vonstout":ervw9o31 said:
Although I like some of the picks, we may have reached too early for our first two picks. The fact that we have 4 TEs on our roster that all have some NFL success and too many guards on the roster, we took both a guard and TE in this draft. Lewis instead of the tackle, Jones, was a mistake IMO unless Lewis actually wins the starting job. The icing on the cake is giving up a sixth rounder in next years draft to take A NOTHER TE that probably won't even make our roster. We didn't draft a CB or OT and now have 6 TEs. I think Arizona and SF both improved their teams a lot more than we did so it could be a rough year. I hope I'm wrong
A few notes:
Firstly, I think we should address what we all think roster needs are. Personally, I see tight end as a need, which sounds ridiculous with how many players they have there. But, going over the guys there who actually have NFL level talent, we're reduced to Dissly, Willson, Olsen, and Hollister. Olsen is old, and will be gone after this year. Willson and Hollister are both fringe talents on one year deals. Dissly is a bona fide TE1... but with some serious durability concerns.
So, looking at who we actually have at the position, there's not a lot of quality talent there - and what is there is either unreliable or temporary. It's a position that is of fairly decent importance to the offense, and had the team sat around with their thumbs up their butts, we'd be looking around in 2021 going "what happened?" like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. Better to draft a couple guys now with some high upside.
TL;DR Philosophically, you'd ideally want to attack your future needs before they become gaping roster holes. That's what happened here at tight end.
Secondly, I can see why Jones fell. I didn't think we were really in on him much, anyway. He's got short arms and has only ever played left tackle in his career, where he clearly doesn't project as a pro in most schemes. Lewis is one of the best guard prospects in the draft - gotta take good players that fit your scheme. Forcing Jones onto the team with less time to learn than usual probably would have had really crap results, whereas Lewis looks ready to (literally) give Fluker a run for his money.
I can see how that seems at odds with my first point about addressing needs early. Tackle is a future need, but specifically left tackle. I'm not sure that there were really any guys available past those first 4 guys that both:
A. fit the profile, and
B. didn't suck ass
I too hope for some talent at tackle soon, but man... it's getting rough to find it without having a high first.
Thirdly, I don't know if I see CB as a glaring need. Griffin, Dunbar, and Flowers as your top 3 is pretty solid. Ugo is a question-mark at slot, but I think they're gonna end up moving Dunbar inside if Ugo doesn't work out. That is, when they don't opt for base defense...
Finally, eh. Giving up probably a late sixth to get back into the seventh is fine. We're talking very miniscule value picks here. Spent it on a high upside developmental guy. Hard to get too angry over it for me, but I get the gripe.
