Don't know much about him.

Big, physical WR from Kansas State (via Oregon). 6-1, 230; and uses it. Not particular explosive off of the line, but has good straight line speed. I like him after the catch as well. He is raw (only a WR for last 3 years) and had Collin Klein trying to throw him passes in a run-oriented offense- so don't judge him by his stats.

I think he could be a better pro player than college player. Could bust, but I like his upside.

He is amazing

NFSeahawks628 wrote:Don't know much about him.

You will love this dude. He was my favorite WR in the draft and I had him as a 2nd - 3rd round prospect. Draft day steal.

I remember him. There was a lot of talk about him back in December/January since he's a former Duck.

I never talked about him because his tape is pretty ugly, to be frank. He has obvious physical talent. In retrospect it makes sense that Seattle makes this this pick.

I don't like it though. Even in the 7th I don't think I would have liked it given some of the outstanding WRs that are still hanging around that late. Mark Harrison is superior in almost every way, IMO.

kearly wrote:I remember him. There was a lot of talk about him back in December/January since he's a former Duck.

I never talked about him because his tape is pretty ugly, to be frank. He has obvious physical talent. In retrospect it makes sense that Seattle makes this this pick.

I don't like it though. Even in the 7th I don't think I would have liked it given some of the outstanding WRs that are still hanging around that late. Mark Harrison is superior in almost every way, IMO.

Thats a pretty strong dislike for Harper as a propect. What is it about his game that in your mind that makes him unworthy of a 7th round pick?

I have seen a ton of Harper and having been hyping him up since the middle of this past college football season. While he is not the quickest and he is a raw route runner, but he does excell in other areas. He has unusal size for the position (230 lbs.), physical with the ball in his hands, strong hands, plucks balls out of the air, he has decent body control to catch off target passes, and competitive player on the field.

kearly wrote:I remember him. There was a lot of talk about him back in December/January since he's a former Duck.

I never talked about him because his tape is pretty ugly, to be frank. He has obvious physical talent. In retrospect it makes sense that Seattle makes this this pick.

I don't like it though. Even in the 7th I don't think I would have liked it given some of the outstanding WRs that are still hanging around that late. Mark Harrison is superior in almost every way, IMO.

Reminds me of Brian Blades.

Good athlete but not overwhelming athlete. Tough dude. Not afraid to stick his nose into things in the running game.

I think in 2 or 3 years he'll be a fan favorite.

Kearly is pissed the hawks passed on his man crush Swope

I'll second the notion that we shoulda coulda woulda taken Ryan Swope at some point in this draft.
And he was there for the taking for like 5 picks in Rounds 4-6!!!

IMHO Harper was a major reach at #123, and if PC/JS had really wanted Jesse that badly, they could've straightup taken Jesse Williams, runstopper, at #123, and then moved on to the other needs. I don't know about you, but to me it just seemed very odd that we traded down to get 2 extra picks, major reached on Harper, then traded up giving away the 2 extra picks to get Williams.

I believed that we still probably have gotten Swope, Simon, & Harper with any combination of our 3 picks in the 5th, and still had that extra 6th leftover for Scott, Daniels, Harrison, Hopkins, Dimanche, Marquardt etc etc.


Personally, I found it maddening. But that's only 'cuz I wanted to absolutely max out every last drop of Day 3 juice...
That said, I'll gladly salvage a bit of the learning curve/maturity I've gained participating in this process, by keeping the faith and trusting in the FO to know what they are doing, wayyy more than I could possibly begin to comprehend, and generally spend the next few days finding my Zen happy place after an overall above average draft. Go Hawks!

Swope had 5 concussions. Why do you think he dropped like a rock?

A couple of trips over the middle would be #6. At least we have a big WR, that we can afford to take time with.

Unfortunately, if Swope has already had 4 or 5 concussions in college he won't last in the NFL. He may be a good talent, but so was Jahvid Best. Seattle wasn't the only team to pass on Swope.

Harper will be good and brings a physicality to our WR corps that we don't currently have.

Largent80 wrote:Swope had 5 concussions. Why do you think he dropped like a rock?

A couple of trips over the middle would be #6. At least we have a big WR, that we can afford to take time with.

