Rams coach Sean McVay says comment about Patriots draft pick Cole Strange was 'misunderstood'

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay said his comment concerning New England Patriots first-round NFL draft pick Cole Strange was "misunderstood."

During the first round of Thursday's NFL draft, the Patriots selected the offensive lineman out of Tennessee-Chattanooga with the 29th overall pick, which got a surprising reaction from McVay and Rams general manager Les Snead.

"How about that! And we wasted our time watching him thinking he'd be at 104, maybe," McVay said during the Rams' news conference on Thursday night.

McVay, who led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in February, explained a day later that he meant nothing negative with what he said.

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Snead said that McVay talked to Strange and Patriots coach Bill Belichick on Friday to clear the air.

“I wish that it wouldn’t have gotten misunderstood,” McVay said, according to PFT. “It was more of a reflection of, I was actually giving Les some, you know, a hard time because when we started watching him, I think we both were in agreement, there’s no way he’d be there because we like the player so much.

"If there’s anybody that has more respect for Coach Belichick, what he’s done than I do, I’d like to see him, because I have tremendous respect for this profession, for the players that play at this level, and I would never want it to get misunderstood for Cole Strange or the Patriots organization that anything but respect for the player. That was my reaction and any misunderstanding was my fault for the way that I probably communicated that.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sean McVay: NFL draft comment about Patriots pick was 'misunderstood'