My genuine excitement about Fant's physical tools + the fact he's holding his own this early is tempered/off-set by how awful Garry Gilliam has become. To answer the question, yes, I think he has earned an extended look.
Here's the sad part about Gilliam, he clearly puts in the time and effort...it's just simply not clicking/happening. My concern with our scouting/development on the OL is similar to baseball. "We can teach him to see and hit off-speed pitches." Perhaps, there are just things in sports, that once you hit the age of 22-24, you either can or can't do. And no amount of teaching/coaching will make it happen.
We can say it about a lot of positions but maybe there's just an inherent comfort level you have to have on the OL that allows you to stay calm but not lose your tenacity/aggressiveness. All I know is that apparently OL is one of the hardest positions to scout, develop, and play, because there is an epidemic of awful OL play throughout football.
Here's the sad part about Gilliam, he clearly puts in the time and effort...it's just simply not clicking/happening. My concern with our scouting/development on the OL is similar to baseball. "We can teach him to see and hit off-speed pitches." Perhaps, there are just things in sports, that once you hit the age of 22-24, you either can or can't do. And no amount of teaching/coaching will make it happen.
We can say it about a lot of positions but maybe there's just an inherent comfort level you have to have on the OL that allows you to stay calm but not lose your tenacity/aggressiveness. All I know is that apparently OL is one of the hardest positions to scout, develop, and play, because there is an epidemic of awful OL play throughout football.