He surely didn't get any favors done for the concussions by ending up in Arizona, Kam Chancellor is going to be hated around the league after he rocks Swope.

Swope went to theFalcons, wrong bird

Hawk Strap wrote:Swope went to theFalcons, wrong bird

No, he went to the Cardinals.

http://arizonasports.com/40/1630387/Car ... Ryan-Swope

kearly wrote:I remember him. There was a lot of talk about him back in December/January since he's a former Duck.

I never talked about him because his tape is pretty ugly, to be frank. He has obvious physical talent. In retrospect it makes sense that Seattle makes this this pick.

I don't like it though. Even in the 7th I don't think I would have liked it given some of the outstanding WRs that are still hanging around that late. Mark Harrison is superior in almost every way, IMO.

I disagree, the highlights/film I've seen of him excite me. He very much looks like Anquan Boldin.. I could see this kid being a bigger factor down the road than he's likely going to be in 2013.

Hasselbeck wrote:

kearly wrote:I remember him. There was a lot of talk about him back in December/January since he's a former Duck.

I never talked about him because his tape is pretty ugly, to be frank. He has obvious physical talent. In retrospect it makes sense that Seattle makes this this pick.

I don't like it though. Even in the 7th I don't think I would have liked it given some of the outstanding WRs that are still hanging around that late. Mark Harrison is superior in almost every way, IMO.

I disagree, the highlights/film I've seen of him excite me. He very much looks like Anquan Boldin.. I could see this kid being a bigger factor down the road than he's likely going to be in 2013.

Same, I really like what I see from him. Then again, it really doesn't matter what you, myself, Kearly, or anyone else thought of him..... PC and JS who do this for a living saw enough in him to pick him in the 4th.

Overdrafted imaho. Guy fumbles way too much. Another Kris Durham.

With Kris Durham and others, this FO has not distinguished itself in choosing receivers, and perhaps Kearly has a better eye for this than John Schneider.

Nevertheless, I see this pick as a branding pick, a statement. The Seahawks are all about punishing, smash mouth football. Not only will our defense beat the crap out of you and our running backs run over and through you, but even our wide receivers will be doling out the pain. Anquan Boldin wears his defenders out. I hope Harper is even close to that.

godawg wrote:With Kris Durham and others, this FO has not distinguished itself in choosing receivers, and perhaps Kearly has a better eye for this than John Schneider.

Nevertheless, I see this pick as a branding pick, a statement. The Seahawks are all about punishing, smash mouth football. Not only will our defense beat the crap out of you and our running backs run over and through you, but even our wide receivers will be doling out the pain. Anquan Boldin wears his defenders out. I hope Harper is even close to that.

If that was true of anyone on this forum....they would have a GM job. JS does it for a living, his family doesn't eat if he gets fired. Real life consequences and he doesn't have the benefit of his bad calls being lost in the depths of a forum. Sorry bro, but to say anyone here could be a better talent evaluator than JS is kind of silly.

We can say we like ____ or ____ and that gets forgot in 2 months. We watch youtube video's, thats not near the level of JS.

Good point on the multiple concussions and NFL longevity of Swope. I was not aware of that.

Also, I guess I was hyperfocused on how he helped Manziel dismantle Alabama's secondary when A&M beat them 29-24 last year, and envisoned him helping Russell Wilson do the same to the Rams and Niners. I really liked his football smarts, underappreciated 4.34 speed, and his ability to improvise and get open/help out the QB after the play had broken down.
That wasn't the only game either. Swope rocked it for the last 3 seasons under 3 QBs and 2 coaching staffs. Comparing his college stats side by side to Harper's and its like arggh... but yeah, I guess we aint in college anymore now are we Toto...

It was hard letting go of the mancrush, but seeing as how he is now the enemy in Arizona, maybe Kam Chancellor can welcome him to the pros accordingly.

ps Since this is about Chris Harper I watched everything I could find on him and came away with one very strong conclusion... Colin Klein can't throw a football . As far as Harper himself, idk anything for sure, but he looks alright and he CAN block. As far as his future as a highpointing passcatcher/firstdown converter with guys hanging all over him, maybe JSPC have found another diamond in the rough, in that he hasn't yet played with an accurate quarterback... and will be a young Boldin (or better!) ...only time will tell.

