but bring unique talents to their respective positions as well.  Our philosophy is to find the best players that fit what we do, and we don't necessarily target a specific position first.  But we were fortunate this off-season to get very good players at key positions.  We feel good about what's happened.

Clearly, these are young guys that we're asking to shoulder a lot of responsibility, but both of them proved to an extent as rookies that they can handle those expectations.  We only expect them to continue to work hard at getting better - we believe that both of these guys have the ability to get better just by being on the field.  They're both smart guys that work very hard, and they're excellent in our locker room.  We'll continue to coach them and ride them, but we strongly believe in these two guys and that they can be the cornerstones of a winning NFL offense.

Jason missed all of our spring practices, including a mandatory mini-camp, for which we fined him the NFL maximum.  We have not spoken to Jason himself this off-season, but have been in contact with his agent.  We re-signed Jason to a contract extension during the 2005 season, and while we're certainly willing to work with Jason and his agent to keep him happy, we expect him to honor that agreement.

There's going to be a dogfight at cornerback this July.  We're returning two starters in Terrence McGee and Jabari Greer; we signed Will James as a free agent; we drafted Leodis and Reggie Corner fairly high; and another young guy, Ashton Youboty, has taken strides this off-season.  There are six guys right there who will be fighting for as much playing time as they can get.  Depth was a huge concern for us at that position last season, so we worked hard to build quality depth at that position, and we actually have seven or eight guys, including another rookie - Kennard Cox - and Dustin Fox pushing for a roster spot.  It's wide open at that position, and we have a nice mix of veteran and youth, and different skill sets.  That position should be fun to watch this summer.

Right now, our defensive end is pretty stabilized because it's so veteran-laden.  We know what we're going to get from Aaron Schobel, Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney week in and week out - hard work and solid play on Sundays.  We like what our third-round pick, Chris Ellis, brings in a complementary fashion to those three guys - he's quick and has a lot of potential.  He'll play some as well.  Inside, we've had all of our tackles playing both the one-technique and three-technique in an effort to maximize our versatility, and we've been very pleased with that progress.  Obviously we brought in Marcus Stroud to start, and right now, Kyle Williams has been running alongside him with the ones.  All four of those guys, John McCargo and Spencer Johnson included, will be playing a lot, though, so we expect all four of them to know both positions and play well doing so.  They haven't let us down yet.

As I mentioned before, we're a lot deeper at this position than we were last season.  It's very difficult to predict who will end up where, but we know that the current plan at cornerback is to play Will James in the nickel role, start Terrence McGee, and let Leodis McKelvin and Jabari Greer duke it out for the other starting spot.  Youboty and Corner can't be counted out, though - they could push for some nickel work, and there's the dime position to be decided as well.  There's a lot of shuffling that needs to take place here, but we're very happy with our depth.

That obviously depends on how Leodis performs during training camp.  He's expressed his desire to start, and he's working extremely hard toward that goal.  We have enough depth at not just cornerback, but in the return department with McGee and Roscoe Parrish, that it's not absolutely imperative that we force Leodis onto the field right away.  But he's an excellent football player with rare athletic skills, so we're betting that it won't be long before he cracks the lineup in some fashion.  He'll likely see time at both corner and in the return department for us; a lot of that won't be decided until we see our players in pads.

We really like our depth along the defensive line and at cornerback - we feel like those positions are team strengths, and that the players at those positions can help us rebound defensively in a noticeable way.  I wouldn't necessarily say we have a weak position, because we like all of our players, but we're interested to see what kind of production we can get out of our receivers and tight ends this summer.  Honestly, I think we're much further ahead defensively than offensively at this point, and while we like the direction we're taking on that side of the ball, there's a lot of room to grow.

Do General Managers make bold predictions?  I'll just say this: we're looking forward to charting the growth of our young players, and our coaches are ecstatic at the level of talent we have on both sides of the ball.  This is a very confident group, from the front office to the coaches right down to the players.  We have a strong belief that this is the year we finally establish ourselves as legitimate contenders in the AFC.  There's a lot of work to be done to achieve that goal.  But our goals are lofty for a reason: we've finally gotten a team that's talented and athletic enough to compete with any team in the league.  This team should be a lot of fun to watch.