INDIANAPOLIS - First-year Bucs coach Greg Schiano made the decision to ship Aqib Talib to the Patriots at last fall's trading deadline (along with a seventh-round pick) in exchange for a fourth-round selection in this spring's draft.
During his Thursday morning meeting with the media at the NFL Combine, Schiano was asked once again about his experiences working with Talib in the pair's short time together in Tampa Bay.
"When Talib was with the Bucs I enjoyed coaching him. He did the things that we asked," Schiano said. "I'm not naïve that there were some things in his past. But there is nothing more than what I said at the time."
Schiano, who's always had a good relationship with Bill Belichick, also said that getting the extra draft pick for a guy who was going to be a free agent at the end of the season was important.
"Any time in the draft when you have picks, then you have ammunition to do things," Schiano said in Belichickian fashion. "Whether you pick at that spot or you move around with those picks. It was something that was very helpful for us last year to be able to move up and get Doug Martin. So to have some ammunition is critical."
One area that Schiano differs from Belichick at this point is in constructing his coaching staff. While Belichick generally has one of the smallest if not the smallest coaching staff in the league, Schiano's current staff consists of more than two-dozen assistants.
"There are benefits to both. I think it's a fluid situation," Schiano said. "Do you always need to have a staff that's as large as we do? Maybe not, down the road. But the people we have in place right now I'm very, very comfortable with. They're all people that I trust, that I believe in. They all have a function or a role. As those roles change, then our staff will change. But right now I feel very good about our staff."