T-Sizzle wrote:

godawg wrote:With Kris Durham and others, this FO has not distinguished itself in choosing receivers, and perhaps Kearly has a better eye for this than John Schneider.

Nevertheless, I see this pick as a branding pick, a statement. The Seahawks are all about punishing, smash mouth football. Not only will our defense beat the crap out of you and our running backs run over and through you, but even our wide receivers will be doling out the pain. Anquan Boldin wears his defenders out. I hope Harper is even close to that.

If that was true of anyone on this forum....they would have a GM job. JS does it for a living, his family doesn't eat if he gets fired. Real life consequences and he doesn't have the benefit of his bad calls being lost in the depths of a forum. Sorry bro, but to say anyone here could be a better talent evaluator than JS is kind of silly.

We can say we like ____ or ____ and that gets forgot in 2 months. We watch youtube video's, thats not near the level of JS.

lol. Yep.

I don't get it. Looked like even college defenders were all over him. Strong hands sure. No acrobatic catches or much YAC.

Special teams player.

I actually love the Harper pick, he's not a year one starter but give him this year to upskill his route running and he'll replace Tate perfectly. It's a nice way to counter our own (no longer unique) system of big CB's playing aggressive press coverage.. Have WR's that can beat down on the CB, it's the next step

While his college body of work didn't make me holler in exuberance when the selection was revealed... giving immediate further thought made me smile. I didn't really have a draft round grade on Harper. I don't know why I didn't consider him to be on Seattle's radar. In retrospect, this is the kind of player and selection that - pairing this guys upside / potential with Russell Wilson (not to mention the DB's he will be competing against in practice) - will be yet another example of the genius of JS / PC. Last year and with first round picks... you hear more that there were other teams interested to take a player like Bruce Irvin. I don't think we tend to hear that about mid round selections. But, perhaps this guy was the WR target all along and they were elated to get him there and didn't want to risk later rounds. There have been comments about not taking "safe" picks. This draft seemed much about taking upside players. I like what they did, overall, and that includes the selection of Chris Harper. I wonder what sort of draft grade Chris Harper would have had if he had played at Texas A&M with Tannehill and Manziel? I'm still interested to see what Stephen Williams may show. So, even if Harper ends up on the PS, I think the pick upgrades the position overall.

Also, I gotta believe there is more to it than simply documented concussions as to why the Seahawks passed on Ryan Swope. I, too, liked what I saw in Swope. I think there are still a lot of concussions that go unreported and I would imagine that there have been many players drafted throughout the years that perhaps had as many or more concussions (that went undiagnosed or unreported) that went on to have significant careers in the NFL. So, I can't imagine that so many teams would pass so easily on the perceived (armchair GM) potential of Swope based only on that. It's a physical game. It's not a "contact" sport... it's a "collision" sport. So, I can't imagine that all those GM's passed on a perceived talent like that just because he's been rung up a bit. Welcome to the club.

This draft is like every other. There are players we all rated very high that slid. We may not even remember their names in a year or two. Of course, there are draft steals, too. Granted. Still, it's not like Swope played at some obscure school and he was hidden under a rock.

Welcome to the Seahawks, Chris Harper! I'm sure you are coming in with the attitude to contribute in any way you can to help this team win and reach it's goals... not just personal goals. I gotta believe that is why JS / PC drafted you. Get one of those "All In" T-Shirts from RW and get to work. We're rooting for you. You will have the best teammates and fan support in the league.

He sounds like a faster Obo. Close in size too.. A decent pick if it pans out but it seems to be - bit of going for the fences. It could easily be a miss.

Atradees wrote:I don't get it. Looked like even college defenders were all over him. Strong hands sure. No acrobatic catches or much YAC.

Special teams player.

He's a possession receiver. Not every WR is going to be a burner and an acrobat. He excels in making catches in traffic.

Think Mike Williams (the 2010 version), but faster.

Pete will make this pick work, I just don't get why they passed on better receivers who were available much later. Mark Harrison has better measurables than Harper AND doesn't have the problems on tape AND he went undrafted since the WR class was crazy deep this year. And he's just one example of many.

I think what motivated this pick is that Pete is confident that he can fix problems, so he doesn't really see Harper's glaring issues as much of a negative, unlike me. Harper's strengths are BIG strengths. He might be the strongest WR in the draft and has strong hands too. That hasn't translated into physical play yet. Maybe it will with Pete's guidance and he'll end up a steal.

I like Greg's comparison to BMW. I think that's what Pete envisions too.

kearly wrote:Pete will make this pick work, I just don't get why they passed on better receivers who were available much later. Mark Harrison has better measurables than Harper AND doesn't have the problems on tape AND he went undrafted since the WR class was crazy deep this year. And he's just one example of many.

I think what motivated this pick is that Pete is confident that he can fix problems, so he doesn't really see Harper's glaring issues as much of a negative, unlike me. Harper's strengths are BIG strengths. He might be the strongest WR in the draft and has strong hands too. That hasn't translated into physical play yet. Maybe it will with Pete's guidance and he'll end up a steal.

I like Greg's comparison to BMW. I think that's what Pete envisions too.

I smell BACK-PEDAL. You went from hating him to now "pete will make this pick work".

Clearly Pete didn't think Harrisons tape was better than Harpers. That is why Harper was picked in the 4th. I can't stress enough, PC and JS do this for a living, nobody on this message board does.

T-Sizzle wrote:I can't stress enough, PC and JS do this for a living, nobody on this message board does.

This is a rant not necessarily directed at T-Sizzle. More it's something I've read from multiple posters on multiple forums and it's bugged me for awhile:



We're in a Seahawks draft forum. People are *SUPPOSED* to offer opinions. Even dissenting ones.

Honestly can people even begin to get over the 'Nuh uh, you don't get paid to do this like Tim Ruskell does -- T.I.T.!' response? It's kind of infantile. And it doesn't seem like it would need to be stressed anyway. Isn't this a presumed fact by all?

I don't want a fan forum made up of YES men. I want opinions from a different angle. Preferably informed and reasoned opinions so I can judge for myself. If I wanted to consume Seahawks material in that cowling, flaccid, company line manner -- I'd get my fix from the official website. If one feels that strongly that nobody could ever add to the discussion because they aren't paid by a pro team, there are places one can go that provide only that.

I can't stress enough that virtually nobody that posts a dissenting opinion does so with the idea that it's absolute. Even if the opinion is written that way. It's internet hyperbole. We don't draft/redraft what we write here. And it's not a sin to change one's mind either. Particularly as you reflect deeper on an opinion.

Pete said in a interview earlier this week to earn a spot on this roster should be very hard, much less starting. He will have a role I suspect much like the one Obo had last year. He has the tools

kearly wrote:Pete will make this pick work, I just don't get why they passed on better receivers who were available much later. Mark Harrison has better measurables than Harper AND doesn't have the problems on tape AND he went undrafted since the WR class was crazy deep this year. And he's just one example of many.

I think what motivated this pick is that Pete is confident that he can fix problems, so he doesn't really see Harper's glaring issues as much of a negative, unlike me. Harper's strengths are BIG strengths. He might be the strongest WR in the draft and has strong hands too. That hasn't translated into physical play yet. Maybe it will with Pete's guidance and he'll end up a steal.

I like Greg's comparison to BMW. I think that's what Pete envisions too.

Perhaps the following will help answer the question you have (as to why they passed on receivers you had rated higher). This is not my information. Just passing it along from this recently posted article: http://www.seahawks.com/news/articles/a ... a25700148a

Harper's background as a running back/quarterback turned wide receiver clearly fits that Carroll-Schneider mold.

For the Seahawks, Harper's measurables, a willingness to initiate contact, a strong lower body that can handle a cornerback's press off the line of scrimmage and an ability to see defenses as a quarterback sees them translates into a player who can blossom into a productive playmaker given the right situation.

Is this helpful? I sort of suspected this line of reasoning. His size and athleticism. NFL teams now covet wideouts that run like RB's once they get the ball in their hands. Add to that the size and speed of Harper and it justifies his draft position over guys like Harrison, etc. who were not RB's or QB's. I think they've laid it out that it was their "opinion" Harper's measurables were desirable for the team - and apparently that means better, in their estimation, than other WR's still available and drafted in later rounds.

The listing of those particular measurables does not sound like BMW to me. Mark Harrison would have perhaps been more like a BMW. I think they're looking for guys that excel in YAC. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that as the memorable part of BMW's game. I always thought we would see much more out of Harper at K-State. The thought of him getting on the same page with RW and getting him the ball in space....

Happypuppy wrote:He sounds like a faster Obo. Close in size too.. A decent pick if it pans out but it seems to be - bit of going for the fences. It could easily be a miss.

He is more of a sure thing than our 4th round pick in 2011, Georgia WR Kris Durham. Durham had minimal production but had big upside. Whereas Harper had good college production especially considering he had a below average QB throwing him the ball.

I don't see the size comparison with Obo and Harper. Harper is a much stockier guy, 30 lbs bigger.
Obo is 6-1 204 lbs
Harper 6-1 234 lbs

I'm sorry but Obo needed to go. I'm hoping Harper is a MAJOR upgrade to his old roster spot, both in terms of receptions, key first downs, TDs, and even in terms of special teams plays and production.

A line I have heard quite a few times from our front office this season:

We don't look at what a player CAN'T do, we look at what he CAN do, and then decide if there is a place on the team for that players strengths.

I imagine they hope to be able to coach up his weaknesses, but his strengths definitely fill a void in our roster . . . here's to hoping he can pan out and prouce.

cover-2 wrote:

Happypuppy wrote:He sounds like a faster Obo. Close in size too.. A decent pick if it pans out but it seems to be - bit of going for the fences. It could easily be a miss.

He is more of a sure thing than our 4th round pick in 2011, Georgia WR Kris Durham. Durham had minimal production but had big upside. Whereas Harper had good college production especially considering he had a below average QB throwing him the ball.

I don't see the size comparison with Obo and Harper. Harper is a much stockier guy, 30 lbs bigger.
Obo is 6-1 204 lbs
Harper 6-1 234 lbs

I completely agree. Watching their offensive drives from last year had me shaking my head at their QB many a time, that guy was mediocre at best.

I heard somewhere that during Senior Bowl or maybe it was Shrine game, practice, he never dropped a single ball. What little I saw online he fumbled one or two and seemed awfully careless with the ball but maybe those were isolated incidences.

The Chris Harper selection also looks like a Kippy Brown pick.

Kippy was a former quarterback stand out that has coached both pro receivers and running backs.

I really wanted to like this pick, I thought, this could be the BB of receivers. However, The more I watch him in the games, the more of a head scratcher it becomes.

He is big, but doesn't play like it. Has good hands, but also seems careless with the football after the catch (really holds the ball away from his body a lot). Never really high points (despite his quality vert), minimal yac, and positioning seems to be just ok. I didn't even see particularly high effort. Seems like just a guy.

Also, Never realized how terrible Klein was. Wow.

godawg wrote:With Kris Durham and others, this FO has not distinguished itself in choosing receivers, and perhaps Kearly has a better eye for this than John Schneider.

Nevertheless, I see this pick as a branding pick, a statement. The Seahawks are all about punishing, smash mouth football. Not only will our defense beat the crap out of you and our running backs run over and through you, but even our wide receivers will be doling out the pain. Anquan Boldin wears his defenders out. I hope Harper is even close to that.

Assinine statement. UNder PC and JS they've drafted 2 WR's (not counting 2013 draft)- Tate (round 2) Durham (Round 4) Tate, would be considered a hit, IMO. He's shown to be a impactful playmaker. Durham wasn't nearly physical enough and was discarded.

In terms of hits on WR. (Players who've started and contributed significantly) JS has the following:

Mike WIlliams (2010 hit), Tate (hit), Baldwin (hit), Meawhile Kearse also contributed to the team as a UNFA in a limited role.

Misses- Durham (4th round miss) and Lockette who was undrafted (so that really doesn't count) . I think it's silly to say try to say that JS has done a bad job picking up WR talent.

Frozenropers wrote:Unfortunately, if Swope has already had 4 or 5 concussions in college he won't last in the NFL. He may be a good talent, but so was Jahvid Best. Seattle wasn't the only team to pass on Swope.

Harper will be good and brings a physicality to our WR corps that we don't currently have.

Swope duplicated guys we already had. Harper added depth to other areas.

jlwaters1 wrote:

godawg wrote:With Kris Durham and others, this FO has not distinguished itself in choosing receivers, and perhaps Kearly has a better eye for this than John Schneider.

Nevertheless, I see this pick as a branding pick, a statement. The Seahawks are all about punishing, smash mouth football. Not only will our defense beat the crap out of you and our running backs run over and through you, but even our wide receivers will be doling out the pain. Anquan Boldin wears his defenders out. I hope Harper is even close to that.

Assinine statement. UNder PC and JS they've drafted 2 WR's (not counting 2013 draft)- Tate (round 2) Durham (Round 4) Tate, would be considered a hit, IMO. He's shown to be a impactful playmaker. Durham wasn't nearly physical enough and was discarded.

In terms of hits on WR. (Players who've started and contributed significantly) JS has the following:

Mike WIlliams (2010 hit), Tate (hit), Baldwin (hit), Meawhile Kearse also contributed to the team as a UNFA in a limited role.

Misses- Durham (4th round miss) and Lockette who was undrafted (so that really doesn't count) . I think it's silly to say try to say that JS has done a bad job picking up WR talent.

I'd also add, that Seattle really does seem to consider draft capital and salary cap capital to be two halves of the whole.

They added Rice and Miller using UFA cap money. They added Harvin using both draft and cap capital. And they used considerable capital on Tate as well.

I don't think it unreasonable to think that Seattle has opted to go a different route in terms of building their WR corps than using more high first round picks on WRs. And it makes total sense really. You simply can't maintain a balanced roster if you over commit all of your roster capital on one position.

Seattle has already paid an enormous price for the WR corps they have. They aren't in a position to use high draft picks on it at least until Rice's contract is reduced.

Also, it's probably worth mentioning, that while Rice is being paid mega dollars this year and next, I think it's safe to assume that he's not going to command but a minor fraction of his current salary even on the open market. We presume that we'll have to let Rice go because he'll be too expensive. But his future salary hit is likely to be far less than half of what we're paying him now. And he'll still be this side of 30 in terms of age. I could easily see Seattle being in a position to actually resign Sidney for a 3-4M/yr deal once this one expires.

Age, statistical decline and injury history are going to be against him when he tries to get a new deal. Rice leaving isn't a predetermined fate.

T-Sizzle wrote:I smell BACK-PEDAL. You went from hating him to now "pete will make this pick work".

Clearly Pete didn't think Harrisons tape was better than Harpers. That is why Harper was picked in the 4th. I can't stress enough, PC and JS do this for a living, nobody on this message board does.

Not really. Harper is my least favorite pick in the draft for Seattle, and it's not even close. I just have faith in our coaching staff. I hated the KJ Wright pick too and they got more out of him than I thought possible.

TeamoftheCentury wrote:The listing of those particular measurables does not sound like BMW to me. Mark Harrison would have perhaps been more like a BMW. I think they're looking for guys that excel in YAC. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that as the memorable part of BMW's game. I always thought we would see much more out of Harper at K-State. The thought of him getting on the same page with RW and getting him the ball in space....

If you want a YAC WR, that's not Harper. He separates about as well as BMW did (not very well) and is almost always tackled immediately after the catch.

I think you bring up a great point though regarding his lower body strength and how that might help him combat press coverage. Press Coverage will probably be widespread across the league in a few years so targeting receivers that can beat it makes sense.

Harper's tape against Baylor is just awful, it's actually even worse as I watched it today for the 3rd time. Almost every play he has major negatives. I had forgotten is how fumble prone he was in that Baylor game. This is why I say I trust Pete, because T-Sizzle is right- Pete is 100 times smarter than I am- so there's no way Pete would miss these obvious flaws. He has a plan in mind. If that plan doesn't work he just drafted a lousy receiver, but given his track record it probably will.

Oh and Sizzle, I don't really give a shit that we didn't draft the receivers I wanted. Honestly. My expectation going in was that we might not draft a receiver at all. I was very surprised when Seattle pulled the trigger on a WR in round 4. John Schneider said after the Harvin trade that Seattle wasn't looking at WRs all that seriously before the trade was made, so I had pretty much resigned myself to not getting guys like Swope, Bailey, Woods, Smith, Harrison, et al. The last few days before the draft I was just hoping we might get someone like Terrell Sinkfield in the 6th round.

That plus, in the case of Ryan Swope specifically, I knew he was off the table the instant the Harvin trade happened. Swope can play outside, but he's best in the slot and Harvin would obviously have that position locked down long term. Swope's draft grade is very different if you only need him as an outside WR.

Harper seems like he could develop into a pretty good Anquan Boldin type WR to me. I thought it was a great pick.

BTW, Swoope still hasn't even been cleared to workout yet. Couldn't even make Fitzgerald's mini-camp with the rest of the offensive playmakers.

Thread Killer wrote:Harper seems like he could develop into a pretty good Anquan Boldin type WR to me. I thought it was a great pick.

BTW, Swoope still hasn't even been cleared to workout yet. Couldn't even make Fitzgerald's mini-camp with the rest of the offensive playmakers.

kearly wrote:

TeamoftheCentury wrote:The listing of those particular measurables does not sound like BMW to me. Mark Harrison would have perhaps been more like a BMW. I think they're looking for guys that excel in YAC. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that as the memorable part of BMW's game. I always thought we would see much more out of Harper at K-State. The thought of him getting on the same page with RW and getting him the ball in space....

If you want a YAC WR, that's not Harper. He separates about as well as BMW did (not very well) and is almost always tackled immediately after the catch.

I think you bring up a great point though regarding his lower body strength and how that might help him combat press coverage. Press Coverage will probably be widespread across the league in a few years so targeting receivers that can beat it makes sense.

Harper's tape against Baylor is just awful, it's actually even worse as I watched it today for the 3rd time. Almost every play he has major negatives. I had forgotten is how fumble prone he was in that Baylor game. This is why I say I trust Pete, because T-Sizzle is right- Pete is 100 times smarter than I am- so there's no way Pete would miss these obvious flaws. He has a plan in mind. If that plan doesn't work he just drafted a lousy receiver, but given his track record it probably will.

Oh and Sizzle, I don't really give a shit that we didn't draft the receivers I wanted. Honestly. My expectation going in was that we might not draft a receiver at all. I was very surprised when Seattle pulled the trigger on a WR in round 4. John Schneider said after the Harvin trade that Seattle wasn't looking at WRs all that seriously before the trade was made, so I had pretty much resigned myself to not getting guys like Swope, Bailey, Woods, Smith, Harrison, et al. The last few days before the draft I was just hoping we might get someone like Terrell Sinkfield in the 6th round.

That plus, in the case of Ryan Swope specifically, I knew he was off the table the instant the Harvin trade happened. Swope can play outside, but he's best in the slot and Harvin would obviously have that position locked down long term. Swope's draft grade is very different if you only need him as an outside WR.

You seem to have an overly critical evaluation of scouting one or two games of his on youtube. I watched 4 or 5 of his games last year and he showed an ability to get yards after contact. While he is not a burner, he will break tackles to get some extra yards.

Three pages of a thread where we are talking about the uncertainty of a draft pick that most of us have never actually seen play and have only seen a few minutes of highlights. The coaching staff and FO undoubtedly have watched more than on game of his and have seen him practice as both coaches and observers.

What there is to like is his size and physicality, but RAC doesn't appear to be his strong suit. He tested well with SPARQ results and appears to have solid understanding of the game having been a QB. He has been quite quiet so far in OTA situations but he's a rookie and may project better with pads on. For sure he's different than most of the other WRs the team has here now. I truly hope his hands turn out to be better than shown on his highlite films. He seems to almost be a WR in TE frame with WR speed and mobility.

Like several others here I was a bit surprised by the pick but have learned the FO is looking for special attributes in players and clearly he's got size combined with speed. There were quite few other WRs I thought the team might have chosen over Harper but I remain curious as to how they plan to use him.

gmor wrote:

Frozenropers wrote:Unfortunately, if Swope has already had 4 or 5 concussions in college he won't last in the NFL. He may be a good talent, but so was Jahvid Best. Seattle wasn't the only team to pass on Swope.

Harper will be good and brings a physicality to our WR corps that we don't currently have.

Swope duplicated guys we already had. Harper added depth to other areas.

This is my line of thinking on why we took Harper. Nevermind Swope. I was aware of his health issues already.

Maybe Harper will turn out to be our Andre Reed.